Condemned 2: Bloodshot Review – Drunken Horror!

by Shadow Wave

©2008 Ben Cadwallader

“`Monolith’s sequel to one of the most popular 360 Launch titles, Condemned, is back. It’s back with all the gore, atmosphere, and scares we’ve come to expect from the franchise that will force you to jump and cringe at every corner, door and opening. The game tries to improve over the issues in the first game, such as the combat and crime scene investigation. Yet still provide the scary atmosphere and freakish events that made the first game what it was, but, is this sequel better or worse in the end ? You be the judge.

You once again play as Ethan Thomas, who is now a raging, unemployed alcoholic with a short fuse who’s obviously mentally damaged by the horrors that he experienced in the first game. With a strange turn of events, Ethan is recruited back to work for the police, as his old friend Edward Vanhorn is believed to have been killed and with his last words, wanted Ethan’s help…. but sadly the story does get lost along the way towards the end of the game.

Game play in this game has improved a lot over the first, both in the combat, and crime scene investigation segments. In combat you are more brutal, yet conservative, and more energetic than the last game. Compared to the first game, where you just used the right trigger to swing your melee weapon and left trigger to block, you now have the right and left trigger for different melee attacks (both triggers pressed for block) and while not overly different they are used to produce combos.

Combos occur if you complete a certain string of maneuvers such as right swing, left swing, and the next right swing will be a different and stronger hit. While combos aren’t really necessary, they are useful in tough spots. You can now throw your weapon at enemies, if you want a distant attack.

The last main new feature in combat is after each kill a meter in the top right hand corner fills. Once full you can unleash a finishing move which will do a large amount of damage on your foe. These are used by double tapping the right trigger. These do a little “God of War” style button pressing mini game to perform the attack, though don’t worry its very simple and only buttons used are the triggers and shoulder buttons. My only complaint is you will find in frantic combat, you will often double tap the right trigger just to try and swing your weapon. Which will then cause these finishing moves to occur, but not when you want them.

Unfortunately gunplay has never been Condemned’s strong point and while it is improved, Monolith forces you to use them over Melee weapons towards the last few levels of the game. You could even say the guns make it more difficult. Crouch and/or cover was never included so while dodging bullets all you can do is keep jumping out from walls and hope not to get shot. An interesting idea that has been introduced this time for gunplay is, that you have to drink some alcohol to steady Ethan’s hands when aiming down the gun sights, as he is a alcoholic he needs the drink to steady his nerves since his last episode in the first game.

Crime scenes are more gruesome than the first game. This time instead of doing what you are told you will have to put the crime scene together yourself. After you have done some investigating and submitted what you think happened, you will get rated out of 5 with 5 being perfect. These involve searching around the various crime scenes to see how it happened. Checking such things as blood spatter, bullet holes, blood trails, and other incriminating evidence etc.

While doing this is a lot more fun that the last game, I found myself restarting the checkpoint so I can try to get a perfect rating, as your performance in these will determine your rank at the end of the level. This is my only negative in this area.

In Condemned 2, dead birds are still present, but are just a part of the environmental design this time round. Monolith have given us new things to collect, there these sound emitters which are often hidden in levels and you will need to follow the sound to find them. There are few other things to “collect” these including pressing A to respond to people talking to you and listing to TV and Radio broadcasts, which also require a little antenna adjusting with the thumbsticks to get a good reception in order to hear/see the broadcast.. These all contribute to your rating at the end of the level.

You receive awards at the end of each level, such as your trusty stun gun – which has ammo now, so be careful, as over use will leave it useless when you really need it! Plus the addition of a gun holster, which lets you carry any gun all the time. There are quite a few awards this time, but those 2 are the most useful items.

