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Headscratchers / Condemned: Criminal Origins

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  • In the first game, why does Ethan never mention any of the clearly supernatural stuff going on all around him? In fact, why do characters like Rosa never really mention it either? It ventures into surreal territory when you're in the library and Rosa is staring at a pile of guts on the floor with weird skinny zombie creatures swarming around and all she says is "We should leave." Similarly, Ethan encounters the weird zombie people in the subway who clearly aren't human and finds the School swarming with psychotic zombie-like teenagers, but never even thinks to mention this to Rosa or Malcolm. In fact, for a "top investigator" to completely neglect to mention totally strange occurrences and be so slow on the uptake with the case...well, Ethan arguably seems pretty dumb at times.
    • rule of scary. The game has always gone for a surreal nightmare vibe. And normalizing the horrors is a trope as old as time. Also there’s few scientific explanations like the effect of drugs on the townspeople.
Lastly there are some hints that Ethan has dealt with hints of these his whole life. And may consider himself a nutcase. So when he sees things like that he doesn’t mention them.

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