Condemned 2: Bloodshot. I’m really liking this game, so far. But, there’s one problem — it’s scary, and I’m a total wuss.
Since beginning C2:B, I’ve been scared shitless on a pretty regular basis, and through the use of the transitive property I’ve been spouting out more unnecessarily profane sayings that may make small children and the elderly cry, pretty regularly as well.
The sound design is absolutely amazing. There were moments that I had to stop moving and look around to make sure everything is safe because I thought I heard something. Now, that’s not too special, but when it’s accomplished without visual hints or anything and exclusively by sound, now that’s special.
And although the sound plays a big part in the atmosphere of the game. Visuals are as dark and gritty as you’d expect. The atmosphere mostl get its job done by pure design — for example, at some point you’ll see a crazed bum run across a hall in front of you, and what it does is make you aware of his prescence, and if you’re like me at all, it’ll make you think twice about going down that certain hall. And to me, that’s the very essence of a horror game.
Although, arguably the biggest addition to the atmosphere is the sound from the voice acting to just a tv sitting in a room emmitting white noise, and everything in between — it all comes together to form one cohesive piece of entertainment that has managed to continuously scare me for the three hours that I’ve spent with it.
There was one specific moment that I won’t spoil, but after it ocurred I just had to get up and walk away from my TV.
It wasn’t a cheap “BOO!” scare either, the game succeded in making me feel paranoid by making me genuinely believe that there was something in that room that was making a concerted effort to fuck with me right before killing me and making me aware of it, throughout.
And thus far, I’ve liked the little CSI sequences that break-up all of the killing, which may I mention is the absolute best impleminatation of first-person melee I’ve ever seen.
The real longevity of the game will be determined with how well they can break up the scares as well as introduce new ones, because the scariest part of that which is unknown, s the fact that it is unknown. Once you know what it actually is and when you get to the point in which scares are easily predictable, once you see/experience something in full it ceases to be quite so scary.
And to tie-up some loose ends: Lost is still awesome (surprise!), DMC4 lost me halfway through — fucking backtracking, and Cindy and I are feeling much better.
Back to procrastinatin’.
Leave a Reply