Bloodclot or Bloodshot? Either works.
GOOD: the strong story from the first Condemned fizzles a bit in this second installment. It’s a year later and a dejected, homeless and broken Ethan Thomas is called back to duty to help investigate a distressed call from his old mentor. The storyline itself isn’t too bad and actually kept me entertained. Also this new game allows for the one thing the last game didn’t. MULTIPLAYER! who doesn’t love multiplayer, zombies LOVE multiplayer so I LOVE MULTIPLAYER! Did I say it enough, I think so. Multiplayer was the greatest thing that could have been added to this game. This brought the game a whole new level of awesome, an awesome which allowed me to bludgeon my friends with bats and boards. Oh and as a side note the graphics are pretty dang good too. I didn’t want to forget the graphics since the first one was kind of like playing a movie.
BAD: Playing this game and the first one you learn things about Ethan Thomas. Players learn that Ethan is something of an Adept, at first minimal instinctual skills and a few spidey senses. The second installment would have you believe that suddenly Ethan can deal massive amounts of violence to his foes using his voice. I’m sorry but Muad’Dib Ethan is not. I just think that that’s as far fetched as it can get. Along the same lines the weapons in this game are far more fragile than the last. Hardly a fight goes by that your weapon don’t break and force you to melee fight with four or five bad guys. More on melee later, right now I would like to talk about alcohol. That’s right alcohol, Apparently Ethan is an alcoholic and needs enough booze to fuel a three day kegger to aim straight. If your not constantly getting alcohol you might as well drop the gun and resort to good old hand to hand.
UGLY: The fighting on this game was atrocious. If it wasn’t for the absolute mindless fury I was dealing with at the time I would have ditched this game. The controls for punching are a lot like fight night 2 and include a few surprises. The combos are far from simple and don’t start of very basic. It took me two controllers three nights and an entire bottle of jack daniels (for me not Ethan) to get past the first level. Although that being said once you get the hang of everything, things start to go smoother. Another thing to bother me about this game was the violence. The second installment of condemned lost a bit of its fear and suspense and develed a bit too deeply into a manhunt type bloodbath. Instead of traveling through extremely dark abandoned department stores and wondering when the bovine manure was going to strike the proverbial oscillating device, you’re now just charging through waves and waves of bloodthirsty drug zombies. Now charging through endless waves of zombies with nothing but a machete and a flashlight is indeed my own little version of heaven, but nevertheless the game suffers. The ending of the game allows for a third installment and good lord I hope it’s a good one.
