Get ready to feel extra old, because today is the tenth anniversary of Condemned: Criminal Origins.
No lie, it seriously has been a decade since we got our first taste of the gritty and terrifying world of Condemned. The series hit the ground running its first game, the standout launch title for the Xbox 360 thanks to its satisfying combat — a rare and precious thing in the horror genre — impressive next-gen visuals and a willingness to shock and/or disturb.
It was smart enough that it could’ve only come from a team that possessed a genuine passion for and understanding of the horror genre. Lucky for us, Monolith had spent years honing those skills with F.E.A.R. and the Blood series, with the former being largely responsible for why Condemned played as well as the purebred FPS games it launched alongside.
Take away its fondness for jump scares and Criminal Origins is still a genuinely frightening game. It turned a familiar urban landscape into a nightmarish arena where it’s kill or be killed, with an anti-hero who was about as damaged and violent as the living horrors he was forced to fight.
That sounds about right for a gladiatorial combat game set in a city ruled by anarchy.
This series was never going to end with a happy ending. After seeing Ethan bludgeon a homeless man to death with the pipe he borrowed off the corpse of the guy he had curb-stomped thirty seconds earlier, I’m not even confident who the good guy was in all of it, or if there ever was one.
When it was over, Ethan’s badge felt more like a scarlet letter, a reminder that there were probably more demons inhabiting his broken psyche than there were on the outside.
And sure, you could argue that I’m the monster for making him do those things, but I’m not quite ready to accept that as a personal truth just yet, so for the sake of my own fragile psyche, let’s divvy it up 50/50.
Monolith’s considerable contributions to our favorite genre helped change the landscape of horror to what it is today, but it’s the giddy excitement that can be felt in series like Condemned that will ensure their games will remain on our minds for a very long time.
Now if Condemned 3 would just resurface already, we could finally get rid of the bitter taste left by the bizarre cliffhanger that was Bloodshot’s mind-blowing (literally) final act. That’d be fantastic.
