The first Condemned game had the unfortunate honor of being an Xbox 360 launch title and despite being well-received from critics slipped under most people's radar. Their loss, though; Condemned presented a lot of fresh ideas, like first-person melee combat that didn't suck, and grisly crime scene investigation sections. Still, while most people were trudging their way through tripe like Perfect Dark Zero, those in the know were getting their FBI investigator on in the sublimely terrifying Condemned: Criminal Origins enough of us, thankfully, to warrant a sequel.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot makes all the refinements you'd expect from a sequel, but it also shakes things up a bit on the story front. Set a year after the events of Criminal Origins, former FBI investigator Ethan Thomas is now an alcoholic, substance abusing bum. Between bar fights and hallucinations, our pill-popping protagonist gets a call from his old employers regarding loose ends from his last case, and it's back down the rabbit hole again. Ethan's new position as the has-been that's slowly losing his grip on reality helps lend the narrative in Condemned 2 an even darker tone than its already bleak predecessor.
Unfortunately, this Condemned tends to forgo the cerebral scares of the first game in favor of more literal ones. Sure, the developers still have you traipsing through some of the grimiest, dankest settings everything from an abandoned doll factory to a deserted bowling alley trying to piece together a serial killer's next move, but they'd do well to learn that what you can't see is always more frightening than what you can. Next time, it'd be nice to see a few more mind games and a little less homeless dudes leaping out to say boo, so to speak.
When it comes time to confront said homeless dudes, combat this time around is decidedly more fleshed out than in its precursor. The gameplay staple of ripping nearly anything from the environment to bludgeon vagrants remains intact and relatively unchanged, while the real improvements belong to the hand-to-hand skirmishes. The first game had decent first-person fisticuffs, but it was fairly limited in scope. In Condemned 2 there's a larger repertoire of attacks to handle any given situation, as well as a new combo system that gradually fills a sort of special attack meter for every successful attack chain. Once this meter is filled, you can devastate murderous hobos by transitioning into a slow-mo quick-time event that's something like The Matrix meets God of War. There are also scads of finishing moves that incorporate objects in the environment to gruesome effect, including everything from shoving heads through arcade machines to obliterating someone's face in an industrial drill press.
Also receiving a booster shot is the gunplay in Condemned 2, in that it actually exists. To be fair, there were guns in Criminal Origins, but they were so few in number and with such sparse ammunition that they were little more than brief power-ups. Guns still fill that role in this game, but there are also a few levels where bullet-hoses move to the forefront of the action. Consequently, there are also a lot more enemies packing heat in Condemned 2, so just because you might be carrying a piece more often doesn't mean the firefights will be at all one-sided.
While all these touch-ups to the game's combat are fantastic, one of the most significant advancements over the first game are the more open-ended investigation segments. A frequently cited complaint regarding Criminal Origins' crime scene bits was that their solutions were often far too specific, making them a boring, linear distraction from an otherwise dandy bum fighting sim. Solving the murders in Condemned 2 is a much more organic affair that asks for a greater deal of input from players, and the game is considerably better for it. By using your forensic gadgets and poking around the vicinity of the crimes, you can open up multiple choice selections to determine things like a victim's identity, the cause of death, and whether bullet holes are entry or exit wounds. Evidence like footprints and wallets litter these sections, but there are also occasional red herrings that can throw you off the trail. The possibility of getting things wrong leads to much more actual detective work, and there are so few games out there that even attempt this sort of gameplay.
All of this is tied together by developer Monolith's impeccable ability to really make you inhabit a character. This isn't achieved by any story means honestly, the plot gets pretty absurd toward the end but rather by communicating human movement and the environment in a startlingly lifelike manner. For instance, when a drifter wearing armor clocks you with a giant medieval hammer, the skull-crushing force of the blow is conveyed so realistically that you can almost feel it giving you all the more motivation to not let it happen again. Not only that, but if you hang back and let a couple of beggars go at it themselves, it genuinely looks like two homeless guys in a scuffle. This doesn't just apply to fighting, either; even simple things like climbing a ladder or taking a swig of whiskey are animated with the utmost precision. Immersive is a term that's bandied about all too frequently, but it's hard to think of any other adjective that applies here.
The outstanding sound design in Condemned 2 is not easily overlooked, either. The voice acting is top notch, with a standout performance from Paul Eiding known for his role as Col. Campbell in Metal Gear Solid. Much like Bioshock, there's a lot of enemy banter during fights, and while this city's homeless don't have quite as much to say as the inhabitants of Rapture, their random obscenities and insane ramblings aren't nearly as specific or repetitive. It's also helpful that with a good enough sound system you'll often hear your enemies ransacking the place before you actually see them. Most interesting, though, is the way the audio gradually evolves into what can only be described as a more sinister rendition of what Wind Waker did with its battle music. Where that game would play little melodic chimes each time you struck an enemy with your sword, Condemned 2 blares indescribably unpleasant noises that are ripped straight from the horror flick playbook. It's an especially weird, creepy touch that suits this weird, creepy game quite well.
There are a few niggling quirks that persist from the first game, as well as one or two new ones, but none of them are unforgivable. For instance, while the environments are less repetitive, there's still a problem with getting turned around too easily in some of the more labyrinthine levels, and the GPS mapping system is far too confusing to be of any help. This game also sports some rather unremarkable multiplayer, no doubt due to pressure from idiots who think that every story told from the first-person point of view requires it. Fact of the matter is, Condemned 2 has more than enough merit as a solo experience, and the addition of online modes feels like getting a birthday cake with your name misspelled in the icing you might be a little let down by this obvious, careless mistake, but at least you've still got cake.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot is a bold experiment in perspective, and while it may not be as outright spooky as the first game, it's still liable to give you the creeps. Brawling in the first-person is something that almost nobody even attempts these days, let alone pulls off so well same with the detective work, which is so good it would make Batman himself proud. All of these elements make this a surprisingly unique game in an age when first-person shooters are a dime a dozen, and it's one of the first must-play games of the year.
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