At a recent press event, we played through and took a look at four Condemned 2 multiplayer modes -- your standard multiplayer modes (Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch) and two called "Bum Rush" and "Crimescene." The tastefully named Bum Rush pits two agents, armed with firearms, against waves of "Influenced" (aka bums). They rush the agents until either the agents are dead or the time runs out. The one who kills the most agents -- assuming they're able to -- then turns into an agent for the next round. Crimescene places two equal teams against one another, with the Influence team hiding two ice chests with heads in them. The agents have to discover the location of the chests before time runs out.

While we like the ideas behind Bum Rush and Crimescene, during our time with the multiplayer, we noticed a few issues with both modes. In Bum Rush, the agents got wiped out in a matter of seconds, with seemingly no chance of survival, due to lacking sufficient ammo and health to balance out the sustained attack they need to withstand. While playing a Crimescene match, we almost always ended up having to sit for several minutes, waiting for the time to run out or for the last agent to die. Perhaps the rounds were too long, or the map we played on just wasn't well-suited to the game type, but the action dragged. As it stands now, Condemned 2's multiplayer feels extraneous and isn't quite proving its worth.