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Giant Bomb Review

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Shadows of the Damned Review

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  • X360

Shadows of the Damned is a hell of a good time.

When it was announced that Japanese game development luminaries Shinji Mikami, Suda51, and Akira Yamaoka were teaming up for a secret project, hands began to wring in anticipatory glee at the possibilities of what this embarrassment of creative talent might concoct. After all, the last time Mikami and Suda51 got together, the product of that pairing was the cel-shaded oddity Killer7. Given the work each of them has done since that bizarre experiment, the addition of Yamaoka's aural sensibilities, and the trio's relatively newfound independent freedom, why wouldn't your mind start racing to try and think up what out-of-left-field first bounty this fantasy team-up would bring to bear?

The end result? Shadows of the Damned, a third-person action-horror game in the vein of... well, most other third-person action games.

Say hello to Garcia
Say hello to Garcia "Fucking" Hotspur. I'm not adding that for effect. He calls himself that a lot.

Okay, so maybe Shadows of the Damned isn't quite the out-of-left-field product of unchecked creativity some of us might have initially wanted from this particular supergroup. In fact, on the supergroup scale, it's more like that one Temple of the Dog album, a concept that might be completely within the usual wheelhouse of everyone involved, but is still a damn good example of what these guys have repeatedly proven themselves capable of. It's a game full of viscerally satisfying shooting, plenty of blood and guts, a totally off-kilter storyline, and some legitimately excellent audio running underneath the surface. It's a known quantity, but one that feels almost as high as the pedigree that spawned it.

Shadows of the Damned tells the tortured tale of Garcia Hotspur, a preternaturally badass demon hunter who finds himself running up against one severely pissed off pervert demon named Fleming, who hasn't taken too kindly to Garcia's chosen profession. Garcia returns home after a particularly rough night of demon-slaying to find his special lady dangling from a noose, and Fleming in possession of her soul. Fleming, cutting to the chase, makes repeated threats to defile Garcia's lady in ways that would make Duke Nukem's exploits seem puritanical by comparison. Thoroughly in love and totally irritated by this inconvenience, Garcia leaps into Hell to save his beloved, and perhaps murder a few "hell monkeys" in the process.

Before we go any further, a note of import: right from the get-go, you're probably going to hate Garcia a little bit. His personality seems equally lifted from John Constantine, El Mariachi, and Jack Burton, and he has all the cheesy one-liners and moments of broody extremeness such a description comes encumbered with. That hate won't last, fortunately.

It's just that Shadows of the Damned takes a little while to find its groove. Suda51's sense of humor is a... divisive thing. You're either on board with his anarchistic, abstract sensibilities, or you're all the way not. At first, it feels like the game is challenging you to keep playing, what with its opening salvo of lame dick jokes and spine-crinkling one-liners. But bit by bit, the story begins to boil, and actual charm begins to spill out. Not long after Garcia enters Hell, the game morphs into a kind of weird buddy comedy, with Garcia facing increasingly bizarre circumstances that Johnson, his British-accented, flaming skull of a sidekick (who also happens to take the form of Garcia's demon-slaying gun) is more than happy to try and explain in his cowardly genial way.

Johnson is like Portal 2's Wheatley, except a flaming skull instead of a robot. It's arguable which is cooler.
Johnson is like Portal 2's Wheatley, except a flaming skull instead of a robot. It's arguable which is cooler.

There's a peculiar chemistry to Garcia and Johnson that carries the game and its oddball story along. The actors voicing the pair certainly deserve a lot of the credit, but Suda, along with his script translator, each deserve quite a bit, too. For all the profanely adolescent humor the game contains, there's also a shocking amount of nuance to it. There's a pace and a flow to the story that, contrary to some of Suda's other works, doesn't feel like it's punching you in the face with nonstop, hyperactive nonsense. For every puerile piece of dick-related innuendo and weird bit of Internet culture nudge-and-winkery, there are as many moments of creative comedic storytelling that actually surprise you. For instance, try checking out one of the several storybooks randomly scattered throughout the game, and listen as Johnson and/or Garcia read aloud the demented back story of one of the game's many boss demons. These sequences stop the game dead in its tracks, and yet the writing and acting is so sharp that you won't even care.

Which isn't to say you won't care about the action; just that you might not care quite as much. As a shooter, Shadows of the Damned is largely serviceable, though it periodically flirts with brilliance. The game's third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective feels loosely assembled from Mikami's design work on Resident Evil 4, except with the added bonus of being able to move and shoot at the same time. Revolutionary, right?

