Condemned: Criminal Origins

Condemned: Criminal Origins is a first-person psychological thriller video game with survival horror and action elements.[6][7][8][9] There are two main components to the gameplay – combat and investigating crime scenes.[10]

The player takes on an enemy in Condemned: Criminal Origins.

The game's combat is built primarily around melee; firearms are available, but are relatively uncommon.[11][12] Players can acquire melee weapons from their immediate surroundings in several ways; they can be found lying out in the open, they can be forced from the environment (such as pulling a pipe from a wall or snapping off a 2x4), or they can be taken from an enemy.[13] Enemies can also acquire and use any weapon that the player can use, including firearms.[14] Each weapon has its own combination of damage, speed, range, and blocking stats; so, for example, an axe may have higher damage and range stats than a pipe, but the pipe may have higher speed and blocking stats.[12][15] There are two classes of melee weapon; debris weapons and entry tools.[16] Debris weapons are items that have no function other than combat. Entry tools are items that can be used in combat but that also have an alternative function. For example, an axe can chop down certain doors, a crowbar can open certain safes, a sledgehammer can destroy certain padlocks, and a shovel can cut through certain electrical wires.[17][18]

Blocking is an essential component of the game mechanics as the player can only take a few melee hits before dying. A successful block momentarily knocks an enemy off balance, giving the player a chance to attack.[10][19] An additional component of the game's melee is the ability to perform "finishing moves" when an opponent is on their knees, such as a headbutt, a neck break, a punch, or a head slam.[12][20] The player can also use a quick-kick, which is available at all times; if the player is unarmed, if they are carrying a firearm, or if they are carrying a melee weapon.[10]

When using a firearm, the player cannot collect additional ammo, as firearms cannot be reloaded; each firearm lasts only as long as there are bullets in the current magazine.[19] The player can also use the butt of any firearm as a melee weapon. However, unlike other melee weapons, firearms will break when used repeatedly.[10][21] The player also has a taser which can be used to temporarily stun a target. This does minimal damage, but it does allow the player to seize the stunned enemy's weapon.[22] However, after each use, the taser must recharge before it can be used again, meaning it cannot be used as a regular substitute for the game's melee weapons.[18][22] Irrespective of whether the player is carrying a firearm or a melee weapon, only one weapon can be carried at a time.[23]

The other primary game mechanic is forensic crime scene investigation. The game utilises a context-sensitive button, which can call upon a suite of tools to find and record evidence.[10] When the player encounters an "Instinct Area", the game will alert them to the presence of evidence.[24] Pressing the tool button will automatically deploy the correct detection tool needed to locate the evidence. Once the evidence has been located, pressing the tool button again will automatically ready the necessary collection tool.[25] Once collected, the evidence is automatically sent to the lab to be analysed.[10] Detection tools include a UV light, a laser light, and a spectrometer. Collection tools include a sampler, a portable 3D scanner, and a digital camera.[7][26] Examples of evidence include fingerprints, footprints, fibers, residues, particles, and blood splatter.[26]

Ethan Thomas is an FBI agent assigned to the Serial Crime Unit (SCU) in the fictional city of Metro. Possessing the ability to sense a killer's actions, Thomas has the highest solve rate in the unit. However, many of his recent cases have gone cold. Meanwhile, he is convinced that the recent rise in serial killers is connected to a spike in crime, specifically assault amongst vagrants.[27]

Arriving at the location of a homicide in a derelict building, Thomas is met by Det. Dickensen and Ofc. Becker of Metro PD. They conclude that the murder is the work of the "Match Maker", a killer that uses mannequins in his crimes. Realizing that someone else is in the building, they split up, but when Thomas loses his gun, a man takes it and holds him at gunpoint, saying, "we are both on the same path of righteousness." He then shoots and kills both Dickensen and Becker before pushing Thomas through a window.

Thomas wakes up in his apartment to find Malcolm Vanhorn, a family friend. Vanhorn warns Thomas that he is wanted for the deaths of the police and advises him to run.[28] Assisted via phone by his colleague, Lt. Rosa, Thomas heads to a nearby metro station where he finds a room with a camera pointing at his apartment and a wall covered in newspapers, each one detailing a case Thomas worked, although many of the pages have a hand-drawn "X" on them. Finding evidence that the Match Maker is in an abandoned retail store, Thomas heads there.

