Hobo Killin’ Time
Just recently, as in within the last few days, I beat the 360 game Condemned. Yes, I know, its been a while since it came out, but I saw it in my backlog a few months ago and gave it a try. Yes, I know some people refer to it as “that hobo killing simulator”, and for the most part, they are correct. You kill a lot of homeless people in this game, but it is the context, not the content, that really connected with me. Read on to find out more.
In many ways, Condemned is one of the scariest games I’ve ever played. Look, I’m no wimp. I’ve played every Resident Evil, Silent Hill, have seen the goriest of the gore films, and very rarely have I ever felt truly scared. But it is what this game did best, vulnerability, the fear of something in the dark, that really got to me. Case in point: I’m playing the game, late at night, my roommate is out of town. I have the sound down in my headphones, yet I can still hear everything in the environment. The only weapon I have is a plank with a few scraggly nails in it. I’m slowly walking forward through the dilapidated warehouse when, all of a sudden, a shadow darts in front of me and disappears again into the darkness. See, its doing something like that that provokes true fear, the fear of knowing that some…thing…is out there, that is going to get you, but you don’t know what or where it is. Condemned is packed with these moments, moments of short, sharp terror, and it is because of those that I respect this game as much as I do.
The other thing that I truly have to respect about Condemned is how terrifying it can make regular, ordinary people be. Okay, maybe not ordinary, but there are no zombies, no aliens, nothing outright supernatural about these dudes. They just don’t like you, and want you dead. And you know what? Trapped in a giant abandoned office complex, with several scary homeless people who want me dead and are determined to accomplish that goal, thats scary. Scary in a realistic sort of way, scary in a Texas-chainsaw-massacre kind of way, which, in my humble opinion, is always far more scary than zombies. Zombies may provide some shock value, but for true fear, it has to be plausible, something that can be understood, something real. At least, thats what its like for me. Although, I suppose the Cthulhu mythos is pretty freaky…but thats a subject for another day.
One last thing that I appreciate about Condemned is how welcoming any firearm can seem in the game. Squealing with glee upon finding a 9mm handgun with a few bullets is not out of the ordinary, because it is only then that you feel more powerful than your enemies.
It all hinges on one facet: the inky darkness. Take all of it away, and you’d be left with a really boring hobo-killing simulator, no different from dozens of other games, just with more gore.
I wish more games were made like this. Not killing hobos, but instilling a true sense of fear in the player. When the next-gen of gaming hit, I expected there to be more games like this, but I suppose I was sadly mistaken.