I feel the atmosphere in the game is, well – not as good or as intense as the first game. Monolith have used a few “Dream” levels, which they use to basically scare the living crap out of you instead. Mind you, that works really well. However, in the normal levels, there are no real “jump out of your seat” freak outs. The environments are a lot more varied compared to the first game, but still have that “same” feeling with most of them. Although, I found during normal levels, I wasn’t even expecting to be freaked out. In this game the “Flashbacks” of the various murder scenes have been removed that were present in the first game. In the first game I thought this was a really good idea and I’m a little sad they took it out, as it did build up the emotional atmosphere.

There are 2 really memorable moments in the game that will define the game as a keeper. I won’t spoil them, but they are truly great experiences.

The game’s levels are built up of mostly thugs, then swat teams and supernatural beings- which thankfully Monolith provides a reason for why there are supernatural enemies in the game in the first place. The enemies are varied enough to not get stale. With the story kind of hinting towards the reason of why these monstrous looking foes are here. It helps you appreciate why they are there, I think. There is less questioning and more acceptance of them this time round.

The AI of most enemies is quite good. They will take cover, find weapons and run away if hurt. It’s quite good and exciting, when an enemy gets away and hides from you. It does really feel like you are in that particular movie scene, where the tides have turned and they know where you are . . just watching . . and waiting for you to make the wrong move.

Multiplayer is not overly worth it, and please don’t buy it for the multiplayer alone, as you’ll be sadly disappointed. Condemned should be a Single Player only experience, not all games need to have some add-on Multiplayer levels as it can ruin a good game. With the exception of the game type Crime Scene, which involves basically one team finding evidence while the other team hides it, it’s basically a cat and mouse chase game type. Which is certainly fun if you can get over the lag, but lacks that true MP addictive nature of online gaming. The other game types aren’t really worth mentioning.

The presentation of the game is great. Graphically the game is fantastic getting the lighting and dark tones of the game to a very well and believable level. Textures are quite good looking, besides the occasional blurry scene here and there. Cut scenes are excellent with a very detailed face of Ethan and lip synching is very accurate while weapons look real. These graphics are almost a requirement to get the game to fit its horror theme and they have done it well.

Sound is brilliant. You’ll hear people running behind you, above you etc. This all sounds amazing on 5.1 surround sound. The creepy tip toe noises and the confronting sounds on the floors above you, do a fantastic job of creating the emotion of fear and yet curiosity of going forward. As you know what’s coming, but not exactly from where or how. The game isn’t about music, it’s about the sound effects created to give that sense of foreboding, and they are done extremely well.

However, you must play this game with the volume up! It’s really nice to hear some fantastic voice work from all characters, they are all very believable and easy to hear and understand. It’s great to see Paul Eiding lending his talented voice to fill a very convincing role as the head of the Police department. This fits the part as it goes with his role as Roy Campbell in Metal Gear Solid.

Another bonus Single Player game type is the Fight Club. To put it very simply you and, depending on the situation, a few NPC’s have to survive 5 minutes or so fighting waves after wave of enemies. It gets quite old fast and I see it more of a training level for people wanting to attempt the higher difficulty levels within the game.

You play the game for the first 7 or so levels, after which the game gets progressively worse with its story, becoming stranger and confusing. The sudden switch to primarily using guns and the sudden Science Fiction elements that come in by the end of the game.

Frankly, Condemned 1 is the better game out of the two, but don’t let that fool you, Condemned 2 is a more involving story even if it loses its theme and story along the way. It holds the gore and atmosphere very well, which in turn produces a compelling horror story based game that makes you keep playing regardless of if you’re scared or not. I recommend that Condemned 2; Bloodshot is most worthy of a purchase, but I ‘personally’ believe you need to have played Condemned 1 first.

8.5/10

©2008 Ben Cadwallader

Filed under: Console gaming, Xbox 360 Game Reviews, Xbox 360 News | Tagged: condemened review, Condemned 2 review, Condemned 2: Bloodshot review, Condemned blooshot review, Monolith, monolith games, monolithstudios, Xbox 360 Game Reviews