Monolith's
dark, creepy & disturbingly grisly first person
horror/action title is now available for the PC. by
Vaughn Smith
April
12, 2006 - Condemned:
Criminal Origins is an acquired taste. However you
won't know that until halfway through the game. By
that point you'll either be in the for the long haul,
determined to see how the story unfolds or ready to
turn it off and check out MySpace. Monolith did an
admirable job porting their X360 launch title to the
PC and nothing is missing in the translation. The
control mechanics have been replaced with keyboard/mouse
input, but since the original game featured a healthy
targetting radius, you won't find the speed of the
mouse nor its accuracy provides any real advantage
over the X360 version.
What
scares you? Things that go bump in the night? Confined
spaces? Dead bodies? A pipe wielding disgruntled department
store mannequin with a score to settle? Correction.
Make that extremely disgruntled. I guess standing
in one spot for extended periods of time without moving
can really drive you insane. Whatever your particular
psychosis, Condemned: Criminal Origins will do its
best to exploit it and turn you into a quivering pile
of man-blubber in the privacy of your home...all in
the name of entertainment courtesy of developers Monolith.

You
could say Agent Ethan Thomas is having a really bad
day. Up until the events that kick off CCO, Thomas
had been a topnotch FBA investigator on the Serial
Crimes Unit with a flawless record of solved cases
under his belt. When two police officers are murdered
during an investigation of yet another serial murder
and the murder weapon just happens to be Thomas' gun,
things go from good to bad to really bad to worse
for our mysterious protagonist. He has to clear his
name while tracking down the Match Maker, a serial
killer who just happens to be making quite the name
for himself. That's a feat in itself considering there
is a lot of killing going on around town. Even the
killers are being killed. CCO's story unfolds with
as little interruption from cutscenes as possible
and manages to keep you interested from start to finish.
Armed
only with his forensic tools to investigate crime
scenes, his trusty taser gun and his unflappable partner
Rosa whom runs analysis on all of the evidence he
unearths, Thomas literally has to rely on whatever
is lying around to take down the numerous drug addicts
and other beings inhabiting this nightmarish landscape
of despair. That doesn't mean Thomas is defenseless;
quite the contrary. For the first time in a survival
horror game, I think ever, no one leaves ammo lying
around which means when you're out of ammo, you're
OUT of ammo. Surely some players will hate that mechanic
but I think it's absolutely brilliant as it creates
real tension. And you'll know your gun is empty as
Thomas will automatically flip it around to use the
butt of the gun as a melee weapon. But it gets better.
Every melee weapon in the game has a limited lifespan
and will eventually become useless against even the
weakest foes. This forces you to use literally whatever
you can get your hands on at the moment. Throughout
the game you'll use 2 x 4's, metal conduits, desk
drawers, shovels, signs, axes, sledgehammers, crowbars,
mannequin arms, paper cutters, coat racks, rebar and
of course a selection of handguns and rifles. For
the first half of the game I completely forgot that
Thomas had a taser gun which slowly recharges itself
(that's because I'm one of those 'never read the manual
type players' and I must have ignored that info when
the game explained it). Once I used it though, I came
to rely on it quite heavily as it will slow down even
the toughest foe, even killing some of the weakest.
A tasered foe will be stunned momentarily allowing
you to either get close and steal their weapon (great
for firearm toting maniacs) or to apply a few bashes
to the noggin. If you come to rely on the taser you'll
be pleased to know it receives an upgrade later in
the game.
Each
weapon is rated in terms of the following four categories
- Damage, Speed, Block, Reach - and you'll have to
decide if it's going to cut the mustard for the challenges
that lie ahead. Some weapons deliver great damage
to your foes, but provide little protection in the
way of blocking. Some are fast and weak, some are
slow and strong and some are just right. Certain weapons
such as the fire axe, sledgehammer, crowbar and shovel
are required for busting or prying open doors or locked
cabinets that you'll need to pass to continue on your
merry way, but you can still use them upside the head
of someone crazy enough to get into your face. And
let me remind you that they will do that.... I don't
know if it's just me but I can't help but think "Here's
Johnny" ala Jack Nicholson in The Shining when
I'm smashing down a door with an axe. Is that wrong?

Thomas
can only carry one weapon at time and can only drop
weapons when he picks up another. Throughout the game
you may have to purposely drop a weapon in order to
pick up a weapon of another type. There is a catch
though; the weapon you discard may be picked up by
an enemy and used against you. Such is life in the
big city. Using the taser or a quick kick will keep
enemies at bay allowing you to take down opponents
without wasting valuable ammo or risk wrecking your
melee weapon. One constant is Thomas' flashlight which
in Silent Hill fashion casts a small sphere of light,
which gives way to the fear inducing madness of the
atmosphere. What lies beyond the light in the dark
areas is the big question. If your eyes can't see
it, your ears definitely will hear it, but more on
the wonderful audio momentarily.
As
you're traversing these incredibly dangerous environments,
you'll often come across locations which require more
brains than braun. When you are in an area that requires
investigation a pop up screen will invite you to turn
on and use a context sensitive forensic tool. I wasn't
exactly crazy about the "hand holding" that
Monolith had to do to get you to choose the right
tool - which they explain as your incredible instincts
- as it seems a little forced, but looking at it realistically
there really wasn't any possible way around it. Remember
dear readers, they have to pander to the lowest common
denominator when it comes to determining the level
of intelligence of their audience and like most good
developers they realize that game reviewers will be
playing so they have to make it easy, otherwise we'd
never get through it. The various forensic tools aren't
difficult to use and to call their interactions mini-games
is too much of a stretch. You'll have a UV Light for
locating traces of blood invisible to the naked eye.
Laser Light which shines a greenish hue onto fingerprints,
shoeprints, fibers etc. and a Gas Spectrometer which
detects decaying matter. Once you've used those tools
to locate the evidence you'll have to rely on a few
more gadgets to collect evidence which Rosa will then
analyze for you back at the lab.
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