A great 360 launch game.
The story in the game starts out with you tracking down the killer throughout abandoned buildings, subways, and other urban areas you wouldn't want to be at night. Around the middle part of the game it starts to get crazier. Let me explain, in the beginning you fight crazy homeless people and small time thugs. Something in the city is making people violent along with killing all the birds in the city. You will start to encounter these addicts that are very thin and some crawl on the ground. They are very frightening and it just gets more nuts the farther you get. There is a level where you are in an abandoned department store, the mannequins in the store attack you and the other thugs wandering around. Theres a school with these creatures in it that look like something out of Silent Hill, not to mention a butcher that reminds me of something out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. On the last level there are these big hulking guys that look like they have been to hell for a day trip. My point is, the games enemies while pretty cool and varied just get more and more supernatural without any kind of explanation. I found myself asking where are they coming from and whats doing this to them. After the final boss fight you still don't know why. Maybe there will be a Condemned 2.
Ok so how are you going to kill all of these fun enemies? Well, along with your tazer, anything is the answer. You will be dispatching your enemies mostly with melee weapons like; pipes, 2x4's, concrete rebar, crowbars, sledgehammers, fire axes, and shovels along with countless other objects. You will have limited access to firearms including a revolver, a .45, a shotgun, a sawed off version, and an SMG. There are no ammo pickups and you can only carry one weapon at a time which to me added to the fear of the game. The AI in the game seemed very smart. They will try to fight dirty, hide behind objects, and fight you in groups. The enemies can and will also use weapons you drop on the ground against you, so firearms are fair game for them as well. Let me just say, the enemies for being crazed, have great accuracy. You can also perform finishing blows if an enemy is stunned, characterized by trauma to the head or snapping of the neck. They are performed using the D-pad and you get your choice, almost like a fatality.
The graphics in this game are great. A lot of people think that there are too many repeated textures. The first couple levels look similar but after them the level design is great. Every level is absolutely trashed, debris and garbage everywhere with few working lights. Ah the lights, the lighting in this game is great, something right out of a horror movie. It definately adds to the atmosphere. I constantly kept double looking because of the shadows the lighting created. The shadows will keep you second guessing, where the enemies are. In the one level, there is a door that shuts itself, so that had me freaked out.
The sound in the game is overall pretty good. The music in the game is your typical horror ambience which suited the atmosphere in the game. The voice acting was ok, nothing great. The enemies do make nice sound effects, coughing, shuffling, running, along with knocking things over. They really carry the game.
Condemned suffers with one real problem, theres very little replay value. Other than achievements there really isn't another reason to play through again, the story is the same. There is only one mode, the story and thats it. For a launch game, this game is great, a needed horror game.