Difficulty:

Very Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Waste of time"

Opening disclaimer:

I'm sick and tired of your typical mainstream idiot unable to concieve an opinion of his own, or at least counter my arguments with his own. "The (not) finding it helpful system" doesn't work, I bet most people don't even read a review before giving it a binary score. From now on I boycot that system entirely and welcome everyone to thumbs down all of my reviews, even if you thought the arguments I made for giving a game that or this score are perfectly in place.

P.S.: and to all the fanboys out there, SMD. Since gamespot doesn't tollerate profanity, I cannot give the full meaning of that phrase here, however I bet even the fanboys, despite their lack of grey matter can figure out what it means. For the rest I bid you adieu.


The actual review:

Well, what can I say? Horror genre needs a serious blood transfusion. Since in the state it is now it can't even provide a cheap scare, forget about a real one. But then again, a horror game can work even despite being a bad bogeyman. Like RE4 or Dead Space. Sadly in the case of Condemned that is not the case.

Reason number one is that melee from a first-person perspective just doesn't work. And I will tell you why. Basically what we encounter on a screen is a two-dimensional projection of a 3D-world. And you need depth vision whilst fighting close quarters. But since you cannot feel any depth while observing it from first-person perspective on a flat-screen the concept of melee weaponry will ultimately fail from first-person perspective. Gunplay doesn't because depth vision is not all that important for it. A bullet can hit anything on the screen and is not limited to one meter radius from the main protagonist. Third person melee works well because of the ever changing camera angling which compensates for the lack of depth. A tribute to my beloved brother for explaining these nuances to me.

Reason number two: a promising but eventually disappointing story. Which was nice and unusual up until the second half. Where all the predictable, banal and dull occult demonology kicked in. Hellraiser references and very bad script with walking dead, unsuccessful dental experiments does no justice to such an interesting premise. Once again ending was a banal and vague horror finale (read: a "to be continued ending"). The protagonist as well as antagonist and the side characters are all flat carton boxed characters lacking any connection to the real human beings. Boring characters. Disappointing persona's.

Reason number three: bad level design and overall lack of polish. Seemed to me like this game was half-finished. Guns were bad, not even worth a bad polish shooter. Levels were repetitious and bland F.E.A.R the father like levels.
Graphics weren't even close to that of F.E.A.R. the first.

It was the first game I was glad to be cheating on. I rarely do that except for when a game is really bad, like the Call of Chtulhu for example. But it let me fast forward this bad hollywood horror-flick and spare me my precious time.

The funny thing is that the game is actually at its best when out of combat. And I mean the investigation techniques and chatting with Rosa on the mobile phone. For that occasional fun I will give this game a point more than I originally intended.

If the storyline didn't go haywire. If there was no combat at all and the level design was better. This game would've make a great first-person horror adventure. But alas, in its present state it is barely playable. I do not recommend it, stay away from it. And warn your friends to stay away from it. And your family. And your girl- or boyfriend. Condemned should be condemned for its lacks of taste for all eternity. And if you're so eager to "clean this society of the undesirable elements" go play "On the Rain-Slick: Precipice of Darkness", annihilating hobos in style is its specialty