2 Nights of Condemnation

[cube_b3]

This is my hands on impressions:


Disclaimer [/u]



The thing is I am just not an FPS person, the only games I remember finishing our Doom (only the Dos based ones) and Duke Nukem 3D other than that I have a good experience with Unreal Tournament on the Dreamcast, I’ve spent hundreds of hours on it. Other than that I don’t remember finishing any other FPS game (for example I’ve spent several hours (spread out over weeks or months even) on Blood but I don’t remember the ending leading me to believe I didn’t finish it).

 Prologue[/u]
I bought this game last summer and I am not a fan of first person shooters, but I am sure some could relate with me that when we are in a video game store there is a irrational voice inside our heads which keeps echoing “MUST GIVE SEGA MONEY, MUST GIVE SEGA MONEY”, I have learned to silence it now and only buy Sega games that I would genuinely want to play or are developed in-house (I can’t seem to silence those voices when it comes to in-house games).

Unfortunately last summer the voice got the better of me and I bought a used disk on condemned and long story short the voice didn’t stop, I eventually returned that copy, went to a Best Buy in Dallas Texas (I originally bought the game from Plano) and bought both games Brand Spanking New.


I didn’t need to fear buying a game from a genre I barely engage in since the games was suppose to be an ultimate launch title for the 360 and I had read a few favorable previews and the overall ranking at Gamespot was solid as well. I also found out on my wiki adventures that this game is created by Monolith and on their wiki page I found they made a game called BLOOD, I can tell you that I really enjoyed Blood, I don’t remember the plot or anything of that game but the game had a lot of personality and it was fun.

A month later after returning home from my summer holidays, I popped Condemned in and well the main character looked dated (graphically but the environments were super), and I later realized the main guy isn’t poorly animated he’s just an unattractive man. So in my first play through (on my game testing offline xbox profile), I managed to get all the way till the end of Chapter 2 when I decided to stop playing and maintained a safe distance from that game for a whole year.

 Hands On: One year later[/u]
I’ve spent my summer dedicated to finishing Max Payne duet before I buy Alan Wake, now that I am done with that mission I give you:
2 Nights of Condemnation


Graphics:
I start replaying condemned with the intent of finishing both games before my summer holidays end (which means 12 days), I started a New Game, and as soon as it started I realized the graphics are fabulous very well detailed but extremely dark impossible to navigate without a flash light (I realized my brightness settings needed to be adjusted and that helped a bit).  


Sound:
The voice acting seems solid and the music and sound effects are very atmospheric and blend in very well with the direction the game is going in.

Gameplay:
In the 1st chapter you get to learn the game mechanics and after the whole in game story bit ended and I cocked my gun I thought the game play would change to a contemporary FPS one, instead I realized that the game is perhaps as good as gameplay (maybe not as good) as the Doom games I was so fond off, you can only run around and that is about it.

There are some things in the game that Doom didn’t have such as a Taser to stun enemies, a mighty boot (similar to Duke), and exciting combat which involves objects from the environment or you can even flip your guy and knock the person out with the back of a gun and if you beat them just to an inch of their life you are given an option to perform fatalities (Twist Neck, Smash, Punch or Head Butt) by pressing any one of the corresponding directional button.

You also have a wide range of forensic tools such as UV light, Digital Camera and much more technical stuff as well but the game automatically selects the right one at the right time and holds your hand throughout the investigation, so it isn’t like you’re playing Ace Attorney and examining your environments.
You can’t jump, duck, or play with the environments (Turn the light switch on, open a water tap etc), YOU CAN’T EVEN CARRY MORE THEN 1 WEAPON!!!!, While the main character can interact with the environment (open a closet, move an obstructing object), jump, climp and duck it is only when the game commands you to do it at a certain point in the game (if hints are turned on) you are allowed to move objects if you press A and this is a suffocating feeling, I want to jump to certain places so bad, and it is like a small 12 inch object blocking your way :S.

Environments:
The game also doesn’t offer you the opportunity to look at a map and that is EXTREMELY frustrating, I ended up missing a few areas and ran in circles, very often because the entire portion I played was very dark and surprisingly chapter 1 was set in the day, it is fun to see how creatively they managed to throw so much darkness at day time by setting the chapter in a broken down building with almost no electricity, while you travel the dark halls you come across windows and sun rays can illuminate corners of a room, and you look outside the windows and see day light it felt nice and looked beautiful,  I thought to myself RE5 could’ve taken a few notes from this game but by the end of the 2 nights and 2 chapters I had enough of the dark.

Another thing that bothered me in my 1st play though and this one, is I can’t seem to find all 6 dead birts and 3 metal pieces and it drives me crazy cause I spent a hell of a lot of time dedicated to just inspecting areas for those things.
Conclusion

In conclusion I am very scared tha this game will probably ruin my overall Xbox game score which has been close to perfect in almost any game i've played courtosey of those damn birds and metal pieces, the suffocatingly limited game play options and the absence of a map leave me extremly frustrated and instead of playing Chapter 3 today, I decided to spent the time writing, and editing this hands on impression.

The biggest question is how you forget a fucking map, I mean I am comparing this game to games that are decades old and they still fare better than this.
Hopefully Chapter 3 will be more fun, I’ve also not been immersed into the story yet, so I am enjoying the game even less.

What baffles me the most is that Monolith made Blood, a game I thoroughly enjoyed, not for its dated visuals but the wonderful gameplay, assortment of weaspons, interaction with the environment etc and they seem to have forgotten all that for this game.

More Frustrated than Scared.

[Happy Cat]

I remember playing Condemned.

scared myself so badly and refused to play the 2nd game lol

[Sega Uranus]

Condemned is a different style of an FPS than something like Duke Nukem 3D. You are used to more action oriented style ones, so something with more platforming and exploring like Half-Life or Halo is going to feel very unusual to you. It is like, if you grew up playing Sonic, Metroid would feel very strange to you, even though it is part of the same genre.