The word for the combat is, "satisfying." The guns aren't overly thrilling, but the damage they cause is nice and disgusting. Blood, guts, and other, inexplicable grossness fly in great quantities, and the demons, while not the most creatively designed hellspawn you've ever seen, at least do you the service of suffering pleasurably. You've only a handful of gun types to play with, but as you progress, you'll gain access to a nutty array of Johnson upgrades that deal quite a bit of gruesome damage to the various demonic forces out to get you.

Even the boss battles, often the Achilles heel of these sorts of action games, are an enticement. Though they rarely transcend the usual pattern-focused battle mechanics we've all played to death, they're nonetheless creatively designed, well-paced battles that only periodically frustrate. If you can't appreciate the act of fighting a man with the head of a goat riding a horse with the head of a man, I don't think Shadows of the Damned is the game for you.

You can't see it, but that guy has a harmonica permanently affixed to his face. It's like if Clive Barker wrote Deliverance.
You can't see it, but that guy has a harmonica permanently affixed to his face. It's like if Clive Barker wrote Deliverance.

For the most part, Shadows of the Damned is a game that qualifies as challenging, not frustrating. Occasional bouts with irritating arena battles featuring insane droves of enemies notwithstanding, the game's design mostly allows for a breezy, if not easy shooting experience, thanks in no small part to the mostly solid checkpoint system. The one wrinkle in the gameplay that occasionally vexes is the "darkness" mechanic. In the vein of Silent Hill, Hell will sometimes go massively, oppressively dark, turning everything to a chaotic bluish hue and actually inflicting damage on Garcia.

These sequences usually involve finding light sources to blast with your gun, or darkness-barfing zombie hands to destroy. It's rarely too difficult to find the right solution, though that does bring up the matter of the game's puzzles, or general lack thereof. Shadows of the Damned is a linear game. Linear is not inherently a damnable term, but here it very much is. This is not a game that requires much thought. When a door is locked, an icon on the door tells you what you need to do. Sometimes you blast it with light. Sometimes you kick it in. Sometimes you have to go find a strawberry for a demonic baby head that acts as a lock. If you do have to go do something like find a strawberry for a demonic baby head, that strawberry is usually pretty close to the demonic baby head, possibly in that one other accessible room right next to the demonic baby head.

In other words, there just isn't much need for brainpower in Shadows of the Damned. Mostly it's all run-and-gun demon-splattering, which for many will be just fine. What you might be less fine with is some of the game's rougher edges. Some of these are technical, including a few irritating glitches that forced me to restart a couple of checkpoints, and some long-ish loading times that periodically pop up and cause initial choppiness with cutscenes. Other issues are atmospheric in nature. While Hell should certainly be an ugly place, a lot of Shadows of the Damned's environments are drawn up in strangely bland fashion. Hell is basically a nondescript European city peppered with hollowed-out corpses and gooey human viscera. The latter gore actually looks pretty good, but much of the world detail is uncreative and overly dank. The notion of Hell as a rather dull community of demons wandering around torturing each other out of a lack of better options is kind of a funny one, but as a visual gag, it just serves to make the game's presentation less interesting.

The shooting can feel a little loose, but blowing up these demonic scumbags is rarely dull.
The shooting can feel a little loose, but blowing up these demonic scumbags is rarely dull.

Still, there are some amusing artistic touches. The demon who acts as your weapon salesman, for instance, looks like a giant, hulking Wendigo with a fondness for flood lights, and also talks like Gomer Pyle. Again, a lot of what works in Shadows of the Damned comes from the audio, especially in the campy, bizarre voice acting. Yamaoka's music deserves special mention, too. He runs the gamut from the ethereal to the cacophonous here, mixing dirges of grindcore screeching with dread-filled strings, and finding the occasional opportunity to toss in some Spanish guitar solos for good measure. It's ludicrous stuff, but it perfectly suits its ludicrous game.

Some are guaranteed to hate Shadows of the Damned. It's unapologetically immature, boner-obsessed, and grotesquely violent. And yet, unlike other unapologetically immature, boner-obsessed, and grotesquely violent games of recent memory, there is no meanness of spirit to Shadows' intentions. Practically every gag in the game seems to come from a place of easygoing silliness, rather than a need for forced edginess. For a game about Hell and damnation, it's remarkably fluffy and light of spirit, to the point where you just can't help but laugh at the wanton stupidity of it all. That it sometimes stumbles in its execution is a testament to how entertaining its tale really is. Even at its worst moments, you'll be compelled to keep playing.

