I don't list all the games I play in our end-of-the-months roundups,
usually because I feel I haven't played the game long enough to give
it a fair shake. Often I'll install it, play it, and uninstall it in a
few hours... or even minutes. That's hardly enough time to judge a
game, so I ignore it when it comes to the monthly listing.

"Condemned: Criminal Origins" is one such game. I wanted a
single-player game that I could play beginning to end; no open world,
no endless grind, just a distinct experience I could get through in a
few days.

I hesitated to play this game because my earlier play-throughs weren't
particularly enjoyable. I didn't really like this game the first
couple of times I worked my way to its end. But it's been years since
I last gave it a try, and I was willing to give the game the benefit
of the doubt. It didn't take long before I realized that this time
wouldn't be any more fun than before.

The game had several things working against it. Most immediate and
obvious were its visuals. Aside from the low-resolution textures
(which are forgivable if the rest of the game is up to par), the
setting itself is just unpleasant; it all takes places in grungy slums
and sewers, and the prominent colors in the game are grey and brown.
There are no interesting set pieces to look at; just an endless parade
of tenements and crumbling infrastructure. The flat lighting and
too-chunky character models didn't help either. It's just an ugly game
to look at, all around.

It's incredibly slow too. The main character shuffles about like he's
in molasses, and traversing a room takes far too long. There's a
sprint button but it doesn't increase the pace significantly, and the
sluggish controls don't benefit from the faster speed. Combat is
similarly languorous; it's largely a first-person melee-fighter
similar to the later 'Souls' games (block, block, swing, block, kick)
but there's no intensity to the fights. A lack of variety in enemies
doesn't help either.

The story is an X-Files crime-drama, with a weird cult and a strange
disease causing an outbreak of violence. It's poorly told and - like
everything else about the game - presented in such a dull manner that
I never felt any engagement with the plot or characters.

I gave "Condemned: Criminal Origins" about an hour of my time before I
gave up on it. It's a game that has a neat concept but such a
ham-fisted implementation that I couldn't get any enjoyment out of the
experience.

>"Condemned: Criminal Origins" is one such game.
Shame you didn't like it, I haven't looked at it in years, but loved it
on release. The melee combat was visceral, the investigation aspect
fascinating, and some of the levels were very memorable, like the mannequin
one. One of my fav games Get Even, owes much to Criminal Origins.

rms

On Fri, 19 Aug 2022 22:14:18 -0600, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

>>"Condemned: Criminal Origins" is one such game.
> Shame you didn't like it, I haven't looked at it in years, but loved it
>on release. The melee combat was visceral, the investigation aspect
>fascinating, and some of the levels were very memorable, like the mannequin
>one. One of my fav games Get Even, owes much to Criminal Origins.
>

The combat itself wasn't too bad - except that everything was so slow.
As I said, it's very reminiscint of a Souls game, albeit more
primitively done. Fortunately, most enemies go down with three of four
swipes so each individual fight doesn't take too long but the movement
in this game is attrocious. The dearth of diversity in weapons does
not help either; the 2x4 plank and iron pipe are introduced minutes
into the games, and will likely still be your primary weapons by the
end.

I seem to recall the weapons break too but either my recollection is
wrong or the weapons are more robust than I remember since none of
mine broke in the limited amount of time I played.

I wish I could agree with you on the level design. It's just far too
drab for my taste and - again - assets and ideas are reused too
frequently (there is, I recall, a bit of change near the end when you
start fighting in a farmhouse 'up nort' but even then I recall a grey
haze over everything). "Condemned" makes the original "Gears of War"
look colorful in comparison. I get that it's a grim setting for a grim
game about grim characters in a grim situation but wandering through
poorly-textured rectangular hallways with naught but the graffito and
rubble (and the occassional spooky mannequin or cult-marking) to catch
the eye just wasn't how I wanted to spend my time.

I like the /idea/ of "Condemned", but its implementation was never
very good (IMHO, obviously) and it hasn't aged well at all.

YMMV, of course.