Comdemned: Criminal Origins

I've historically been the type of person who plays games as they come out, not often going back to games that I "missed". There's always something new and I've played literally thousands of games over the years, but especially in the "golden age" of games some might say - the late 90s and early 2000s, I missed a lot of stuff. I don't really recall what I was up to, I'd have to go back and check what games specifically I might have been playing, but definitely a lot of "classics" passed me by.

Condemned fits well into this category, having come out in 2005; not the most revered game in history by any stretch but I think most people who experienced it when it first came out have some nostalgia for it and hold it in generally high regard. For me, it was one I skipped over simply for that I've never been an XBox guy myself. I played some Halo at a friend's house and that was about it, really. This year I've decided I want to remedy some of these big misses and I've started with Condemned.

A few janky controls definitely slowed the game down, literally - you get a run button but not only do you have a stamina bar, you also simply cannot run at all on any non-flat surface; a bit of rubble on the ground and you're slowly pacing forward like you've got nowhere to be.

Speaking of janky, ragdoll physics! One really solid way to break immersion in a horror game is when you hit a guy with a lead pipe and he flies away spinning. Half horror, half comedy. Even the final boss ragdolls after you complete a cinematic "finisher" move, causing him to fall to his final resting place in a pretty unceremonious manner. That said I don't hate any of this by any stretch - it's got that early 2000's charm to it.

Having played a ton of F.E.A.R., I could sense the DNA from this that would eventually culminate in that most excellent FPS horror gem. It didn't overstay its welcome, though another chapter or two and it may well have done. 10 chapters, I beat it in around 6 hours. Not too long at all, but there wasn't too much beating around the bush. The weird karate dudes near the end were a bit out of left field, and as I understand it there's much more fleshing out (hah) of the apparent cult in the sequel. You don't even hear about cult involvement until the very end of the game through some expositional explanation by a side character, which made it feel a bit like they ran out of time.

It was enjoyable, though - I had a good time with it, enough so that I felt it warranted writing about it a bit anyway. I do love me a good horror game and while it wasn't very scary at all (F.E.A.R. did the scary bits far better), it definitely had a good grungy atmosphere, it made me want to know more about the world and how it got the way it is.