[00:17] The representation of horror in gaming wore&nbsp; many faces by the advent of the seventh&nbsp;&nbsp; console generation. Developers equipped with a&nbsp; knack for guiding players through terror-laden&nbsp;&nbsp; adventures had covered everything from zombie&nbsp; narratives and psychological horror to tales of&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:32] suspense and the supernatural. For its Xbox 360&nbsp; launch title, Monolith Productions endeavored to&nbsp;&nbsp; explore interactive horror from a different&nbsp; angle, a more brutal, in-your-face point of&nbsp;&nbsp; view teeming with themes about violence and&nbsp; the nuances of human nature. It accomplished&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:48] as much with 2005 s Condemned: Criminal Origins,&nbsp; then pushed the envelope further upon delivering&nbsp;&nbsp; Condemned 2: Bloodshot in 2008. Condemned s claustrophobic setting and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:00] discomforting atmosphere were complimented&nbsp; by then-unparalleled hand-to-hand combat&nbsp;&nbsp; mechanics. And the decision to centralize&nbsp; an FBI agent following the trail of a serial&nbsp;&nbsp; murderer turned what could ve been a&nbsp; typical first-person experience into&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:13] a memorable psychological thriller. Thus,&nbsp; the first Condemned has long enjoyed the&nbsp;&nbsp; status of a revolutionary cult classic,&nbsp; yet many would argue its sequel faded into&nbsp;&nbsp; obscurity not long after hitting the market. Why the second outing failed to garner the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:28] adoration afforded to its predecessor has puzzled&nbsp; series faithful for years. But there were some&nbsp;&nbsp; aspects of Condemned 2 that didn t exactly gel&nbsp; with the path that some assumed the franchise&nbsp;&nbsp; hopes of its potential return linger,&nbsp; Condemned constitutes one horror classic&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:45] that may not get the opportunity to claw its&nbsp; way through the genre s latest renaissance. &nbsp; This is the history of Condemned. &nbsp;
[02:48] Founded in Kirkland, Washington in 1994, Monolith&nbsp; Productions got its feet wet with a host of&nbsp;&nbsp; different interactive experiences. The studio s&nbsp; debut project, Blood, sank players into one of&nbsp;&nbsp; the goriest first-person action adventures of the&nbsp; day. A 2D side-scroller named Claw followed not&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:05] too long thereafter, starring a puzzle-solving&nbsp; pirate cat as the main protagonist. &nbsp; But some of Monolith s most well-known&nbsp; efforts didn t come to fruition until&nbsp;&nbsp; the turn of the century, with the likes of&nbsp; first-person stealth game The Operative:&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:18] No One Lives Forever cementing the development&nbsp; house as a force to be reckoned with. The licensed&nbsp;&nbsp; title T.R.O.N. 2.0 on the original Xbox further&nbsp; boosted the team s reputation, but the developers&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:30] longed to create a different style of game,&nbsp; something more than another action-heavy romp&nbsp;&nbsp; that would allow them to leverage their talents&nbsp; with first-person shooters and storytelling. &nbsp; Coming off a series of action-based endeavors,&nbsp; revisiting the company s horror roots seemed a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:46] step in the right direction. Lead Game Designer&nbsp; Frank Rooke dove into researching horror in today&nbsp;&nbsp; s culture, hoping to find a hook for the studio to&nbsp; latch onto. The designer scoured countless films,&nbsp;&nbsp; books, and headlines in search of a subject that&nbsp; exemplified the creepiest and darkest of all real&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:02] horror. In so doing, he and the team concluded the&nbsp; twisted mind of a serial killer fit the bill. &nbsp; Fleshing out the idea motivated the close analysis&nbsp; of several different aspects of the genre,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:14] each one implemented to present players with&nbsp; unique challenges and opportunities. What&nbsp;&nbsp; Monolith deemed in-your-face horror acted as&nbsp; one type of thrill that would be employed for&nbsp;&nbsp; the project. Such terror emphasized jump scares, a&nbsp; classic clich the creators believed was effective&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:30] when least expected. Threading these scares in&nbsp; so users couldn t anticipate them proved tricky;&nbsp;&nbsp; thus, Monolith reasoned that actions&nbsp; shouldn t always sit at the center of&nbsp;&nbsp; attention in this regard. Some jump scares&nbsp; relied on visual or audio cues as a result. &nbsp;
