Review: Condemned - Criminal Orgins
Well, after a little over a month of playing different 360 games, I sat down and played one continuously. I decided Condemned seemed worth the effort due to it's creepy factor. Condemned starts off just like an episode of CSI. You're an FBI Agent sent in to investigate a murder which seems to be the same M.O. as a Serial Killer known as the Match Maker. Neat right? Well, kinda of. You do some investigative work, looking for evidence, which really isn't that hard. The game tells you when evidence near by which relates to a "special ability" your character has. From there, you press the X button and the correct forensic tool is in your hand and ready to go. This makes the game a little bit on the easy side, but some other parts make up for it. The overall story is you get framed for killing two cops at the scene of the other murder and you're tracking down the one responsible while defending yourself from drugged up junkies.
The gameplay is fairly simple, you walk around grabbing any weapons around from a 2x4 with nails to a Sub-Machine gun. Each weapon deals different ammount of damage, range, attack speed, and block speed. When using guns you are limited to the ammo in the weapon then it turns into a melee weapon. The AI in the game is very interesting. If there are multiple junkies coming after you, they will start fighting eachother as well as they will pick up weapons just as you would. The graphics are also pretty decent for a 360 game, but don't seem to be "next-gen."
All in all the game is pretty good, but the ending doesn't explain that much of what they try to hint at. It's replay value is not bad since there are a lot of hidden achievments to boost your gamerscore and there is a point at the end of the game which will decide the ending. We give Condemned a 7 out of 10.
What say you?!