mystical81's Full Review: Condemned: Criminal Origins for Xbox 360
Condemned: Criminal Origins is a dark and psychotic survival horror-action game developed by Monolith Productions. It was one of the few titles to launch exclusively for Microsoft's XBox 360. This gritty psychological thriller plays like a cross between Se7en and The Bone Collector...with a little bit of CSI: Investigation thrown in for good measure. Sound cool? Well, don't worry, it is! The story is original and totally compelling, on par with Manhunt or any other modern day classic of the genre. The single player campaign unfolds like a completely authentic crime story, with plenty of plot twists, jump scares, and horrific scenarios along the way to keep you glued to the edge of your seat. It also sports some of the most beautiful graphics, terrifying atmospheres, and intelligent enemy A.I. that I've ever seen in a survival horror game. But, underneath the flashy exterior, what Condemned really amounts to is a relatively straightforward and satisfying action piece, with lots of forensic puzzles to solve using the latest gadgets and dozens of homicidal maniacs to beat to a bloody pulp. It does get bogged down in certain places with monotonous pacing, but that doesn't keep this from being one of the best games currently available for the XBox 360...and I've just about played them all.
You might have heard of Monolith Productions before. They were the creative force behind 2005's other mega-popular paranormal shooting game, F.E.A.R. Even though both of these games were developed by the same studio in the same year, and both share a common underlying supernatural theme, Condemned clearly takes the cake as far as being the best, simply for its riveting premise and unique, flawless presentation. You play as a talented FBI detective forced to track down an elusive serial killer to clear your good name, all while fighting off an entire city swarming with depraved psychotics. To do this, you will engage in some of the most brutal, no holds barred hand-to-hand combat ever witnessed in a video game before. Lead pipes, electric conduits, fireaxes, sledgehammers, wooden boards, metal signs...pretty much anything you can get your hands on can become an improvised lethal weapon. It's bloody, it's violent, it's scary, and it feels incredibly realistic. Pistols, shotguns, and submachine guns may also be used along the way, but you don't come across them very often, and their ammo is severely limited when you do. At first glance, this would appear to be just another "run of the mill" first-person shooter, but once you start playing, you realize it's unlike anything you've ever seen before.
If suspenseful crime stories and psychological thrillers tickle your fancy, or if hunting down a deranged serial killer in a nasty urban metropolis sounds like a cool premise for a video game, you really can't go wrong with Condemned: Criminal Origins.
It's a dirty job...but somebody's gotta do it.
Something strange is happening in Metro City. A plague has broke out amongst the general population. Birds are dying at an alarming rate, and people with violent impulses are turning into dangerous criminals. Nowhere is safe, and things only seem to be getting worse.
You play as Ethan Thomas, a promising young FBI agent in the Serial Crimes Unit. He has a unique gift, a super instinctual/psychic ability that he can't really explain. He has worked on almost every major homicide case in his short career, and has built up an impressive list of serial killers that have just managed to escape being captured. This latest one is a man called the "Match Maker", a sadistic killer who strangles women and stages their bodies into sick public displays with male department store mannequins. Upon reporting to the latest crime scene, Ethan soon comes face-to-face with the Match Maker himself...or is he? Ethan's gun is used in the slaying of two police officers, and he is thrown out of a three-story window and into a ruthless battle for his innocence.
This begins both Ethan's investigation into the identity of the Match Maker, and his struggle against the most violent side of humanity. To find him, Ethan must solve the clues left behind by the killer and clear his name for good. If he's lucky, he might even solve the mystery behind the chaos in Metro City and discover the shocking truth about himself.
Batter uuuup!! Batter doooown!!
The action in Condemned is based upon an extremely lifelike, bone-crushing melee fighting system. It's visceral and rather challenging, so fans of strategic gameplay will be amply satisfied here.
You must stay alive using any makeshift weapon that you can find in the environment, and there are plenty of them lying scattered around. These can range from the most primitive (wooden 2x4's with nails, steel pipes, and rusty iron bars with chunks of concrete on the ends), to the most deadly (crowbars, sledgehammers, and fireaxes), to the most creative (paper cutters, metal signs, and desk drawers). Blocking with a weapon is just as important to your survival as swinging one, because it leaves your opponent temporarily stunned and lets you get a crucial head shot in. However, you are susceptible to the very same risk, so watch your enemy's movements and look for openings like you would in a real fight. You can only carry one weapon at a time, and each one is designed with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Some are quicker and have more reach, but don't deal as much damage. Others are heavier and take more time to swing, but hurt a lot more. These slower weapons, like the fireaxe and sledgehammer, are also vital tools in progressing the storyline forward, because they can bust open any locked doors and padlocked cabinets that you may come across.
