When you’re not soiling yourself in fear, Condemned 2 offers up a fairly competent melee combat system. Unlike most other first-person games that throw in melee as a shallow afterthought, the emphasis in this title is on the raw, visceral, intensely violent fists and handheld weapons action. If Ethan lands a grisly strike to an opponent’s face with a baseball bat, you’ll not only feel the hit rumble through your controller, but you’ll hear a sickening crunch, as blood and teeth erupt forth like a crimson geyser from their busted mouths. This game clearly earns its mature rating with detailed and grotesque violence galore, so if you’re bothered by extreme gore and violence the experience may not be for you.

In the previous entry, Ethan was limited to either swinging a weapon or blocking with it. He’s now able to string together various combo attacks that will lead to a combo finisher. If you manage to complete a combo chain without being hit, a timed icon will appear on the screen and successfully landing the finisher will result in anywhere from 2-to-10x the amount of damage dealt. Combos can be achieved by stringing multiple alternating left and right strikes together, controlled with the left and triggers, or by combining attacks with other specific actions, such as leading in the first attack with a sprint or blocking an attack first and leading in with a counter move. Each successful combo also builds to your chain attack meter, another new edition to the series. Once the chain attack meter is full, double-tap either of the trigger buttons and you’ll be presented with a sequence of timed button presses that will punish your foe to maximum effect.

Along with the new combo system and chain attacks is a bevy of new ways to finish off an adversary. Last time, if an enemy was brought to their knees, you could choose between one of four different finishing moves. This time around, you can grab a downed enemy by pressing both triggers and then decide where to take it from there. You may want to just break their neck, which can be pulled off easily by pulling the right trigger. However, you may prefer using the environment around you to inflict maximum pain. Dragging an enemy to highlighted sections of the environment can lead to shoving their head through a television, snapping their neck in between a door and its frame, tossing them over a balcony or placing their head into a maniacal vice, applying pressure and turning their heads into flesh and brain matter confetti.

As mentioned earlier, you’ll also come across the occasional firearm, but ammo is very limited and the gunplay is by far Condemned 2’s weakest point. There’s no targeting reticule (even in the options menu), so you can’t always tell if you’re properly lining up a shot, unless you go into precision aim by pressing in the left trigger. Unfortunately, you can’t move at all when you’re peering directly down a weapon’s sights, which leads to the occasional frustration and/or cheap death. One humorous aspect of using pistols or shotguns stems from Ethan’s alcoholism. Conveniently placed bottles of liquor can be found all throughout the game, and can either be used in conjunction with fire to create a Molotov cocktail, or Ethan can tip the bottle upside down for a dose of some of grandpa’s old cough medicine and it will then steady his normally shaky hand. As silly as that may sound, it actually adds more gravity to the character and the situation.

The combat isn’t the only portion of Condemned’s gameplay that’s been upgraded, though. Evidence gathering has taken a much needed step in a more interactive direction. Before, the game would hold your hand through all of these segments and instruct you every step of the way. Now you have to spot and determine proper evidence. You zoom in your view and investigate possible points of interest by holding down the left trigger and then try to pick the correct response from a list of multiple choice answers. You’ll be rated on accuracy and whether or not you located the best evidence. It’s an interesting game mechanic that’s hardly used, but it greatly builds to the overall experience.