Condemned
a Delusioned Teenager (2009)
Condemned is an interesting game that’s more interactive story than your typical text adventure, and when I say interactive story I mean more like a short book. I don’t read that fast and it took me two hours to get through about a third of this game, there’s a lot of text with few puzzles to trip you up. If you’re in the mood for a rich story, this is a game for you.
It’s says that it’s written by a Delusioned Teenager, but the writing is excellent and shows the skill of a more accomplished writer. Though for me it was too much to read, slowing the story down to a crawl, I only got through two flashback scenes, and I wished I were able to complete the story before the two hour limit was over. As for the story, it is about being a teenager and that doesn’t appeal to me, I never got into any of the characters, so taking another four hours to finish it just seems like too much. Though after reading a few reviews I think that it would be worth the effort.
Most of the story seems to be told through long flashback scenes, with little interactivity, though you do have to get through one main puzzle in the room the main character is trapped in. But there was no clear direction here. I always felt lost, having no idea what to do next in order to trigger another scene. This whole section needs to be clued better, I found myself turning to the walkthrough way too much in order to find out what I needed to do next. It’s a shame that this is one of the most common problems I find amongst games.
I scored this game a 6. It has a really long story, and to get through it you have to fall in love with the characters. Like in any story. But this game didn't pull me in. It's really well written, but underneath it all it's nothing more than teenage adolescence. Forget the dark oppressive situation. But if those things don’t put you off I think that there’s probably something special here, a story that can touch people.