“Condemned: Criminal Origins” - 2005, Published by Sega (360)

The team of Sega and Monolith is back (see my review for 'F.E.A.R.') with another gritty horror title. In Condemned, you navigate poorly lit and decayed urban locations in search of a serial killer called the 'Matchmaker.' As FBI Agent Ethan Thomas you wield a variety of weapons including pipes, crowbars, and sledgehammers, bashing the skulls of random drug-crazies that attack you for really no reason.

Just as 'F.E.A.R.' borrowed heavily from other sources, Condemned is pretty much what would happen if you mixed 'CSI' with 'Saw.'

Condemned is kind of hit and miss as a launch game. Some things, notably the brutal and violent hand to hand combat, are done very well and are quite entertaining; on the other hand, there are a few things that just don't work as well as they should.

First of these is the voice acting. The game is fairly dependent on cutscenes to reveal the story, but many of them feature some rather hokey and/or poorly delivered lines--which really brings you out of the game's dark atmosphere.

Secondly, the 'evidence collection' portion of the game is pretty underdeveloped. Apparently this game takes place in the future, because your tools include odor analyzers, molecular compound detectors, and all kinds of other made-up devices. And most disappointingly about them is the game just tells you what to do. For instance, when you need to take a picture, you're given a series of arrows that tell you where to focus, then you just need to hit one button and the game does the rest.

I would have liked to have seen the evidence collecting harder and more realistic, but as a thrilling (and occasionally frightening) experience, Condemned: Criminal Origins fits the bill.

Key Moment: A crazed druggy charges you screaming obscenities and swinging a rusty pipe, you then proceed to smack him across the face with a hammer, sending him to the ground. Finish things off by kicking his lifeless corpse, just to make sure.

Rating: 3/5

~Khyron 2005