New Review Posted: Condemned: Criminal Origins

[Daniel Weissenberger]

I review Condemned: Criminal Origins, and have what acan be charitably described as a strong reaction to it:

"There is a school of thought that suggests that if a work of art is able to affect someone, whatever that effect may be, then that art is successful. So it's possible that the mere fact that Condemned: Criminal Origins made me feel like a significantly worse person for playing it is proof of its effectiveness."

And why did it have this effect? Find out here.

[Hypatia93]

Hey Danny, nice review.

Of course I'd eventually get this game--I eat this shit up.

The ambience freaks me right the hell out, but I haven't gotten far enough in to see the game's foibles.. Well, that's not entirely true. I've hit what /I/ think is a huge problem--two, really--you can't save anywhere (I've never really liked that, especially for fpss), AND I'm stuck on the first level. Maybe I'm just stupid, or missed something, or hell.. I dunno. That's why I decided to ask a Master.

Oh yeah, and I /really/ (I mean /really/) enjoyed The Inside. (I'd make a great profiler.) Too bad FOX cancelled it. You'd think Tim Minear would've learned after Firefly and Wonderfalls. Obviously not.

Anyway, here's my question:




SPOILER BELOW!






On the first level: After going up (I think) those steps, and the few rooms, and then the cabinet opens up "miraculously," and you have to kill the one fellow. More rooms and you chase another guy? But then? I have no flippin' idea. Help?

Thanks.

[Daniel Weissenberger]

Thanks Hyp - somehow I knew that no matter how stern the warning I tired to give, there was always going to be some sicko out there who would consider it an ad

Yeah, the Inside was pretty wonderful - although it was a little capital D Dark for network television - suffered from Brimstone syndrome. Did you manage to see the whole series? Because, like Firefly and Wonderfalls, the best stuff never aired. Perhaps people are just profiliered out on TV (which doesn't bode well for my pilot script, Profiling Guy).

While the rest of the game is pretty linear and straightforward, but the first level is an unbelievably irritating maze - luckily, someone was nice enough to make a map and upload it to the webternet here!

[fishgills7]

I was actually entertaining the idea of picking up an Xbox360 just for this game. First person bludgeoners just appeal to me. The combat in the game doesn't sound fun at all though. I don't mind repetition, but is the combat even fun in the first place? And can you improvise your own makeshift weapons (like ripping off a table leg or rummaging through the kitchen for blunt objects) or do they just appear on the ground like most games?

[Daniel Weissenberger]

Well, there are twenty different weapons, and they try to make them feel improvisational by allowing you to grab them from the enivronment - but it's all completely scripted. For example, you grab pipes off the wall all the time to fight with - but even though there are pipes everywhere, you can only grab the specific, scripted pipes.

What's worse is that the animation from the concept videos they showed last year - hands reaching out, grabbing the pipes, and tearing them off the walls - appear nowhere in the game.

The biggest head-scratcher, though, is the completely arbitrary and counterintuitive key system - there are three major types of doors - key code doors, locked doors, and padlocked doors, and you need a shovel, an axe, and a sledgehammer, respectively to deal with them. Of course, there's nothing you can do with a shovel that you can't do with an axe (except dig, which the game doesn't require you to do), and a sledgehammer will knock down a door just as good as an axe.

Seriously though, I do reccomned buying a 360 just to get the game, if only so you can expose friends and neighbours to the black heart of the games industry.

[fishgills7]

Sweet. Now I have another excuse to postpone getting a new laptop or an electric guitar. I think I'm gonna still holdout for the end of the year though. I hope the 360 has a price drop when the PS2/Wii hit.

[Hypatia93]

Originally Posted by GC_Danny

Thanks Hyp - somehow I knew that no matter how stern the warning I tired to give, there was always going to be some sicko out there who would consider it an ad

Yeah, the Inside was pretty wonderful - although it was a little capital D Dark for network television - suffered from Brimstone syndrome. Did you manage to see the whole series? Because, like Firefly and Wonderfalls, the best stuff never aired. Perhaps people are just profiliered out on TV (which doesn't bode well for my pilot script, Profiling Guy).

