You're Doing it Wrong: Condemned 2

Okay. First things first, Condemned 2 has gotten a LOT right. It's atmospheric, it's spooky, it's got a GREAT first person fighting system, and a captivating story. But that just makes what they got wrong all that much worse.

The game is too god damn dark. Not occasionally, not once in a while, ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Every god damn level. I had to crank my in-game brightness setting up to 70. That's as high as it would go without making all the colors look blown out. And still, it's dark as fuck.

Maybe it's my TV, but I don't think so. I know, the dark is spooky. Oooo! But let's not get carried away, lads. I'd like to actually be able to navigate the levels. By far the worst example of this problem is in the occasional "crazy drunk hobo dream sequence" levels. I've played through two of them thus far, and at the end of both stages, everything on screen is covered in black tar, there's some sort of insane distortion effect on the screen, and an endless parade of black monsters are crawling out of every doorway to claw me to death. This is not fun. It's all but impossible to figure out which way I'm supposed to go, the enemies might as well be invisible, and usually I've only got to travel 20 feet in a certain direction to complete the level. I might as well put on kaleidescope goggles and try to navigate a hall of mirrors. In the DARK.

It's quite frustrating. Still, the rest of the game is good enough to warrant playing, so I continue.
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