[04:45] Suspense informed the horror-driven experience as&nbsp; well, as the team found it useful for tweaking the&nbsp;&nbsp; pacing and testing the player s apprehension&nbsp; to conflict. Finally, psychological horror&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:57] played its part by directly influencing user&nbsp; behaviors through hallucinations that blurred&nbsp;&nbsp; the line between imagination and reality. Monolith&nbsp; wanted its carefully orchestrated mind games to&nbsp;&nbsp; also reflect the main character s deteriorating&nbsp; mental state throughout the course of the story. &nbsp;
[05:12] Rooke explained in an IGN interview that these&nbsp; combined efforts supported a vision predicated&nbsp;&nbsp; on an attempt to understand violence. Studio&nbsp; CEO Samantha Ryan elaborated further in the&nbsp;&nbsp; press release accompanying Condemned s&nbsp; announcement, claiming the goal was to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:26] marry a disturbing atmosphere with realistic&nbsp; physics, devious AI, and a sophisticated combat&nbsp;&nbsp; system. While the title arguably achieved these&nbsp; ends in spades, the Condemned that creeped onto&nbsp;&nbsp; store shelves in 2005 did not constitute the game&nbsp; Monolith Productions built from the outset. &nbsp;
[06:01] The Extras content included with Condemned:&nbsp; Criminal Origins boasted behind-the-scenes&nbsp;&nbsp; footage, concept art, and gameplay-related&nbsp; details dating back to the project s incipient&nbsp;&nbsp; production phase. One Extras segment revealed&nbsp; that Condemned originally bore a different name,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:17] The Dark. This version cast players in the role&nbsp; of a disenfranchised FBI agent Agent Cross[a] who&nbsp;&nbsp; scoured the underbelly of a nondescript city&nbsp; for clues about a string of brutal murders&nbsp;&nbsp; that appeared inexplicably linked to him. Leads&nbsp; from an anonymous source would ve led the agent&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:34] s investigation to a deserted youth center, the&nbsp; supposed location of the killer s next victim. &nbsp; Footage from The Extras showcased a lengthy&nbsp; look at The Dark s prototype gameplay[b], which&nbsp;&nbsp; highlighted a few key differences between earlier&nbsp; builds and what would later become Criminal&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:49] Origins. Most notably, the protagonist possessed&nbsp; supernatural abilities that manifested in&nbsp;&nbsp; telekinetic-like skills. At one point in the demo,&nbsp; for example, the federal agent used his powers to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:01] disarm an enemy of their shotgun[c] from several&nbsp; feet away; Condemned merely displayed Ethan Thomas&nbsp;&nbsp; s personal connection to the supernatural as&nbsp; a psychic link to certain killers. Meanwhile,&nbsp;&nbsp; the gender of the agent s forensic specialist&nbsp; and the forensic tool s functional capabilities&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:16] counted among the smaller changes between the&nbsp; two iterations[d]. Larger enemies appeared more&nbsp;&nbsp; unhinged in The Dark, too, indicating the game s&nbsp; impressive AI technology didn t come online until&nbsp;&nbsp; after the concept evolved into Condemned. Monolith s efforts with enemy behavior were&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:32] nothing to scoff at, either. Producer David Hasle&nbsp; noted in a 360 Gamer interview[e] that the company&nbsp;&nbsp; prioritized supplementing combat encounters with&nbsp; chaotic and unpredictable" foes. As a result,&nbsp;&nbsp; the criminals Ethan faced rarely charged&nbsp; on-sight; the enemy design worked such&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:48] that they were more likely to retreat or search&nbsp; for weapons. AI behaviors additionally allowed&nbsp;&nbsp; adversaries to calculate tactical advantages,&nbsp; thereby permitting actions such as breaking&nbsp;&nbsp; lights and seeking out weapons stronger&nbsp; than whatever the protagonist wielded. &nbsp;
[08:02] Once these encounters began in earnest, melee&nbsp; fighting the core of the combat system came&nbsp;&nbsp; into play. Developers acknowledged that most&nbsp; games contemporaneous to Condemned s creation&nbsp;&nbsp; lacked adequate melee mechanics, encouraging&nbsp; an emphasis on making hand-to-hand feel as&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:18] satisfying as dispatching rogues with firearms.&nbsp; That meant taking the time necessary to ensure&nbsp;&nbsp; the impact of trading blows with enemies felt&nbsp; visceral. Visual feedback proved equally integral,&nbsp;&nbsp; so successfully landing strikes often culminated&nbsp; in foes recoiling or spitting out blood. &nbsp;
