The story of Bloodshot picks up about a year or so after the conclusion of the first game. If you were a fan of the original, you can seriously just stop reading now and go buy Bloodshot, because nothing I can say will be more persuasive to you than that. Not only does it fix the problems presented in the first game, it actually manages to be the elusive “awesome sequel”Â, where EVERYTHING in the game is substantially better than its predecessor. I don’t really think anyone was prepared for what Condemned 2: Bloodshot ended up being.
So long as what issues existed in the first game were cleaned up sufficiently, it was assumed, a sequel could be quite good, though it would take a decent amount of work. It had certain issues the combat was perhaps not as precise as one might have hoped (though it was miles ahead of other, similar attempts… I’m looking at YOU, Breakdown) and the forensics elements weren’t exactly in-depth or anything, but the atmosphere was solid and well-crafted, and the ending left the game open for a sequel to a certain extent. Still, it was, for many, a good starting point for a long-lasting franchise. It made enough money for a sequel, obviously, but it wasn’t as big of a seller on the 360 as other launch titles, for unknown reasons. generated a lot of interest among most FPS fans and was highly praised and well received… Condemned was well received by critics (with certain exceptions), but by players? Not so much. Both in gameplay terms and in concept, the franchises went in different directions from the word go and, as a result, garnered different reactions: F.E.A.R. is a fairly traditional FPS where your enemies employ squad tactics, your character is capable of employing bullet-time, and the story and theme mesh horror science with supernatural oddity, while Condemned was an FPS that relied more on melee combat than shooting, offered small “forensics” puzzles to break up the action, and didn’t really seem to know where its horror was going (but implied it was mostly scientific in nature). Names aside, however, both franchises are effectively wholly different takes on the idea of making a horror-themed FPS F.E.A.R. name (and published two mediocre games under said name to prove it) the second being Condemned, which retained its name because, presumably, Monolith managed to keep Sega from running off with it (if you picture Sonic in a big black robber baron hat and a handlebar moustache, that’s a whole lot funnier, I promise).
but is now named Project Origin because Viviendi owns the F.E.A.R. This has spawned two distinct franchises: the first being what used to be named F.E.A.R. That’s not too shocking, actually I mean, I thought Blood was pretty horrifying, myself. Monolith seems to have something of a hard-on for the horror genre and finding interesting ways to implement it into the FPS genre, like some sort of gun-toting undead version of PB&J.