Dec 7, 2007

This game wants to hurt you. It wants you to feel pain, to go on a journey into the pits of despair and wallow in smashed faces, broken bones and bloodied corpses. When you attack a frantic enemy, blood dripping from gaping wounds, they don’t take the hits and keep pummeling, they spit blood, teeth fly across the screen and they spin, reacting violently to your blows. This is no ordinary adventure. It’s pretty brutal.

At no point in Condemned 2: Bloodshot should you feel comfortable - this game is about survival against overwhelming odds. Despite our walkthrough of the game featuring frenzied, very visceral violence, the game’s strengths actually lie in its atmosphere and scripting. As with FEAR, Monolith has managed to create a universe, albeit one on the verge of insanity, that exists on its own rules. A mysterious ‘virus’ threatens to turn a city’s population insane. We say ‘virus’ but in reality there is no word yet to describe what Monolith has unleashed on its virtual world - a virus, a supernatural presence or a psychosis?

What is clear is that everyone is crazy for blood and more often than not, the blood of ex-cop and psychic Ethan Thomas. Drafted back into the force to solve a string of murders and capture psychic loony Malcolm Vanhorn, Thomas could be the last hope for an insane city.

Condemned 2 is violent and smothered in the kind of terrifying suspense that has made the likes of FEAR and Silent Hill firm favourites with horror fans. Monolith’s horror goes further. This is a game of wits as much as fast fists. You can use anything in the environment as a weapon; pull a pipe from the wall, a frying pan from a stove or even wrench a door from its hinges and use it as a makeshift shield before cracking it over the head of your enemy.