From getting jumpscared in my blacked-out room playing Slender: The Eight Pages to trekking through the ruined paradise of Rapture inBioshock, horror has always had a special place in my game library. Yet, one title in particular has truly gripped my attention and keeps me coming back over the years. That game is Condemned: Criminal Origins.
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Looking back on it, the game’s general themes are nothing new, but again as time has proven, it’s notwhatthe material is, buthowit’s executed, and Criminal Origins proves more than just it’s initial premise. Casting you in the role of an FBI agent in pursuit of a serial killer into a violent metropolis, Condemned starts off with a crime scene investigation, but things quickly get out of hand when, in hot pursuit of the killer behind the crime we’re investigating, our gun is stolen by a different felon, and we’re forced to fend for ourselves.
This is where Condemned truly shines in all its gritty glory. In horror games, firearms are mostly a godsend, giving us a shot of relief and increasing our chances of survival. While Condemned has a few firearms to aid you, the vast majority of the time you’re getting down and dirty in melee combat, and the weapons reflect the gritty atmosphere you are about to dive into.
During fights, you’d be ripping whatever appliance is nearest to you from the wall and defend yourself with it - gas pipes, power conduit, concrete-coated rebars, you name it! The weapons fall into firearms and melee weapons, with the latter split into two categories: debris and environmental weapons. Debris weapons are the aforementioned ones you pull from the walls, while environment weapons are those that can be used to reach access points. For example, the crowbar can open gun safes, the axe can be used to hack through doors, and the sledgehammer can smash through locks.
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Adding to this sense of scrambling desperation is how the enemies too can rip out weapons from walls, making fights chaotic in a believable kind of way. Aiding you in combat is a non-lethal tazer, which allows you to temporarily stun and disarm your foes. While you’d think disarming the various felons and homeless maniacs would make them less dangerous, your naivety is rewarded by them lunging at you, and tangling you in a grab attack.
Every encounter in Condemned is a test of will and body as the city around you degenerates into violent madness. Not only are the homeless becoming increasingly violent, but also vagrants, looters and even more crazed individuals invade the city as the police scramble to control the situation. Enemies will not only fight you, but also each other. By guiding two enemies together, one of them might accidentally hit the other, triggering a fight between them. This can be done with multiple enemies, giving you the option to sit back and watching or participating in the confusion, raking in some easy takedowns of your own.
The atmosphere and environmental messiness is beautiful. All around you is debris: from empty bottles, scattered pipes and crumbling walls. The electricity in some of the buildings still runs, casting flickering as you continue your gauntlet run through the frozen alleys below.
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Within the various offices and rooms, you find gun safes, and this not only rewards exploration, but also drops subtle hints to how serious a situation security for the buildings were before they were abandoned. Why are literal firearms in something like an office? Sometimes, when you open a filing cabinet, you may find a revolver or a pistol, which can be speculated that the employees kept these at hand for protection, or they were placed there as storage by the new ‘tenants’ here.
The graphics may appear outdated these days, but the uncanniness of those murky visuals actually works in Condemned’s favor. They harken back to the games I played as a kid on my Gamecube, except it takes that nostalgic feeling and distorts it into this filthy nightmare.
Not only are your eyes dirtied, but you can alsohearthe damp, rotting ambiance. The hum-buzz of the flickering lights plays overhead as an overbearing, ominous soundtrack buries itself in your ears, constantly reminding you’re never safe. Diving deeper past the metro system and into the sewers, new enemy types appear - thin, sallow figures with a pale complexion. Having escaped the chaos above, these sickly individuals found themselves in the sewer and regressed into a feral state. They have taken to using cardboard as bedding, and you can even uncover some of them to find firearms underneath on rare occasions.
All of this amounts to an oppressive and ever-tense experience that no game has replicated since. Condemned is urban horror done right, making you feel vicious, scared, and a little bit unsanitary.
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