Trigger Finger

Well, I did complete Condemned in the end and I have to say it is a great game. I don’t scare easily – especially in a computer game! Horror movies don’t scare me, horror books don’t scare me, haunted houses even when I was 5 years old were laughed at… but Condemed made me a jumpy nervous wreck and I loved it!It’s hard to review it too deeply without ruining the storyline so I am going to keep this brief.

The game is single player only – which normally I hate. Single player AI is never any competition, I am a multiplayer man through and through and any single player component of a game is just a tutorial as far as I am concerned. However this game still managed to keep me enthralled all the way to the end.
The graphics are sublime, the lighting and shadow is perfect, fortunately you have a torch with neverending batteries, but it isn’t too strong meaning things are still able to scuttle up to you without you noticing. And the real strength of the game lies in that and the fact the AI & it’s melee combat is so believable.
The melee combat adds a ton to the game as well. If this was your typical blast-a-thon it wouldn’t be as scary. But the combat is up close and personal and there is nothing more satisfying than battering an assailant with a bit of pipe, grabbing hold of him, staring into his pleading eyes with a wound you inflicted across his head, and finishing him off with a head butt.

So to give an example of how these key elements pull together let me give you an example. Remember there are very few guns in this game and even less bullets, so most of the time you will be armed with nothing more than a 2×4 with a nail in or a lump of concrete as a weapon!

I am investigating a spooky location (remember I am keeping it vague for a reason!) in almost darkness. I have stumbled down a hallway and as I turn a corner I stumble into a box and a stream of startled rats dash squeeking past me. I approach a door way and just as I am about to enter I have a flashback to a grizzly murder that happened in there, or maybe is about to happen!
I cautiously push the door open and enter a room and my torch struggles to illuminate even a portion of the dim interior. I see a shadow move across the wall to my right and prepare to block some oncoming fiend only to realise it was my own shadow created by a broken light fitting I brushed up against, knocking it swinging lethargically to and fro.
As I swing my feeble beam of light across to the centre of the room I DEFINITELY saw something move but by the time I move my light back it has gone. I pick my way across towards the window in the hope of getting more light, and something appears from behind a pillar and moans as it swings a plank down on my head. I stagger back and and prepare to fight, but again he has gone! I nervously twitch from left to right and wonder where it went when my view is suddenly distorted by a spatter of blood… my own! I swing round and finally set eyes upon my foe, as he launches at
me once more. I block him with my plank before catching him across the head with a wild and lucky swing. I rain blows upon him until he is visibly wobbling on his feet. With what strength he has left he staggers out of the room and dissapears up the hallway cursing. We will meet again I am sure, I just don’t know when and where.

Now none of this would work if:

a) The graphics and lighting weren’t totally convincing and immersive
b) The AI had been dumb and just charged me at the start not stopping until one of
us was dead
c) The little touches such as the rats, the light I knocked and the flashback
hadn’t already made me jumpier than a box of mad frogs.

The attention to detail in both the moments of fear, the environment and the story had to be right all the way through the game to keep you in such a state of near perma-panic. They manage it almost all the way through, thought it does go a bit boring for a short period in the middle, it is more than made up for. As atmospheric as the environnment is, the sound is superb and really adds a thousand ‘wtf was that!’ moments! If you have 5.1 or a set of good headphones you will really appreciate the level of detail even in the sound. I NEVER want to hear the music from the department store again! It has played in 3 different nightmares/dreams I have had in the last week!

The game is short, it took me about 12 hours and I was taking my time, but then you can complete the game in such a time you can return it to Game and exchange for something else I don’t think 12 hours entertainment is worth £50, the equivalent time at the movies would cost less than half that! But if you can re-sell it to someone or exhange it it’s well worth it and you will not be dissapointed! Play in the dark for the full effect!

8.5/10

No related posts.