C
ondemned: Criminal Origins is one of the creepiest single-player games
we’ve ever played. It’s even scarier than FEAR, which is the current high-
water mark in the horror/shooter genre. But like Doom 3, it runs out of new
ideas early, and by the end of the game it’s not scary anymore, just tedious.
You play a forensic specialist in the game, and you’re on the trail of a serial
killer. Not surprisingly, this serial killer hangs out in disgusting, decrepit build-
ings, which you must scour for clues. And naturally, these buildings are filled
with drug-crazed people who want to kill you, while you’re completely unarmed
(you’re a scientist, after all). You have to cull your weapons from the environ-
ment. You can pull conduit off walls, rip rebar from support structures, yank out
steam pipes, or pull down signs. Grab your blunt object, and then use it to bash
in the brains of your attackers. Sometimes, if you beat a lunatic so hard that
he’s almost dead, he’ll fall down on his knees in a stupor, giving you the oppor-
tunity to perform one of four dazzling finishing moves.
Occasionally, you’ll find a loaded pistol or shotgun lying around, which
seems like the answer to your prayers, until you pick it up and realize there are
only a few bullets left in it. Because you can carry only one weapon at a time,
it’s unwise to swap a good melee weapon, such as a fire axe or sledgehammer,
for a gun that will run dry after fighting just one or two people.
Each level has nine hidden objects for you to find: six bird carcasses andthree metal objects. Finding all of the objects is very difficult, but once you do,
you are rewarded with the lamest prize ever—unlocked photos of concept art
from the game. B-O-R-I-N-G. Once we realized that this was all we’d get, we
stopped wasting our time searching for the hidden secrets.
There’s no multiplayer, and there’s not much replayability, either. Our
advice: Wait until this game
hits the bargain bin; then it’ll
be a must-buy.
—JOSH NOREMCondemned:
Criminal Origins
Starts with a bang, ends with a whimper
I
f you’re looking for a sophisticated RTS that innovates and really pushes the
genre forward, The Battle for Middle-Earth II is definitely not for you. BFME II
does away with the often tedious resource-harvesting and unit-and-building
micromanagement mechanics found in most RTS games. You’re limited to just a
few building and unit types per mission (though all can be upgraded) and a very
basic suite of orders that you can issue to your minions.
That said, what this game does really well is deliver the massive, brutal
feel of the epic battles in the films and books. From the start of just about
every mission you will be faced with combat—no sitting back and harvesting
resources and building a massive army here. You will need to defend against
probing raiding parties that grow increasingly powerful—while sending out
your own patrols to establish and defend resource points and pinpoint the
enemy’s. Your goal is the typical “find the enemy base and eradicate it from
the map” variety, which is more exciting than it sounds. In one massive battle,
we destroyed more than 10,000 enemy units before securing victory—10,000
units! What the AI lacks in craftiness, it more than makes up for with over-
whelming numbers, and it will have you on your heels often.
The good and evil single-player campaigns are entertaining and just
challenging enough. The new turn-based War of the Ring mode brings a nice
Risk-style twist to the multiplayer action, too—allowing you to avoid real-time
combat and play an entire game at the tactical level, if you wish.
We’d like to have a much greater level of control over the camera zoom (it’stough to get a good view of large battles and to control flying units), and a bit
more sophistication from the AI. But if you want an RTS that does justice to not
only Tolkien’s books, but also Jackson’s trilogy of films, with stellar graphics,
sound, pyrotechnics, and an adrenaline-pumping level of nonstop,
absorbing action, this sequel
deserves your attention.
—STEVE KLETTThe Lord of the Rings: The
Battle for Middle Earth II
The second time around the RTS block is a charm
reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
84 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2006
We’re about to introduce this guy’s skull to our lead pipe.
Condemned’s brutal melee combat is some of the best we’ve
ever experienced, although the lack of variety gets tiresome.Placing a Watcher in the Water amid a massive force of
defending do-gooders and watching the carnage erupt
makes being evil lots o’ fun.LOTR: BFME II
$50, http://www.ea.com, ESRB: T7
CONDEMNED: CRIMINAL ORIGINS
$40, http://www.condemnedgame.com,
ESRB: M