[08:34] Despite the combat system s intensity, it bore&nbsp; a fairly barebones structure, without combos or&nbsp;&nbsp; inputs that mandated complicated button sequences.&nbsp; Monolith designed the mechanics around basic, raw,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[08:46] and primal types of fights, the thinking&nbsp; being that such a style was appropriate&nbsp;&nbsp; for Condemned s setting the fictional city of&nbsp; Metro whose denizens had suddenly been driven&nbsp;&nbsp; towards madness. This line of thought further&nbsp; explained the average vagrant s crude combat&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:00] skills and their penchant for utilizing whatever&nbsp; weapons lay scattered around the environment. &nbsp; Each detail serviced the game s atmospheric&nbsp; tension and cinematic qualities," providing a&nbsp;&nbsp; psychological thriller unlike anything else in&nbsp; gaming. VP of Entertainment Marketing at Sega,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:16] Scott A. Steinberg[f], claimed the&nbsp; more unique facets of Condemned were&nbsp;&nbsp; previously impossible to realize on&nbsp; older hardware. Criminal Origins,&nbsp;&nbsp; thus, owed its acclaimed intricacies&nbsp; to the power of the Xbox 360. &nbsp;
[09:39] Monolith built Condemned from the ground&nbsp; up for Xbox 360, leveraging its horsepower&nbsp;&nbsp; for the horror title s graphics, gameplay,&nbsp; environments, and mature tone. But targeting&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:54] a release alongside Microsoft s seventh-generation&nbsp; console made for an intense development cycle[g],&nbsp;&nbsp; even with assistance from the platform holder&nbsp; and Monolith s publishing partner, Sega. &nbsp; Speaking with YouTube channel Dead Domain, Frank&nbsp; Rooke revealed the crew only had 15 months to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:11] complete its opus in time for 360 s November 2005&nbsp; debut. In fact, an extreme time crunch weighed so&nbsp;&nbsp; heavily on production that developers conducted&nbsp; very little testing outside of Quality Assurance.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:25] Rooke s claim echoed earlier statements Producer&nbsp; David Hasle made in a pre-launch interview with&nbsp;&nbsp; 360 Gamer[h]. Hasle told the publication Monolith&nbsp; didn t receive 360's final hardware build until&nbsp;&nbsp; five weeks before rolling into certification,&nbsp; a process that ensures software won t brick the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:43] console or run afoul of certain regulations.&nbsp; Consequently, long hours of crunch were&nbsp;&nbsp; required to maintain its scheduled due date. The short deadline additionally forced several&nbsp;&nbsp; ideas to the cutting room floor, chief among them&nbsp; being a planned cooperative mode. Setting aside&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:59] resources for the multiplayer component would ve&nbsp; significantly stifled progress on the campaign,&nbsp;&nbsp; the very reason Criminal Origins&nbsp; has long been held in high regard. &nbsp; Sega published the unsettling horror experience&nbsp; in November 2005 to reviews that deemed it a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:14] harrowing journey worth taking for fans&nbsp; and non-fans of the genre. The enemy AI,&nbsp;&nbsp; stunning visuals, and unnerving sound design blew&nbsp; away critics and players alike. Condemned s melee&nbsp;&nbsp; mechanics garnered high marks, too, with some&nbsp; counting The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:30] from Butcher Bay as its only rival in terms of&nbsp; first-person hand-to-hand combat. And an absence&nbsp;&nbsp; of reprieve from tension amplified the immersion&nbsp; to the degree that many forgave Condemned s flaws.&nbsp;&nbsp; Yet, its shortcomings still hampered the&nbsp; adventure because of subpar story presentation,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:46] overly basic forensic investigations, dull level&nbsp; design, and the lingering threat that a few&nbsp;&nbsp; reviewers felt lacked a satisfactory payoff. Not unlike other studios, Monolith gave the&nbsp;&nbsp;
[11:58] criticism much thought and mulled over how&nbsp; best to augment the series for a subsequent&nbsp;&nbsp; entry. The result came across as a sequel that,&nbsp; in overcorrecting its predecessor s faults,&nbsp;&nbsp; lost sight of the brand identity&nbsp; it tried so hard to expand. &nbsp;