There is a good variety of firearms to choose from, too. But the moments when you get to are very few and far between. Pistols and shotguns are the primary weapons, usually found sitting on a desk or locked up in a cabinet. Unfortunately, the majority of them are used by the bad guys and must be acquired from their dead hands. There are two different weapon models for each gun you can acquire (ex. a pistol or a revolver), on up to a fully automatic submachine gun in the later levels of the game. However, you are limited to the amount of bullets available in each one, so shoot methodically. There are NO ammo pickups. When a gun goes dry, you can either use it as a melee weapon or go find something else.
Ethan is also equipped with a very handy taser gun that he can use to zap enemies with for a short period of time. By pressing the left bumper, you can shock any opponent into submission and walk up to them and steal their weapon. This is an especially useful tactic when you are unarmed and facing a bad guy with a shotgun. The taser needs about 30 seconds to recharge, though, so use it sparingly.
Another cool feature to the fighting system is Ethan's ability to perform fatalities. When an enemy has had all he can take, he will sometimes drop to his knees. This gives you about a five second window of opportunity to walk up and kill the bastard with a final finishing blow. Utilizing any one of the four directional arrows, Ethan can headbutt them, punch them to death, snap their neck, or ram their head into the floor. This mechanic does a good job of breaking up the somewhat monotonous pace of the fighting later in the game, but ultimately, you're still killing the same bad guys in all the same ways.
This gets increasingly harder as the game progresses, though. The enemy A.I. in this game very well executed. It's so good, in fact, that its SCARY in certain places! Enemies will sneak up behind you, attack in groups, seek cover and wait for reinforcements, or knock out the lights just to get at you. Remember, these aren't monsters that you are dealing with (although they start to resemble them in the last half of the game), they are living, intelligent people who just happen to be a little off their rockers. Most impressive to me of all is the hand-to-hand combat sequences, and the way in which the bad guys will actually engage you. They will dodge blows, feint side to side, and block attacks in a very believable real-time manner. If this is the future of enemy A.I. in games, we'd better start practicing a lot more.
Brains over brawn...
Monolith really sets Condemned apart from anything else on the market by incorporating Ethan's role of a forensic science investigator into a functional component of the overall gameplay. This is a really cool aspect that I found very intriguing, and lends a lot of weight to the game's feeling of authenticity and Hollywood crime film appeal.
Whenever you come across a crime scene or an area that holds a potential clue, Ethan's instincts kick into full gear and the game prompts you to pull out one of your hi-tech forensic tools. These tools include detection hardware like UV lights and laser lights, used in identifying traces of fingerprints and blood; a gas spectrometer to detect methane pollutants in the air; and collection devices like chemical samplers, 3D scanners, and a digital camera. What's really innovative here is that you get to actually search the crime scene, and collect any evidence useful in solving the case that you may find! Sometimes the areas can be rather large, so you have to be really careful in the way you search, just like doing the real thing.
You get some help in the form of a colleague named Rosa back at the FBI forensic lab, who keeps in constant contact with you via cell phone, and gives real-time data results from the evidence that you have collected. This is the key element that moves the story forward, as well as generating a lot of suspense in the game. Rosa even breaks away from the computer and joins you in a later mission at the city library, but other than that, the only people you will be spending time with is the serial killer you are tracking and hundreds of the city's maniacs. A suspicious side character named Malcolm Vanhorn, an old friend of Ethan's father, keeps popping up in the most unexpected places throughout the game, and seems to know a lot more about the situation than what he is letting on. But his true motives are revealed at the end of the story.
Also of importance to note for all you XBox Live players out there is the side quest in each level. Amongst killing bad guys and solving forensic puzzles, you are also tasked with the duty of collecting as many dead bird carcasses and metal plates as you can find. These are, of course, hidden across the boards, and offer anyone interested in unlocking those infamous XBox "achievements" to bulk up their online profile a good way to do so. It's basically useless in the single player mode, though.
One of the best looking survival horror games ever.
