Condemned: Criminal Origins Image
  • Summary: Developed by Monolith Productions for the Xbox 360, Condemned: Criminal Origins allows players to experience a heightened level of psychological tension as they use their instincts, forensic tools, and melee combat to track serial killers and bring them to justice. Gamers will play as Agent Thomas, an investigator in the FBI’s Serial Crimes Unit (SCU), whose pursuit of relentless serial killers leads him through urban environments filled with sociopaths lurking on the periphery of humanity. Weapons and ammunition are scarce, leaving the player vulnerable to a gallery of mentally deranged criminals. Careful detective work and precision reflexes are a player’s primary means of survival. [Sega] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 24
  2. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. Its brutal, in-your-face action will make you cringe, while the creepy atmosphere will have your heart fluttering as you wonder what's around that next corner. Even the hardened veterans of the world's best horror games will find this to be a fine addition to their collection.
  2. CCO has all of the gameplay, story, visuals and atmosphere that you could possibly want in a mystery game and I think does them all to a proverbial "t".
  3. Condemned maintains an atmosphere of danger and suspense for a respectably long time, but unlike distinguished games that leap beyond the cliches of their genres(such as "Indigo Prophecy), it doesn't do quite enough to elevate itself into the realm of true greatness. [Jun 2006, p.50]

See all 24 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 8
  2. Negative: 3 out of 8
  1. LeeWolfgang
    9
    I have no damn clue why F.E.A.R. gets all this love from so many people when there's this awesome game to be proud of. Condemned: Criminal Origins, is the scariest game anyone will ever play. Unlike in any other horror game, you actually have to fight for your life instead of experience second-long hallucinations of random dead things. It's not actually scary to me, but that's just because I'm kind of stone-nerved. Many people say there isn't much story involved. There's a huge story involved, really. It's just at the end then it gets weird. In the loading screens, it gave a description of why people were brain hemorrhaging and become mentally ill. But then at the end you fight a ninja with metal pegs in his body and then the killing stops. That's the only really pointless thing about the story. Regardless of whether or not someone thinks of the story, the realistic gameplay, great sound, and effects make up for that and the fact that it's based on that abysmal Lithtech engine. The hallucinations the player experiences are done really well and show how he is undergoing brain hemorrhaging as well and is able to fight it off, though it takes over in some places to hype you up. It suffers some plot holes (I'll let you use my flashlight while yours is broken and walk around in the dark, Agent Thomas), but they're few and far between. The best implementation in this game, though, is that it's almost entirely based on melee combat. And that's done very well. The texturing is kind of low-resolution but the excellent effects and everything else make up for it. It's kind of slow, hence it's on an awful engine (though it's thoroughly improved), but everything is realistic as can be expected from a console launch title port. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. asasasasdfxdvxvd
    6
    Just like F.E.A.R the novelty of this game wears off really fast, except it's even more confusing than F.E.A.R ever was. For 3/4s of the game I couldn't understand what was wrong with the entire town. Why where they all beating each other to a pulp? Unfortunately instead of having somebody asking in the beginning of the game "what's wrong with everybody" or someone saying "there's unexplainable surge of violence amongst the civilian population in this area," they leave any such dialogue towards the end of the game. This makes it seem that such violence is completely normal, as none of the characters even mention it, with all dialogue focusing on catching a serial killer instead expressing concern for a town which literally seems to be ripping itself apart. The main character is extremely cliche - the old story about a cop who has been framed for murders he never committed. This barely serves any purpose in the game, as you very rarely encounter police officers, and when you do they're more focusing on riot control than capturing you. Otherwise you're investigating crime scenes just as you would be if you were still on the force. While its a struggle for the protagonist to get from area to area, other characters get around relatively easily rarely facing danger when they meet you in the streets just before or after you've just smashed some addicts heads in with a sledgehammer. The 'one weapon system' is interesting, but stupid. Why is it so difficult for the protagonist to put a pistol in his belt so that he can use it when he needs it? And how does his forensic equipment survive the many beatings that Agent Ethan Thomas receives. Then there's all those stupid dead birds that you can collect around the different levels. It's seriously arcadey and ruins any atmosphere when you're using your forensic equipment to locate these tokens. Overall this game is very repetetive and the locations dead boring. It's looks very much like the game designers ripped off the levels from F.E.A.R, and replaced gun fights with melee fighting. It looks like alot of Condemned's potential was realized in its sequel, which unfortunately is unavaible to PC. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. E.e.
    4
    The controls are terrible and the engine makes you feel like you're moving underwater. The melee combat is not fun, and there's lots of that. I think investigating the crime scenes, while not great, is a whole lot more fun than the rest of the action. Expand
    • 1 of 2 users said yes

See all 8 User Reviews

  1. Metascore: 93
  2. Metascore: 91
  3. Metascore: 89
  4. Metascore: 86
  5. Metascore: 84
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  10. Metascore: 79
  11. Metascore: 72
  12. Metascore: 47
  13. Metascore: 25