While the rest of the game is pretty linear and straightforward, but the first level is an unbelievably irritating maze - luckily, someone was nice enough to make a map and upload it to the webternet here!

Danny,

Feel secure in knowing /you're/ not the reason I went out and bought this oh-so-creepy (and rather disgusting) game. I'd already had it when you did your review, so no worries.

But thanks for the link to the maps. I printed them out, and I think I'll have a go again this weekend. This game really does give me the heebie-jeebies, so I can't play too long in one session. That's another reason why I hate no saves anywhere--the rat bastards! *harumph*

[Daniel Weissenberger]

That's one of the many, many, many reasons I only ever play first person games on the PC. In addition to the superior controls, there's the convenient, anytime saving.

Come to think of it, how does the saving work in Oblivion, because I just got it and can't imagine playing it on a console.

[Hypatia93]

Originally Posted by GC_Danny

That's one of the many, many, many reasons I only ever play first person games on the PC. In addition to the superior controls, there's the convenient, anytime saving.

Come to think of it, how does the saving work in Oblivion, because I just got it and can't imagine playing it on a console.

Oh, I love it!

You can save anywhere. It's wonderful.

EDIT: Which leads me to believe devs can do that with /any/ game, they just choose not to, b/c they're asses.

[Kid Chaos]

I have just completed Condemned, and I couldn't help but strongly disagree to the review posted.

I don't know much about the story being lifted from other texts, but whatever the case, the story served its purpose. I agree that it was weak, but it still provided a few twists about the murder suspects, and it played its course adequately.

I disagree when you write that the game does not make you feel afraid, but it does make you feel revulsion. Blood spattered items do not litter every recess of every level - in fact, most of the blood only appears in the final stages of the game. I felt that the game, complete with its dank environments and surreal atmosphere, made me feel quite afraid. In fact, I feel that you contradict yourself when you claim Condemned did not make you experience fear, because in your previous paragraph, you comment how the game featured a deviously well created creepiness, or words to that effect.

I also take umbrage with your comments about the melee system. First of all, melee combat in FPS can and does work - Condemned, the Thief series and Oblivion all prove this. I accept that there can be some confusion over judging distances, but it is not as clumsy as you make it out to be. Melee fighters do not always have to be third person, with the character sprite's posterior pointing out at us, obstructing the view (something I find quite annoying.) I found the combat in Condemned to be some of the most exciting first person action sequences I have ever witnessed, thanks to some cheeky swipes and moves that your enemies can pull, the grittily realistic animations of your foes, and again, the fact that the first person view allows the experience to be more visceral and "in your face." Because I found the fights to be so fun, I never found them repetitive or dull. And tell me, which FPS (or any action game, really) does not eventually become repetitive? Don't they all? They are all button mashers at one stage or another. I feel this was a weak point of your argument.

Finally, however, you seem to have fallen into a very prevalent trap that reviewers find themselves ensnared in when they review violent games. It sounds like you have written off Condemned, which I thought was a well made and creative horror yarn, merely because it is violent and/or scary - exactly what happened with the Mortal Kombat games (which I thought were great fighters) and Manhunt (which I thought was decent.) This is like disliking a certain painting because, despite its beauty, it prominently features a colour you don't like. I don't think something should be shot down just because it was presented in a way that did not appeal to the reviewer - Condemned is a horror game, and it will logically work by the parameters set by the horror genre. If you don't like that, don't like the blood or tense environments or excess brutality, you probably should have left it up to someone else to review.

Your article strongly reminds me of the infamous review of Doom 3 by a christian website - just like them, you think that by playing this game, our souls shall be consumed by the minions of the underworld, and the earth shall be overturned by the fiery depths of hell. You may think that, but something tells me most gamers do not share this view.

