Developed by Monolith Productions, Condemned 2: Bloodshot immerses the player back into the world of macabre like characters and shady environments made best known by its predecessor Criminal Origins.

In our exclusive interview with Dave Hasle, the games Senior Producer, PSU.com unravels all new details on this highly anticipated first-person horror sequel.

PSU: What is the general storyline behind Condemned 2? From what I've read Ethan Thomas is raving drunk and out looking for his missing partner. Can you expand on this?

Dave Hasle, Senior Producer: With Condemned 2: Bloodshot, we pick up Ethan Thomas about a year down the road. He’s an angry, bitter man who is now down on his luck. He is attempting to drown out the memories that keep replaying in his head from Condemned: Criminal Origins. He has lost his way and is holding the world to blame… Still not quite able to figure out what had happened and who, or what, had brought him down. All he knows is that someone is going to pay as he tries to figure out what is going on…

PSU: What expansions have you made to the puzzle solving and forensic side of things? Tools, crime scenes, extras...

Dave: The forensic experience was completely re-designed and re-engineered from the ground up. You’ll be using tools but you’ll also be using your own powers of observation. We’re allowing the player to decide what tools they want to use, when they want to use them – and if they want, they can pass by the forensic events altogether and just keep kicking tail.

We think the revised forensics system is very fresh so most players will want to play them. You can now observe not only, for example, a victim but you’ll be able to zoom in and determine how they died… was it an entrance or an exit wound? We’re giving players more freedom to try and ID the victim. Some of the questions posed of you will require you to pull out your tools and track down blood trails, try to ‘read’ the blood trails and see if the victim crawled or was dragged, and even take gas spectrometer readings.

In the end, it will be up to the player to decide how often and how involved they want to be with the forensics system.

PSU: Would you consider the gameplay core mechanics linear or will there be more freedom in terms of forensic conclusions? For example, will the players have to find something in a specific crime scene for the story to progress?

Dave: Because of the attention to detail and the in-depth storyline that we want to provide to the players, we are still mostly linear. We have opened up our environments though, to allow the player to move around complete environments to find more forensic events, to complete secondary objectives and even bonus or secret areas.

PSU: I've read that Condemned 2 will push the limits on violence and gore and obviously will be aiming for an "M" rating. How has the ESRB, if at all, affected your teams’ decisions when it comes to content?

Dave: We have been and will continue to work closely with the ESRB to maintain our M rating. We will give them regular updates and ensure that the ESRB board is involved with each step we make towards shipping a compelling game.

PSU: What are some of the new weapons you've added to Condemned 2? I've heard there are about 30 weapons all together.

Dave: We have more than doubled the 30 weapons you mention…by the end we may even triple that numberJ. Some of my favorites are the thrown weapons: the bowling pin and the alcohol bottles. I love smacking a rushing enemy and watching him stagger for a bit!

PSU: What improvements will we see in the A.I. (Weapons, using environments, interaction with others)?

Dave: We’ve made substantial improvements in the area of AI. We have tripled the number of unique AI that we had in Condemned: Criminal Origins. We’ve increased the number of ‘boss fights’ as well. For the most part, the AIs can do what the player can do – if you can throw weapons, they can throw weapons, if you can fist-fight, they can fist-fight. The AIs also have more varied environmental interactions than we had previously and they ... (continued on next page)