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.

Iniital Impressions: Crackdown 2

Being a new owner of an Xbox 360, I didn't play the original Crackdown much. I had the odd blast round a friend's place and found it fun.

Hence when I got the chance to get the sequel for a good price, I leapt at it.

Crackdown 2 sounds great on paper. You're a law enforcement "Agent" in the near-future, set to restore order to a chaotic city by any means possible.

Unfortunately, after a few hours of playing I'm rather underwhelmed by the story of the game. Crackdown 1 wasn't exactly a novel, but it seemed to have various gangs and factions as well as tasks such as assassinations that you had to carry out.

The sequel ditches that, and instead has two enemy factions: "Cell", a terrorist group who has sufficient power to actually control areas of the city completely and the "Freaks", weird lab abominations that devastate the city at night.

Now, as someone who enjoyed Prototype, this is starting to sound familiar - zombies and an enemy human faction (with Cell replacing Prototype's military enemies).

In addition to that there are also the Peacekeepers, your cop allies.

Unfortunately, this potentially interesting setup is destroyed by a clunky intro. Not only do we get next to no information of who Cell are or how the group works, but the whole concept of "Freaks" seems pretty ridiculous. Are we honestly meant to believe that a serious, professional leader of a law enforcement agency would dub ravenous monsters "freaks" as their official name? It's kinda laughable.

In addition, the monsters just aren't fun to fight. Unlike Prototype, where you could rip zombies to pieces with your own biological talons, Crackdown just lets you shoot them or beat on them a bit. It's more fun just to avoid them entirely and plough through in a car.

Cell baddies are fun to fight, however the lack of background info on them makes it seem a little pointless. The concept of a group of psychotic nutters banding together to take over a city is intriguing, but they're played in a totally one dimensional manner. The game only gives them the bare minimum of depth.

They will scream anarchist remarks ("You're going to get some of your own medicine, pig!") at you and cry out for help when shot ("I'm hit, arrrgh my leg!" brought a grin to my face as I kneecapped one with my rifle).

That brings me onto another thing - the locking system is a pain in the arse. Skirmishes are often frantic, with Cell guys hiding behind cover and their reinforcements roaring in with vehicles that look like they're straight out of Mad Max.

This gives a great atmosphere, but the target locking system can quickly make it frustrating. Sometimes you'll want to shoot a guy in the legs to stop him getting to a hiding spot, or hit his arm so that he can't fire back. Instead you'll randomly not be able to switch aim and you'll spend precious seconds being shot.

Other times I've been shooting away at a terrorist, tried to lock another and instead end up locking something totally random, like a civillian car driving the other end of the street. This is again, very frustrating.

However, I must say I'm enjoying the game overall. The sense of freedom is immense and there are simple pleasures to be had. Speeding in a police car, sirens blazing, slamming into a bunch of baddies and then leaping out of the still-moving vehicle to pump the rest full of lead is very satisfying.

I look forward to getting my special abilities up and then making a more thorough (and most likely more positive) assessment of the game.