Condemned: Criminal Origins Reviews

Game is good, shame it runs pretty crappy on modern hardware :(

refunded, its really hard to work on modern machine

If you like a game where you are mostly running around grabbing specific melee weapons to use on doors, this is the game for you. You can't reload but the enemies can. If this was initially released as a VR game, it would make a bit more sense but it wasn't, clearly the developers hurried through this and couldn't tie any of the elements together before the release date. 80% of the action is clicking the mouse button at the right time while the character solves most of the "puzzles" for you. In fact there is only one puzzle to solve in the entire game and after 30 seconds if you are still walking around Rosa tells you what to do anyways. All of your investigative tools are operated by a single button and instead of you choosing the right tool at the right place you are just supposed to press one button for all of it when prompted. There are no non-player characters to make any of the environments immersive. Literally everyone is trying to kill you with no explanation as to what their backgrounds may be nor why they look exactly alike. At some point you get zombies, and why not, you are beating zombies for some reason now. At the very end of the game there is a vague reference to a cult being behind it all but where are the rest of the inhabitants of this city nobody can say. If you like collecting dead birds and pieces of metal and riding a dumpster while wildly clicking through a game mindlessly you'll like this game.

Game's visuals is dated, and the story is forgettable, but the combat is fun and surprisingly fun, scrambling for the few guns in the levels and racing against you enemies to grab it is always thrilling, but what I like most about the game is the eerie silence between the moments of combat and detective work. There are a few jumpscares, but the game earns it by giving horror blue balls. You always have that feeling that you're never safe, that there's someone around the corner or behind a door and does it in a completely natural way without it being cheap. Also you get to beat up the homeless

This game is an absolute horror classic. If you want an ominous and sometimes supernatural thriller experience, then look no further. However, on modern systems you may encounter hiccups such as random fps drops. I fixed my issue with this by setting the resolution to 1920x1080. I do not know why but this fixed the issue for me and hopefully this helps someone with a similar issue as well.

The game is fairly dated and could benefit from a remake/remaster. Still enjoyed it more than most modern slop games. Make sure you check PC Gaming Wiki for a link to install an upscaled texture pack and fixes. Also read on the Nexus page for the texture mod to delete some problematic files.

Sadly, I cannot recommend it to people on modern hardware. While the game itself is a classic, I'll have to give this version, specifically, a thumbs down. This is going to be hardware specific, but on modern machines, it's completely unplayable in its current state - at least it was for me. When I first booted up the game, I was getting around 250-ish fps (which in of itself seems pretty low, considering its age), but it would then gradually get lower and lower until it would hover around 30-40 fps, and when moving around, it would drop even lower. I also experienced visual and auditory glitches.

Truly a masterclass in horror! I actually remember playing the first hour or so on my old Xbox 360, and despite not being able to really grasp the game because of being kind of too young and scared to be playing a game like this one (lol), and also because of a language barrier, I never forgot how effective Condemned: Criminal Origins' atmosphere was. I think this game is probably one of the main reasons I've become so interested in the "urban horror" genre, where the atmosphere feels mostly grounded and tangible. The level design is great, if not amazing. It makes the exploration of these abandoned warehouses, libraries, apartments, train stations, and malls feel really tense and immersive. The sound design is something I truly did not remember being this good. The ambience has a really hostile and unsettling soundscape, it feels really heavy on the ears (which is a great thing for a horror game lol!). One of my favourite sections of the game had these enemies who would camouflage themselves as mannequins, and hearing someone whisper in the background and not knowing where it came from is such a small thing but so effective. It just really shows how much thought was put into the atmosphere. Also, I'm kind of a lover of slightly older graphics early to mid-2000s-esque visual quality, so I'm not sure if I am the most reliable person to say this, but I LOVE the visual style and art direction of this game. The way the flashlight lights the environment, the film grain on the camera, the use of kind of slightly futuristic equipment to aid in the investigation sections, and the BlackBerry-looking cell phone are so cool! It all kind of makes this feel like some kind of sick and twisted Law & Order episode. About the gameplay, I think it's fine. It serves its purpose well! My only complaint would be the hitboxes; sometimes I kind of felt some hits were BS (maybe the high FOV I set up f*cked my perspective up—unfortunately, low FOV makes me kind of dizzy, so what could I do?). The movement is kind of annoyingly slow sometimes, but I get it, you shouldn't be sprinting through the levels in the first place. Also, the pacing is really good; I never felt "tired" while playing it and always felt like the chapters ended and started just in the right place. Not to sound a little too pretentious, but Condemned: Criminal Origins is truly one of the few games that actually made me feel scared while playing it. The dread of not knowing if a crackhead is going to appear from nowhere and just hit you in the face with a f*cking steam pipe is truly something. Overall, I'm glad I am finally able to experience this game in all its glory, even if it took me more than 10 years (sorry!). Truly an underrated gem—it's a shame not a lot of people talk about Condemned.

Condemned: Criminal Origins is a classic first person horror game that still holds up today. Its gameplay is fun, if a bit repetitive and a bit challenging. The graphics have aged a bit, but not so much as to make the game unplayable. The horror aspects are still effective and the story is interesting to follow along. My only real complaint is that the sequel, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, is not listed on Steam for purchase. Hopefully one day that changes as I much preferred its combat system.

Needs a lot more gameplay variety in order to be a classic, and I really think the taser overall severely damages the game as it trivialises many enemies and has infinite use, but the atmosphere and visuals are top notch, and I applaud its grimy brutality and originality. Some puzzle solving and a much better story would’ve gone a long way to fulfilling this game’s potential. Also the main menu theme is an all-time great.