Not close to as scary or thrilling as other games in this genre.
This is one of those times.
This game is NOT great. No way, it is not even near. The atmosphere can be considered as good and nearby utterly creepy, but when these "creatures" jump at you, without you knowing what or why they are there, it loses ALOT of its tension.
A brick that soon makes the complete game falling apart, brick by brick.
There i s n o t a good story weaved around this game, and which isn't being explained very detailed either. You just fight some de-roused and crazy people/creatures which you have no idea why or how they got there. Extremely untactfull.
Games like Resident Evil has a a background, and a vast one, which is being explained in a utterly design-full manor. Here, in Condemned, you have absolutely no clue what is really going on.
I could try to list all the bad things I, as a fan of the horror-genre, I could find in this game (physics made the bodies move like they were filled with stones(!?), character design, level design, story, horrific controls etc.etc.) but I won't bother. At least not too much.
If you are like me and prefer horror games which gives you an unsettling feeling (like in the Resident Evil series or in which I latest played, "The Suffering" a good action/horror game which gives alot more in depth to the story and keeps filling in the questions that arouses) and doesn't feel utterly dull after 3-4 hours - keep your distance, for this game will probably not satisfy your needs for real horror.