Condemned: Criminal Origins was a perfect horror experience because of its simplicity. Condemned 2 WAY over-complicates the story and to a lesser extent the combat, making for a very uneven experience.
However, it must be said this game contains some fantastic levels and is, for the first half at least, as relentlessly scary as the first game. Though this has MANY problems I'd highly recommend it to anyone whose a fan of the first game. Monolith Productions definitely put a lot of passion into this game.
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Condemned 2 is a strange beast; mechanically superior in almost every way to its predecessor, and whilst they both have disappointing final sections,the plot of the second entry goes so far downhill that it doesn't bear thinking about. Condemned 1's final level was disappointing because it was a slugfest devoid of suspense, Condemned 2's ending is simply ridiculous, containing such an awful final 3 levels which betray everything that the first few levels of the game had done so well that you can almost write it off.
Almost
And yet, as you watch the final cutscene, you might have a flashback to how terrified you were as you ran away from junkies on the commuter tracks, or escaped that fucking bear in the Black Lake Lodge, how hard you thought about the wonderfully designed forensic puzzles in the hotel level, how visceral the combat was in the City Museum. We can't let disappointing endings continue to ruin games for us, and Condemned 2 is in a league of its own in many ways, and it's a sad thing that the ending is the main aspect that a player remembers.
To give a sensible mechanical overview: COndemned 2 is primarily a first person melee combat game with survival and psychological horror elements. The combat is well fleshed out, as you can block, dodge, and perform combos. It also rewards exploration, with a sensible number of mini objectives each level which require the player to occasionally go off the beaten track. There areoccasional forensic quizzes which the player is then rated on their response. These objectives all come together to give the player a rating at the end of the level. You get combat rewards based on how well you do (more health, new combos etc) so there is genuine incentive beyond just being a completionist. What's more, it doesn't seem unreasonable to be able to get a gold rating on just a single playthrough of any level.
Most importantly, this gameplay is fluid when it works well; you are rarely overloaded with enemies and much of the game feels like it has been designed with melee combat in mind. Arguably Black Lake Lodge is the one level which feels more specifically designed for firearms but I feel that it carries that aspect off rather well. Part of the reason why the game takes such a nosedive in its later levels is because either firearms are overused, or that the melee combat becomes less tactical, as you come to fight strange supernatural creatures in large swathes that go down in a couple hits each. This means that it does not reward you as much for careful mastery of the combos or blocking, so I ended up just mindlessly mashing the two attack buttons until everything stopped moving.
The plot is the most egregious example of how the game collapses on itself in the later stages. To be fair, the plot isn't great in the first place, but at least it continues the terrifying serial killer narrative of the original. Everything felt real enough that the sense of worry even began to creep outside the game, the mark of a truly well done survival horror. The plot gets worse as the game gets more and more unhinged, meaning that in the final level you spend an awful lot of time performing supernatural shouts to shatter the faces of weird cyborgs that hurt you if you get too close, and it all culminates in a shouting match on top of a weird tower surrounded by surveillance monitors. If you juxtapose that with the earlier stages, revolving around escaping of riots and discovering murders in hotel rooms, you can't help but wonder how you got here.
In almost all ways, COndemned 2 lets itself go in the last few levels (starting with the fucking ridiculous level in Magicman's hideout which needs to be seen to be believed), but I would still recommend it to survival horror fans, or those who like experimentation within the first person format (fans of Zeno Clash or Thief might want to check it out). It's mechanically sound and feels genuinely fresh, even some nine years on. Play the first one first, then move onto this. Prepare to be wowed, then swiftly disappointed. A real shame, that.
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I remember playing them demo for this before it came out and enjoyed it. Most of the game is beating up psychopaths and then solving crimes with your forensic equipment which I actually found kind of cool. The game has a really good atmosphere and I like the variety of levels in this. But at the same time, the game isn't highly memorable outside of a few moments. The enemy design is generic for the most part, your character is boring, and I couldn't be damned with the story. Oh yeah and the game is pretty damn short too, but the gameplay and level design is solid enough and the bear chase is probably one of the most tense and scariest gaming moments. Its really not that bad of a game to be honest.
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First playthrough of this was insane going off expectations from the first. Might be one of the most beautiful tonal nightmares I've ever played. DRAGONBALL Z HADOUKEN BLAST
Good gameplay and some very cool set pieces but the story sucks, the dialogue is even worse and the over-explanation of everything ruins the mystique of the 1st game.