Shadows of The Damned Review
Developer Suda 51, Shinji Mikami, Akira Yamoaka
Publisher EA
Platform Xbox360, PS3
Release Date Out Now.
Shadows of the Damned brings together some of the best developers in the industry to create a new third person shooter, Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami the creators of No More Heroes and Resident Evil respectively and along with Akira Yamaoka the sound director on Silent Hill, have created a game that seems as if they locked some 15 year old boys in a room and didn’t let them out until they had come up with a game, it has everything that occupies a 15year olds mind, leggy blondes in lingerie, wild creepy monsters, bigger and even more insane bosses and sh*t…literally! as each checkpoint is announced by a one eyed demon sh*tting himself and it all topped off with more references to “Johnsons” than you could shake your ….well you know. But guess what? it actually works!
Despite being billed as a survival horror, Shadows as far from survival horror as you can get. Not that it isn’t gruesome it is filled with blood and guts but it isn’t “panic scary” in the traditional sense, despite the grisly premise and the setting the humour and insanity removes any chance of you becoming scarred by Shadows of the Damned. An early example of this is when you approach locked gates, they are guarded by demon baby heads! A horrible grisly premise in itself, but made much lighter by the fact that to open the gate you need to stuff their face with something they love to eat. That might be anything from human brains, eye balls or what all demon babies love strawberries!! It’s touches like this that make the game what it is.
You play Garcia Hotspur who is a demon hunter, after killing too many demons he has enraged the demon world and the lord of the underworld has taken his girlfriend into the City of the damned to be killed over and over again for eternity.
The City of the Damned is not what you expect, it is a town with lots of things you would find in the normal world such as house’s and even pubs! Within the demon world you fight off all sorts of different enemies, but you also team up with some friendly demons, first up is Johnson, a glowing skull that can transform into a number of different guns, once the correct upgrades have been unlocked or even into motor bikes. Also you meet Christopher a friendly redneck who is a market stall trader of sorts, you feed him and he will barf up ammo and health items for you.
The gameplay is your standard over the shoulder 3rd person shooter, quite similar to Resident evil but much looser. Headshots are perhaps more luck than skill at times but at the same time you can spin 180 with a single button press. The extra freedom is welcome but at times the game can become a bit messy.
Enemies, despite having endless possibilities they soon become very common place, and soon only the boss battle offer something new, but at least they keep getting bigger and more insane right through out.
Another thing to contend with, while in the underworld The Darkness plays a huge role. When the Darkness takes over it hurts Garcia, you have limited time in to make your escape. It doesn’t help then when you have to voluntarily enter the darkness as while it does hurt it also reveals tips and tricks on how to kill enemies and open doors.
Shadows of the damned is a strange game, it reminds me of some many other franchises yet it is like nothing I’ve ever played before. It is funny, at times maybe over the top with the sexual references. The game runs at around the 8 hour mark and after a very strong start it does fade slightly but overall it has enough to hold it all together.
Score 7/10
Please Join us on your Social Platform of choice
