Shadows of the Damned Review

**MrRaverX** Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:26 pm

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Shadows of the Damned is a strange game. Not just because of its visuals,
which are weird, or its story, which is deranged, but because of the way it
comes together. Or doesn't. Shadows of the Damned is a game you might play and
enjoy, but not necessarily because you'll enjoy playing it. The things it does
best - the bizarre visuals, the fantastic soundtrack, the strange narratives and
side stories - are largely removed from what you spend your time doing.

The premise to Shadows of the Damned is simple-ish, but again, strange. Garcia
Hotspur's crazy (no, really, she's completely out of her mind) girlfriend Paula
has killed herself, and the lord of Hell, Fleming, has claimed her as his own.
So Garcia's off to the City of the Damned to get her back, with only his Johnson
to help him.

Yes, that was a dick joke, and get used to it. Shadows of the Damned leaves
no stone unturned in its quest to find (and f**k) every possible opening for a
joke about a penis. It's not subtle. It's not even especially clever most of the
time. But it tries to compensate by being as unabashed and gigglingly self-aware
about it as possible. And it almost pulls it off, unless, of course, you're past
laughing at genital humor. If that's the case, you'll want to get off at the
next stop.

Mechanically speaking, Shadows of the Damned is a collection of strange, arcade
shooter conceits stuffed into a game that seems like it's poking around the
edges of a modern third person action game. Garcia wields Johnson, his
former-demon-turned-swiss-army-knife-of-hell-knowledge-and-pain-dispersal
companion, in one of three different weapon forms: a pistol, a shotgun, and a
machine-gun. Johnson can also fire out a light-blast that has various effects –
it incapacitates weaker enemies, and it can chase away darkness during one of
Shadows of the Damned's many dark-light puzzle sequences.

The City of the Damned is frequently home to giant pockets of inky darkness that
will slowly tear Garcia apart – it is called Shadows of the Damned, after all –
unless, that is, he can figure out a way to chase it away. The particulars
become more complicated over the course of Garcia's feel-good trip through the
underworld. Early on, a quick light-shot into a mounted (but alive-ish) goat
head is enough to clear it up, but later on you'll be shooting multiple balls of
blood snaking vein-like off a central hub of darkness spewing demon pubes and…
well. You get the idea.

The problem here is that none of this is particularly interesting. Combat feels
clunky, which is a combination of issues perceptual and mechanical. The camera
is zoomed in much too close to Garcia to have a good view of what's going on
when he's aiming, and Garcia is yet another third-person shooter plagued by
molasses arms. On normal difficulty, the only danger you'll ever really face are
from enemies hitting you from off camera because your field of view is so small.
Granted, you're not stuck in place while you're aiming, but otherwise, Shadows
of the Damned plays like a game from 2005, not 2011.

This carries over into Shadows of the Damned's boss fights, which, for
better or worse, play like they were designed a decade ago. I'm cool with
the idea of shooting a weak spot. I can accept that

Shadows of the Damned is a capital "V" Video Game, and I often enjoyed
the subtle (and not) references to what seemed to be Capcom arcade and NES
titles from the 80s in particular. But the constant cheap knock-downs and
excessively punitive tactics of later bosses take them from fun to tedious
in short order, and it doesn't help that they last much, much longer than
they should. The only thing more boring than fighting the same enemy for 20
minutes is dying most of the way through said boss and doing it all over
again.

And repetition is really Shadows of the Damned's worst enemy. You'll get
some weapon upgrades, and the scenery changes, but you're doing the exact
same thing over and over again, from the obvious moments (kill wave after
wave of enemy until the game decides its time to move on) to the less
obvious (many of the darkness puzzles feel identical). Even when Shadows of
the Damned introduces new enemies, you'll be managing crowds more or less
the same way. Every game is a feedback loop, sure, but Shadows of the Damned
feels more like running laps than most. Interaction with everything boils
down to shooting it or hitting it, unless, of course, you're jerking it off.

No, really.

But here's the thing. I enjoyed my time with Shadows of the Damned, for the
most part. The game part has a few surprises in store, specifically the
super-stylized side scrolling sections (to say more would spoil them for you
if you haven't seen them yet). The main character bosses, the ones explored
in their own twisted storybooks dotted around the City of the Damned, are
interesting and usually fun.

But more than anything, Shadows of the Damned's style and the clear homage
it pays to the exploitation cinema sub-species known best via Tarantino and
Rodriguez's Grindhouse is what kept me going. It's full of gorey imagery and
graphic nudity, and we're not just talking a little bit of it. Piles of
bodies and giant scenes of exposed flesh play major roles in Shadows of the
Damned.

But it doesn't stop there. About half of one of Shadows of the Damned's
lengthy chapters is an extended tribute to Raimi's Evil Dead and Evil Dead
2. There's a plethora of references in the game to the kinds of movies that
I grew up watching or desperate to watch, if only my parents weren't
looking. To steal a line from my last preview of Shadows of the Damned, it
often felt like executive producer Suda 51 and I were sharing a moment, a
convergence of minds based on a shared love for the weird VHS heyday of
horror and twisted comedy. And that's something I've never gotten from a
video game.

Closing Comments

This is the inherent conundrum of Shadows of the Damned. Your own tastes
will determine whether it's more or less than the sum of its basically
functional but not-especially-interesting parts, and the attitude and style
it carries like a chip on its shoulder. As an action game, Shadows of the
Damned is a passable exercise in a few interesting ideas often buckling
under the weight of controls and level design stuck firmly in the past. But
as a weird tour through a Hell we haven't seen before, with a love
for subject matter that neatly sidesteps the likes of other Grindhouse-inspired
games over the last few years, Shadows of the Damned is an experience that's
worth having... for a particular audience.

IGN Ratings for Shadows of the Damned (X360)

Rating Description out of 10
Click here for ratings guide 7.5
Presentation

Shadows of the Damned's interface is a throwback to classic NES action games,
and the story is crazy enough to distract you from how little sense it makes.
7.0 Graphics

The general vibe and style of Shadows of the Damned is distinctive, offering a
cool, new of view Hell. But the character animation is lacking and there's a LOT
of texture pop-in. 9.0 Sound

The voice acting is completely over the top, for better or worse, but Akira
Yamaoka's soundtrack is excellent and not at all predictable. 6.5
Gameplay

Shadows of the Damned plays like a six year old game. Aiming is clunky, moving
during combat is awkward, and the camera is frequently uncooperative. 7.5
Lasting Appeal

Shadows of the Damned offers a pretty long story, at about 10-12 hours. But the
lack of a new game+ option hurts this singleplayer only experience.

7.0

OVERALL

Good

(out of 10)
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