Developed by Monolith Productions and published by Sega, it was an Xbox 360 launch title and was released in North America in November 2005, in Europe in December, and in Australia in March 2006.

In the fictional city of Metro, there has been a surge in both serial killings and assaults perpetrated by vagrants, and Thomas is convinced the two are connected.

Condemned was well received by critics, who praised the combat mechanics, graphics, animations, AI, and, especially, the sound design and atmosphere.

Common points of criticism included the game's linearity, a lack of variety in both level design and gameplay, and what was perceived as a poor implementation of the use of forensic tools.

Condemned: Criminal Origins is a first-person psychological thriller video game with survival horror and action elements.

For example, an axe can chop down certain doors, a crowbar can open certain safes, a sledgehammer can destroy certain padlocks, and a shovel can cut through certain electrical wires.

[10][19] An additional component of the game's melee is the ability to perform "finishing moves" when an opponent is on their knees, such as a headbutt, a neck break, a punch, or a head slam.

[26] Ethan Thomas is an FBI agent assigned to the Serial Crime Unit (SCU) in the fictional city of Metro.

At the city library, Rosa reveals that she has found several anomalies in Thomas's personnel file - his bone density is abnormally high; he has an overactive serotonergic system; and there is a chest x-ray in which the vocal cords have been redacted.

Sega of America's Vice President of Entertainment Marketing, Scott A. Steinberg, said, "the atmospheric tension and cinematic qualities" of the game would "offer consumers the rich experience of a psychological thriller, something that has not been accomplished on previous hardware platforms."

Monolith's CEO Samantha Ryan said, "new leaps in technology are allowing our teams to create immersive game environments that are incredibly realistic."

She explained that the "goal with Condemned is to combine a disturbing atmosphere with realistic physics, devious AI, and a sophisticated combat system.

[38] The game's writer and lead designer, Frank Rooke, cites films such as Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder (1990), Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991), David Fincher's Se7en (1995), Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002), and James Wan's Saw (2004), as well as the TV show The X-Files, as the main influences for the game's atmosphere and aesthetic.

[39][40] Prior to development, Monolith carried out extensive research on real-world serial killers, as they wanted to better understand the psychology of such people.

[10] Basing Metro very loosely on Seattle, they also hired surveyors to search out abandoned and condemned buildings, empty warehouses, and neglected and forgotten areas of the city so as to give them a template for the game's visual design.

For example, the player character was called Agent Cross, and the game followed him on a government-sanctioned investigation, rather than acting as a rogue on the run from the law.

[44][45] GameSpy's Will Tuttle scored the Xbox 360 version 4-and-a-half out of 5, praising the "highly atmospheric, downright disturbing environments" and the "brutally visceral combat."

He praised the sound effects for creating "an unparalleled level of visceral violence," and also lauded the atmosphere, lighting, AI, and combat mechanics, although he was critical of the forensic tools.

Although he criticized the game's length and plot, he praised it for featuring "some true scares, a fresh approach to its genre, great graphics, and fun gameplay mechanics.

Praising the sound design ("the game's most frightening aspect"), combat, graphics, animations, and AI, he was critical of the linearity and the use of forensic tools.

"[57] The UK edition of Official Xbox Magazine scored it 8 out of 10, praising the "masterful sound" and the "awesome sense of dread."

"[51][52] Eurogamer's Kristen Reed scored it 7 out of 10, praising the combat mechanics, sound design, and graphics, but finding the gameplay "too simplistic" and criticizing the forensic tools as "giving the player no chance to act as an investigator at any point."

He also wrote, "as a melee fighting game, Condemned is yet to be beaten for both its originality and creating an authentic experience with the limited tools available.

[79] In February 2008 all copies of Condemned were confiscated in Germany because of § 131 StGB, which outlaws the dissemination or public display of media "which describe cruel or otherwise inhuman acts of violence against human beings in a manner which expresses a glorification or rendering harmless of such acts of violence or which represents the cruel or inhuman aspects of the event in a manner which injures human dignity".

[81] It begins with Agent Mallory of the SCU getting called to a homicide; a young man has been found stabbed in a derelict building.

Identifying the location where the photo was taken (a self storage facility), Mallory heads there and sees the girl being abducted on the security footage.

Heading to the location depicted in the photo, he finds the body of the missing girl, with a note directing him to another derelict factory.

[40] With the film named Species X, Kurt Sutter was hired to write the script, with Basil Iwanyk and David S. Goyer on board as executive producers.

Once again developed by Monolith and published by Sega, it expands on the gameplay mechanics of the original game and adds several new features such as environmental kills, a larger assortment of weapons, and combos during combat.

Noting that both of the Condemned games sold well, he said, "I am contemplating finding an interested and proven Indie development team so that they can take over the franchise and move it forward.