[Review] Condemned: Criminal Origins (Xbox360/PC)

In 1994, Monolith Productions was founded in Kirkland, which in 1997 released the “game of the year” according to my Bati, Blood.
Following this game, the company releases several non -standard games, including shooters, such as No One Lives Forever 1 and 2 parts or throne 2.0. Later, the studio decides to retrain, it’s time to become serious guys and therefore releases in 2005 with.T.p.A.Sh.n.s.th. F.E.A.P. But not many people know that in the bowels of Monolith, 2 projects were developed at that time: on one engine, in the same, at first glance, style, but with a completely different concept.
So.
The plot begins with the main character - the agent of the FBI department to investigate serial murders, Ethan Thomas arrives at the place of murder. We are met by an elderly officer who, like Denny Glover, became "too old for this shit". He and his colleagues go to an abandoned building, next to which psychopaths and criminals roam. A young woman is killed. Her corpse lies on the floor with traces of strangulation, and opposite her at the table, mannequin of a man is seated. Further, a series of events, as a result of which our hero is accused of killing 2 police officers. Ethan runs out of the scene of the crime to justify himself and conduct his own investigation, and the FBI forensic scientist Rosa, the only one who still believes in the innocence of Itan helps him. At the same time, the mysterious goodness of Malcolm Vanhorn comes to him, whose motives and goals remain unclear until the end of the game. Yes, and after passing the game, some plot moments were not clear to me, as if I had read a book and someone pulled out a couple of pages from it. But even more interesting. I specially crumpled the plot as much as possible so as not to quire you anything. The events of the game, which immediately begin after this incident, will describe everything that happened this night with Itan, so if you set for a gamepad or a keyboard with the mouse, together with our protagonist you will find the morning.

All this reminds me of the film "Seven" from the director David Fincher released in 1995 on the screens of cinemas. Gloomy, nuar and in places mystical thriller, telling about the investigation of 2 detectives in search of a serial maniac.
At first glance, the game will seem to us as a first -person joker with the elements Beat Em ’Up, but literally after a couple of moments it turns out that everything is accurate, but vice versa. The sudden loss of a pistol also speaks about this. Our main weapon will be everything that falls by the arm - starting by the mannequin’s hands, ending with an ax, a sledgehammer or a board with nails. Firearms will still meet, but not there often as we are used to. Add to this that the chances of finding it with a full store are very low, then at high levels of complexity, feel free to add a prefix to the Survival Horror game.
Itan has a cheat electric shock in this case in his pocket, which has only one drawback - this is his long reloading. But at those moments when a strip of lives is already running out and you frantically knock on the keys so as not to take your last blow on your head, not having time to put the block (to which you still need to adopt), it becomes your last hope for salvation.
Our main character is an incredibly strange character - on the one hand, he easily pulls out iron pipes out of the riser, as if Arnold Schwarzenegger from Kommando tides a seat near Porsche, and on the other, he cannot even run 10 meters, when he suddenly begins with a shortness of breath. I think that this is done to immerse us in the leisurely atmosphere of the game, which is aimed at immersing us as deeply as possible, preventing us from escaping from the next adversary and avoid a fight. Although, perhaps, the developers simply slightly increased the timing of the already not long game, but I just attached myself here.

All locations of the https://gamesnotongamstop.co.uk/review/madcasino/ game are extremely dark, gloomy with impenetrable nooks, because of which a dirty and poorly smelling enemy can jump out. An abandoned office building, catacombs of the subway, a warehouse, a library, a school, a terrible house in the city, although they are not memorable, but they do not become bad, these abandoned places that we follow, scare us correctly over and over again. But among the levels I want to highlight the "department store", in one of the moments I even unusually jumped from my chair. I became so careful and no longer believed anything in this game that I began to wave a sledgehammer on all mannequins to be sure that in the next scene they would not come to life and would not pat me a friendly shoulder. To inject horror, the developers competently used a variety of techniques, starting that all the action takes place in pitch darkness, and ending with constant visions and character glitches. Everything is done in a table of table that from an impenetrable feeling of longing, fear and hopelessness, I naturally want to howl and pray that the batteries of the flashlights never end. Fear does not last a couple of minutes occasionally, as we are used to, but constantly - the tension does not pass even after the next skirmish.
The developers perfectly put on you psychologically, there are very few scimators here, and in our time this is no longer scared, except for an inexperienced viewer. When passing games, I had not had goosebumps for a long time, the last time I experienced this many years ago when passing Re2. By the way, I still won’t try 7 part Evil with ps vr.
Continuing to admire the atmosphere of the game, I want to say that you need to play strictly in headphones. After the next whispering whisper in my ear - “you will die”, I heard the steps approaching me, stopped, and invisible opponents also froze, I took a few cautious steps and, turning around, realized that I was alone in this room and that it was my steps. It was a little uncomfortable ..
On the way of restoring our good name we will meet various marginals-drug addicts, homeless people, robbers, inhabitants of the subway, who are not very happy to see us. But when the monsters began to attack me, as if created by the perverted fantasy of Clive Barker, I finally lost touch with what was happening, which is why it was only more interesting to play further. The biggest problem will still make us opponents with firearms, which, although they rarely meet, give a lot of sweat. In contrast to all of the above, the developers did not regret the first -aid kits, they are found quite often at the levels. And according to the unwritten law of the genre, before a serious skirmish, a couple of first -aid kits will wait for you in a prominent place.