[12:33] Criminal Origins, targeting a&nbsp; two-year development cycle and&nbsp;&nbsp; Fall 2007 release window. The process&nbsp; began with a hard look at critiques,&nbsp;&nbsp; which informed the core areas developers&nbsp; wanted to tackle for Condemned 2: Bloodshot,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[12:49] namely deeper combat mechanics and less&nbsp; claustrophobic play spaces. &nbsp; Work on the latter kicked off early in the&nbsp; pre-production phase, with level theming&nbsp;&nbsp; centered on figuring out the best new environments&nbsp; for the sequel. According to Senior Level Designer&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:03] Jonathan Stein, designing maps that formed a&nbsp; cohesive whole didn t exactly sit at the top of&nbsp;&nbsp; Monolith s list of priorities. Staffers pitched&nbsp; locations that appeared in the final product&nbsp;&nbsp; if they grew popular enough internally.&nbsp; Once the environments were settled on,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:18] threading the story in and around them took&nbsp; precedent next. Senior World Designer Casey&nbsp;&nbsp; Burpee told Dead Domain the building blocks behind&nbsp; this pieced-together structure were proposals for&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:30] scary environmental situations, such as the&nbsp; Walker Doll Factory level. Attempts to fit in&nbsp;&nbsp; interesting scenarios became the name of the game&nbsp; whenever someone brought forth a chilling idea. &nbsp;
[13:42] This approach worried those who thought Condemned&nbsp; 2 would feel erratic and incoherent in the hands&nbsp;&nbsp; of players. On the other hand, the notion that&nbsp; the sequel s perceived incoherence played into&nbsp;&nbsp; its narrative s strangeness offered some&nbsp; semblance of comfort, especially when&nbsp;&nbsp;
[13:56] considering the questionable mental state&nbsp; of returning protagonist Ethan Thomas. &nbsp; In spite of its rather rudimentary qualities,&nbsp; players by and large were fond of the fighting&nbsp;&nbsp; mechanics in Criminal Origins. The crew at&nbsp; Monolith knew they could do better, however,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:10] and established grander ambitions when crafting&nbsp; Condemned 2: Bloodshot, endeavoring to build&nbsp;&nbsp; responsive and satisfying gameplay. Obsessive&nbsp; iteration on Ethan s combat abilities culminated&nbsp;&nbsp; in the addition of varied gunplay options, combo&nbsp; chains, and hand-to-hand attacks that didn t force&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:26] the use of accessories like the first game. Condemned s reconstructed gunplay mechanics,&nbsp;&nbsp; in particular, were what Producer Martin Caplan&nbsp; described[j] as low cost implementation since&nbsp;&nbsp; Bloodshot ran on the same engine that powered&nbsp; Monolith s FPS horror series, FEAR. Still,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:42] melee combat remained at the heart of Condemned,&nbsp; necessitating regular testing that one staffer&nbsp;&nbsp; facilitated by designing a combat pit wherein&nbsp; developers could experiment with the mechanics.&nbsp;&nbsp; Animation Lead Richard Lico recalled that the&nbsp; combat multiplier must ve been derived from&nbsp;&nbsp;
[14:57] these playtesting sessions. In addition to&nbsp; laying the groundwork for the melee system,&nbsp;&nbsp; the combat pit also informed the creation of&nbsp; Condemned 2 s Fight Club, a survival mode where&nbsp;&nbsp; players could test their skills against whichever&nbsp; vagrants they encountered during the campaign. &nbsp;
[15:11] As Senior Producer Constantine Hantzopoulos[k]&nbsp; explained while speaking with GameReactor,&nbsp;&nbsp; the combat system itself was based on&nbsp; four separate pillars the first being&nbsp;&nbsp; what Criminal Origins lacked, good old fashioned&nbsp; fisticuffs. Weapons of opportunity like bricks&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:26] and pipes strewn throughout the environment made&nbsp; up the second layer. Though players could pick up&nbsp;&nbsp; similar weapons in the original, the ability to&nbsp; throw them in Bloodshot added an exciting twist.&nbsp;&nbsp; Attack and defense chains elevated the&nbsp; moment-to-moment action, as well. Typically,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:40] enemies in Condemned attacked Ethan one or two at&nbsp; a time; the sequel saw upwards of five foes swarm&nbsp;&nbsp; the character, requiring the use of vicious,&nbsp; bone-breaking moves" in quick succession to&nbsp;&nbsp; keep them at bay. Environmental finishing moves&nbsp; comprised the fourth and final combat pillar,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[15:55] inviting users to perform finishers of&nbsp; their choosing on downed opponents. &nbsp; Much like Criminal Origins, the brutality on&nbsp; display in Condemned 2 wasn t for the faint of&nbsp;&nbsp; heart. But even while pushing the boundaries in&nbsp; this regard, Monolith Productions took care not&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:10] to veer into Mortal Kombat fatality territory.&nbsp; The studio, thus, worked closely with the ESRB,&nbsp;&nbsp; the ratings board s watchful eye keeping the&nbsp; developers in check about any potential red&nbsp;&nbsp; flags. Since violence held more purpose this&nbsp; time around, the combat represented only one&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:25] part of the franchise that developers&nbsp; felt a need to completely makeover. &nbsp; Internally, developers were divided about&nbsp; the next evolutionary step for Ethan Thomas,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:38] as some believed the character failed to hit&nbsp; the mark in Criminal Origins. Correcting this in&nbsp;&nbsp; Condemned 2 meant darkening the game s tone and&nbsp; giving the protagonist an added layer of depth,&nbsp;&nbsp; specifically in the mold of flaws that manifested&nbsp; as alcoholism and anger management issues. Still&nbsp;&nbsp;
