Horror games have become more and more infrequent in recent years. Perhaps it’s due to the gradual desensitisation of gamers who think nothing of firing both barrels into the back of a soldier’s head because he’s on the other team, but games are just less scary nowadays. However, there are games out there that will terrify and entertain in equal measure, and I’m writing this feature to celebrate those games that do manage to scare and discuss where many games are going wrong in terms of horror. I thought I’d start off with Condemned: Criminal Origins, because it is undoubtedly horrifying. It is illegal to distribute copies of Condemned in Germany. That is the sort of game we’re dealing with. 

The protagonist, ‘Ethan Thomas’, is an FBI agent with a gift that is never really explained who is forced to go rogue after he is framed for the murder of two police officers whilst investigating a crime scene involving the handiwork of ‘The Match Maker’, a serial killer who murders his victims and then arranges their bodies into situations with manikins. Condemned’s story is rather insubstantial. The game has one incredibly interesting premise (which I won’t spoil) and the rest of the story is a bit of a convoluted mess. Ethan Thomas is never really characterised and as a result, I never really felt close to him as one does with other horror game protagonists like Agent Morgan of Deadly Premonition fame.

Ethan is forced to go in pursuit of the man who murdered the two police officers, and the only person he has to rely upon is his friend, colleague and forensic scientist Rosa, who analyses Ethan’s discoveries for him and aids him in his investigation from the laboratory. When he comes across a crime scene, Ethan can use various tools to investigate and collect evidence from his grizzly finds. For example, at one point Ethan comes across a body that had been severely mutilated, which involved the poor victim having his lips cut off and nailed to a blackboard, and has to scan or photograph bits of the body to send to Rosa who will help him create a profile of who the killer might be. The process of investigation isn’t as tight and focused as some other games like L.A. Noire, but still adds much needed depth and variety to a game that would otherwise simply be a long line of tramps having their heads caved in, which brings me neatly onto the combat.

Using a gun in this game is about as problematic as getting the rabid, foaming hobos charging towards you with a steel pipe in-hand to sit down and talk about their problems, so the combat has a heavy melee focus. The enemies consist mostly of murderous, unwashed tramps who Ethan bludgeons to death with a variety of objects. In many ways, it’s like role-playing as a serial killer who justifies his countless murders with faintly supernatural delusions. It undermines the nobility of Ethan’s cause when he’s trying track down a killer whose murdered five people when he himself has turned four-hundred homeless teenage runaways into hobo pate. The fact that the tramps Ethan brutalises are fleshy humans with eyes and lips and nerves makes you feel guilty as you stare down at their lifeless corpses, although this effect is somewhat marred after you’ve gotten through several hundred of them. Consequently, the game is brimming with moral ambiguity. The combat is rather hard to stomach due to the very intimate first-person perspective. When Ethan smashes a pipe across a tramps face, you can very clearly make out the mixture of blood and teeth that fly from the poor, unfortunates’ mouth, which I think we can all agree is not very tasteful.

The imagery in this game is truly grotesque. An example of this is that dead, rotting birds are dotted through-out the levels as collectables; forget stars or Riddler trophies. Occasionally, Condemned will really knuckle down to make your bodily functions act on their own volition by systematically forcing set-pieces on the reluctant player. You settle into the comfy little routine of viciously slaughtering your fellow man, and then all of a sudden you’re being buried by a thousands dead birds as they crash through the window, or you’re being chased through a shopping mall by static manikins accompanied by a satanic drone.

A key aspect of Condemned that makes the horror so engaging is the fact that the reason the hobos have degraded to mindless psychopaths is withheld. It adds a sinister air of mystery to proceedings, and it is always more frightening to be confronted by the unknown. Also, the subject matter of homeless people being brutally beaten to death in subway stations, and ex-pupils torturing their old gym teachers to death, is too real. You are not wrestling with hellish demons, or blasting straight-forward villains with laser rifles. This is at least until the stupid ending in which all restraint is relinquished for an attempt at an action-packed finish. After a very personal, harrowing experience in a house with a serial killer which had me buried in my duvet covers, gritting my teeth, the game loses all context and atmosphere and before you’ve had a chance to clean your glasses you’re fighting devils on top of a barn. It’s too jarring a shift in tone. It is implied that Ethan is slowly losing his sanity, as anybody would in his position, but the shift between gritty realism and the supernatural is far too sudden. Ironically, the part of the game that was meant to be the most adrenaline enducing and the most terrifying comes across as ridiculous.

Condemned is certainly one of the scariest and most enjoyable games I have ever played. During a set-piece in the mission set in an abandoned shopping mall, I realised that I had never been so terrified in my entire life. It conjures up the kind of fright that revisits you in the dead of night when nature calls, and a game that can have that sort of influence on the player deserves praise and a blood-soaked crown.

I’m a huge horror fan and I want to cover as many terrifying games as possible. If you have any recommendations for games that I could include in my Horror Show feature, please get in touch. Either leave a comment below, or contact me on Twitter or drop me an email at .

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