Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

To keep the review short and save everyone's time, I want to highlight only several of the game's strong points (and very few weak ones) :-


Graphics:

Graphics are solid throughout. Textures are crisp enough. The overall atmosphere is certainly immersive. Some areas demonstrate gorgeous lighting effect, such as the area where you're separated from your colleague for the first time. (Hint: your colleague takes a ladder up, after detecting the smell of burning cigarette nearby and thus leaving you alone). The only noticeable issue is, a few parts in the levels and characters possess somewhat over-the-top bloom effect. Thankfully, this is not prevalent to the point of distraction or annoyance.


Gameplay:

The game's close-combat system is basic, but still fun practically. There's still some strategy here as you need to time your move properly, in order to land a successful hit or block. The action increases three-fold when you're facing multiple enemies at a time, but thankfully it's never too difficult once you understand the enemy's different cues. Yes, there are guns if you're tired of bashing. And so does the lack of ammo. It is the frantic close encounters that make Condemned, close to being a perfect survival-horror title.

Oh, and don't forget the detective part using hi-tech gadgets to locate clues and solve mysteries. Combined with disturbing crime scenes, doing this is kind of cool. Watch out, as some of these moments have good surprises for players. The crime scenes/puzzles resemble Riddler's puzzles in Arkham City, except that the scenarios in Condemned are meant to be solved in linear style. The game itself is linear throughout.


Audio:

Love the sound of crushing impact when you hit the enemy's skull with an axe or a conduit pipe. From the ambience, to the characters' actions and dialogue, the audio does its job superbly throughout. No comment.


Presentation & Re-playability:

There's nothing wrong with the presentation style of Condemned. There's nothing ground-breaking with it, either. Basic menus with static images at the back. Basic loading screens with a bit of information displayed while you're waiting for the load to complete. Point is given to the opening movie, as it truly mimics the feel of a crime/serial-killer movie. Plus, there's no reason to come back after you've completed the game the first run, unless you want to venture back to the dark, creepy alleys and locales to collect the dead birds which unlock bonus content such as concept art. At least, you have that bit of a reason to go back.