Shadows of the Damned Review

Shadows of the Damned is the latest mind trip from the mind of legendary game director Suda 51. A collaboration effort between Suda and Resident Evil designer Shinji Mikami, Shadows of the Damned is a third-person shooter with the distinct quality of being one of the craziest games in recent memory.

Shadows of the Damned gives you control of Garcia Hotspur, a badass demon hunter who runs around with a flaming British skull named Johnson. The duo must traverse the deepest darkest depths of hell in order to find Garcia’s girlfriend Paula, who has been kidnapped by the demon lord Fleming.

At its core SotD is a third-person shooter ala Dead Space or Gears of War. While that may seem plain it’s what makes this game work. Suda’s past games have all been creative and funny, but the gameplay has always been somewhat sloppy and repetitive. By grounding Shadows in a type of gameplay that feels familiar to anyone who’s picked up a controller it allows the rest of the game to be Suda’s regular brand of crazy.

However, that’s not to say that the game is just point-and-shoot, some subtle tweaks make it feel different. For starters light and dark play a big part in SotD; at points darkness will flood the screen and start to drain your health while at the same time spawning enemies that are covered in dark goop that can’t be damaged by your bullets. You combat this with the help of “light shots” secondary fire on your weapons that have infinite ammo. You can use light shots to light up an area or nail dark enemies with them to make them susceptible to regular bullets.

Your boney friend Johnson also acts as your weaponry throughout Shadows of the Damned, he can turn into four death dealing machines; a pistol, machine gun, shotgun, and a torch, which acts as your melee weapon. At first this seems like a very limited selection for demon slayer’s arsenal, but each weapon receives multiple upgrades as you play, adding features like charge shots, homing attacks, and a higher rates of fire. In addition you’ll also be able to upgrade each weapon’s strength, ammo capacity, and reload speed, along with Garcia’s health, run speed, and melee strength. The combat isn’t perfect though, it can be difficult for Garcia to get that precision aiming that can be necessary at time, leading to more than a few missed shots.

The real draw of SotD though is its fantastic personality. Garcia Hotspur is an entertaining character to roam around with, he is lewd, he has a very immature sense of humor, and he makes bad jokes, but in the context of this game it works. Shadows of the Damned never takes itself seriously so whenever a dick joke is made (and they are made a lot) it ends up being funny, something that another recent game Duke Nukem forever failed to do.

Hell is also a surprisingly interesting place to explore, and explore you shall. Swamps, run down cities, and libraries are just a few of the places you’ll get to slay demons in. The game also utilizes its world’s logic to great effect; baby heads guard doors and to open them you have to feed the heads brains, eyes, and strawberries. Checkpoints are dolled out by a creature known as “One-Eyed Willy” pooping right next to you, and there are even a few segments where the game completely shifts it gameplay type temporarily. The interesting world you roam around in is made even better thanks to the games fantastic soundtrack, which was created by Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.

Shadows of the Damned is not a perfect game, there are more than a few flaws; not being able to pause or skip cutscenes, sometimes touchy controls, and the pure fact that if you don’t like immature humor you will find this game in poor taste. However in a world where we have so many serious hardened shooter franchises it’s nice to get a funny, unique take on the genre from some of the best talent the industry has to offer.