First Impressions: Condemned 2: Bloodshot

This was a game that my wife actually picked out. When buying the PS3, I only thought it’d be fair for her to get a game too. Since she’s into the more warped games, this was her choice. So, trying to save some money I decided to play through this game before I bought a new game.

So, with this game you take the role of Ethan Thomas, a former FBI agent who made the downward spiral into homelessness and alcoholism after experiencing the events of the first game. He apparently plays a much darker and violent character. As I am about 25% through the game, I still don’t really know what’s going on. All I know is that Ethan has been re-recruited to the FBI to help them with a case that somewhat/somehow involves him. I’m not sure yet if the confusion of the story is intentional or if it’s just bad storytelling.

The graphics, not shockingly, are really nice. Of course, the atmosphere is really dark so a lot of stuff isn’t easily visible. However, the use of shadows and various elements of the game do help give the creepy feel to it. A good example of this is the feint laughing in the background and then seeing shadows in a room letting you know something or someone weird is just around the corner. Other events such as hallucinating and experiencing skinny, alienlike creatures crated from apparent tar plastered all over the place, or mannequins mysteriously moving closer to you when you look away help give an eerie feel. I know I was a little weirded out when I saw the first mannequin from a distance. The shadows really stands out, too. There were many times that I was kind of freaked out by my own shadow – but it didn’t help that the main character would have vision flashes where you saw creatures in the shadow.

The most difficult part of the game that I’m experiencing is getting the combat down pat. There really doesn’t seem to be an easy way to do the combat. I do what the tutorials tell me to do, but find that the enemy immediately hits you back despite pummeling him. Additionally you find yourself going into combo attacks which take you into the God of War/Heavenly Sword-type button sequences which – like Heavenly Sword – are poor to respond. I think I’m slowly getting the hang of it but it’s definitely a different take on first-person combat. Some of the combat finishing sequences you can do are deadly (Instant Rim Shot) where you either shove someone’s head into a spike on the wall, or put someone’s head in a box compactor of some sort and … well, you know. Various game reviews detail the violence of the game and I have yet to see anything that I haven’t seen before, but I think this will come later in the game.

The forensic portion of the game is interesting, though. This portion of the game is where you examine various elements in a room and report them to the FBI. Your rating, obviously, depends on how well you examine everything. A major problem with this though, is that the text is so small on my TV that it’s hard to read what your choices are. I can’t help but think that this is something that is the fault of the game creators because text from other PS3 games don’t look as bad as the text from this game does. This is a game that I’ll definitely have to play again when I get back to my my big-screen television.

So right now I’m up in the air about the game. I’ll obviusly continue playing it until I clear it and then find out if the frustrations that I’m already experiencing will get better. While the text issue won’t any better until I get to a bigger television, I’m hoping that the combat system will become easier for me, otherwise it’ll hurt the game when I finally do review it.