Just my two cents, and I hope I did not attack you too much.

[Hypatia93]

Excellent criticism of the reviewer, Kid 23! I do hope you stay around. Oh, that means welcome to the site.

Btw, please look at my Stupid HARD games, et al. thread, and see if you can help me with this game. (I do so dislike repeating myself.) I've truly hardly scratched the surface of what I believe this would be a quite fine game, but it's just frustrated me so, all within the first 15 minutes.

Again, welcome.

[Chi Kong Lui]

Kid Chaos, can you submit your post as a second opinion on form on the the second page of the review? That's exactly the kind of reader review we'd like to get more of.

Chi

[Kid Chaos]

Done. I will keep checking to see when it comes up. Thanks Chi.

Hypatia93: Thanks for the welcome, and your kind comments. I admit I uninstalled Condemned after I completed it, but I will reinstall it over the next few days to see if I can help you out. In the meantime, I find your problem quite weird - are you sure it's not a random game "stuff up?" Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling?

I would love to be a games journalist one day, because, like Danny, it combines my two passions - writing and gaming. How does one go about becoming a games journo?

[Daniel Weissenberger]

KC - I see your points, but I've got to stand by the review. Mostly because I don't feel I ever wrote the game off, nor do I think it's the duty of a game reviewer to ignore a game's content or their reaction to it. I'm not a evangelist or moral watchdog, just a guy who, after his third hour of beating hoboes to death with a lead pipe, began to wonder if there wasn't something a little more positive or life-affirming that could be done with my time.

Besides which - how could I have written off a game I gave a 6 too? That's a pretty good score.

And seriously, dude - I'm supposed to treat a boring game better because all games get boring eventually? Isn't that just more of a reason to be hard on all games? More importantly, Condemned got boring like an hour in - sure, there are dozens of weapons in the game, but they all have the EXACT SAME THREE ATTACKS. What's the point of getting a fire axe if using it is no different than the arm of a mannequin? That's not even mentioning the iffy blocking system - Oblivion's combat works because blocking is relatively easy to do (and the different weapons have many different attacks to keep things fresh) - the First person fighting in Thief kind of always sucked - but I never minded because because the playable character is supposed to absolutely suck at fighitng. All he ever does well is sneak up behind people and sap them. The Condemned weapons didn't even have unique finishing moves - imagine Mortal Kombat if everyone had to share just one fatality (the Liu Kang Cartwheel Kick). Dull, right? Imagine manhunt if there was only one sharp weapon and one blunt weapon, and they only had a single kind of kill each. Crazy boring.

Condmened didn't even manage to make the brutality fun. It just heaped it on higher and higher until the whole thing toppled down in the crazy, incoherent mess that was the last level.

I play dozens of games every year that are fun from beginning to end. If they get dull upon repeated plays-through, that's sad, but not unexpected. It's a very bad game that gets boring during the first time through. Designers have myriad ways of keeping a game fresh and entertaining over its length - new weapons, new techniques, new enemies... Condemned offered none of these (obviously I'm exaggerting a little, but once the crawling-type guys get introduced early, there's really nothing new foe-wise until the last level or so).

As for how to get into the review racket, clicking here might be a good place to start...

Hyp- I'm closing my eyes right now and trying to remember your Condmened problem, so give me a second... Okay, as I recall, you're not acutally supposed to follow the guy through the metal shelving he pulls down (as counterintuitive as that is), but seeing him pull it down triggers something, and when you turn around and walk into the room behind you, a guy should come bursting though a wall (or closed door), giving you someone to kill and a new pathway al in one - then you just head down the new opening until you're done the level. If this still doesn't help, just for you I'll break my own rule and play the game again, and try my hand at walkthrough writing - you need only ask.

[Hypatia93]

Awesome, dude! Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a whirl this weekend most likely.