Shadows of the Damned follows demon hunter Garcia Hotspur and his ex-demon, floating skull sidekick Johnson as they fight through the underworld to rescue Garcia's girlfriend Paula.
Paula was kidnapped by the lord of demons, Fleming, as revenge for the demons killed by Garcia. The demon lord confronts Garcia and tells him that he will torture and kill Paula time and time again as punishment for Hotspur's murder of Fleming's minions. Being a professional monster slayer, Garcia wastes no time in following Fleming through his portal to the dark world. Luckily for Garcia, his sidekick Johnson has a few tricks up his sleeve (as much as a floating skull has a sleeve...). Johnson can transform into a motorcycle, a torch, and most importantly, a number of guns.
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| I suppose two heads are better than one. |
Shadows of the Damned's story takes Garcia on a journey through the entirety of the demons' world. Along his trip, Garcia learns much about the world's inhabitants and even some about his girlfriend's past. The game's world is extremely well fleshed out, every main character has a backstory which is told through in-game dialogue or actual story-books found throughout the levels. The demon world is inhabited by a large number of unique demon types. New enemies are encountered throughout the entire gaming, making sure things never become too stale. Bosses in the game are incredibly well done. Each boss has his or her own story explaining how they became a demon. Fights against these horrible creatures are intense and exciting. The key to their defeat is to find their weaknesses and to take advantage of them.
The majority of the game plays out as a Third-Person Shooter. Garcia can be moved around the environment normally, but when it comes time for combat players can aim his weapons and fire using an over-the-shoulder camera system. Weapons in the game come in three varieties, all of which Johnson morphs into. In addition to normal bullets, Johnson has the ability to fire "light bullets" which freeze demons in place for a short time. These light bullets can also be used to ignite lamps to chase away life-sucking darkness from areas through which Garcia must pass. This demonic darkness plays a large part in many of the puzzles throughout the game. Weapon upgrades in the form of blue gems are rewarded after completing certain parts of the journey. These upgrades increase the power of the guns as well as add additional abilities to the weapons. Health and weapon powers can be upgraded by finding red gems hidden throughout the levels, or purchased from Christopher, a half-human half-demon store owner, using white gems.
Shadows of the Damned is unapologetically juvenile in its humor. Nearly everything in the game is a variation on a penis joke. The majority of these jokes come from Johnson's multiple forms of weapons. I mean, one of the guns is just straight up called "The Boner" which later turns into "The Big Boner". A good majority of the game's weapons, health bars, and other features all resemble a phallus. The game makes so many of these jokes that it starts to become predictable and almost annoying. There is definitely something to be said for the game not trying to pretend it's anything but adolescent in its humor though. Aside from the multitude of penis jokes, the game is actually quite funny. There are a number of random quips which are unexpected and genuinely funny throughout the game.
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| Compensating for something? |
Shadows of the Damned has style. The game world, the demons, and Garcia himself all fit perfectly together into an amalgamation of horror, rock, and just completely silly, over-the-top action. Nothing in the game seems out of place, a testament to Suda51's talent in world building. The horror aspects of the game amount mainly to the gory, hellish locales visited by Garcia. Fear of enemies never really becomes palpable in the game, unlike in some of Makami's other games. Large amounts of ammunition and powerful weaponry ensure that Garcia has the upper-hand in fights. Boss fights are the one exception, as these greater demons are invincible until the secret to their demise is found. Even in these bigger fights ammunition continuously respawns so that running out is rarely a problem. Health items; in the form of bottles of sake, tequila, and absinthe, are somewhat more scarce (at least on the higher difficulties), however, unless you want to spend precious white gems on vending machines.
Graphics in the game are nowhere near bad, but they are definitely not amazing. You can tell that style was a bigger concern to the developers of the game than how good it looked. Screen tearing is a huge issue with the game. If you aren't familiar with the term, screen tearing usually happens when the camera in a game is panned left or right. Lines, or "tears" in the screen will appear for a split second on the screen as the game recalculates what it should be showing. This is only a minor annoyance, but happens quite regularly while playing the game.
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| Every game has its demons which need exorcising. |
They say that a game shows the quality of its programming on its highest difficulty levels, and Shadows of the Damned is no different. When monsters can kill you extremely fast, you rely on the game's mechanics to work how they are supposed to. I found on several occasions that this was not the case in Shadows of the Damned. There were many occasions in which a demon was closing in on me quickly and I was unable to raise my weapon to shoot it, leading to my face being unceremoniously consumed by the beast. Even though I repeatedly hit the aim button, nothing would happen. In other cases, I was trapped in life-sucking darkness only to find that a door I was supposed to escape through had glitched and refused to open. I had to restart levels a couple times to get around these glitched doors. While these problems may be forgivable on easier modes of play, hard mode demands that everything work as it should or it becomes impossible to survive.
Even with the many frustrations I encountered playing through Shadows of the Damned, I still feel that it was well worth playing. The game's design is such a treat to explore, with some levels featuring humorous mini-games such as skull-plinko, and other levels taking on a completely different visual and gameplay style. I found myself actually looking forward to the game's boss battles as they were actually more fun than the battles in most other games. As is usual, I don't want to spoil anything for people who may play this game sometime, but the game definitely rewards continued play.
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| Garcia horsing around with his Johnson with Fleming's Phallus Palace in the background. |
Achievements in Shadows of the Damned mostly revolve around finishing the game's levels and defeating their bosses. There are also achievements for completing the game on the three different difficulty levels. These completion achievements do not stack, which I find incredibly annoying. It seems to me that if I complete a game on its hardest difficulty that I should also unlock achievements for the lower difficulty levels. There are also achievements for killing a certain number of demons with each gun and its powered up versions.
Even with the huge number of stupid jokes in Shadows of the Damned, I find myself looking back on the game and missing the time I spent playing it. The game's developers did a great job in making you feel like you were somewhere else for the 8 hours or so it takes to beat the game. The clunky, unreliable controls and visual problems definitely make the game lose a few points, but I can't stop thinking how much fun I had playing through the game. If you enjoy great atmosphere and can put up with adolescent penis humor and gore, Shadows of the Damned is definitely worth picking up!
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