Check out my new blog header. I made a web signature similar to it a long time ago and never used it for anything, so I thought I should change it up and use it here. What do you think?

Anyways…
I have a few quick things I want to talk about concerning Condemned 2, now that I have beaten the game.

Multiplayer:

I didn’t get a chance to talk about multiplayer in my First Impressions blog since I had yet to play it. Since then I have been hitting up the multiplayer scene and have enjoyed it for the most part. Rather than describe the different modes and what they offer, since most people who care would know that by now, I’ll just give my opinion on it. Condemned 2 multiplayer is a nice change up from your everyday FPS frag fest type of multiplayer. You don’t spend a lot of time jumping around and firing guns or lobbing grenades at your opponents. You actually spend your time in close hand to hand combat, attacking and blocking. Of the four multiplayer modes, Crime Scene and Bum Rush are my favorites. I like the idea of having to search for decapitated heads in ice chests while at the same time being hunted by influenced maniacs bent on my death. Playing the influenced is fun too.. laying the evidence in a dark corner and then hiding myself so the SCU won’t find me, then when they show up to find the box I pop out of the shadows and beat them down with an axe or sledgehammer. Communication and teamwork play a big role in winning C2 multiplayer.





the videos are from youtube, the voice is not me

A few things that I don’t like about the multiplayer are the hosting methods and melee range. Do most multiplayer games have the player themselves host the deathmatch games? Numerous times I was in the middle of a bum rush or crime scene game and the host would drop out or whatever and the whole game would end. It leaves the stability of the multiplayer on the shoulders of the person hosting the game. Not a good idea as far as I know.

The melee range seems a little off to me to. Often I will be running around trying to swing whatever weapon I may be holding at the bum next to me trying to kill him, only to miss for no reason other than apparently being 2 inches away is too far for an axe to go, oh ho but it wouldn’t be too far for the other guys fists to move and kill my ass…oh no. Maybe its lag or whatever, but it just seems off to me.

Linearity:

I do not understand some people’s problem with linear games. I personally do not think that linearity is anything bad. Condemned 2 uses its linearity and gameplay to its advantage. Though C2 is linear, it does have its share of alternate paths that lead to dead ends. No big deal right? Well when you add in the fact that you can’t save whenever you want and the idea that enemies can pop out of anywhere at anytime.. it makes you think twice about heading down any hallway. It also uses its world action events to confuse the player as well. Sometimes you will get lost and end up backtracking trying to find the way out of whatever rundown building you happen to be in, only to realized that you have to climb thru an easily missed hole in the ceiling or something like that. Some people think that C2s use of these WAE are stupid and pointless. In my opinion they are very well used, since they confuse the player, which I would think is the idea of the designer since this is a survival horror game, and makes you scared to retrace your steps in fear of more enemies.

So what the game is linear, so is a maze, that doesn’t make it easy.




FPS Mode:

The greatest idea for survival horror games!! I played C2 thru the first time on hard, and had the brightness setting pretty low so the game was very unsettling and scary to me, I jumped numerous times after enemies would burst thru walls or pass thru a slimy membrane into my dimension. After finally beating down all of people in my way I am awarded the ability to go back thru the game, this time, packing heat. As long as you beat the final level with a gold rating, and get unlimited ammo. This is letting me go back thru all the levels that scared me and let me feeling like I barely made it thru with my skin intact, and just destroy all the bums that gave me such a problem the first time around. Think of it this way...

First Playthru – ‘Man this part is so fucking hard, I am outnumbered like 4 to 1 and have nothing but my fists to defend myself, I’ve died like 40 times on this one part’ (Actually happened to me)

FPS Mode Playthru – Oh I remember this part, those 4 guys are about to… yep here they come… BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM…. Done. Bitches.


Oh, and like the blog header says... Robots!!