Posted:2006-04-27 By game review Number of View:6312
CONDEMNED CRIMINAL ORIGINS
REVIEW
By :game review
Posted:2006-04-27
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Condemned Criminal Origins review
Condemned Criminal Origins is an acquired taste. However you won't know that until halfway
through the game. By that point you'll either be in the for the long haul,
determined to see how the story unfolds or ready to turn it off and check out
MySpace. Monolith did an admirable job porting their X360 launch title to the PC
and nothing is missing in the translation. The control mechanics have been
replaced with keyboard/mouse input, but since the original game featured a
healthy targetting radius, you won't find the speed of the mouse nor its
accuracy provides any real advantage over the X360 version.
What scares you? Things that
go bump in the night? Confined spaces? Dead bodies? A pipe wielding disgruntled
department store mannequin with a score to settle? Correction. Make that
extremely disgruntled. I guess standing in one spot for extended periods of time
without moving can really drive you insane. Whatever your particular psychosis,
Condemned Criminal Origins will do its best to exploit it and turn you into a
quivering pile of man-blubber in the privacy of your home...all in the name of
entertainment courtesy of developers Monolith.
You could say Agent Ethan
Thomas is having a really bad day. Up until the events that kick off CCO, Thomas
had been a topnotch FBA investigator on the Serial Crimes Unit with a flawless
record of solved cases under his belt. When two police officers are murdered
during an investigation of yet another serial murder and the murder weapon just
happens to be Thomas' gun, things go from good to bad to really bad to worse for
our mysterious protagonist. He has to clear his name while tracking down the
Match Maker, a serial killer who just happens to be making quite the name for
himself. That's a feat in itself considering there is a lot of killing going on
around town. Even the killers are being killed. CCO's story unfolds with as
little interruption from cutscenes as possible and manages to keep you
interested from start to finish.
Armed only with his forensic
tools to investigate crime scenes, his trusty taser gun and his unflappable
partner Rosa whom runs analysis on all of the evidence he unearths, Thomas
literally has to rely on whatever is lying around to take down the numerous drug
addicts and other beings inhabiting this nightmarish landscape of despair. That
doesn't mean Thomas is defenseless; quite the contrary. For the first time in a
survival horror game, I think ever, no one leaves ammo lying around which means
when you're out of ammo, you're OUT of ammo. Surely some players will hate that
mechanic but I think it's absolutely brilliant as it creates real tension. And
you'll know your gun is empty as Thomas will automatically flip it around to use
the butt of the gun as a melee weapon. But it gets better. Every melee weapon in
the game has a limited lifespan and will eventually become useless against even
the weakest foes. This forces you to use literally whatever you can get your
hands on at the moment. Throughout the game you'll use 2 x 4's, metal conduits,
desk drawers, shovels, signs, axes, sledgehammers, crowbars, mannequin arms,
paper cutters, coat racks, rebar and of course a selection of handguns and
rifles. For the first half of the game I completely forgot that Thomas had a
taser gun which slowly recharges itself (that's because I'm one of those 'never
read the manual type players' and I must have ignored that info when the game
explained it). Once I used it though, I came to rely on it quite heavily as it
will slow down even the toughest foe, even killing some of the weakest. A
tasered foe will be stunned momentarily allowing you to either get close and
steal their weapon (great for firearm toting maniacs) or to apply a few bashes
to the noggin. If you come to rely on the taser you'll be pleased to know it
receives an upgrade later in the game.
Each weapon is rated in
terms of the following four categories - Damage, Speed, Block, Reach - and
you'll have to decide if it's going to cut the mustard for the challenges that
lie ahead. Some weapons deliver great damage to your foes, but provide little
protection in the way of blocking. Some are fast and weak, some are slow and
strong and some are just right. Certain weapons such as the fire axe,
sledgehammer, crowbar and shovel are required for busting or prying open doors
or locked cabinets that you'll need to pass to continue on your merry way, but
you can still use them upside the head of someone crazy enough to get into your
face. And let me remind you that they will do that.... I don't know if it's just
me but I can't help but think "Here's Johnny" ala Jack Nicholson in The Shining
when I'm smashing down a door with an axe. Is that wrong?