In the store, he finds the Match Maker's body. Referring back to the newspapers, Rosa notes that all the articles with an X have gone cold, and she concludes that the man who took Thomas's gun is killing serial killers, hence why the cases went cold.[29] She dubs him Serial Killer X (SKX). At the city library, Rosa reveals that she has found several anomalies in Thomas's personnel file - his bone density is abnormally high; he has an overactive serotonergic system; and there is a chest x-ray in which the vocal cords have been redacted. Meanwhile, Thomas begins to have visions of a man with metal implants in his body, most notably his mouth. Finding evidence that Serial Killer X may be operating out of an abandoned orchard, Thomas and Vanhorn head there.[lower-alpha 1]

As he explores the house, Thomas finds the Torturer's body. He takes SKX by surprise and seems poised to defeat him, when he is attacked by Vanhorn. He hears Vanhorn refer to SKX as "Leland, nephew", pleading with him that he doesn't know his own mind, but Leland knocks Vanhorn out as Thomas faints. When he awakens, he is tied up and at the mercy of Leland, who brags about using Thomas to help him find victims.[30] Vanhorn comes to and attacks Leland, allowing Thomas to escape. Vanhorn tells him that he must hunt down and kill the man with the implants as he is the cause of the violence in the city. As Thomas searches, he hears a voice telling him, "You belong to us, Ethan. You have always belonged to us." He eventually tracks down the man and kills him by ripping out his implants.

As Vanhorn drives Thomas home, Thomas discovers that Leland is alive in the trunk. Vanhon explains, "he was a good boy. We were all good people. We were able to fight it back, most of us. My nephew was not as strong." Thomas pulls his gun on Leland, and the player is given the option of whether to shoot or not. If they do not, Leland pulls out his own gun and seemingly commits suicide. Some time later, Thomas, now cleared of the deaths of Dickensen and Becker, meets Rosa. She explains that the FBI believes Leland was part of a cult and asks him if he knows anything about it.[31][lower-alpha 2] However, she tips him off that she is wired before he answers. Rosa leaves and Thomas goes to the bathroom. While there, he vomits and the implanted man is seen approaching him in the mirror. The man disappears, and Thomas spins around, showing that his mouth now bears the same implants.

Condemned: Criminal Origins was announced by Sega and Monolith Productions in February 2005 for PC and as yet unspecified next generation consoles. Sega of America's Vice President of Entertainment Marketing, Scott A. Steinberg, said, "the atmospheric tension and cinematic qualities" of the game would "offer consumers the rich experience of a psychological thriller, something that has not been accomplished on previous hardware platforms." Monolith's CEO Samantha Ryan said, "new leaps in technology are allowing our teams to create immersive game environments that are incredibly realistic." She explained that the "goal with Condemned is to combine a disturbing atmosphere with realistic physics, devious AI, and a sophisticated combat system."[32][33]

In April, it was revealed that the game would be releasing on Xbox 360.[34] The game was first shown at E3 in May as a non-playabe demo.[35] A playable demo was made available at G-Phoria later that month.[20] A more expansive playable demo was presented at X05 in October.[18][36] Shortly after X05, Sega announced that the game would be an Xbox 360 launch title, releasing on November 22.[37] The game went gold on November 2.[38]

Scheuerman Block at 700 First Avenue in the Pioneer Square neighbourhood of Seattle. The look of the game's Metro City was loosely based on Seattle.

The game's writer and lead designer, Frank Rooke, cites films such as Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder (1990), Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991), David Fincher's Se7en (1995), Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002), and James Wan's Saw (2004), as well as the TV show The X-Files, as the main influences for the game's atmosphere and aesthetic.[39][40] Prior to development, Monolith carried out extensive research on real-world serial killers, as they wanted to better understand the psychology of such people.[10] Basing Metro very loosely on Seattle, they also hired surveyors to search out abandoned and condemned buildings, empty warehouses, and neglected and forgotten areas of the city so as to give them a template for the game's visual design.[10] Of the atmosphere, producer David Hasle says that the team focused on three types of horror: shock (such as jump scares), tension (using player anticipation to build dread), and psychology ("the player, will find bizarre hallucinations, strange visions occurring and you won't know if they are real or just in the player's head").[41]

Of the game's combat system, Rooke notes that the team "wanted to mess around, find game mechanics that could be considered new, or at least tweaked a little bit to be fresh."[8] Wanting the melee combat to be "absolutely satisfying, in the same way that dueling somebody with a huge machine gun or shotgun is," Hasle explains that the key design elements underpinning the system were close-quarters combat and gritty, inelegant street fighting, whereby players (and enemies) must do whatever necessary to survive. Hasle states, "we wanted to bring the enemy into your face and keep him there until the combat was resolved."[8][41] Wanting a "visceral kind of raw feel", the team kept the combat simple; "we didn't mess it up with a bunch of combos; it's just a basic raw, primal kind of fight that you would expect in this setting."[8] An important part of this is the game's AI, with different enemies reacting in different ways to being attacked; some will become more aggressive, some will try to flee, some will hide in the hopes of a surprise attack, some will look for a stronger weapon. The variety of possible reactions adds to the unpredictability of the combat system.[6]

