Gameplay, Environment,...Cliches - Condemned 2

Abstract: Condemned does a really good job of connecting its levels together, revealing an evil, over-arching organization in parts, and is a really enjoyable experience in its combat but suffers in its cliches and shallow character development

One of the most compelling things about videogames is that you create a world entirely from scratch. The story, the environment, and the way the player is supposed to interact with said environment (or in other words lead the player's life) all come from human ingenuity.
Well...more or less...a lot of videogames rely on cliches but not in all elements. I have not played the original Condemned, but I find the combat in this game amazingly innovative. It is not usual in videogames to use a first-person perspective in a game that relies mostly on melee. Escape from Butcher Bay did it, and F.E.A.R. (I just learned that the same stuido made F.E.A.R and Alien Vs. Predator 2 as well. They seem to make freaky games) had melee options that were really cool like sliding kick tackles, but Condemned relies on it and combat is hard because of it. When you hit your opponent, just like you, he or she will only be momentarily stunned, and then hit right back, so a lot of time in combat is spent trying to figure out how to counter the opponent's incoming attack with a punch or parry the attack while simultaneously linking up your attacks in a specific order to do a devastating combo attack so that you can build up power to use even more powerful chain attacks that slam an opponent down, break his or her legs and arms (which they then fix in front of you if you leave them alone!), or straight off snap an opponent's neck after slamming them to the ground. Weapons come from everywhere (OH MY GOD! I've always wanted that!) and include such notables as Baseball Bats, gumball machines, foozeball rods, and Blow-Up Dolls, and no that's not the dirty kind. Guns are also available, and actually really really helpfully decrease the difficulty, but ammo is very limited. The ammo in the gun is all you get. You can replace bullets in the clip if other people are using the same gun, but if you can't find that, you better conserve. Shots also hurt like a bitch (until you get a flak jacket upgrade), so one of the tensest moments in the game for me was intermittently popping out from cover, trying to kill a man armed with a shotgun while I only had bricks to throw. Killing him rewarded me with a large badass to fight...big, bad motherfucking badass.

In addition to combat, you also are responsible for choosing the most correct answer to several multiple-choice questions based off crime scenes and presented information. Example: So you've found a dead person. What kind of dead person is it? Look around, see a nice ass, and you can correctly identify the dead person as a female. They use this "Study Evidence" system for most things that are not combat, even defusing a bomb, and its use often requires looking at things you didn't want to see in the first place like a torture cage constantly shocking the head of a homeless person or the hollowed-out corpse of your character's friend.
So, the environment is pretty dark, made worse by the fact that everyone is out to get each other. For some reason, the entire city has gone mad, turning everyday salary men into vicious street fighters, but strangely they seem to be directed in certain areas...
The levels are amazing, and I never felt bored with where I was. Environments range from a hunting lodge in the woods (where you are periodically attacked by a large animal) to a trash dump to a hotel to the crazed hallucinations of your character's alcoholic mind.
So, Condemned 2 delivers in a whole bunch of ways. I was often scared. I was often disgusted. I was often hooked, but despite Condemned 2 delivering in the most important ways for overall playability and enjoyment, it suffers from cliches and shallow character development in its story, minus the serial killer, WHO SCARES THE FUCK OUT OF ME because his sadism looks sane, and the final boss for his inability to provide closure. The voice-actor for the main character blows and there's little to him besides his alcoholism and predilection to violence. Anger and vengeance primarily motivate his actions, and he grows out of his alcoholism by the end of the game, but circumstance puts him in the position to save the world rather than some noble need to protect the world. His helper, Rosa, has little to no personality. Her motivations are completely absent.
By creating an over-arching chaos scenario, you paint yourself in the corner somewhat. Condemned 2's total breakdown of society requires a large event such as a character's total break from reality (Silent Hill 2...whoops...retroactive spoiler alert!); a harrowing outside event that completely changes the norms of society (like the nuclear holocaust of Fallout 2), some supernatural event, or some other organization's directed plan to re-arrange society.
Despite several supernatural elements, Condemned 2 chooses an organization that has high-up connections in society to cause its chaos, and this is good for them because it gives them lease to make another game, and I would definitely like to play a third game because I am drawn to the serial killer character and curious to see how you would take down such an organization (presumed to involve the president) using only your fists and forensic evidence.
Zero Punctuation forgot to mention that he's a bitter, old coot, and that this game is goddamn great if you take the story with a grain of salt.

i personally would like to see a world where consuMerist ociety began to drive people crazy, which haS kinda been done, or just a world where the increased interconnectedness of people due to (g)lobalization caused the human' collective unconscious to Break and we lost everything, even language. That would be fun.

LyBoJo