September 13, 2006

Man, it is dark in here

After playing nothing but Madden for two and a half weeks (with the occasional Texas Hold'em mixed in) I realized I was needing longer breaks between Madden games. Instead of playing back-to-back-to-back franchise games, I needed to play something else in between.

So I look through my games for something to play. I am still nowhere close to beating Oblivion, but Oblivion is a weird game where once I put it down, it really takes me a while to pick up again. Once I do however, I am fully hooked all over again . . . but I'm not feeling Oblivion right now.

Table Tennis? I still have plenty of characters and venues to unlock . . . but, nope, not feeling it.

Looks like I am done with all my games. Off to Best Buy.

I pick up Loco Roco for the PSP. I played the demo many, many times and I loved it. I've been eagerly anticipating this game's release. But, a portable game is not going to satisfy my fix. If it would I could just continue Syphon Filter (which I am . . . slowly. Good game). No, what I need is a 360 game. I need high definition graphics and 5.1 sound. But what to get? No recent 360 release has caught my eye. Saint's Row? Nope. Dead Rising? The demo was fun and I've heard great things . . . but I hear it is badly in need of a patch (and that it fries people's 360), so no. Prey? Yes . . . and no. Not yet.

Then I see it. Condemned: Criminal Origins. Of all the launch games that I have not played, this is the one I had the most interest in. And it is on sale too! 50% off!! SOLD!

Here are my impressions so far:

- First, I have to say, I've realized that I am a first-person shooter fanatic. I love FPS's. Ok, granted, Condemned is far from being a first-person "shooter", but I just love games played from a first-person perspective. Some find them disorienting, or boring, but I've realized that I love 'em.

- The game's opening credits are very cool. They are a blatant rip-off of the opening of Se7en, but it sets the mood for the game very well and is well produced. Very atmospheric.

- The graphics so far have been fantastic. Very dark, very gritty. Great lighting. Looks like you'll be spending all your time walking around in dark areas with your flashlight. I wonder why they even have a button to turn your flashlight on and off since it never runs out of battery (thank God) and I have yet to be in an area when I've thought, "Gee, there is more than enough light here, I can turn my flashlight off. Nope, that sucker has been on the whole time.

- Like I mentioned earlier, this is far from a first person shooter. It feels more like a first-person Silent Hill game. If you do find a fire-arm (revolver, pistol, or shotgun) the only ammo available is what is currently in the weapon. Once it runs out, it is time to find something else. This is cool, since it is unrealistic to just have ammo scattered through all these real-world locations, but I wish you would be able to take the ammo from a current weapon and transfer it to another of the same kind. For example, I came across a section where I had a shotgun with only two rounds left (max of 5 available). I found another shotgun left behind by an enemy I killed. That shotgun had three rounds left. I sure would have liked to take those three rounds out of his weapon and add them to mine (would have been realistic), but unfortunately, you can't do that. I had to just exchange weapons. Oh well.

- Speaking of weapons, this game is all about melee combat. While fire-arms are hard to come by, melee weapons are a dime a dozen. You can use many environmental objects, such a pipes, 2x4's (with rusty nails no less!), crowbars, shovels, sledgehammers, conduits, fire axes, even signs! The list goes on and on. Each weapon deals different damage, has a different speed and block rating, and a different range. Plenty of variation here.

- Combat is visceral and extremely violent. After all, bludgeoning someone to death with a pipe or slapping them across the face with a sledgehammer is not for the squeamish. Blocking an attack actually requires timing, you can't just hold down the block button, so that adds an extra layer to the combat. Enemies also show some intelligence. They don't just run at you all the time, but will sometimes actually run at you, attack, then run and hide. They'll even exchange their weapon for a better one if they find one. My biggest complaint with the combat so far is that the distance that an enemy can hit you from appears to be off. Even when you look like you are a safe distance out of range of their melee attack, they might still hit you. It makes combat feel a little less precise than I would have liked it, but once you get used to that aspect of it, you learn to adjust.

- The sound in the game is fantastic. Voice acting is good and the 5.1 audio creates a really intense and scary environment. You'll hear creaks and groans coming from all over. Excellent audio!

- One cool aspect about the game is that your character has various forensic tools he can use to gather clues. These all look great and are fun to use, except that the game practically kills this by holding your hand through the whole process. You can only use your forensic tools when the game tells you to use them and they even choose the one you need to use. So, while they are fun to use, you're not really doing any "detective" work after all. If this could have been implemented better, it would have been absolutely fantastic.

- This game is scary!!! Like I said, it is a very dark game (bother literally and figuratively). Mix in the gritty graphics with the previously mentioned audio, and this game will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time.

So far I'm probably halfway through the game. Much like Kameo (another launch game I played recently for the first time) I am really enjoying it. This was another game (again, like Kameo) that was criticized for being too short. Since I am mixing my play time with Condemned, Madden, and some Loco Roco, I think the length of the game is going to fine by me. I've mentioned a few times how I don't have as much time to play before like I used to, so these 10 hour games can last me a week or two (when before I used to be done with them in two days).

I hope to give final impressions when I am done with the game . . . but I've said that about lots of games and never followed through, so, we'll see. =)

So far, I recommend anyone with a 360 and who likes scary games ala Silent Hill to give Condemed a try.

No comments: