Condemned – 360 Platform: Xbox 360 (PC MAY be coming later) Company: Monolith Games Current status: Full 360 game out worldwide. PC game has no release date. Where to obtain: Your local game shop. Other notes: Rated 18 for good reasons. A blood-chilling adventure with a fresh take on a bizzare serial-killer genre. In Condemned, you don't kill the cops chasing you, you hunt the serial killer down every step of the way. Graphics: The graphics in this game are simply amazing, a pure tribute to what the 360 is really capable of, the animation on the characters is brilliant, very accurate to real human movement, both facial and with body movements. The physics are brilliant too, things will fall in accordance with Chaos Theory, when you remove a weapon from a pile of obects the other objects fall down. A nice touch with obtaining weapons is that they will have an effect on the environment, like if you take a conduit from the wall the lights will immediately go out. The attention to detail on the enemies is simply amazing as well, the blood that forms on your melee weapons is a nice touch too, the more you use them, the more blood you get on them. Same for the enemies, if you hit an enemy in the head they get a wound on the head. The only major downside to this game is the shadows, there's plenty of them, and sometimes it's hard to see what's going on, but if you keep your flashlight on at all times, which is possible, seeing as the can have it on while holding a weapon and it never runs out of battery. Sound: The sound is something that really impresses me about the game, everything is done so atmospherically, there is no music during the game, unless you count the strange sounds in the background when you're experiencing a strange grey moment. The sounds you hear are sounds you would expect to hear in the environment, the occasional bird or footsteps or the heavy breathing of nearby enemies. Every weapon has it's own distinct sound when you hit a wall or a skull, and the guns have authentic firing sounds too. The voice acting is spot-on too, you can tell the emotions in the voices easily, it's almost like watching a movie that you take part in. Gameplay: This is what really brings the game up and above anything else you may have played before, the sheer brilliance of what they've done to make this a unique game, from taking time out of killing to do some evidence gathering, to how guns are handled. When you get a gun, it has ammo in it, and that's all the bullets you have, there are no reloads in this game, once your ammo is gone, you're down to a melee weapon. You will get involved in it, many times you will use what is being said and done to try and work out for yourself what is going on, which just adds to the gameplay even more, as you stop thinking like a First-Person-Shooter and more like yourself in that situation. Admittedly I've caught myself grunting as I've been hit by an enemy or swung a weapon, not to mention cursing at certain enemies for catching me off-guard. Speaking of enemies, the AI is chillingly smart, blocking your attacks and going for counter-attacks at the right times, running away and finding cover to give you a surprise attack, or even going berserk and attacking you when low on health. The weaponry is ingenious, you can use almost anything, from pipes, 2x4s and even wooden signs. There is also the option of your special kill list, if the enemy is nearly dead he will fall to the floor and get to his knees, go up to him and you have 4 options of killing him, Ram, Snap, Slam and Punch. Punch gives a brutal punch to the enemy's face, Slam will throw them to the floor, Snap is pretty self-explanatory. Ram though, is really brutal, your character holds the enemy head and rams his forehead into theirs, causing the screen to go red for a second. Storyline: This storyline belongs in an award-winning movie, it will catch you off-guard so many times even when you play through the game again. I won't reveal any of the storyline as it really is something you have to experience first hand. But I will talk about re-playability. There are two different endings to the game, and throughout the game there are secrets to find as well as 6 dead birds per level and 3 metal pieces per level, getting these birds and pieces will unlock other things in the game for you to read/watch/look at. There are a variety of achievements to go for, like going through the game without using any guns at all, or getting all the evidence possible. The only problem is that though there are two endings, the only way to chose between them lies at the end of the last boss, up to that point the game is the same as before. In conclusion, if you like a dark criminal investigation game with a twist, you will love this, if you like any kind of thinking game, you will love this. If you are out to kill everything that moves with large weapons, get Serious Sam. Though you will kill a lot, it's not because you can, but because you want to survive. I hope you found this review helpful and informative.