Thomas can only carry one
weapon at time and can only drop weapons when he picks up another. Throughout
the game you may have to purposely drop a weapon in order to pick up a weapon of
another type. There is a catch though; the weapon you discard may be picked up
by an enemy and used against you. Such is life in the big city. Using the taser
or a quick kick will keep enemies at bay allowing you to take down opponents
without wasting valuable ammo or risk wrecking your melee weapon. One constant
is Thomas' flashlight which in Silent Hill fashion casts a small sphere of
light, which gives way to the fear inducing madness of the atmosphere. What lies
beyond the light in the dark areas is the big question. If your eyes can't see
it, your ears definitely will hear it, but more on the wonderful audio
momentarily.
As you're traversing these
incredibly dangerous environments, you'll often come across locations which
require more brains than braun. When you are in an area that requires
investigation a pop up screen will invite you to turn on and use a context
sensitive forensic tool. I wasn't exactly crazy about the "hand holding" that
Monolith had to do to get you to choose the right tool - which they explain as
your incredible instincts - as it seems a little forced, but looking at it
realistically there really wasn't any possible way around it. Remember dear
readers, they have to pander to the lowest common denominator when it comes to
determining the level of intelligence of their audience and like most good
developers they realize that game reviewers will be playing so they have to make
it easy, otherwise we'd never get through it. The various forensic tools aren't
difficult to use and to call their interactions mini-games is too much of a
stretch. You'll have a UV Light for locating traces of blood invisible to the
naked eye. Laser Light which shines a greenish hue onto fingerprints,
shoeprints, fibers etc. and a Gas Spectrometer which detects decaying matter.
Once you've used those tools to locate the evidence you'll have to rely on a few
more gadgets to collect evidence which Rosa will then analyze for you back at
the lab.
Monolith's cleverly designed
mazes disguised as levels are the star of the show. Throughout the games 10
chapters you will smash, bash, kick, taser and shoot your way through an
apartment building, subway station, library, dilapidated department store and a
school to name a few. The detailed environments are downright anal retentive -
how many games feature mud and tape already sanded on the drywall for goodness
sake? Everywhere you look you'll discover little touches of reality which only
seek to immerse you further in this photorealistic nightmare. The levels are
kept tight and confining to magnify the feeling of claustrophobia as you wander
narrow passage ways and navigate hundreds of dark corners in the anticipation of
something or someone already aware of your presence just waiting for you....It's
classic horror movie 'Don't go in there!!' kind of stuff, but of course you have
no choice; you have to go in there if you want to complete the
level. You'll probably rely on the tried and true, keep your back to the wall
methodology, but you'll feel positively naked when you enter a room that opens
up to both directions. The only rule is that you must play CCO in the dark with
the sound cranked. Anything less than that and you're a big baby. If you just
can't bring yourself to play it that way, check your birth certificate. Are you
sure you're old enough to be playing this M rated game?
Thomas moves around the
level at a decent click but he can sprint if he needs to. Thomas can block ,
kick, attack as well as shoot a Taser to temporarily stun enemies. Without any
ammo pickups in the game, once you're out of bullets, you're done with that
weapon. The Taser can definitely buy you some time. Use of forensic tools for
data collection are also required but take note that you can, and will be
attacked while using them, so be careful. Control is extremely pick up and play
and while many might not care for the FPS perspective in a game that relies so
heavily on melee fighting, it simply manages to put you face first into this
freaking horror show. I love it. It works like magic.
Monolith's previously
released and equally as disturbing F.E.A.R. for the PC was one of this years hottest (and scariest)
looking games. I'm frankly amazed that they were able to create two of the most
compelling gaming experiences of 2005 and have them released so close together. Visually Condemned Criminal Origins in high def is nothing short of jawdropping. I would often catch myself just reading the signage or investigating the little
details, simply because there was so much to see. Everything from the ornate
design of the train station, the decaying plaster walls with peeling paint, the
cliched kitty cat 'Hang In There Baby' office posters, the discolored ceiling
titles, taped boxes, the cardboard Santa Clauses decorating Bart's department
store, the shrinkwrapped books waiting for distribution in the library...the
environments in COO are painstakingly detailed.