Unless, of course, you just really hate dick jokes.

Alex Navarro on Google+

149 Comments

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SockLobster

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Edited By SockLobster

Imma play this ish

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bybeach

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Edited By bybeach

I havn't read the review yet. I just want to say thankyou Alex and very very good of you and GB to have this review up. This is bringing back my faith in GB that has been lagging lately behind things being either late or not  at all, and the site tech. problems. I had to start up my old computer to even leave a comment just now, my newer computer has problems with accessing the comments section for reviews, the comment s themselves are half missing after the 1st page, and the the comment box is tiny and without bold, slant etc. 
 
But yes and to point, I was really wanting to know about Shadows of the Damned and what GB thought, and now I know where that $20..00 I got back for pre-ordering Fear-3 is going to be applied to. So pleased! I have actually spot read the review and now will go back for completness. Thanks for picking  up the game up Alex, between this and ILM's it seems GB is getting it's legs again.
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SkullcrusherMountain

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I see what you did there.

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shinluis

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Edited By shinluis

Still not into Navarro's writing. At all. Anyway, sounds like a great game. Lookin' forward into playing it.

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deactivated-5d7bd9e4bef30

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Nice Temple Of The Dog namedrop.

Funnily enough, I traded in Duke Nukem Forever when I pre-ordered this game. By all accounts, this seems to appeal a whole lot more to my sensibilities.

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GrandMarshal

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Edited By GrandMarshal

more reviews should be ended with "Unless, of course, you just really hate dick jokes."

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deactivated-5c7ea8553cb72

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I like dick jokes.

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StandStrong

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Edited By StandStrong

I love it when games like this just comes out of "nowhere". I really thought it was going to suck big time.

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MolluskLingers

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Edited By MolluskLingers

How scary is the game? I'm not a fan of scary games but this looks too good to pass up.

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Lemmycaution217

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Edited By Lemmycaution217

Nice review! Demonic baby head made me laugh.

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dudacles

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Edited By dudacles

Great review Alex, this is exactly the type of insight that I sought on this game.

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rmanthorp

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Edited By rmanthorp  Moderator

Damn this was so off my radar and now I'm totally interested!

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Winternet

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Edited By Winternet

So, we could say Suda 51's games are the Duke Nukem games of the XXI century.

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mrbubbles

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Edited By mrbubbles

i might wait for the quick look of both fear and this before deciding which to buy

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Nekroskop

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Edited By Nekroskop

I really want to know how the PS3 version is holding up to the 360 one, since it's using Unreal.

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jmfinamore

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Edited By jmfinamore
@StandStrong said:

I love it when games like this just comes out of "nowhere". I really thought it was going to suck big time.

Same here. I like Suda's style but a lot of his games are kinda bad. I was super surprised this turned out so well (and for that matter, came out; I had completely forgotten about it). It's getting great scores from a lot of places. 
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Mr_Skeleton

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Edited By Mr_Skeleton

Im not sure if I want to buy this game, on one hand there are so many boner jokes but on the other hand the main character's name is Garcia Hotspur which almost makes everything else okay.

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ThePhilatron

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Edited By ThePhilatron

Wow, terrific review Alex! I might actually get this game now.

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dragonzord

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Edited By dragonzord

@Methodis said:

How scary is the game? I'm not a fan of scary games but this looks too good to pass up.

It's not scary at all. Unless you think Troma movies are scary

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Bumpton

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Edited By Bumpton

Anyone else notice that Alex really likes the term "preternatural badass"? He used it several times on the E3 podcasts also. For some reason it really pops out at me.

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Krakn3Dfx

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Edited By Krakn3Dfx

An Alex game review.

Now I don't know what to think.

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TeenageJesusSuperstar

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The lack of a new game plus is a real bummer. Hopefully the game sells enough for them to consider patching it in. Also after Mikami's recent work on   Vanquish it's a  little disappointing that the shooting is just average. At least it doesn't seem like it's awkward enough to get in the way of the spectacular craziness like it did Killer 7.

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deactivated-5abeb9715d7a2

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How could anyone hate Jack Burton?  Big Trouble in Little China is a great movie.

