by: Dakota Grabowski

November 22, 2005

Condemned is honestly the sleeper hit for the Xbox 360 launch. When I picked it up last week, not much was available so my choices were narrow. It’s freaky, bizarre, eccentric, horrifying and will make players trembling at times. Well maybe not trembling but it will scare you I can guarantee you that. It isn’t the typical “what’s hiding in that dark corner over there” scare either. You’ll be surrounded by all light and still find the same scares that you wouldn’t normally experience in such games as DOOM 3 that rely on cheap tricks to scare the players.

Developed by Monolith Productions and published by SEGA, Condemned is a quality haunted house ride if I must say. Monolith Productions is known for the quality 1st person games so I am not surprised that their hard work actually paid off again. Monolith has developed both No One Lives Forever shooters on the PC. Both games are critically acclaimed and earned awards all over for its excellence. After that Monolith worked on an IP off of a cult movie that was released in 1982, Tron. With Tron 2.0, it didn’t gain all the praise but it delivered an all around decent game. Their biggest FPS just recently hit stores in the form of F.E.A.R. FEAR is quite possibly the biggest sci-fi shooter since Half-Life. Critics and gamers alike are already anticipating the sequel that would finish the highly applauded storyline. Monolith isn’t perfect since it does have some imperfections on its record. Games like Contact J.A.C.K and the PS2 version of No One Lives Forever.

Outside of the FPS genre, Monolith developed an MMO this year you may have heard of. Um… Matrix Online ring any bell? Yup, Monolith has had a busy year this year and Condemned only increases their reputation. SEGA on the other hand hasn’t been delivering top quality games lately and Condemned marks a new era for them. In the pipeline for the 360 includes the delayed Full Auto (Early Spring 2006), the next installments of the House of the Dead and Virtua Fighter series, the revival of Afterburner, and a display of gigantic mechs battling each other, Chromehounds. Is that it? Nope, I can’t forget everybody’s favorite Hedgehog will accompany the 360 too hand with hand with next-gen graphics. After realizing that SEGA has their head finally back in the game and are working with the excellent developer in Monolith, I began to become pumped to play Condemned after bringing it home.



The back story for Condemned is that the main character, Ethan Thomas, is crime fighter among the FBI. Assigned to the Serial Crimes Unit, Ethan is among the bureau’s best. Ethan must do dwell into the investigations of the increasingly number of crimes that are being committed by the strange individuals that include the homeless and drug addicts. While investigating he comes upon an ex-convict that seems to behind all these crimes. While chasing him, your gun changes hands and he now is walking around with your gun. When you finally catch up to him with an encounter that almost serves lethal, your partners from the bureau try to save your skin but they both are killed. Even worse is that both of them are killed in the matter of ten seconds upon arriving with your gun. The convict escapes and now the murder’s evidence points all fingers towards Ethan. He must now find this convict while going through all these frightful experience to save his hide from the FBI Most Wanted list.

The storyline draws comparison to the recently released Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit). I found the storyline in Condemned much more riveting and dished out the thrills at a faster pace. What isn’t exciting is that Condemned is a roller coaster with no twists or turns that you can change the course of. It’s purely a linear game with not many options for the character but the weapon he holds in his hand. Nevermind that though, Condemned is worthy of the hard work you put forth to unraveling the mystery even if it is as bizarre as it is.