Condemned 2: Bloodshot

April 26,2008 - [EDITOR'S NOTE: This review was written by John Murray Hill, a contributor for Gamer 2.0]

SEGA’s sequel kicks off by characterising Ethan Thomas, the series’ main face. Ethan, quite an endearing, neutral fellow originally, has been transformed into some sort of “badass” anti-hero who doesn’t take any crap in Condemned II. It’s a horrid cliché and as such you don’t feel remorse when he inevitably dies in combat – an area we’ll address later when analysing the game’s fighting system.

Ethan is an alcoholic who spends the bulk of his time in the gutter. He begins witnessing supernatural hallucinations similar to those that drove him to the bottle. For the sake of the plot, your ex-Serial Crimes Unit shows up. Fast forward a few minutes, and Ethan’s right back on the case, still pissed, and willing to serve the company he unceremoniously vanished from 11 months ago. And so goes the story of Condemned II – a hodgepodge of excuses for killing scores of scary-looking enemies.

Monolith decided to make Condemned II more plot-driven presumably as a response to the questions levelled at its prequel. In the first one, you were looking for a murderer. Ironically, as you traced him, hundreds of psychotic tramps attempted to murder you. Monolith could have better allocated their time enhancing the core gameplay of Condemned [maiming the homeless with blunt objects] rather than tacking together a plot for the sake of brawling with tramps and demons.

The tramps are pissed off for no real reason – we know they’re just “bad guys”, so why didn’t Monolith go for a clichéd “was it all a dream?” plot, where it’s unclear if the attacking hordes are a product of your alcoholism/neurosis, to substantiate them? Adding insult to injury, throughout the first part of the game, Ethan mills around an abandoned depiction of Manhattan that is encased in tarry, black ooze, with no civilians (or explanation) in sight.

To enhance the ridiculousness of it all, information is mostly delivered via retro TV sets. They have only one channel focusing on the eerie occurrences surrounding Ethan. These newsflashes are delivered with all the convincingness of a female Monolith secretary who has been asked to do a few voiceovers. This idea is at odds with the way Ethan analyzes crime scenes – whipping out super-futuristic techno gear like spectrometers and UV torches.

Amazingly, not learning the lessons from trying to substantiate the unsubstantial, Monolith put evermore-exotic enemies in this game, like black tar monsters that spawn from mucus membranes hanging from ceilings. We can only hope then, that we are not given the same style of explanation for their existence that the tramps of Condemned II were blessed with, in the inevitable Condemned III.

Condemned II spends far too much time trying to draw the player into its freaky universe via a convoluted plot, but that accounts for little of the playable game. What makes up the flesh on the bones of Condemned II’s story is fighting … lots of it.

The bulk of what you’re going to be doing in Condemned II revolves around executing waves of angry tramps with crude weaponry harvested from a haunted environment. You are required to slay enemies brutally by smashing their brains in with these makeshift cudgels. This is fun, if a little diluted in comparison to the original. It was simple the first time around, with success dependent on your reactions, sense of timing and pugnacity. Monolith has messed with this wonderfully straightforward formula for Condemned II.

Now, you can operate your left and right fists by triggering the shoulder buttons and, through this, pull off all manners of combos. It’s a bit unpredictable. You can also indent the left analogue stick to swing hooks, which daze the enemy, or cause you to improvise with the blunt end of a wielded instrument. This doesn’t feel intuitive. There are different kicks accessible by clicking the right analogue stick, which feel awkward in practice. You can block with both shoulder buttons and there is a special attack, which is the source of much frustration. By double-tapping a shoulder button, Condemned II suddenly becomes a cross between SEGA Saturn’s Shenmue and Die Hard Arcade – series of “quick time” events that require a player to respond to button prompts, in order to deal major damage. Irritatingly, it’s easy to initiate this by accident because you often unwittingly double tap a button when trying to dispatch an enemy.

The melée weapons are where Condemned II comes into its own. As in the first title, there is a broad range of often-comical objects with which to cosh your hapless foes in the face. We’re not talking Dead Rising-style comical; we’re talking sadistically comical. The sound effects and sense of impact have been somewhat watered down, making combat marginally less satisfying, but fun. The ability to throw weapons is a good new feature.

There is a much heavier emphasis on firearms in Condemned II. Whilst some will see this as a detraction from what makes the original fun, it represents a significant evolution of the series. However, you’re never given enough ammo to see you through to a section where you really need them. Still, the new focus adds a satisfying dynamic to the overall experience.

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