Back when the XBox 360 was prepping to launch, one of the launch titles I was most excited to play was Condemned. It was a nice looking game with a pretty interesting premise. I was pleased to discover after finally laying my hands on it that it was quite good and around that time, I wrote up a quick review of it for another blog. A friend of mine at work, who writes game reviews recently laid the sequel, Condemned : Bloodshot on me and in preparation of a review of that game, I figured I’d dig up the old one and post it for a little context.
I do believe that this is the first game review that I have dropped on this site and it’s about time. There’s not a lot of quality horror gaming released these days so it’s nice to be able to sink your teeth into something that really works out. So here it is, the old Condemned review for your reading pleasure, with some revisions because the original wasn’t particularly good.
How do you scare the shit out of this writer? As in scare the shit out of him and into his pants? Answer: Have him spend a couple of hours with Condemned for the 360.
Ethan Thomas is a very succesful forensic investigator for the FBI. He tracks serial killers and as the game begins, he’s called to the scene of a grisly murder bearing the M.O. of a killer-at-large nicknamed The Matchmaker. Things go horribly wrong, though, and it turns out that the suspect is still on the scene. Agent Thomas, the lead homicide detective and the officer that found the body spread out through a burned out tenement to find him, but something is wrong. Recently, violent crime in the city has risen sharply and the transients of the city have been murdering one another like it’s the hip, new thing to do on the streets. This crack shack is full of them, too and they stand between you and the suspect. Oh yeah, the power in the building is out, too, and after fucking with the power main results in you having the crap shocked out of you, you also drop your gun, which the suspect promptly takes and uses and to kill the two cops. So after a brief and baffling encounter with the suspect, it turns out that you, Agent Thomas, are now the number one suspect in the murder of these cops and you have to find the suspect to clear your name. If it were only that easy. Mobs of bloodthirsty lunatics are blocking the path and that path is twisted!
The set up and first two thirds of this game are drop dead terrifying. I really can’t stress that enough. Monolith created an atmosphere dripping with dread and decay. Wherever this game is supposed to take place, it is a shitty, shitty place. I’m reminded of the nameless city of the movie Seven. A decaying metropolis wasteland full of people pushed to the brink.
The game’s strongest suit is its lighting, or lackethereof. The entire game is very dark and your main companion througout the game is your flashlight. However, light sources cast great shadows and a lot of the time, you’ll be dead center of a paranoid freak out and think that every shadow looks like someone hiding behind the pillar just up ahead. Often times in the distance, you’ll see a shadow run across the hallway or suddenly shuffle across the floor and into a pipe. It’s intensely creepy. You’ll hear someone cough in the darkness and immediately become nervous. All the while, the game is playing this droning, atmospheric soundtrack which only adds to the fear and paranoia. Playing this game through a set of headphones would be devastating.
From a gameplay standpoint, this is an occasionally visited twist on the typical first-person shooter format. The emphasis is on fighting off waves of attackers with whatever you find lying around. Bottles, bricks, boards, pipes, rebar, guns, there are a shitload of opportunities in the game to split someone’s head open. I’ve had mixed feelings on this approach to the FPS for some time. Close combat interactions from this perspective can be difficult but Condemned manages it well giving each trigger on the controller a hand assignment so you can lay on the one-two punches and deliver forehand and backhand swings, depending. The game’s surprise, however, is the collection of forensic evidence as you make your way through the game. You are a crime scene investigator, after all. As the pace of the game hurries toward the end, the collection of evidence becomes a vestigial part of the game, but the idea is going places and it offers an interesting means of pathfinding in certain levels where using a UV light to follow bloodtrails will lead you to where you need to go.
Storywise, this game has it going on in spades. It unfolds at a natural pace and seems reasonable. Is Agent Thomas losing his mind? Who is Serial Killer X? Is he The Matchmaker? What, exactly does Malcolm Van Horn know that he’s not letting on? Why the hell are all the bums going crazy and rioting? It’s a great story and it had a lot of potential until the third act when it becomes crystal clear that Monolith was running out of time and the 360 launch was fast approaching. The story veers off wildly and ceases to make sense. The ending leaves a million dangling loose ends and introduces a character at the last second that doesn’t seem to have any relation to the story at hand. Even the graphics and cut scenes look half assed. What could have been the most frightening game ever made immediately loses its steam and descends into a mindless beat ‘em up. Sometimes I like to point out that the ending isn’t always the best part of a story, it’s all about how you got there. Unfortunately, Condemned has such a strong narrative that the resolution becomes integral to the plot and the ride to the conclusion isn’t enough to satisfy me. I want to know what the deal is. Thankfully, the ending seems tailored specifically toward a sequel so more questions will be answered when Monolith has enough time to craft a fully realized horror game. Based on this framework, I am confident that the next installment will build on its predecessor.
Graphically and, particularly, sound-wise, the game performs extraordinarily well. The launch titles for the 360 weren’t exactly taking advantage of the new hardware but Condemned seemed to be an exception to the rule. There is plenty of detail to the character models and the setting. Metro City is a real shithole and the skid-row section that you’re confined to for most of the game is a frightening place. It’s chock full of ghastly bad guys, the homeless and junkies acting under the influence of some mysterious force to kill everything that moves.
Monolith has said explicitly in interviews that the game was influenced heavily by Seven and Silence of the Lambs but if I were to pick out the most obvious influence, I’d say it was John Carpenter’s criminally underrated flick, Prince of Darkness. Condemned may unravel toward the endgame but it’s packed tight with a host of terrific gaming ideas for the very crowded survival horror niche. There’s a fantastic story to tell and a lot of great gaming to be done. It’s also the place to go if you want to beef up your gamerscore. Condemned is an achievement factory. You get achievements for doing anything but standing in one place. You get achievements for finishing levels, you get achievements for using weapons, you get achievements for finding dead birds and little pieces of metal. You get achievements for getting achievements and turning on the XBox! I kid. But not by much.
