Review: Condemned: Criminal Origins [PC]

[Wrestlevania]

I managed to find the time to finish Condemned: Criminal Origins over the weekend, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pleasantly surprised, nevermind thoroughly impressed.

The game's premise is simple; murders are happening throughout a near-future city. You are a divisional agent trying to piece together what's going on, as the urban landscape - and populance - sinks further into maddening decay around you. The game's narrative is driven via your forays into this world, and, upon discovering a fresh crime scene, through the use of a forensics system straight out of an arcade game. Yes, SEGA's production accredited influence is all over this game like a rash, seeping from every broken pipe and cracked plasterboard wall. But believe me when I say that's a very good thing.

Combat too is firmly rooted in arcade mechanics, although weapon selection is deceptively linear. Unlike virtually any other first-person game you care to mention, Condemned only ever lets you carry one weapon at a time. Furthermore, you never have any more ammunition, other than what's left in the gun you just picked up. This forces you to make tactical considerations where you'd not normally expect to in a game of this kind. Do you drop the electrical conduit - with its high speed, decent damage and reasonable blocking ability - for the sawn-off shotgun, discarded on the table in this grimy backroom, with its damaging two-shot capacity but rubbish melee attributes once both cartridges--if indeed both chambers are even loaded--have been quickly spent? Arguably, it's best to resort to physical contact over munitions, as melee weapons always pack a mean punch.

As already alluded to, the procurement of weaponry is often a case of ripping the nearest pipe or "2 by 4" off the wall as your assailant barrels towards you. Fighting (it could never be termed anything as considered as "combat") in Condemned is as brutal as is it is brief; encounters usually requiring no more than a couple of well-timed swings to smash the life out of your opponent. When a swing of your sledgehammer connects with an attacker's face, it's reassuringly pronounced through brilliant motion capture and liberal sound effects. Whilst production values are extremely high in Condemned, they never interfere with the gritty realism it strives for throughout.

The story, too, is very well done. Pure pulp it may be, but voice acting - mercifully - is typically convincing and well delivered; this definitely ain't no Prey. The plot twists and writhes nicely as you crawl through sewers, an abandoned subway trainyard, and later derelict farmsteads. The over-arching themes of murder and human dereliction also permeate every corner of the environment too. Texturing is beautifully rich throughout, with levels nicely paced and believably constructed.

Ultimately, Condemned leaves you with a few loose strands of unfinished sub-plots after the grand finale. But the game draws to a satisfying close and does not leave you hanging in wait for a sequel.

There are a couple things which prevent Condemned from being a 'must-have' title though. Firstly, it's relatively short. Playing at a leisurely pace I finished the game in approximately 12 hours. For some people - me included - this isn't a problem, but I know many people would expect more game for their money. As it stands, what you do get is a tightly-focussed and succinct game, with none of its levels feeling tacked-on or spurious. It just might be a little shorter than you were hoping.

Secondly, the PC version comes littered with a huge number of achievements--several per level in fact. These commonly take the form of collecting a certain number of dead or dying brids scattered throughout the level. The mass death of these birds happening in key areas of the early game is one of the sub-plots which weaves its way throughout, and discovering the skeletons - or writhing corpses - of crows as you pick your way through the debris adds a layer of sombreness and pity to the experience. Additionally, there are several fragments of metal to collect during each stage, but, unlike the dead birds, it's not entirely clear what purpose these have in the game's narrative. Bronze, silver and gold ratings are available for each repective level's achievements, which in turn unlock more content (usually nothing more than concept art which is, admittedly, stunning). The sheer number of achievments spread throughout the game is quite daunting, but the biggest stop-gap to actually collecting them all is the game's settings and story; after one complete play-through, I can't see many people feeling the urge to retread this game's rotting floorboards--at least, not in the short-term.

Taking everything into account, this game is full to bursting with menace and forboding atmosphere. What it might lack in length is more than made up for with the shear visceral nature of the experience you do get. Condemned is a triumph of tightly implemented design, considered mechanics, and a mature theme successfully - not to mention convincingly - executed in a video game.

If you liked the film Se7en, you'll be completely engrossed in Condemned: Criminal Origins. Throroughly recommended.

Overall: 4/5