“Se7en”

The home game!


Back when it came out, the movie “Se7en” surprised a lot of people. “Brad Pitt can act?” and “Damn! That Kevin Spacey is one creepy motherfucker!” being two of the most common reactions. It was also pretty gritty, and the ending (“What’s in the box?!?!?”) was not what most people expected from a Hollywood movie. It was well-written, acted and directed, and really stuck with a lot of its audience.

It’s safe to say the movie still inspires some people.

Case in point – Condemned: Criminal Origins for the 360. I borrowed this off a friend last night (he’s going on vacation, so I get to play a batch of his games while he’s gone – whoo-hoo!) and while I’ve just scratched the surface, it’s safe to say there’s something icky underneath.It’s a first-person adventure (not really fair to call it a shooter), and plays more like Kingpin: Life of Crime than any other title I can think of. True, Kingpin was more about violence than this, but there are similarities. You have to talk to people in both games, and there are times when violence isn’t the answer. It’s also got a healthy dose of C.S.I. thrown in, which is cool with me. (I’ve just gotten back into watching that one – just the original mind you, not the spin-offs.)

In Condemned you play an FBI agent trying to solve a serial killer case, but there’s more to it than that. In addition to the killer you’re trying to find, there’s the added problem of the city’s homeless turning into killers as well. They don’t have any particular pattern to their violence.

Besides that they’re all trying to kill you.

The game is pretty tense. It’s rather dark (wouldn’t it be safer to hunt killers by daylight?) and you end up relying on sound more than sight to prepare for an attack.

Surround sound is a huge help.

I really can’t imagine playing this without a 5.1 speaker setup. Being able to hear an enemy behind me has saved my bacon more than once.

Visually, the game is very clean.

Actually, it’s very dirty, but it looks nice. Shit, there’s no way for that to sound the way I want it to. Laurie Anderson is credited with once saying, “virtual reality won’t look real until the engineers figure out how to put some dirt in it.” (Or words very close to that.)

Condemned may not be VR, but it’s got lots of dirt.

And rubbish, and dead birds, and blood and bodies… It’s not a happy environment. But it does suit (and set) the tone of the game. The weapons are also very nicely detailed.

Pity they’re not more effective.

Condemned can’t be called a “shooter” because there aren’t many guns in the game. Most of your weapons are found items – 2x4s (complete with nails), pipes, pieces of rebar, sledgehammers, fire axes… Not the sort of things one expects a federal agent to be using in the course of his duties, but they get the job done – for the most part. Each weapon has different stats for attack power, blocking ability, speed and reach.

Hmm, I’m drifting into minutiae here.

I’d better wrap this one up then. If you’ve got a 360 and like a scary bit of fun, check this one out. It’ll be coming to the PC sometime soon, but why wait?

There’s a killer on the loose! ^.^