MikeB on 15 June 2007
@ Akuma587
Dude, Condemned was awesome. Such a visceral experience. I guess it just isn't for everyone. I love survival horrors I must admit, so I have somewhat of a predisposition. I played it on PC also, which might have changed things.
That's not the reason why the game failed for me, I loved Project Firestart for the c64 and replaying the game through emulation I understand why the game was so effective at the time, despite that the game lacks realistic graphics, 7.1 surround audio and what not. But the game's pretty limited environment is well designed and thought out pretty well, offering an atmospheric game setting, you wonder what happened at the space station and as investigate suddenly gory pictures are being thrown in your face, well placed sudden sounds used at the right time whenever something shocking happens or nervous music when running away from some weird space aliens, similar as done in good movies, etc. The surprise / shock factor is very important for this kind of game and non-ingame distractions should be as limited as possible (telling you can pick something up is such a distraction).
So Condemned failed on almost all accounts for me, all the time I was presented on screen buttons to press distracting me from the actual gameplay (I don't mind this in a God of War game, which isn't trying to give you a scare), no realistic physics like in other modern games whatsoever, swinging the axe at almost anything won't cause any realistic damage to the environment, etc.
The first crazed person coming out of the dark and swinging a pole at my face was effective, but after a few dozen times the effect completely wears off. It becomes repetitive, predictable and boring after a short while.
