Ethan battling the Butcher
The Butcher is a boss enemy encountered in Condemned: Criminal Origins. She is an insane, 7-foot tall, morbidly obese cafeteria worker who wields a cleaver. She is fought in the freezer of St. Joseph's Secondary School.
Condemned: Criminal Origins
The Butcher appears early on in the school level, taunting the player and sending out crawlers. The player ultimately confronts her after walking into the freezer about halfway through the level.
Battle Strategy
The Butcher has an extremely high amount of health and can absorb almost an entire submachine gun magazine or 7-8 pistol headshots before dying. It is possible to obtain either of these weapons before encountering the Butcher, though the player must be careful to conserve ammo. Otherwise, there are several melee weapons available to the player in the freezer.
The Butcher is always armed with a cleaver, which can deal heavy damage to the player. Fortunately, due to her immense size, the Butcher is very slow and cannot leap over obstacles, which allows the player keep their distance. Furthermore, the Butcher will often swing her cleaver wildly, even if the player is out of range, leaving her open. The easiest way to beat the Butcher is to memorize her attack patterns and parry frequently. It is possible to tase her, but the effects do not last long. Once she is defeated, her cleaver may be picked up.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
The Butcher's corpse appears in the sequel, during the Trenton District level, in which Ethan Thomas revisits the school. Director Farrel is held in the very same freezer in which she was fought, and her cleaver must be picked up in order to cut the straps that hold Farrel down. Before picking up the cleaver, a crawler will emerge from beneath her corpse and attack the player.
Trivia
- In Condemned 2, the cleaver can be found jammed into the Butcher's forehead. This would seem to suggest that this is how Ethan Thomas cannonically killed her, regardless of the player's actions in the first game.