Not only did this level make absolutely no sense in the overall context of the adventure, when Ethan returns to headquarters, he inexplicably continues the investigation without comment! Diverging from the gritty quasi-realism previously established, he fights off exploding kewpie dolls and a female cosplayer with a giant lollipop.
In one of the most egregious displays, Ethan becomes separated from the officers he's on a mission with and ends up in a burning doll factory.
Struggling to make sense and justify themselves, the piecemeal locations might work in some other horror game, but certainly don't here. Almost none of the environments have the same potency seen in the original, and they certainly don't have the same cohesion. In Bloodshot's case, not only is the mystique gone, but the revelations are so cliché, nonsensical and lightweight that the dramatic core of the game is eviscerated by inanity.īeside the game's silly story, progression from level to level is equally poor.
Explain too much, and you risk losing the chilling mystiques that the best of the genre foster. Although some of the elements between the two games seem to connect, my impression was that certain bits of Bloodshot undercut or even contradict things previously established-and quite frankly, fear of the unknown is a great source of unease for people who play horror games. Lacking the tense, desperate pursuit of a murderer to hold it together and drive it forward, Monolith instead gets caught up in unrolling an absurd supernatural mythology that doesn't make a lot of sense, and certainly doesn't have the gravitas needed to complement the dark tone they're going for. Without spoiling things for people who haven't yet experienced either of the Condemned games, Bloodshot's plot stumbles from the start and never recovers. I honestly couldn't wait to see where Monolith was going to take Bloodshot, but I never would've guessed they'd take it straight to the toilet. Even better, the previous title's plot was one of its strongest elements, and the nihilistically enigmatic endgame was left wide open for a continuation. However, as crime begins to rise in the city, local authorities pick him up out of the gutter to help with their current investigations, leading him into a tangled web of brutal, bloody intrigue.įrom a storyline perspective, I thought the premise of a ruined cop getting dragged back into the nightmare he's running from had a lot of potential. Left broken and disturbed by the events of the previous game, he's turned to the bottle in an effort to self-medicate and forget what he's seen. Picking up where the first Condemned left off, officer Ethan Thomas is on the skids. Unfortunately, from the mess on display here, it seems that they didn't even attempt to clear the bar they set so high for themselves the first time. After such an effort, it was clear that the Condemned 2 team had their work cut out for them. In addition to being fantastically frightening and atmospheric in a way that most games can only hope to achieve, its unconventional serial-killer subject matter was smartly capitalized on to create a stunningly memorable experience. WTF Practically everything good about the first game is bungled here.Īlthough the first Condemned from developer Monolith had a few rough edges, it still ranks with me as one of the most interesting, compelling games of the current generation. HIGH The new and improved forensics procedures. The cluelessly misguided sequel to a fantastically frightening game