In terms of technology, the game uses per-pixel lighting, volumetric lighting, shaders, anti-aliasing, normal mapping, color mapping, specular mapping, and shadow mapping, with especial emphasis on realistic physics.[6][10][42] Speaking of the game's lighting, Hasle explains, "there is absolutely no static lighting in Condemned. Static lighting places light sources in the world and then calculates the shadows that correspond to that light source. The shadows are then burned onto the world and cannot be manipulated." For Condemned, the team felt that "creating natural light and shadow movement is important to creating and maintaining a frightening and tense mood."[6] Tied to this, the game "features numerous unique and carefully crafted shaders. Shaders essentially involve the layering of several textures that react to a light source to create a specific surface reflection [...] these features are highlighted through the use of several stylized screen effects, such as film grain, bleach bypass, and dark shader effects."[6]

Condemned: Criminal Origins received "generally favorable reviews", with the Xbox 360 version holding a score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 72 reviews, and the PC version holding a score of 79 out of 100, based on 24 reviews.[44][45]

GameSpy's Will Tuttle scored the Xbox 360 version 4-and-a-half out of 5, praising the "highly atmospheric, downright disturbing environments" and the "brutally visceral combat." Calling the graphics "jaw-droppingly detailed", he also felt the game had "some of the best sound design ever to grace a video game." On the other hand, he was critical of the implementation of the forensic tools.[54] Scott Osborne, also of GameSpy, scored the PC version 4 out of 5, calling it "a startlingly powerful experience." He praised the sound effects for creating "an unparalleled level of visceral violence," and also lauded the atmosphere, lighting, AI, and combat mechanics, although he was critical of the forensic tools.[53]

Game Informer's Jeremy Loss scored the Xbox 360 version 8.8 out of 10. Although he criticized the game's length and plot, he praised it for featuring "some true scares, a fresh approach to its genre, great graphics, and fun gameplay mechanics."[50] IGN's Charles Onyett scored the Xbox 360 version 8.7 out of 10 and the PC version 8.5 out of 10. Praising the sound design ("the game's most frightening aspect"), combat, graphics, animations, and AI, he was critical of the linearity and the use of forensic tools. Calling the game "an unforgettable experience," he praised it as "one of the most immersive and atmospheric games I've ever played."[55][12]

PC Zone scored the PC version 8.5 out of 10, calling it "brutal, visceral and hard-hitting" and "a masterpiece of nerve-jangling tension." Praising the atmosphere, sound, and AI, their main criticisms were the linearity, length, and convoluted story.[58] Writing for Official Xbox Magazine, Francesca Reyes scored it 8.5 out of 10 and was especially impressed with the AI. She argued that the game illustrated that "next-generation gaming is just as much about gameplay as it is about graphics."[57] The UK edition of Official Xbox Magazine scored it 8 out of 10, praising the "masterful sound" and the "awesome sense of dread." Their main criticism was "a lack of variety in the all-too linear gameplay."[56]

GameSpot's Greg Kasavin scored the Xbox 360 version 8 out of 10 and the PC version 8.1 out of 10, calling it "a visceral, highly atmospheric experience." Although he was critical of the "monotonous gameplay", he did praise the combat mechanics ("it captures hand-to-hand combat with intense, lifelike brutality like no other game before it"). He was also impressed with the AI, animations, and sound. He did, however, feel that "the longer you play, the more you'll wish that there was more substance."[51][52] Eurogamer's Kristen Reed scored it 7 out of 10, praising the combat mechanics, sound design, and graphics, but finding the gameplay "too simplistic" and criticizing the forensic tools as "giving the player no chance to act as an investigator at any point." He concluded, "in the end, its place in gaming history will go down as merely a pretty good horror adventure."[49]

Edge scored the Xbox 360 version 6 out of 10, calling it "scary, vicious, visually progressive."[47] Computer Gaming World's Jeff Green scored the PC version 6 out of 10, calling it the "best survival horror on the PC". He praised the atmosphere, lighting, sound, and combat ("both visceral and satisfying"), but felt the forensic sections were poorly implemented.[46]

In a 2013 retrospective, Eurogamer's Rick Lane called Condemned "the first and perhaps only game to really get to grips with first-person melee combat." He also wrote, "as a melee fighting game, Condemned is yet to be beaten for both its originality and creating an authentic experience with the limited tools available."[59] In a 2020 retrospective, Collin Henderson of Horror Obsessive called it "a forgotten classic that more people need to check out."[60]