Condemned 2: Bloodshot Review (PS3)

Reign in Blood!

Welcome back to the seedy underbelly of a city in turmoil. Time to once more enter the tormented mind of Ethan Thomas. Condemned 2: Bloodshot takes place a few years after the original Condemned: Criminal Origins. He is now a broken man, and has hit the bottle big time. He is almost unrecognisable from the first outing, looking like a proper “soap dodger”, scruffy clothes and hair, with bandaged hands.. His voice has even changed (although that may have something to do with the change in voice actor!) Like the first game, Condemned 2 is a first person survival action horror game. This time round the developer Monolith has listened to the criticism aimed at the first game, and ramped up everything all the way to eleven.

this is a worthy addition to your PS3 collection. If you have the stomach for it that is!

Since this is not your traditional first person shooter (as you only have a firearm for limited times in certain levels, and even then ammo is limited, as is the norm for a survival horror game) , good old fashion brawling is the order of the day. Using the L1 & R1 buttons as left and right fists, and the R3 button to kick, Monolith have improved on the fighting mechanics ten fold, there are numerous combos to unlock, as well as blocking and some awesome real time events where you can even shove your unfortunate opponent head first into a convenient tv screen.

The locations are suitably scary, with you creeping round the tight corridors waiting for the next thing to jump out at you. To make things even more confusing, the main protagonist’s alcoholic state has him hallucinating (or is he…) and ending up fighting some “demons” covered in some black tar, which sometime lumber towards you like zombies, and other times scamper at you like rabid dogs! Things can get pretty nasty too, and this is one game worthy of its 18 rating, with the visuals and audio helping you to feel every sickening blow reigned down on our (anti) hero and his foes.

As well as the scrapping, you get to do a bit of criminal investigation as well, looking for clues and such, but even while you are doing this, you are always wary that something may come screeching towards you at any time. This is definitely not a game for the faint hearted, and to be enjoyed at its full potential, you need to play it close to the witching hour, with the lights off, and the surround sound cranked up! This game is so atmospheric and immersing, you have to stop and remind yourself that it’s “only a game” at times, which can only be a good thing.

Unlike the original, this time we actually have some multiplayer options, but unfortunately, they are rather disappointing, and a distraction at best- COD4 can breathe easy! Fortunately the single player makes up for this, and even though the latter levels do stray from the winning formula and turn into a traditional first person shooter fest, this is a worthy addition to your PS3 collection. If you have the stomach for it that is!