Condemned Extremely linear game. The developers lead you strictly according to the plot, as if this is the this thread in the Minotaur labyrinth, there are no nooks for which you can look in for a few minutes and come off from what is happening and take a respite. Considering the consoles, the developers hung many actions on one button, which is incredibly annoying - you can not jump anywhere or climb where you want - you have to return to the same staircase over and over again and press the same button.
The choice of weapons is due to their characteristics. A board with nails is much faster than an ax, but inflicts less damage, for example. This is already the case of your preferences and the style of the game.
The artificial intelligence of the opponents, to put it mildly, attack the forehead, then stand still, and getting in response to a slap in response, they begin to substitute their backs. I was surprised that in many reviews many really admired AI. Apparently, at that time it was something outstanding. Opponents represent serious danger at high levels of complexity, but not because, they wake up a strategist of the level of Alexander the Great, but because they will need to send them a lot of strokes by boat along the river. The situation saves the fact that all this rabble hates not only you, but everything surrounding it. These guys are not averse to gnaw thumbs each other. And it remains to wait for them to overdo each other and among them will remain on the feet of the very rack and finish it off with an accurate blow to the head, or send it to a knockdown, and then make a “local fatalit” broke, for example, the neck.
Realizing that the next homeless will never get up, the sixth feeling, which, to our surprise (and the surprise of the hero himself, as it turns out, knows less about himself than his leadership) is owns, we begin to inspect the area using the achievements of the FBI technique. Although, check the fingerprints on the neck of the victim, when it was considered something supernatural? Gas analyzer, laser and ultraviolet lighting, camera, phone - that’s the entire equipment of our hero. The collected evidence is automatically sent to the rose, and it already makes their analysis and reports the results. The FBI technique is clearly fantastic, oh well.

I almost forgot. I really liked the idea of ​​developers with "keys" from the door. If in the same doom we were looking for cards to open the castles of a certain suitable color, then they look at it from a different angle. Here you need to get into the next location, and for example, to us, the lock blocks the road - if you please find a sledgehammer, shed it and move on. The game constantly slips new tasks, one weapon has to throw and choose another. As a result, the player is forced to adapt to changing conditions all the time: only you are used to some sledgehammer, as they are already forced to get rid of it.
Graphically, the game looks amazing- soft shadows, dynamic lighting- the engine squeezed all the juices from the then PC and consoles. The game uses the same Jupiter Extended (Jupiter Ex) TechDown Entertainment.E.A.P.
The models of the characters are a little worse than that of the elder to take. It can be seen which of them was a "dark horse", but in contrast to this levels are made much more realistic. The newfold Ragdoll at that time. However, the game does not reach the level of Half-Life 2. If banks and bottles instantly fly off their shelves, then some items, such as chairs, are stupidly “nailed” to the floor, like an excalibur, which is not possible to move from a place.

Is there music in the game, after passing it is difficult to say, since nothing is left in the head, and not a single place where something played was remembered. That is, in a musical plan, the game is nothing. But there is one huge but! Sound in the game - chic. All the rustles and cries of the homeless are made perfectly. Well, various dying wheezing, a crunch of broken bones and other screams will pursue you in nightmares for a long time.

The result is a strong, atmospheric, sometimes terrible game, rotating on the founding feelings of a person - fear, hatred, a sense of self -preservation. Oppressive locations, the reverse side of glossy America, a story that does not let go to the end and leaves more questions than answers than answers. A definitely strong game, with the advantages that outweigh its minor disadvantages.

Thank you all for your attention, I hope you liked the video and text, write comments, for me it will be the best recognition.

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