Condemned: Criminal Origins Review (Xbox 360) By gashead

8 / 10
15 Dec 2005 at 14:32

Review by: gashead

With a swift swing of my sledgehammer, the final enemy of a group of 5 hits the ground with a deafening thud. My Health is low, but during the battle I spotted a health kit in the corner. I run towards it, only to be greeted by yet another enemy. He'd been hiding waiting for me to let my guard down. My quick reactions allowed me to fire a shot from my taser and grab his weapon before he can do any damage. He rushes around, searching for another weapon, but I manage to send him to his knees before snapping his neck to ensure he'll do no more damage.

Say hello to Condemned, the simple next-generation title. Whereas the likes of Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Call of Duty 2 all had masses of hype, Condemned has snuck in behind them and proves to be a very enjoyable title indeed.

Basically, the game plays in the first-person perspective, but let me get one thing straight. This is Not a First-Person Shooter! You play Ethan Thomas, an FBI agent whose framed for the murder of two fellow agents. Ethan continues to hunt down a serial killer, with the help of one of the FBI's techies Rosa, whilst avoiding arrest. I won't go too much into the plot as to not ruin it for those of you who've yet to play it.

The gameplay is pretty good, but lacks variation. You'll mainly be using melee weapons, something that you don't often see often in first-person games, and it works very well. There are a few guns in the game, but these all have limited ammo. Once you use up all the ammo, that's it, you'll have to dump it and find something else to defend yourself with. You can of course you the gun as a melee weapon, but eventually it will become too damaged to use.

Each weapon has its own statistics. Don't worry you won't be greeted with a huge list of numbers upon finding a new weapon, instead, you're told how a new weapon compares to your current weapon. You also have a few forensic tools. These are just a case of pressing the X button when told to, thanks to your heightened senses. Once your senses kick in, you're never too far from the evidence. Except one level, where you have to follow writing around an entire house. This is extremely tedious and especially annoying if you lose where you were due to having to deal with an attacking enemy.

Another slightly annoying aspect of the game is the back peddling. It seems that more often than not, you're forced to go back where you came from in order to find a suitable weapon to open a door, when in reality the one you're holding would probably do the job just fine. It's not a huge problem, as you don't have to go back incredibly far most of the time.

Graphically the game is pretty good and definitely deserving of its “Next-Generation” status. One complaint though is that some of the textures look a little too polished and shiny. The city is currently in a mini civil war so to speak so I was expecting the place to look a little bit more “rough”. Some of the buildings look incredibly good however. It does however feel slightly linear in design.

Sound is obviously very important in a game like this and Monolith haven't disappointed. It's very atmospheric and the soundtrack has a distinct eerie feel to. Your enemies will shuffle around, giving their position away to you. The voice-overs are surprisingly good as well.

Something that a lot of games suffer from is a short lifespan and, unfortunately, Condemned is one of them. There's only 10 levels in all which is a shame. But that's where Xbox 360 Achievements come in. Upon completing the game, I still have 20 of the 50 Achievements left to unlock, which is sure to make me want to come back to Condemned.

All in all, Condemned is a very enjoyable title and well worth purchasing (or a few nights rental at least). You can't help but feel that Monolith wanted to be a lot more ambitious with Condemned and include some extra killer features, but we're held back by the time restraints of finishing the title in time for launch day. With the game doing reasonably well in the charts, maybe SEGA and Monolith will join together soon to make a Condemned 2. I, for one, certainly hope so.

Pros:
+ First-Person melee attacks work pretty well
+ Graphically very good
+ Incredibly atmospheric and eerie soundtrack

Cons:
- Gameplay lacks variation
- Forensic tools feel underused and in some cases pointless
- Lifespan is too short

Alternative: Resident Evil

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