Condemned 2: Bloodshot Review: Bustin’ Heads
Developer: Monolith Productions
Publisher: Sega
Critic’s Note: To save our confusion for more appropriate occasions (like Mario Kart races!), Condemned 2: Bloodshot will hereafter be referred to by its subtitle, “Bloodshot.” Similarly, Condemned 1 will be referred to by its subtitle, “Criminal Origins.”
The first thing you learn in Bloodshot is that Ethan Thomas is now a major contender in the UFC’s hobo division. No, I take that back. The first thing you learn in Bloodshot is that Ethan Thomas is a jerk. You’d think being cleared of the murders of those two cops from the beginning of Criminal Origins would let you walk out the door with your head held high. Maybe someone didn’t tell him to take care of himself on the way out; he clearly hasn’t, so much so that I’m not convinced that the character models didn’t change completely from Criminal Origins to Bloodshot. Instead of the Hispanic-looking guy I knew and loved in round one, Bloodshot features and belligerent, white, full-bearded brute who should be splitting his time between anger management and Alcoholic’s Anonymous. I’m just sayin’…
But whatever, empathizing with characters is for the RPG kids. The second thing you learn in Bloodshot is that hobo fu is a more complicated martial art than Criminal Origins led you to believe. My first emotion during the combat tutorials was disgust; if it ain’t broke, don’t add combos. The hobos were up to the challenge, though. There’s a list of combos on the pause menu where you can find the wisdom you need for melee mastery, but the enemy likes to flail, particularly right before you can land the final blow of the combo. It’s the classic 1-2 step of easy to learn, tough to master, and this helps Bloodshot’s melee combat in the long run.
Ethan's a little sensitive about his weight.
See More Condemned 2: Bloodshot Screenshot at IGN.com
Firearms in Criminal Origins were rare and short-lived, perhaps the game’s smartest move. This is… not as much the case in Bloodshot. There are a few sections of the game where, once you acquire an assault rifle, there is no good reason to put it down. Far from the bums of the streets, soldiers are the only baddies at these times, so assault rifle ammo is plentiful (you still have one clip, but you get to reload it if you find more rounds), and you’ll leave a trail of headless bodies in your pursuit of, erm, dead bodies.*
An interesting addendum to the first-person shooter mechanic is the relationship between Ethan’s accuracy and alcohol. Yep. The story makes it clear that Ethan has fallen into alcohol abuse since Criminal Origins. The game can’t really give you a hangover, so instead, when you look down the sights of your gun, Ethan wobbles. With shotguns, you’re not going to care, but for pistols and rifles, it’s a bit of an issue. There’s still a way to shoot the wing off a fly, though: consume alcohol in “small quantities” (read: find a bottle of booze and chug it at a rate that would leave someone of my weight passed out and choking on his own vomit). There aren’t any negative consequences to drinking, so the feature is more significant on a thematic level than a mechanical one. I don’t want to spoil much, but Ethan does not let the issue go quietly.
Something a fan of Criminal Origins can get psyched about (har har) is the renovation of the forensic investigation element. Maybe Ethan is out on the streets now, but investigating is still in his blood. His Link’s Syndrome is showing a lot less, too, even if he’s not doing so well with the substance abuse. Instead of playing the game of “find the invisible spots,” you will be presented with a crime scene, asked to look at the evidence, and made to chose between a few options based on what you see. At its best, it really is CSI; is that an outward blood pattern, or just a random one? At its worst, you’ll still have to do some tedious searching for invisible spots before you get to analyze. The game even does a good job of covering for you if you don’t relay completely accurate information. God bless you if you’re not playing on an HD TV, though. Ow, eyestrain.
Let's analyze this in the lab while cool music plays in the background. Or we could shoot bullets into blocks of orange gel.
See More Condemned 2: Bloodshot Screenshot at IGN.com
I get the impression that I’m supposed to be dissatisfied by the direction the story took toward the end. Oh wait, I never told you what was going on, did I? Well, even after all the serial killers are gone, the people are still down with the sickness. Rosa (whose character model also changed, but probably due to a makeover instead of a midlife crisis) gets a call from a guy named Vanhorn, who served as a plot catalyst in Criminal Origins. So Ethan and Rosa have to find him and end up coming into conflict with a cult of meanie audiophiles. But back to the issue: plot equals poo? I can’t really hate it, primarily because if you played Criminal Origins to completion, you knew an Ethan vs. Cult showdown was coming in some form or other. To play Bloodshot is to accept that. Upon reflection, though, I’ll admit that there were flaws. We figured out in Criminal Origins that Ethan was a special boy, but he doesn’t seem to be special for the same reasons in Bloodshot. There’s a focus on power manifested through sound that was totally absent in Criminal Origins. Also, some people have impressive survival rates, but I’m not going to nitpick here if I want to stay under three pages.
Early on you find that the poor, perturbed hobos are perturbed because some poo has placed sonic emitters around the city and left them set on the most irritating frequency possible (strange… I didn’t see any in Criminal Origins). So naturally, destroying these devices will make the city more homeless-friendly, right? The truth is that it’s a token gesture, just another optional quest to earn you a good ranking at the end of the level. I distinctly remember two separate instances where I destroyed a sonic emitter with enemies in the vicinity (a rare occasion, for the two to be near each other), and they still attacked me! I count this as an oversight because Monolith set up a nifty cause/effect relationship and then never followed through with it. Instead, the focus remains on the ramped-up combat.
Watching hobos accidentally hit each other and then start fighting is just as funny as it was in Criminal Origins.
See More Condemned 2: Bloodshot Screenshot at IGN.com
Alright, last question of the evening: is it scary? I’m going to answer in the positive again, but I don’t think it’s as effective as Criminal Origins. Monolith nailed the setting and atmosphere down again, but I’m going to posit that Bloodshot owes much of my tensed-up musculature to the fact that I played Criminal Origins so recently (I turned the lights down, too!). The Monolith-brand scaries are much more contained, bottled almost independently of the game proper. You’ll see what I mean if you ever play it. Suffice it to say that the average enemy isn’t that spooky, even when the sound department tries to help them out.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot isn’t a textbook example of a sequel, but I think it’s far from a failure. It switched things around, tried some things differently. Some of it turned out well, some of it fell flat. This is probably the part where I recommend that you rent it or get it at a discount. Or play Condemned: Criminal Origins, if you haven’t yet. I kinda liked it.
Notes:
-*Since when did assault rifle rounds pop people’s heads like balloons? Resident Evil can get away with that, not Condemned.
-Levels grade the player on collectibles found and performance in investigations. An upgrade is awarded, the quality of which depends on your grade.
-Some enemies get a little ridiculous for a game more grounded in gritty reality.
-No, I didn’t try the multiplayer. You’ll have to forgive me.
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