The Xbox 360 launch, while large in terms of number of games, was littered with sports games and first person shooters. At a glance, you might have lumped Condemned in with those FPS games, but it's really in a different category all together. It mixes a few good things from some other great titles with success. If you like to play games that get your heart racing, then you can't miss with Condemned.

The game begins with you playing the role of an FBI agent assigned to investigate a crime scene. The murder took place in an abandoned city building, and with no lights, you follow the police officer leading the way with a flashlight. Just from the trip to the crime scene, you can already tell that this game is going to have you on the edge of your seat. You arrive to find a dead girl on the ground and a creepy mannequin across from her sitting at a table. There are eyes painted on the walls and smaller faceless mannequins standing in the corners of the room.

This introduces the crime scene investigation portion of the game. You have to use CSI tools to gather evidence for your lab partner back at the office. Areas that you need to investigate pop up a couple of times within each chapter, but they're totally straight forward. It's almost impossible to miss the evidence, and all the tools show exactly how to complete the gathering process.

The majority of the game has you playing a game of cat and mouse with the suspected serial killer. This takes place over ten chapters, and almost as many different locales. Like I mentioned earlier, Condemned is played from the first person perspective, but the biggest twist is, you hardly ever have a fire arm. What few weapons you do find or take from enemies only have a few bullets, and there's not ammunition lying around the environment.

The main fighting mechanic in Condemned is first person melee. It's less like the crappy fights from Morrowind and more like the fist fights in Riddick. The cool thing is you can pull a variety of weapons from your surroundings. You can break off a piece of conduit or grab a 2x4 with some nails in it off the ground. The left trigger attempts to block, and the right trigger swings your weapon. The gameplay is solid, and by that I mean you can really feel the blocks and the strikes. The enemies, which are mostly crazy homeless people, animate beautifully. You can sense their desperation as you fight with them up close.

The areas that you run through are incredibly detailed, and completely alive since almost anything can be bumped or knocked over. Quietly walking around and then stumbling over a plastic bucket and hearing the noise it makes bouncing around almost put me over the edge a few times. The level design is a little suspect and most of the environments within a chapter look so alike that it's easy to get lost. There are also some immovable tables or shelves that block paths, and it breaks the feeling of reality when everything else can be opened or pushed around.

The atmosphere is really what pushes Condemned to the upper tier of launch games. While the melee combat can get a little repetitive, it's the fear of the unknown that drives you through the game. Playing at night with the sound turned up, I found it hard to play more than a couple of chapters a night. My nerves just couldn't take it, and my wife wanted nothing to do with it, so I had no company. Not only do you have baddies jumping out at you from dark corners, screaming hysterically, but there's also some serious weirdness going on in the plot. Without giving too much away, your mind is playing tricks on you, or so it seems. It's the kind of stuff that makes you shiver.

By mixing some of the best elements from games like Silent Hill and The Chronicles of Riddick and with a little CSI thrown in for good measure, Condemned turns out to be a great, original title. Like a number of 360 games, replay value is significantly enhanced by a smattering of interesting and sometimes difficult achievements. If you enjoy games like Fatal Frame and Silent Hill, Condemned should be right up your alley.