[16:55] reeling from the events of Condemned, a&nbsp; descent into madness further hounded him&nbsp;&nbsp; throughout the sequel, forcing Ethan&nbsp; and the player to question reality. &nbsp; The new direction opened the door for fantastical&nbsp; elements, with government conspiracy theories&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:09] taking precedent over investigating deranged&nbsp; serial killers. It all coalesced into an&nbsp;&nbsp; experience that bore superficial commonalities to&nbsp; the original, the darker tone and newly affixed&nbsp;&nbsp; fantastical themes stretching the brand into&nbsp; uncharted territory. But for the paradigm shift&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:25] to succeed, the lead character had to reflect&nbsp; these changes hence Monolith s replacing Greg&nbsp;&nbsp; Grunberg as Ethan s voice actor, though Senior&nbsp; Producer David Hasle claimed the Heroes star did&nbsp;&nbsp; express an interest in reprising the role. Hasle&nbsp; explained in an IGN Q&amp;A that a darker turn with&nbsp;&nbsp;
[17:41] Ethan" stimulated the need for a voice that better&nbsp; represented that edgy darkness. Developers and&nbsp;&nbsp; fans would later resent this decision, however. Bloodshot landed on PS3 and Xbox 360 in March&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:01] 2008, reviewing just as well as[l] Criminal&nbsp; Origins if not better in some cases. The&nbsp;&nbsp; overhauled combat and improved forensics&nbsp; with its accompanying rewards system were&nbsp;&nbsp; the highlights of the experience for most. Even&nbsp; the multiplayer component, which Monolith added&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:15] later in production to keep users invested&nbsp; long-term, proved a winner amongst critics and&nbsp;&nbsp; players. Impressions of the narrative and Ethan&nbsp; s evolution between games were divided at best;&nbsp;&nbsp; interestingly enough, the development&nbsp; crew also seemed split on the matter. &nbsp;
[18:30] Richard Lico shared with Dead Domain&nbsp; his retrospective realization that the&nbsp;&nbsp; fantastical-driven themes didn t mesh all too&nbsp; well with the Condemned universe. The animator&nbsp;&nbsp; further divulged that some of his colleagues&nbsp; resisted the changes directed at Ethan,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:43] thinking the protagonist had become too&nbsp; different for the sophomore effort. &nbsp; To the chagrin of many, a third chance to expand&nbsp; upon the horror series never materialized. Most&nbsp;&nbsp; staffers either joined FEAR 2 s production&nbsp; or exited the studio after shipping Condemned&nbsp;&nbsp;
[18:58] 2. By most accounts, there weren t any serious&nbsp; attempts to begin work on a third Condemned. Yet,&nbsp;&nbsp; Monolith co-founder and former CEO Jace Hall,&nbsp; who reportedly conceptualized ideas for two&nbsp;&nbsp; more entries during Bloodshot s development, once&nbsp; expressed hopes of seeing the franchise revived.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:13] Because he owned the Condemned IP, the industry&nbsp; veteran penned a Facebook message in January 2015&nbsp;&nbsp; about potentially licensing the property to an&nbsp; interested and proven indie development team. The&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:25] arrangement would ve given fans a much-coveted&nbsp; third installment, while providing a smaller&nbsp;&nbsp; crew with the opportunity to apply their&nbsp; vision to the reawakening of a beloved IP. &nbsp; Whether or not Hall ever entered negotiations&nbsp; on such a partnership remains unknown,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:39] but nothing concrete came of the proposition&nbsp; regardless. The future of Condemned continues&nbsp;&nbsp; to dangle in the wind, hanging on by the&nbsp; cult status of Criminal Origins because&nbsp;&nbsp; Bloodshot never received a PC port and&nbsp; remains unplayable on modern PlayStation&nbsp;&nbsp;
[19:54] and Xbox hardware[m]. But that cult status has&nbsp; given the brand a lot of mileage over the years,&nbsp;&nbsp; guaranteeing the harrowing terrors of Criminal&nbsp; Origins, in particular, won t soon fade memory.