Horror And Atmosphere: Condemned: Criminal Origins

One of my favourite horror games of all time has to be Condemned: Criminal Origins. After playing and completing the excellent Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs recently, I realised that I've missed solid horror games and reinstalled it.

Condemned nails (more accurately than the sequel, in my opinion) exactly what is unnerving about really good psychological horror: characters we can identify with, a setting that is plausible yet disturbing and the ability to turn the mundane into something terrifying.

Have you ever been walking the streets of a major city and seen or been approached by someone who clearly isn't "all there" mentally? I have met several people like this just wandering the streets, and often it's a frightening experience that makes one feel rather insecure.

To give but a few examples: I've seen a dishevelled bearded guy just walking around staring at people in the street and lunging about alarmingly. I've been approached by a woman convinced she was "shouted at and assaulted" (though after crying about it she simply walked into an off-license and bought a load of alcohol) and I've even been asked "Do you love Jesus?" by a stranger who reached into his waistcoat while awaiting my response.

The last guy in particular made me genuinely worried that I was about to get stabbed or otherwise attacked, and at the time I remember getting ready to give him a good punching if the hand came out of the coat with anything dangerous. Thank God he walked past after I answered (telling him that I "guessed I did").

Well, Condemned essentially takes these sorts of real-life unnerving experiences and dials them up to 11. Needless to say, such a method of generating horror is very effective.

You play an FBI investigator in the fictional "Metro City", a US city apparently suffering from severe urban decay.

Almost all of the game takes place inside run-down and/or abandoned buildings, which is fitting since you are hunting a serial killer who murders people in such isolated areas. However, as the game progresses, you start to get the sense that the murders you're following are almost irrelevant in the grand scheme of things - the city itself seems to be devolving into a cesspool of mindless violence and chaos all around you.

You are attacked frequently by homeless people and assorted dishevelled thugs who appear to be drugged up or otherwise rendered utterly insane. They spit at you, scream obscenities, stagger around hurling chairs and shelves at you and even try to headbutt and bite you in a frenzy if disarmed.

What makes this really disturbing is that aside from subtle environmental hints, this maelstrom of insanity is never truly explained, and other characters only mention it in passing. That the entire area seems to be filled with violent lunatics and your colleagues neither understand nor attempt to address why suggests that society has practically undergone some kind of complete breakdown without anyone even noticing.

Then you get to thinking...people like this really exist. Psychotic people with nowhere to live, nowhere to turn. Could elements of society one day be overwhelmed by these kinds of people in dense residential areas? How many lurk in the shadows without our knowledge?

For all the screaming madmen (and women) in the game, Condemned has smart layers of creepiness that hint further at this decline into lawlessness. One level, set in an otherwise fairly well-maintained subway station at night, has an official notice in one of the corridors.

"Always travel safely", it advises, "If a train stops anywhere other than a platform, do not leave unless a uniformed Metro Police officer is present. Criminal trespass incidents have been reported, and individuals within tunnels may prove a significant threat to your wellbeing. Authorities are working on resolving this on-going issue."

I honestly hope they make a Condemned 3. Condemned 2 unfortunately increased the violence and went far too supernatural, turning the protagonist into a thug no better than the maniacs around him while also ruining the mysteries of the original.

So if a sequel ever comes around, I hope the developers take a good look at what makes the original so horrifying (an ambiguous but very real threat, the natural terror of serious mental illness, breakdown of social order in a "civilised" area) and cut the silly sci-fi present in the sequel out.

RTS Games: Atmosphere

So I've rehooked myself on the strategy game Dawn of War II lately, and am enjoying it a lot when I get time to grab a match.

Relic Games seem to have a great knack for making very immersive, exciting strategy games. In the days of old, playing Command and Conquer, real time strategy games were fun, but not really all that visceral.

That changed with Dawn of War, an RTS from Relic based on the Warhammer 40k world. I've never been a tabletop gamer myself (and in fact, the game was my introduction to the whole W40k thing), but Relic managed to bring the subject matter to intense life.

In DoW, your units were no longer generic pixellated tanks that just muttered "K." when you clicked a button.

Space Marines screamed "For the Emperor!" as they ploughed knife-first into crowds of Chaos Cultists. The Imperial Guard Assassin droned "One shot...is all I need..." in hushed monotone as he slaughtered enemies from afar.

Chaos, by contrast, had you leading an army of reckless psychotics. Chaos Marines burst out laughing at random intervals, muttered "Yeeeeessss!" and started twitching even when just standing around.

The Chaos tank driver was my personal favourite. His gravelly yell of "After a thousand battles, one only sees DEATH!" was a pleasure to behold.

The arrogant Eldar gloated smugly as they vapourised thuggish Orks, and Orks provided a really great comedic boost.

Firing a machinegun isn't all that funny, but a big, stupid muscly green thing firing a poorly made machinegun and shouting "Don't touch da teef! I want da teef!" tends to raise a smile.

One huge leap forward was that units could enter melee, and would actually fight each other in hand to hand combat rather than just stand there as in  many other previous strategy games. 

Then there was Company of Heroes after DoW, a WWII RTS game that balanced humour with grim violence delicately and respectfully. CoH added situational dialogue and music along with sound effects that raised the bar for RTS immersion.

Music at the start of the game would be quiet with an ominous tinge as you began to mobilise your troops. Soldiers would chat casually as you moved them around the map.

Then you'd run into an enemy MG42 team hiding in a house, and suddenly the music became a frenzied orchestra. The guns roar, bullets whizz and thud and your men hurl profanities as they lie down in a ditch. You move back to base to send out more guys, and can hear the first squad screaming for help through the radio. Intense to say the least.

Dawn of War II takes the best intense bits of CoH and the great factions of DoW, and splices them together to create a game that is grin-inducing fun even when you're getting completely hammered - a quality that is as rare in games as it is welcome.