Obviously, there's more to a game than a name. In Condemned, you take the role of Ethan Thomas who is a member of the SCU (Serious Crimes Unit) dispatched to a particularly grisly crime scene. Your job is to work with the forensics lab and the police to try and find out which psychopath is behind the gruesome murders. The first cut-scene takes you to the start of the game where you are shown the way to one of the bodies of the victims tied up with a rusty chain. Utilising forensic tools to uncover clues, Condemned is both an FPS and thinking game tied up in one psychotically charged package.

The combination of thinking and shooting is definitely something that takes getting used to. As you gather evidence and send your findings through to the forensics lab via cell phone, some creepy, drug addicted fiend is walking around on the floor above you. This game is extremely unpredictable - exactly what you need to get the adrenalin pumping. One moment you're sending through data on your cell phone, the next you're taking out drugged-up vagrants in leather masks. At times, this can be a little disorientating, especially if you're accustomed to rushing through targets and moving through missions and objectives quickly. Condemned is definitely not that type of game. You need to be able to think and shoot, sometimes all at once.

Condemned has a few familiar features such as objectives to achieve set up as chapters in the game. You can easily toggle between game options and your objectives list whenever you need to. The keyboard mappings in the game are also important so go over these before you start. The 'T' and 'E' keys will become very familiar as you progress, especially when gathering evidence. Remember, you're not just there to kill thugs along the way and hunt down the bad guy – you're actually part of a team of people trying to solve the crime.

Navigation in the game is also crucial to your character's survival. The environment is dark and visibility is important. Using your flashlight will definitely help but in an abandoned building with a couple hundred rooms, the killer could be anywhere. You can't strafe as such, and you can't really look around corners which limits what your character can do physically. You need to find ways to combat these limitations by being more cautious, which can definitely slow down the game considerably. Throughout the game, you will also encounter scenes that seem to play like flashbacks in your character's mind. A little too much like the flashback scenes in FEAR for our liking, but still, scary as hell all the same.