Shadows of the Damned Review

Shadows of the Damned is just insane. It’s full of demonic pubic hair, decapitations and a protagonist who fights off waves of enemies with the aid of his “Big Boner”. Yes, you read all of that correctly.  Can a game this crazy manage to combine these elements and pull them off? In hindsight, that last phrase was a particularly bad choice of words...

The combination of two creative powerhouses, Goichi Suda (aka ‘Suda51’) and Shinji Mikami, Shadows of the Damned is every bit as mad, inventive and downright weird as you would expect. Having previously collaborated on the cult hit Killer7 the two have returned to deliver something that is a long way from the gaming mainstream. This unusual title with likely have you proclaiming it either a piece of twisted genius or dismissing it as over-the-top insanity.

Opening with an introduction to the demon hunting protagonist, the game starts as it means to go on. Garcia Hotspur is a Mexican professional slayer of the undead, a job he takes both pride and pleasure in carrying out. However returning to his apartment after a night of slaughtering evil, he finds his girlfriend hanged from their ceiling fan. Before he even has chance to mourn her departure a demon promptly rips its way out of her body and attacks. This leads to her kidnap by the Lord of the Underworld, Fleming, who drags her into a portal to hell. Pausing only to grab his signature purple jacket, Garcia jumps through a window, plummets dozens of storeys in pursuit.

If you think these events sound even remotely over-the-top then Shadows of the Damned might not be the game for you. Garcia is also accompanied by his faithful demonic companion, Johnson (sexual euphemism very much intended). This reformed hovering, burning skull can transform into anything from a motorcycle to a multiple-barrelled fully automatic machine gun that fires demon’s teeth. Again, you are reading this correctly. The two friends soon set about fighting their way through the legions of the damned to try and recover Garcia’s girl and cleansing the condemned souls they encounter.

The main gameplay revolves around third-person shooting that is controlled in the conventional manner. The left and right sticks govern movement and the camera, respectively, and holding down a left shoulder button aims, while a right one fires. Your arsenal of weapons gradually expands over the course of the game with upgrades being awarded after defeating certain key boss characters. You only have access to three main weapons, a pistol, machinegun and shotgun but they are all so demented that they are immensely satisfying. Unlike Devil May Cry, a similarly demonic themed game, there is virtually no melee combat and combos are non-existent.

Most of the game revolves around themes of light and dark and many enemies and areas will be shrouded in darkness. In order to cleanse these it is necessary to fire a “light shot” to temporarily burn off the shadow surrounding enemies making them vulnerable to damage. If an area is swathed in darkness there is usually a mounted goat’s head with a candelabra sticking out of its head which must be lit up to purify this. If you’re wondering whether you read that correctly: you did.

There are some great puzzles involving this light and dark mechanic but nothing too strenuous or taxing for seasoned game players. Some areas will require you to be inside the darkness, which will damage your health continuously after being immersed for a certain time, in order to fight enemies or unlock doors. The latter are a feature found through the underworld and take two forms. One involves severed baby heads that require certain objects to be collected and fed to them (including human brains, eyes and, oddly, strawberries). The second has you shooting certain glowing orbs that can only be destroyed from within areas of darkness. Destroying these is the only way to remove growths of “demon pubes” that will block various doorways.

Enemies themselves are varied and as the game progresses combat becomes more challenging as you are forced to deal with multiple different types of opponent collectively. Bosses and mini-bosses are frequent and occur every few levels, if not more often. They all follow the traditional formula of identifying weak spots and concentrating on them, but there are a few nice ideas and some unusual creature designs on show. The title is challenging but only occasionally feels unfair in the latter portion where the difficulty does spike towards the final few chapters.

Shadows of the Damned isn’t the longest game experience and can comfortably be completed in around 10 or so hours. The levels are relatively linear and there are only a handful of secrets to look for. Most of these involve collecting red gems to upgrade your weaponry’s firepower, reload speed and capacity alongside earning white gems from defeated foes for purchasing ammunition and health. There is a lack of a mission select though, which means that you are unable to replay the most memorable moments of the game freely, a criminal oversight on the part of the developers.

What the game does best is easily its craziest, most extreme moments. The humour of the script between Garcia and Johnson is surprisingly developed and had me genuinely laughing out loud at a number of points. Some of the highlights are when the two read out large story volumes, based on the lives of the demon bosses you face, which are often laced with rude jokes, puns and foul language. Similarly a stand-out moment comes from having to sexually arouse your demon handgun to increase the length of its barrel to fight off hordes of tough enemies. Once more, you have read that last sentence correctly.

There is a surprising amount of variety in the game to break-up the third-person shooting segments. These involve scenarios as diverse as several side-scrolling 2D shoot ‘em ups, riding a chandelier round the interior of a gigantic tower crushing demons and even walking over a 60ft tall masturbating woman. This is a game that certainly earns an 18 rating. Characters routinely explode, tear their way out of other people’s bodies, spray blood from wounds in ridiculous fountains and there is even more swearing than House of the Dead: Overkill.

The soundtrack of the title is also notable as it is one of the first projects of long time game composer Akira Yamaoka. Fresh from his work on the Silent Hill series he again reunites with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and the resulting work seems very similar to a soundtrack from those titles. It generally fails to be as involving and noticeable as it is often drowned out during combat with hordes of screaming minions. Yet during the quieter moments it certainly has impact but somehow fails to live up the high expectations that come with this famous pairing.  

Shadows of the Damned certainly has other flaws. We encountered a number of frustrating bugs and glitches, including falling through the scenery several times at critical moments, forcing a restart. There are also some shocking loading times and framerate issues as the game moves to new areas. Don’t be surprised if textures take the best part of a minute to catch up with your progress through a level and sometime the entire game just judders to a halt for several seconds while waiting for a new portion of the story.

Fundamentally, Shadows of the Damned is aiming to be different and an acquired taste. It’s a game that the word “cult” defines and if you enjoy anything eclectic, odd and just a little bit mental then this will certainly be right up your demon strewn street. It’s undoubtedly an acquired taste and its flaws may occasionally frustrate. Yet, we found ourselves drawn into the sheer insanity and bravado of it all. Anyone that can argue that a rapping, English-accented flaming skull isn’t one of the most awesome things that you’ll see all year is either deluded or lying. The game is particularly knowing and self-referential and will often include sly jokes at the player’s expense and is even quite open to poking fun at itself.

This is not a perfect game but the confidence and panache at which it is pulled-off will win you over and allow you to overlook its faults. It’s a brave move by EA to publish something that is not only controversial but so removed from their standard releases. If you’re as brave as the developers and want to try something new and “unique”, then Shadows of the Damned is certainly very special. We’ve found it infinitely quotable and can’t wait to get back to dusting down our Big Boner. For the last time: yes, you did read that correctly.