Condemned 2 review (filler post until I finish the tactics ogre review)

Alright, first off I'm going to say that I loved the first condemned, so this review may be a tad bit biased. You pick up the game as fallen FBI agent Ethan Thomas, during the time between the first and second games the affects of brutally beating a ton of people to death with his bare hands have clearly messed with his mind. 

He's now a bum and an alcoholic, some people thought this change in character was lame, I personally thought it was pretty neat, and at least semi-realistic. The game then moves on through a relatively boring beginning up until you are forced to fight tar monsters (from now on to be referred to as "tar babies") screaming and semi-scary beasts that somewhat reminded me of the creepy sewer people in the first game. This is where I first noticed how much better the fighting had become, the weapons seem to do damage a bit more realistically and the fact that Ethan can actually use his hands was a welcome change of pace. 

However the scare tactics of the tar babies quickly wear thin because they are killed in one hit...that is up until you are forced to fight through a department store completely covered in tar. The fact that scrawny skeleton like things that will viciously beat you down can hide so easily in this part of the level is the only thing that really makes it difficult, and it was a bit of a let down, in the first condemned the opponents were difficult because...well they seemed to be very good at smashing your skull in with a brick until pink liquid poured out of your nostrils.

The next level introduces the use of guns into the game play, which again was a bit of a let down for me, I bought this game because I wanted to beat people down with whatever I could tear off the walls, but here it was giving me a gun at the start of the level. I soon found out that the guns were more or less...weak. By that I mean it took 3 shot gun shells to kill a meth-monkey..granted I could have shot him in the head.Two seconds later I killed another person and...he dropped another shot gun, and instantly I began to worry that this would become a poor FPS game. (even if the guns are somewhat weak, when a game throws ammo at you constantly it's hard to not beat it). I basically blew through this level pretty quickly, the developers did do a great job of the sound on this level, hearing the creepy laughter of a meth-monkey somewhere around you is dis-heartening, and the crunch of garbage under your own feet gets to you after awhile. 

The forensics of this game was GREATLY improved, I really had a blast doing it, and although some of it required you to know a bit more about forensics than the average person, it was still fun.

(with the first use of forensics however you have to follow a blood trail that looks more or less like someone just poured bucket after bucket of blood down a hall way, for about 600 yards, all of that blood from a single guy? it just kind of ruined the mood)

Alright I'm not going to go through a level by level review, I just wanted to get those two out of the way because they introduced the main aspects of the game. 

One of the things people don't like about this game is the story, and yes...it's a bit out there. But in all honesty it's a video game, I don't play them for realistic story-lines I play them to have fun, and the abilities you get later in the game are just that...fun.

Overall I had a great time with this game, but it could have been much more terrifying if the developers used lighting as well as they did in the first condemned. Darkness isn't quite as scary as dim light with lots of shadows moving around. If you can get past the weak story then you'll more than likely enjoy this game very much for its visceral melee combat.

6/10