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SleepyDoughnut

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Edited By SleepyDoughnut

I really don't want to play this strictly because I heard that they had a crazier art style but EA demanded they to go with a style that would safer for a Western audience, and in turn they made it look almost as generic as possible, which sucks.

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Chris2KLee

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Edited By Chris2KLee

I'll probably give it a go. I really love No More Heroes and this seems like it could fill the same crazy void that series left in my life.

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Yummylee

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Edited By Yummylee

Very excited for Friday when this is released for me. The short length of around eight hours with no replay value is immensely disheartening, but this at least does look like the type of game I'm sure I'd enjoy playing through again just for the sake of playing it some more.

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metalsnakezero

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Edited By metalsnakezero
@Godlyawesomeguy said:
I like dick jokes.
When they are good and not really silly.
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MrMazz

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Edited By MrMazz

sounds like a game ill pick up when its 20 bucks used

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sixghost

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Edited By sixghost

Glad to see Alex continues to work the phrase "preternatural badass" into everything he takes part in.

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theoldhouse

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Edited By theoldhouse

well aint that good news!

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abomstar

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Edited By abomstar

Does this game strive for the surreality and arty convolution of Killer7 (one of my favorite games), or does it mostly emulate the No More Heroes (hated it) "EPIC badass shock value"? Killer7 had those over-the-top moments too, but they were centerpieces for something more unsettling that contained, at the very least, the guise of substance. This game comes off like something of a mix between the two extremes, but I'm wondering if anyone else with strong opinions of the previous Suda games could paint a clearer picture.

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ninjalegend

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Edited By ninjalegend

If only there was some way to get an expedient glance, some kind of fleeting stare at this game.

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HydraHam

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Edited By HydraHam

@MrMazz said:

sounds like a game ill pick up when its 20 bucks used

This, but ill wait till it's in the $5-10 bin at big lots.

Surprising at how much praise and good reviews it's getting, from what i have seen it looks janky and like a ps2 game, which graphically doesn't bother me, i care more about how games play.

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sixtyxcelph

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Edited By sixtyxcelph

I may ACTUALLY pay full price for this game, which is not something I do terribly often anymore.  And it's all because of you, Alex Navarro!  But, know that I will hate you for the rest of my life if I drop $60 on a shitty game. =P

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FightMeNerd

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Edited By FightMeNerd

Randomly reserved this the other day to get a hold on the soundtrack and hoping this game might be good. Glad to know the gamble paid off. Always bet on Garcia.... Wait... That doesn't sounds right.

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billyhoush

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Edited By billyhoush

I scanned through this review looking for one thing...does this play/look better on xbox or ps3? C'mon Navarro!

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Edited By DeF

I wish there was an option to play back audio of whoever writes a review. I read this with Alex' particular speaking style in mind and it was especially hilarious :D
 
After reading this, I might get weak and buy this earlier than I planned to. Great review!

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Bakath

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Edited By Bakath

Hum, interesting.

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Deranged

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Edited By Deranged

Good news,but I'll stick to renting it.

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Kaowas

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Edited By Kaowas

This sounds pretty much up my alley. Constantine, El Mariachi and Jack Burton characteristics in the hero combined with an awesome talking skull-gun and a silly sense of humour? Sign me up! 
 
By the way, Alex, great article!

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Edited By fox01313

Well Alex has been spot on with the reviews he's done, at least in regards to being close to what I'd think of the other games he reviewed. So will definitely give this one a go when I get a chance.

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sins_of_mosin

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Edited By sins_of_mosin

Video review for games without much PR would be really nice.

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golguin

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Edited By golguin

I didn't know it was already out, but I'm glad to hear the gameplay was able to hold up.

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MrCompletely

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Edited By MrCompletely

Nice Temple of the Dog shoutout! 

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FuzzYLemoN

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Edited By FuzzYLemoN

I want to change my middle name to Fucking.

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Arthurd

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Edited By Arthurd

Did he just bad mouth Temple of the Dog? /shakes fist

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Gerhabio

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Edited By Gerhabio

With such luminaries working on it I was hoping for this to be good. Excited to play it.

Kinda sad the motivation for the plot is a woman in a refrigerator trope though.

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Pat

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Edited By Pat

Really appreciate the way this review was written, Alex. Really highlighted the abundance of strawberries and demonic baby heads.

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chewii101

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Edited By chewii101

Sounds like one of these developers is a Spurs fan. As a Gooner, I'm offended. As a person who enjoys some crazy fun this looks awesome.