Condemned is a excellent thriller with a little dash of psychological horror on the side...
Gameplay:- The main bulk of gameplay in Condemned takes place with you wandering through dark buildings with only a torch for company and occasionally investigating crime scenes (for fingerprints and the like) with forensic tools. The wandering is punctuated by brief battles with armed goons the majority involving melee combat where you block and parry with the variety of improvised weapons the game has to offer. While this may not sound too thrilling on paper it actually all goes together really well, the different parts of the game breaking each other up nicely to avoid repetition combined with story cutscences that drive the genuinely intriguing plot onwards. While I believe your opponents are meant to be human they tend to become less so as the game progreses with some dashing at you on all fours like animals or just not looking particularly human in the first place. The AI of your opponents in the game is also one of it's strong points as the enemies will look for weapons to use (after you disarm them at times), hide from you when weak and even lay in ambush. The game also is rather atmospheric with some fairly scary moments to begin with.. but as you progress you kind of get used to "things" jumping out at you so it loses it's atmosphere somewhat by using the same tricks too much. While "scary grainy looking corridor effect with moving shadows" is scary the first few times, around time four or so you tend to pretty much ignore it.
Graphics:- Truly amazing, the most impressive game visually I have played since Oblivion. Perhaps a few better textures could be used here and there but otherwise it is just stunning and truly felt "next-gen" to me visually.
Sound:- Again, spot on. The atmospheric sound is very creepy (although I eventually turned it off as I always get bored of sound) and the voice acting is professional and spot on. High quality.
Value:- Takes about 10 hours or so to play through and you can unlock most of it's achivements on your first run. Unfortunately the game is pretty buggy when it comes to achivements and can be immensly frustrating for those wanting 100%. Theres probably about 15 hours of gameplay here for those who want to unlock everything. A decent amount.
Condemned is a good thriller with a slight horror element thrown into the mix and well worth checking out. A few minor annoyances and slightly boring bits make the game somewhat less as good as it could have been and I feel it has perhaps wasted a fair bit of extra potential.