Without a doubt, Condemned's hi-definition graphics and unique visual presentation make for one of the most amazing looking games in the horror genre today. Now, almost all XBox 360 games look about as equally impressive these days, what with the system's triple-core processing unit and dual 1000 MHz GPU. But until this game launched with the XBox 360 in 2005, we had never really seen an ultra-hyper horror reality defined in a way like this. The colors are extremely bright and vivid, the shadows are dark and menacing, glass surfaces look shimmering and muddingly opacent in the light, blood splashes the walls and your weapon during combat sequences, the characters and in-game weapon models are clearly illustrated and rendered to the finest detail.
Monolith makes full use of the 360's bump mapping and parallex shading capabilities here. All of the environments in the game, from the dilapidated hallways and office buildings to the underground access tunnels, look completely realistic. This is due in part to the lighting and shading effects the development team composed into each frame, and evokes that unsafe feeling of dread that just seems to seep out of the atmosphere. To really appreciate the artistic value of Condemned's visual quality, you have to play this on a hi-def television supporting 1080i resolution. If you're not, you're missing out on some of the best eye candy in the XBox catalogue.
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound with depth perception?? Sweet!!
The soundtrack really breathes a whole new level of life into Condemned's storyline. Nothing is quite as scary as the sound of a threat you cannot see, and this game makes full use of that trick here. While traversing through this dark and hostile world, there will be many times when you can hear only the exasperated breathing of a maniac stalking you in the shadows, or the thumps! of his footsteps as he runs into hiding on the floor above you. Enemies swear constantly, either from rage or in fear after you've sent them running from a good a$$-whooping, and communicate with each other all the time. This lends an incredible sense of realism to the gameplay, as well as the audio depth perception from the 5.1 Dolby Digital capability.
The sound effects are equally impressive. The sound of a metal pipe cracking against the side of the someone's head sounds like...well...a metal pipe cracking against the side of someone's head! When playing this game, you can really see that the level of attention put into the sound exactly matches that of the visuals. The musical score is what you would expect from a game like this...dark, eerie, and mood-evoking. I especially liked the soundtrack towards the end of the game, when the supernatural theme of the story becomes a more prominent element in the storyline. The transition from a physical threat to a more psychological one is reflected beautifully in the music.
Lasting appeal...action classic, or one-hit wonder?
A sequel has recently been announced for Condemned: Criminal Origins, perhaps to tie up its shocking cliffhanger of an ending. This second installment is slated to be released sometime in early 2008, and there are even plans in place for a major motion picture! So what we are looking at here, ladies and gentlemen, is a bona fide franchise in the making. But will action fans be willing to step into Monolith's world of survival horror for another go, or was the concentrated melee combat system and crime film storyline enough the first time around? Yes and no.
There's no denying that Monolith has created the darkest little gem to come out of the survival horror world of gaming with Condemned, for its unique concept and amazing presentation alone. But what of its other qualities? Indeed, not all that it brings to the table is good. For one, the repetitive fighting sequences start to get a little old by about the fifth level or so. And don't forget, the blocking system is somewhat challenging to get down and can be incredibly frustrating at times. I've been playing this game for over a year now, and I still have trouble making it work! Most gamers just simply do not have the patience for a fighting system like this. Second, the game itself is way too short, clocking in at only seven levels long, with only about 9-10 hours of total gameplay.
Obviously, Monolith has some tweaking to do for the second installment, if they expect gamers to shell out $60 bucks for the price of admission. But make no mistake about it, flaws and all, what we are left with is still an incredibly solid, visceral, white-knuckle action horror game that brings a fresh twist on the genre, and still leaves room for some minor improvements, which is absolutely essential to the success of a franchise.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, Condemned: Criminal Origins is one of the better games for the XBox 360 across the board. It offers a promising new insight into what the future of horror games could be. But if excessive amounts of gore, violence, and fighting for your life in a realistic environment aren't your thing, you'd do better to stick with something more tame and safe...like Mario or something.
Developed by award–winning Monolith Productions, Condemned: Criminal Origins allows players to experience a heightened level of psychological tension...More at GamersGate
Developed by award-winning Monolith Productions for Xbox 360 Condemned: Criminal Origins allows players to experience a heightened level of psychologi...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Condemned: Criminal Origins.Platinum Hits version. Microsoft Xbox 360 video game.Rated "M" for mature. You must be 17 or older to purchase this game. ...More at eBay
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