Fear is not something that most people actively go chasing, and yet horror texts are a large part of our day to day life. It’s that whole feeling of controlled fear, the ability to let oneself descend into a world of savagery, sickness and madness, yet always feeling safe in the knowledge that the real world is only a button press away, that allows us to immerse ourselves in these somewhat disturbing flights of fantasy. Whatever the reason, Condemned is a rare treat for those who like their games to give them that thrill.

Appearing as one of the launch titles on the Xbox360, Condemned was somewhat overshadowed by it’s more glittering, media friendly brethren. Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Call of Duty 2 took all the attention and discussion. Condemned seemed to have been sidelined due to its lack of multiplayer, it’s grim faced protagonists and it’s lack of bombast. This really was something of a shame, because sat at Condemned’s black heart was one of the most intriguing and downright visceral experiences the new console provided.

Drawing its inspiration from games such as Silent Hill and The Chronicles of Riddick, and films such as Seven, Condemned casts you in the shoes of FBI agent Ethan Thomas, and places you in the very dark world of serial killers and ritual slaughter. As you can probably presume, this game is not for the faint of heart, and it uses the raw grunt of the new console to keep you in a state of fear and anxiety throughout the eight to ten hours it’ll take you to plumb its dark depths.

But we’ll come to its story in a little while. Condemned’s primary selling point is its brutal combat. Running with the baton put down in Riddick and Breakdown on the Xbox, Condemned forces you into close up melee combat with it’s gallery of hoods, freaks and psychopaths. Ever wondered what it would be like to beat someone round the skull with a 2x4 with some rusty nails in it, or be on the receiving end of a mad axe wielding hobo? If so, then Condemned will fit right in your tailpipe.

Most games that hold with the first person viewpoint keep opponents at a goodly distance and place many kinds of firearms in your hands to deal with them. From assault and sniper rifles to pistols, shotguns and crossbows, the violence is nearly all some distance away. Not so in Condemned. The game rarely offers you a gun of any kind, forcing you to wield bits of wood, pipes, axes, shovels, sledgehammers and even locker doors as you face up to its denizens.

Enemies are also superbly well animated, their size and movement carrying a real sense of weight and reality. Knock someone away and they may just use the momentum to spin right round and launch an attack of their own. The enemy AI is also pretty decent, with them running off to find cover and launch a surprise attack if they’re getting a sound beating, or blocking your blows and swiftly dealing a counter blow if you’re not careful.

Still, no first person game would be wholly complete without a few firearms, but even here in familiar territory Condemned again differs from the norm. There are no ammo pick ups and no reloads. What bullets you find in the weapon is all you get. Headshots take down anybody and a blast from a shotgun or a rifle will also incapacitate most enemies. But when the bullets run dry, it’s time to turn that gun around and use it as club, and prey to god that it doesn’t break in two when going toe-to-toe with some lunatic. Ethan also has his trusty taser at his side as well. This is useful for stunning opponents and allows you to nip in and steal their weapon off them. It won’t kill anyone, but it can get you out of a tight spot. But be careful, because after every use it takes about ten seconds to recharge, and if you have more than one enemy coming at you…

This gives the game a much more raw, powerful feeling than most first person games. You have to get in close to your enemies, mix it up with them and the brutal crunch of wood or metal on bone is all the more jarring because of it. The rumble of the pad as another blow lands has rarely felt so wince inducing. Yet when you’re trading blows with some psycho in an abandoned subway station, his grunts and muffled curses spewing from your speakers, it’s all you can do not to cheer when he goes down and you breathe a massive sigh of relief as the tension drains away. This is Condemned at its primal best, and when it’s playing to these strengths, it’s something wholly special.

Still, all this violence without some premise to set it in would be rather pointless and play somewhat into Jack Thompson’s hands a little. Unfortunately, this is where Condemned does fall down somewhat. The story, such as it is, is both too much and too little. The game starts with you tracking down a Serial Killer called the Matchmaker and very soon you have been framed for the murder of the two policemen investigating the crime scene with you. From there it quickly spirals into multiple threads about a serial killer killer, a two hundred year old cult, an epidemic of violence spreading through the unnamed city, some kind of gene/surgical modification performed on our hero and something to do with a supernatural entity that has been at the heart of all the violence.

Only a couple of these threads actually come to any kind of conclusion, and don’t really seem to tie into each other. Characters you meet in the game seem to be moving the story along when they appear, but by the end of have just added more questions into the mix. It’s a frustrating affair, and it seems that either Monolith didn’t really know in which direction to take the game or it was rushed to get it out the door for the launch day. Either way, it’s a shame that the game wasn’t simplified to just tell a simple tale of brutal combat and serial killers. It is possible that Monolith had an eye on a sequel and the ending certainly does hint at one as it quite frankly makes very little sense. Not in the way that the Silent Hill games hide their stories beneath layers of clever symbolism and imagery, but just in a way that will simply have you saying, “What the Fuck?” and probably turning the game off in a huff.

Still, Condemned is one scary ride for those willing to take the plunge into it’s sick world. It’s a linear ride for sure, but the sense of being constantly pushed onwards works in this instance. Like some twisted parade, there is only one way to go in Condemned, and that direction is downwards into more and more darkness and terror.

Like the Silent Hill games before it, Condemned’s world is a nasty place. The title alludes not only to yourself, hunted and condemned for the murder of the two policemen, but also refers to the environments you’ll find yourself creeping slowly through. From the opening abandoned tenement block, through subways, a horrendously chilling department store, a school, a library and the final showdown at somewhere not even the Blair Witch would take residence, Condemned’s location are finely wrought pieces of terror and abandonment. Populated by a cast of sick freaks from crazed tramps to almost zombie like creatures, it’s world is not somewhere you want to find yourself in. Thrown into all this are some excellent set pieces, cranking the terror-meter way past eleven. It actually can get too much at times and may actually make you want to stop playing. You’ll jump at your own shadow, at the sound of a bottle being knocked away by your feet, of the rustle of the wind, and then in the darkness you’ll hear something scamper away…

As it stands at the moment, Condemned is the only horror title available on the 360 so stands alone for those wanting something a bit more visceral from the machine. It is a shame that the story just doesn’t quite excel as other areas of the game, but it’s a small matter when set against the rest of it. For it’s short time period, Condemned will scare you on more than one occasion, will make you jump and will give you thoughts about 2x4’s and sledge hammers you may never have had before. It’s not a pretty sight, but Condemned is a game worth investing in.