"Condemned is a horror first person shooter with an emphasis on melee combat".
To tell the truth, when i first bought the game i had little faith in that title. "Another stapling out of old themes with new titles" I thought. I guess i was wrong.
Condemned offers a creepy, disturbing adventure that well earns the horror title. Monolith had done a great job at making the player feel constantly uncomfortable with dark environments and horrifying scenes that will scare even the toughest and manly men out there. The thing that makes this game surprisingly scary is the fact that the game takes place in a "normal" (In massive inverted commas) city where for some unknown reason the crime rating has gone anomalously high, and its up to Ethan Tomas ( an FBI agent ) to investigate a series of unusual murders. The plot twists and turns with some of the more memorable plot developments in gaming history. The combination of forensic investigation and the gritty environments, combined with melee combat that was implemented so realistically, gives the full feeling of realism in contrast to the declining state of mind of Ethan Tomas, thus increasing the feeling of horror to the point when I almost began to doubt my own sanity.
Unlike most horror games these days, Condemned has everything a true horror game should have - Atmosphere, subtlety and pacing. The mere anticipation of enemy's waiting around every corner while slowly pacing down a poorly lighted corridor, or hearing running footsteps behind you, only to turn around in fear to find that there was nothing there....
The soundtrack was an eerie, at times metallic, and monotonous, that served to enhance the sensation of fear.
Its just a shame that the combat wasn't as thrilling as i anticipated.
The emphasis on melee was indeed an interesting experiment, but the variety of attacks was unfortunately slim. Nevertheless, the combat was solid and satisfying even though it lacked a bit of fine tuning. Its a shame because this game could have been so much better. There is of course a problem that the game is too short, and since it only has a single player mode, I couldn't help but feel a bit unsatisfied.
Overall though, this game is solid, fun, scary and it provides the much needed horror theme that many games these days cannot fully grasp.