Released for consoles in 2005
and for the PC in 2006, Condemned: Criminal
Origins is the next game from Monolith following
F.E.A.R. Now Monolith has made some good games;
Blood was good for it's time, No One Lives Forever
and the sequel were underrated classics. But
unfortunately it seems their designers are still
stuck in the old skool style of level design.
The problem that hindered F.E.A.R.; it's bland
boxy level design, returns with Condemned. In
fact, the level design in both games could quite
easily swap places and you wouldn't know the
difference. F.E.A.R. had slightly more open
levels to account for fast shooting enemies,
while Condemned's is more condensed and cramped.
However it's still the same room with two corridors
connecting to the next room. It's maze-like,
repetitive and is almost a series of box rooms
littered with debris. It certainly doesn't feature
the kind of detail you'd get from Doom 3.
There's really nothing in this
game that stands out as looking great. Perhaps
the final level taking place in a decayed apple
orchard at night was a highlight, but it still
lacked detail and was extremely linear. It sounds
better than it was.
Basically Monolith followed
the same pattern as F.E.A.R. in creating a game
with supernatural flashbacks throughout; the
scares are all the same. In fact, you could
almost say this is the same game just with a
different story and melee combat instead of
guns.
So while F.E.A.R. lost brownie
points in the design section, it made them up
with it's fun gameplay. The same can not be
said for Condemned, which is melee based combat
using random weapons such as crowbars, 2x4's,
axes. Now I've played good melee based games;
Heretic II and Rune got it right. Condemned
swings but misses, because it's too basic. The
game comes down to a block-swing-step back process,
or if you're taser is charged, which almost
always is, then it's taser-swing-run back to
wait for taser to recharge. It's just not that
fun. There should have been some combos or powerhits
of some kind. I complained about the combos
in Dark Messiah, but at least it had them. Their
drawback was the awkward key presses in trying
to perform them. Condemned's gameplay is just
too simple and becomes repetitive very fast.
Which leaves the storyline;
which is flawed just like the rest of the game.
The main premise is cliched but acceptable;
a serial killer takes your gun and kills some
cops which you are blamed for so on the run
you go to capture him. As it turns out, he's
been killing other serial killers. But then
some whole supernatural plot comes into it with
civillians turning insane, birds brains exploding,
odd flashbacks and mysterious creatures popping
in and out of existence (one of which you fight
at the end). By the end of the game NONE of
this is explained! Admittedly it does all get
explained in the sequel but it just leaves the
first game confusing.
If you loved F.E.A.R., not
minding the average level design and love survival
horror games then Condemned: Criminal Origins
is worth playing the once. Otherwise, it's a
skippable title.
