Shadows of the Damned [GB Review]

“So there’s a guy and he fights demons and his name is Garcia F***ing Hotspur. There, I said it! That’s all you need to know about it! What? You want to know a lot more than that? How about, he has a floating skull buddy that transforms into torches, various guns and the occasional motorcycle. Does that do anything for you?”

Shadows of the Damned is what happens when you let ‘Punk’ developer SUDA 51 make a Grind House videogame. Or ‘road movie’ as Garcia likes to call it. There’s Death, Decay, and Darkness everywhere as Hotspur fights through hordes of Demons to get back his true love Paula. The only thing that’s stopping him is ‘Lord of all Demons’ Flemming, and his band of ugly unfortunate souls.

The game definitely has it’s niche. If it’s one thing you can count on, it’s Grasshopper Manufacturer’s Bizarre style. They capture this idea of a Demonic underworld, and they never stir away from it! Plus, when you team up with veteran developer Shinji Mikami you get to make a video game which is essentially Resident Evil 4 with a different coat of paint. That’s not to say that it plays exactly alike however. Garcia is a lot more nimble in his running and even dodging, but the core mechanic that he’s known for lately, is still there.

The game is split up into 5 acts, with various levels in the acts themselves. Each bit totally grounded in the ‘reality’ of this raunchy underworld. Traversing the levels is actually a lot of fun. The kind of exposition you get is amazingly well done, and suprisingly funny. The humour lies in a puddle full of dick jokes and immaturity, which instead of being vulgar and offensive, is done with a lot of charm. It’s good to have that charm, because they pile the filth on right at the beginning of the game and never let up. The dick jokes aren’t without the sexy lady counterpart, as you see Paula running around in lingerie (She is essentially the only thing sexy about this game). It doesn’t stay hot for very long though, as Paula is stuck to the worst fate that no one should ever be forced to endure.

Many of the adversaries are explained through books (of all things) as you progress. The very story book nature gives you a good idea of how their fates came to be, whether they were good, bad, or just unfortunate. I may have pointed this out already, but the Presentation of this game is wonderful. You can tell a lot of heart went into the game, and it isn’t just a mindless 3^rd person shooter.

Of course you can’t have a game like this without any faults. There are some moments where the gameplay gets a little too frustrating, or an idea falls a little flat. Control might take some getting used to, as aiming the gun is a little on the floaty side. Plus it’s tough to keep a steady aim when enemies are faster than you expect them to be. So it’s not exactly a big problem, but it can get irratating when you’re dealing with a bigger crowd. It also feels like they go out of there way to add things to the gameplay just so they can make a silly joke. As funny as I thought it was, I scoffed at the idea of the Big Boner, if only because playing it was the most frustrating part AND I HAD TO DO IT THREE TIMES.

Basically when you get near the end of the game, everything fun about it has been put to the side and your just left playing it. The little bits of the game that I found frustrating, while just here and there throughout the game, were all that was left. The bad guys get tougher, and even the camera goes out of it’s way to be a pain in the ass.

For me, maybe I should have taken a break at some point, but I was really starting to burn out from the experience. The Final Act was over a little quicker than I expected, but then it pulled a move on me that I wasn’t ready for while I just wanted the game to be over at that point.

Overall this game is wonderful! The world of Shadows of the Damned is exciting and the characters are cool, but the fun stops short of the end credits.