The character models are all
disturbing in their own way whether they are human or not and I give Monolith
credit for creating characters who weren't digital representations of Hollywood
wannabes. Thomas is a middle-aged, heavy set FBA agent with a pugnose which is
in direct opposition to the pretty boy cops on the lam ala Max Payne / Jack
Slate (Dead To Rights). Rosa, his partner is equally homely which I thought was
absolutely wonderful. I was expecting the usual hot female partner but I was
pleasantly surprised that the hardnosed reality of the game trickled down to the
characters themselves as it's the only subject matter that keeps this bizarre
story grounded. The various thugs and creatures you'll encounter are equally as
impressive. You'll find more variety in the human thugs than some of the cookie
cutter monsters, but that doesn't make them any less startling when they appear
out of nowhere to attack you. My personal favorite was 'Lunch Lady Doris'.
CCO also uses ambient sound
effects to sustain the tension of the game at Red Alert. Those with Dolby 5.1 or at least with good speakers will get the most out of Condemned Criminal Origins 's abuse of your auditory faculties. Footsteps, screams and whispers will keep you on the edge of
your seat because aside from the demented 'Deck The Halls' in Bart's Department
store, you won't be treated to any ingame music soundtrack. Unfortunately the voice acting is
extremely hit and miss. The script isn't bad at all, but the emotionless
delivery contradicts the onscreen tension. Let me just say that in regards to
earlier Sega games like House Of The Dead and Capcom's
original Resident Evil, CCO's voice acting comes off like an Academy Award
winner, but I've definitely heard better.
Negatively speaking there
really isn't much I can complain about, although I'm sure some gamers would find
the pace a little repetitive. The game does lose some points for it's linear
nature because you know you're being lead down the garden path to the end of the
level while Thomas' "instincts" manage to take the fun out of deciding when to
use your forensic tools. I also found it odd that nobody wants to bring our poor
hero a gun. Everytime he has a clandestine meeting with some major figure in the
game, he walks away empty handed and starts the level with zippo. The glitches
in the X360 version seem to have been eradicated which is definitely a good
thing. Someone around here was whining that the game was entirely too repetitive
and consisted only of the following:
Find a weapon
Open a door
Beat up bad guys
Open another door
Repeat above to
taste
Find the end of the
level
It should be noted however
that all games can easily be stripped down to their basic elements, but it's how
the game plays out inbetween these factors which
determines the entertainment value.
CCO has all of the gameplay,
story, visuals and atmosphere that you could possibly want in a mystery game and
I think does them all to a proverbial "t". It's not the longest game you'll have
ever played the first time through (10 hours or so), but since it offers a
selection of difficulty modes, the robust roster of collectibles which unlock
movies that shed more light on just the hell is going on and rewards you for
meeting various objectives, there is a decent dose of replay value. Monolith is
definitely onto something and I can see Condemned Criminal Origins becoming a
franchise along the lines of Silent Hill featuring changing protagonists. If
you've already played CCO on the X360, there is absolutely no reason to return
again. But if you're a thrillseeker who isn't afraid of things that scream in the darkness, you just found your next
challenge.
Features:
First-person view gives
maximum visceral effect.
Next-generation lighting,
mapping, and filtering techniques provide for environments of unprecedented
detail and visual quality.
Intelligent enemies respond
strategically to your offensive and defensive maneuvers.
High-level physics allow
players to manipulate background items, which respond realistically when picked
up, kicked, or bumped.
A tightly wound story is
backed with strong character development and major plot twists.
Meticulously crafted 5.1
surround sound will cue players to the location of off-screen enemies.
Rating out of 5
Condemned Criminal Origins (PC)
4.8
Graphics Due to the higher
resolution of monitors, CCO looks just as good on a high end PC as it did on the
X360.
4.5
Control The keyboard/mouse
control works well, but doesn't provide any advantages over the X360 controller,
except for perhaps faster aiming.
4.0
Music / Sound FX / Voice
Acting Voice acting is primarily weak, but the ambient sounds
are out of this world.
3.8
Play
Value Does get repetitive but the story is engrossing so you
might be able to ignore doing the same things over and over. Collecting things
elongates play time, albeit artificially. Gltiches seem to have been fixed in
the retooling.
4.4
Overall Rating
- Great Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final
score breakdown.
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