The technology behind the death

Visuals and sound are something of a letdown. Although the claustrophobic, dark settings do a great job of establishing a creepy mood, all of the levels are so rusted and run down that I sometimes felt like I was spending the entire game wandering through one great big abandoned factory. Just about everything looks the same, which gives every scenario an identical vibe whether you’re exploring a haunted doll factory, an old hotel, or plain old burned-out city streets. It’s a legitimately spooky vibe nonetheless, but it would have been nice if Bloodshot had mixed things up a little bit and tossed a few curveballs with more unexpected scenery, or even a little more color.

Audio is also a touch too austere. Music lends the game a great sense of unease early on through the use of sparse tonal effects that work on your nerves like fingernails on a blackboard. These tunes remained pretty much the same through the entire game, however, so I soon got so accustomed to them that their initially unnerving qualities vanished. Many of the 5.1 sound effects were a little wonky, too. Voices of stationary characters in the middle of the screen often came out of all five speakers instead of just the center channel, making it hard to make out some conversations. And atmospheric effects like enemy giggling often seemed so all over the place that I couldn’t tell where they were coming from, and, consequently, found them more irritating than scary.

Frills beyond the single-player campaign don’t amount to much. The solo Bloodshot Fight Club is sort of nifty, in that it throws you into set scenarios with goals like killing a certain number of enemies before the expiration of a clock, but I didn’t spend long here before I got bored with melee repetition. Multiplayer has been added as well, although it feels tacked on. Only the Crime Scene mode is at all interesting, as it features SCU agents trying to uncover evidence of Influenced murders. Basically, crazy goons try to slaughter SCU investigators before they can locate and scan severed heads in briefcases. And this is briefly enjoyable, if only for the chance to replay the climax of Seven over and over again. Serious issues with weapon balance wreck things, though, as it seems awfully bizarre that clubs are more lethal than 9mm pistols (if you’re playing the SCU, try ditching your gun for the first pipe that you can scrounge up). Other than this, multiplayer consists of garden-variety deathmatch and onslaught variations that nobody seems to be playing online.

Even with its flaws, Condemned 2: Bloodshot is a great sequel. It cleans up virtually all of the complaints about the original, and adds a fair number of fresh thrills and chills. Much of the gruesome subject matter makes the game something of an acquired taste, though anyone who likes gross-out horror will be right at home here.