This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
This is one of the few 'nostalgic journeys' into the early launch titles of the Xbox 360, the unknown gem known as Comdemned: Criminal Origins. I hadn't been very full into the Condemned lore but I found initial interest in the concept behind Criminal Origins fundamentally for it's unique combat style and gritty urban sprawls, especially of the subway scenes. I finally managed to get a copy and dig into the world for Condemned, and overall got a satisfactory, if not so scary platter of atmospher and potato-shaped characters. Don't get me wrong that Criminal Origins tries it's damndest to add some scary imagery, what with the vision streaking and the whole conspiracy with the unusual death of crows corellated to gang violence, but the poor 2006 graphics usually throws you away from the experience of being scared. Although I do admit there was some parts where I jumped, but all of those were inherent jump scare moments meant to make you jump rather put you in perpetual fear for your own life. As I said with combat, all of the melee weapons have drawbacks and advantages as well as uses for advancing in the game, although for only a select few weapons, so don't expect to use a mannequin hand for any interesting segments. Guns are present but to keep balance you only have the ammo in the gun's clip which won't always be a full clip, but you get a taser that can also help you time your melee and/or gun shots and a 'judo kick' to keep those nasty vagrants back. As for the story, while it does keep the tension and tries to piece all of the other subplots togeter, they soon far apart as the mysterious Vanhorn becomes a antagonist out of the blue with some weird 'visage' that only shows up in the very end of the game and doesn't have any connection to the events beforehand. Although like with Far Cry 3 where Vaas was superior a villain than his upper man Hoyt, Criminal Origin's 'Serial Killer X' is indefinitely more interesting and better at pulling at the strings of the protagonist than this 'visage' that apparently is controlling him and the protagonist. The protagonist, while sometimes being deadpan and straight faced, can actually emote even for the shoddy graphics while adding subtleties to him being a part of the string of crimes going around. The enemies you'll face also have interesting attacks, being able to recoil swings from being hit and also able to perform fakies to break your defense, although none of the vagrants aren't any good with shooting, which probably helps considering how quickly they can kill you. Although the gameplay is innovative, the game itself isn't all to hard to accomplish as the ol' one-two with the taser and a fire axe or equally high-damage weapon will dispose of most enemies, even the bulkier and hardier ones in later parts of the game. Also the prevalence of health kits also doesn't help with the necessity to survive, with a somewhat shoddy sprint meter and sprint, often moving awkwardly at a speed walk rate rather than actually 'running'. A lot of the launch title gimmicks of the game are still prevalent, what with the unecessary collectibles around the various areas, and the almost spoon-fed achievements you can get in this game overall, as well as the really shoddy invisible walls of small pieces of furniture that otherwise shouldn't stop you from getting around them. Fortunately the final boss battle isnt a QTE **** although it is hard since the enemy can pull a bunch of samurai-esque moves and when you hurt him to the point to press the prompt you can **** up the prompt if you accidentally hit him, making you have to hurt him BACK to the point to bring back the prompt, resulting in many unecessary deaths. While this game is blocky, rigid, and a little bit boring, there is a lot of promise made in result of the combat mechanics and the well-designed environments as well as the smart AI.… Expand
Condemned: Criminal OriginsYour Score0 out of 10User Score
