It's hard to argue that Monolith Production should not have been allowed to develop Condemned 2: Bloodshot, or that Sega didn't have every right in the democratic world to publish it, but that doesn't mean they had to.

Too bad, too, because Condemned 2 scores high on technical merit; an aptly oppressive, brooding game world of the "seedy underbelly" kind filled with appropriately menacing psychopaths-on-the-loose and the odd supernatural nightmare incarnate, all drenched in suitably scored, nail biter audio.

Problem is, there's little to sympathize with; none of the main or throwaway characters seem keen on redemption, nor are they reluctantly anti-heroic, particularly you as Ethan, the protagonist, and there's zero attempt to so much as disguise the intimately excessive graphic violence in something resembling a "morality play" as better games are wont to do.

Instead, it's you as an alcoholic narcissist, a washed-up cop (conveniently contemptuous of any Amendment or Miranda) in a world full of murderous freaks, all of whom must be dispatch with whatever weapons you have handy, be that fists, bowling balls, toilet seats or, occasionally, guns, with not an iota of mercy.

There's a bit of "CSI" like puzzle solving, but Bloodshot mostly plays as a survival/horror game that loses the impetus to survive to a mandate to just murder. Everybody.

All told, Bloodshot is way above average as a technical accomplishment, but practically hateful in its delivery. Surely some will just take it as cathartic make-believe interactive with a "Hostel"-like bent, an interesting visit to the dark side where you need a big pull of rotgut just to hold your gun steady, giddy gruesomeness as a respite from reality, but to actually enjoy it has got to make to you feel at least a little guilty, dirty, or so one would hope.

TIPS: Though most of Condemned 2: Bloodshot is about hand-to-hand combat -- or pipe-to-skull combat, as it were -- because you're always running out of bullets, you might prefer to play it as a good old fashion guns a'blazing game. You can do just that but only after you complete the whole game once, which unlocks FPS Mode with infinite ammo for your guns

You can unlock all the bonus art in the Condemned 2: Bloodshot right away by creating and using a newly created profile and naming it ShovelFighter.