Condemned: Criminal Origins – Completed

This game on Meta critic was rated fairly well and was pretty cheap on eBay. My assumption is the game has been out for a while and the price did not reflect the quality of the game. So I snatched it up and gave it a go. This game has gratuitous violence and its fair share of gore and situations that would give some adults nightmares. I strongly recommend heeding the M rating when considering it as a purchase.

The idea is you are a FBI agent/detective, your character goes to crime scenes of serial killers and goes through the scene collecting evidence to try and catch the killer. My assumption was each level would essentially be a case you had to solve and I was far from being right. There is a plot that flows through the entire game linking all the events together. One thing you should know is that you never get closure to the story line, the end only makes you assume what is going on and never clearly tells the player. Though I did find it intriguing enough that I wanted to play through the entire game.

When it comes to levels and game play it is extremely linear. There is no real variation in game play and it holds your hand to each goal. One level is a library where you have to find certain things through out, yet all the shelves are blocks in order to create the look of a maze yet it is just a straight path. In my general opinion this could have been more dynamic and given the player an opportunity to prove his worth and find there own way. The combat in the game has two variations melee weapons and guns. I was slightly annoyed to find out your only able to carry one weapon at a time as well as only being able to use the bullets that are in the gun when picked up, there is no extra ammo. The element of realism is understandable, yet I still think it should allow you to carry one extra clip of some sort as the character does have pockets. They do give you a tazer that temporarily stuns enemies and can incapacitate weaker foes with one or two hits, this allowed you some strategy while fighting.

All in all the game for me was 7 out of 10. Nothing to out of the ordinary and very linear, controls are solid, achievements not overly difficult, and graphics were on par.