Bums, psychos, crimes, alcohol, basically all the condemned stuff

by Christopher Colquhoun

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy/Rent

At first glance it would appear that the gratuitous decadence is trying to compensate for the game’s shortcomings, but the overall experience is surprisingly fun, in a sick kind of way.

Ever played a game where you just wanted to drop your gun and beat your enemies to death with your fists? If yes then you’ve got issues, but Condemned 2: Bloodshot might just be for you, as long as you can handle frustrating level design, buckets of gore and a story that falls short towards the end.

New this fall, “CSI: Alcoholic Anti-Heroes”

The game picks up from the first Condemned that ended with our hero, former forensic detective Ethan Thomas, becoming what he fought -- a crazy, alcoholic bum. Ethan is picked up by his former unit to help them in identifying a body. However he gets embroiled in a grand conspiracy that has many twists and answers most of the questions of Condemned 1, which players don’t need to have played as everything they need to know is explained in Condemned 2 at one point or another. However, towards the end the story starts to fall ever so slightly flat and finishes with an all-too predictable cliff hanger.



The story is supplemented with news broadcasts that play on TVs after Ethan has fiddled with the antenna. Although this is at first novel, by the end of the game it just becomes a tedious chore having to re-position the antenna for every TV.

With Ethan’s new anti-hero persona come new abilities that expand on both the melee combat and forensic detective work that Monolith started in Condemned 1. Ethan’s fists are his primary weapons now. Hitting the left trigger will make him throw a left jab and right trigger will have him throw a right jab. On top of this he can also hook, kick and block. Throwing these attacks in a particular order will initiate a combo which will deal more damage and can even have the added effect of disarming the opponent or spinning them around. Once Ethan has thrown enough combos he can activate a chain attack which has him grabbing an unfortunate enemy, and after the success of a quick time event they get beat in a visceral and unmerciful way.

Ethan can also grab improvised weapons in the environment like shovels or bricks to smash heads. Every weapon feels slightly different and all give a devastating crack when they connect with the enemy. However there aren’t any weapon-specific combos and your regular combos are harder to pull off while armed. This creates a hard decision of whether to arm up with a baseball bat or fight with bare fists to fill up your chain attack meter.

Finding new ways to corrupt children

Although at some points the enemy AI is a little odd, Condemned 2 is one of the only games I’ve ever played in which just about every fight feels like it may be your last since enemies can quickly whittle down your life bar if you’re not careful. Add in some fun boss fights and you’ve got a fighting system that constantly stays fresh and engaging.



This sequel also makes more use of guns. Some levels even encourage blasting through the whole level with firearms by giving you plenty of ammo. This is where Ethan’s alcoholism comes into play in gameplay terms. His hands are very unsteady when aiming down the barrel and the only thing that can sooth them is a generous swig of alcohol.

At certain points you’ll have to go all CSI and investigate a crime scene. At these points players will have to use their powers of observation to come to the correct conclusion. Most of these puzzles are fiendishly clever and rewarding to work out. Many of these sections are optional and only serve to give a deeper understanding of the story and a better medal at the end of the level.

So scary it’s not scary

Condemned 2 has a rather odd upgrade system. At the end of each level you’ll be graded on your performance in certain aspects of the gameplay, such as your forensic skills, destroying certain objects, watching news broadcasts and completing secondary objectives. Satisfying these conditions is mostly boring and you won’t want to look for every news broadcast or hunt down every item in a level, which means you’ll get a bad grade leading to worse upgrades to play the rest of the game with. If only they graded the player on something fun, like how many enemies they killed or how many combos they pulled off…

The game presents us with a dark and gritty world. Each viscous attack is punctuated by screeching violins and each environment has the right tone of music and ambient sounds to make you feel tense. Unfortunately, Monolith still feels compelled to add way more jump scares than necessary and they quickly lose their impact. At some points, however, the environments get a bit too dark and become frustrating to navigate, even with your flashlight. This problem is compounded by the fact that many areas in levels look alike.



Condemned 2 also has parts where the player will have to interact with the environment by pressing the “A” button, like to hop over a wall or climb on some debris. It’s hard to know what you can interact with and what you can’t; Ethan has to stand in a very specific place for the game to prompt you to press “A”. This led me to explore various areas trying to figure out my next move when the correct path was hidden in plain sight.

Summary

Condemned 2: Bloodshot is a rather unique experience and definitely the best virtual-hobo-murder-simulator money can buy. Even with its pitfalls this whack job of a game is an easy recommendation for fans of the previous instalment and for anyone who wants something different from their first-person perspective games.