Condemned: Criminal Origins is a good game, I'll say that outright. Its fun, scary and cinematic. In fact, you could probably get away with calling this Se7en: The Game, the two are almost identical in terms of art direction. Don't take this as a bad thing though because in this sense Condemned is probably the closest thing you are going to get to a decent survival horror game any time soon (or at least until Resident Evil 5 comes out!) This game has no multiplayer option so we'll take a look at the main game.
You are Ethan Thomas, a detective and investigator for the F.B.I who is searching for a devious madman known only as "The Match Maker" he's a serial killer who has been abducting women and murdering them, leaving their corpses in romantic scenarios with male manikins. You begin the game investigating one of these crime scenes and to that end you are given a number of investigation tools. You may get a kick out of this if you are into C.S.I. The problem is there is no element of investigation going on here, the game selects which tools you use and when you need to use them, not only that but "clues" always glow brightly - making them insanely easy to find. I guess its a good job the serial killer makes an active effort to use florescent liquid on his hands prior to choking bitches out.
As you investigate your first crime scene you hear a noise above, it seems the Match Maker is still in the building, I'll spare you the details but by the end of the level Ethan seems to have been framed for murder! Of course there seems to be no investigation by the F.B.I, and despite the fact that Ethan was thought to be chasing a known serial killer the Bureau makes no effort at all and just starts hunting your ass down. Then again, with the amount of people Ethan murders in an average day on the beat, its no wonder the Feds got a little suspicious. Speaking of murder, this brings me to the melee system and your enemies.
In Condemned, the game makes a big point of discouraging firearms and having you use makeshift weapons you find around the streets. This does present another annoyance that just got on my nerves constantly. Lets say you pick up a pistol in Condemned with 7/8 bullets in the magazine, you find another pistol! Woohoo, just take the clip out of the gun and save it for later, right? . . . WRONG! You can only use one weapon at a time so if you wanted to make use of both guns you would have to go off and use the ammo in the first gun then back track all way to the new gun so you can make use of the ammo within. I know the game wants me to just shank any crack-heads who get crazy on my ass but there is no need to force me to ignore reality. There is no reason this guy cant take the ammo out of the gun and put it in his pocket and to that extent why cant I carry more than one weapon?? I'm not saying I should be able to carry two Sledgehammers but are you saying I cant keep a pistol in my belt - cant you? This guy is an F.B.I agent for fucks sake, so where is his holster?
OK, OK, I'll stop now but this really can be a problem, mainly because this system can kill the urge to explore for new items or weapons. Why bother trying to find any new weapons when you have a fully loaded shotgun? While I'm talking about weapons I may as well mention the lack of realism surrounding "tool weapons" when you come across a splintered door, electric lock, iron gate or a pad lock you need to go looking around for certain weapons that can bypass these obstacles. Once again I do get the point but I just wonder sometimes why I cant use other weapons to carry out the same tasks. Lets take padlocks as an example, you need a sledgehammer to break them but I don't understand why you cant simply shoot the damn thing?! Its not too much of a problem but it can lead to a lot of back tracking, which can be a mood killer when you're trying to get engrossed in a level.
Now when it comes to actually facing opponents in hand-to-hand, I have to say the A.I is pretty great. Enemies will ambush you, block, dodge, counter and even fight each other if one of them gets hit by another enemy. This may not sound like anything special but the enemies never seem to follow any predictable pattern, not only that but even a single enemy can do a lot of damage if you are not careful. A rechargeable stun-gun is provided to help you stop enemies and even take their weapons, but this tends to make them even more dangerous as most enemies will latch onto you and strangle your ass. You will also come across certain types of enemies who vary in difficulty. From huge hulking men who can take several shotgun blasts to take down - all the way to agile scroungers who seem to strike out of nowhere. Although all of your opponents are human, I'm glad the developers made an effort to give the enemies more variety.
Now you may be getting the impression I don't like this game, that's not true. The errors mentioned, although annoying, are only minor and don't really interfere with the overall flow of the game, and I only brought them up because they could have been easily changed. One way or another the combat, forensics or the weapons are not what makes Condemned worth playing. Its the atmosphere of the game which is most memorable. Almost all of the levels are pitch black with only your flash light to help you spot insane hobo's, this is helped along by the high-end graphics, it's not Crysis but for an Xbox 360 release title this game still looks very sweet, shadows and light look good and are very realistic. On that note, sound obviously plays a big part in the scare factor, enemies grumble in the background, their clothes ruffling as they find a spot to ambush you, or you could startle yourself by kicking a loose aerosol can on the floor. The game really does play out like a classic horror movie from beginning to end, which is something many games have tried and failed.
What else can I say about Condemned: Criminal Origins? It may not be a triple-A title but its cheap as hell and a great amount of fun, with a great story that will have you guessing until the end and even after. If you like the idea of being a Federal Agent on the run who likes to smash the living shit out of freaky homeless people, then Condemned could be the game for you!
Seeya Next time.
Danny Wells