This is one game that will scary you silly
The story starts off a little weak but the intensity builds as you get closer to catching the killer. You find out very early in the game that you have the ability to see flashbacks of the killer. This power is useful and it pushes certain aspects of the story along however it is never really explained why these flashbacks occur.
The thing that makes Condemned stand out from other horror First Person perspective games is that it has a fairly deep melee combat system. Blocking is key to winning confrontations while swinging a handful of close combat weapons like 2 x 4's, pipes, axes, sledgehammers etc. Each weapon has statistics for speed, damage, block and reach. From time to time you find firearms such as pistols, shotguns and submachine guns but they usually have next to no ammo and are too scarce. Also, you can't hold onto more than one weapon at a time, or load one gun with another gun's ammo which would be more realistic. You also have a taser that temporarily stuns the enemy giving you a free hit. It has to charger for about 8 seconds after it fired but it becomes your greatest weapon. While an enemy is stunned you can also grab his weapon.
Don't forget you're playing a Forensic investigator so from time to time you need to use your "CSI" tools. You have tools such as a black light to find hidden messages and gas spectrometers. Unfortunately the CSI segments your hand is being held, which means they tell you which tool to use and were to point it. Never the less these parts break up the combat which can get very repetitive. Theirs also only about 7 different enemy models which means that most enemies you're fighting are wearing the same clothes.
All in all over used enemy models with repetitive combat don't mix well, but the great story and CSI segments help get over these small flaws.