Condemned Again

Published March 19, 2008

When last we saw Condemned: Criminal Origins™ hero Ethan Thomas, the weary SCU detective had been exiled from his unit, and was teetering dangerously near the edge of insanity after cutting a bloody swath through the ultra-violent city denizens in his quest to apprehend Serial Killer X.

Are they real, or just a figment of Ethan's addled mind?

It seems the time between the end of Criminal Origins and the beginning of Condemned 2: Bloodshot™ has not been kind to Mr. Thomas. His fragile psyche traumatized by the events of the first game, Ethan has spiraled into vagrancy, living on the streets while finding blissful oblivion whenever he can at the bottom of a whiskey bottle.

Like its predecessor, Condemned 2: Bloodshot earns every bit of its Mature rating, but it does so not just with shock value and gore, but with intelligence, thought, a gripping story, and a wonderfully realized, if rather bleak world.

Back to SCU

To speak at any length of the story line would be to reveal too much. With so many twists, turns and shocking surprises, this is a story best experienced fresh and untainted by spoilers.

That noted, we can say with some safety that the enigmatic Malcolm Van Horn has resurfaced and Ethan Thomas's ex-employer SCU is eager to get their hands on him. It's up to our newly reinstated hero to track down Van Horn and unravel the trail of crime scenes and mysteries that follow.

You will use your camera, UV light and spectrometer to help you along, but really it's your wits that take center stage in these forensics sections.

Melee Combat Revisited

Where Condemned: Criminal Origins proved to the world that first person melee combat excelled as a mechanic in a survival/horror game, Condemned 2: Bloodshot takes the concept to new and brutal heights.

• Multipliers: Ethan can now unleash devastating blows that deliver many times the punishment of a normal attack by exposing an opponent's defenses. For example, parry an opponent's strike, immediately follow it up with an attack of your own and then use a power attack. Or deliver a quick left-right combo and cash in with a vicious third strike.
• Attack Chains: Defeat enough enemies and you'll fill your Attack Chain meter. Trigger these special attacks with a quick double-pull of the left or right triggers. Then, you're greeted with a series of button prompts. Execute those fast enough and you'll deliver some truly bone shattering combos.
• Enviro-kills: The original game offered finishing moves if you brought an enemy to their knees. In Bloodshot, you can grab hold of enemies in this position and drag them to any number of highlighted areas in the environment for a fatal end. Whether you're shoving them headfirst into a TV, bashing them against a doorframe, or shoving their head into an industrial vice for unspeakable results, these attacks are as inventive as they are gruesome.

Of course, you'll have access to many of the old Condemned standby weapons, including pipes, 2x4s, paper cutters, and burnt planks among much else. Better yet, there are new melee tools such as battle axes, prosthetic arms, exploding dolls, and a more diverse selection of firearms. Even your taser gets a facelift when you fire it up after dousing an unfortunate enemy in alcohol (ouch!).

Take the pig-face online.

Forensics Sophistication

While the first game teased gamers with a bit of light detective work, the forensics mini-games in Bloodshot are both frequent and sophisticated. You must collect evidence and decipher its meaning, uncover relationships, and ask carefully considered questions if you hope to solve the game's many mysteries.

For example, at the first major crime scene, you must discover and piece together three separate clues to identify the murder victim, determine the nature of the fatal bullet wound, and then decipher the blood pattern's meaning. You will use your camera, UV light and spectrometer to help you along, but really it's your wits that take center stage in these forensics sections.

Condemned Online

While the single player mode may be the highlight for many folks, developer Monolith has poured a great deal of effort and attention into its innovative multiplayer offerings. While you can bludgeon away with standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes, there's also some more tactical competition in the Crime Scene and Bum Rush modes.

A rainforest mud facial would do wonders.

Crime Scene pits one team of SCU investigators against a band of "Influenced," where the SCU players must track down evidence hidden and protected by the Influenced players. Bum Rush on the other hand is a desperate fight for survival as SCU players fend off a constant stream of respawning Influenced players, hoping only to survive the required three minutes.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot has been carefully cultivated by Monolith since the original game launched alongside Xbox 360®. That extra time and polish shows through in the massive, well-conceived improvements to every facet of what was already a great game.

Article by Ryan Treit