Condemned is designed to be more scary than about the action. The fact your attacks are limited pushes the player into trying to look at combat in the game differently instead of just running into the fight with a machinegun.

[cube_b3]

I've spent several hours on Half-Life on Dreamcast and I wasn't a master or anything but enjoyed my time with it, and I clearly recall platforming in Duke Nukem, you could jump to far off places and their were several extended moments of exploration in Duke Nukem trying to find those damn Key Cards.

I enjoy the action in condemned, once I see the enemy I enjoy sparring with them blocking their attack and countering it is fun. It is the exploration bits that suck, your not allowed to explore or interact with anything just keep moving forward, the game is very rigid.

[Sega Uranus]

That is common with most FPSs as far as I know, stuff like DOOM and Duke had a lot of exploration to them, but the action was the main draw.

[crackdude]

They were mixed. There was both exploration and action. Thing is that looking back, the exploration is so linear it's considered poor these days.
FPS concentrated on action are Quake 3 and UT in my mind..

[cube_b3]

They were mixed. There was both exploration and action. Thing is that looking back, the exploration is so linear it's considered poor these days.
FPS concentrated on action are Quake 3 and UT in my mind..

I played Duke rescently and while the levels are not massively huge the exploration is fun, finding that rocket launcher in the starting of the stage and going into those secret houses (aprtments, condo whatever), classic.

[cube_b3]

The 3rd Night and the 3rd Chapter

I started the night very reluctantly, the previous 2 nights had left me very unmotivated to play and I had 2 choices, either do my job or play a boring game, i decided to play the boring game.

I started by playing Chapter 2 again cause I thought I had missed an easy acheivement, 30 minuites later I realised that locked door didn't have an acheivement behind it so it was a waste but I cleared chapter 2 75% faster than last time cause I gave up on exploring and excepted the linear and unexplorable design.

I really appreciated the level design this time around cause I saw all those locked doors, are accessed as the game takes you in circles and by the end of it your back where you started, only you see the killer running to a previously locked door and when you run after him...

Chapter 3 starts, Chapter 3 was also in a subway but the entrance or something along those lines, since I have given up hope on every finding all 6 birds and 3 metal pieces, I ran through the chapter quite quickly... in the end I got the same amount of metal pieces and birds I normally do, so all the exploration only wasted my time.

This level was also very high in combat, and the meelee parrying style fighting is a lot of fun, although you only have 2 attacks and a taser so it probably is going to get boring soon but so far it hasn't and I really had a blast with it this time around.

The chapter ended very similar to a chapter of Monolith's previous game BLOOD, on a train only this time the protagonist was in the rear end of it rather than the front end.

While playing the game I was also comparing it to
[youtube:3ie099id]yuSPeFzNrO4[/youtube:3ie099id]

If you have been living under a rock and don't recognize the clips, these are late tech demoes from the late 90s made by ANCIENT & OVERWORKS illustration their vision of Streets Of Rage 4.

But Condemned is clealry inferior to those early tech concepts cause you can perform a combo in the video.

[MadeManG74]

I think the Deparment store is next, which is my favourite level.

[cube_b3]

Nope, I'm still suck in the fucking subway this is the third consecutive chapter in the same setting... first it was enter the subway, then it was enter the rail and finally I am running around  a dark rail way track.

I am also encountering problem with the save system, I always have to load a file I can never continue cause it takes me to a checkpoint back in chapter 1. Why can't you save anywhere you want, even if you save in game it always restarts at the checkpoint and that is also dissapointing in Doom, Duke and Blood I could save anywhere any time.

[cube_b3]

I think the Deparment store is next, which is my favourite level.

I finished the 3 long subway chapters, the last one was just awful not because of the game, more because of the games saving system it is pretty fucked up.

Whenever I continue the game it still takes me to the 1st check point in Chapter 1.

I had to save on all the slots to get it to load the right file, it was very inconvenient and I lost my progress 3 times, and in the end I finished the chapter with 0/3 metal pieces and only 3/6 dead birds, in my 2nd last try I had found nearly all the birds.

Now I am finally in the Store, when you said store I was pretty excited and was picturing something out of Dead Rising unfortunately for me it is another run down shit hole, matching the overall asthetic template.

Atleast I am out of the fucking Subway, those got to repetitive, and confusing.

I just want this game to end, as soon as possible. I am pretty sure I won't play this again, and will allow it to ruin my overall game scores.

[MadeManG74]

Now I am finally in the Store, when you said store I was pretty excited and was picturing something out of Dead Rising unfortunately for me it is another run down shit hole, matching the overall asthetic template.

Sorry to get your hopes up, but I'm surprised you were expecting Dead Rising. The game is called 'Condemned' for a reason man, partly because all the environments you are in are buildings that are just about condemned for demolition. It's very very dark and everywhere is a 'run down shit hole'.

I guess it's just not for you, but I personally loved the ultra-bleak and depressing atmosphere.

[Berto]

SEGA Talk #121: Condemned: Criminal Origins (2005)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfXyGmue6dQ

SEGA Talk takes a trip to Metro City, in this gritty, serial killer chasing video game Condemned: Criminal Origins, developed by Monolith Software.
We take a look at the early titles of the studio, the failed Matrix Online and the plans for a ‘Star Wars’ multimedia franchise that never came to be!
iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download : ...

Article : https://segabits.com/blog/2023/06/26/sega-talk-121-condemned-criminal-origins-2005/

[jendy]

It is essential to recognize that coding experts come from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets. There is no paper io singular "master race" of code experts. Instead, the coding community thrives on the exchange of knowledge, open-source contributions, and mentorship.