Shadows of the Damned

When it comes to games that bombard the player with a flurry of jokes that relate to genitalia, intercourse and other bodily functions, I usually turn my head and walk away. Shadows of the Damned is one of those games, but my response was surprisingly different for one major reason; the game realizes that it is ridiculous.

Let me take Duke Nukem Forever as a comparison. It goes out of its way to establish its hero, Duke, as a complete bad-ass. Women want to be with him, men want to be him, and aliens hate to see him. This is a fine concept, but the problem lies in the way that they establish the character. The game takes itself, and it's universe, so seriously that it basically eliminates any kind of humor that could exist in the game. These days just having a guy who gets a lot of ladies and makes a few movie reference does not pass for humor. Having your game be self aware of this fact, even to the point of mocking itself, makes sure the player knows that the game understands how low it's humor is, and through this mutual understanding the player can find the at first seemingly low humor actually genuinely funny.

From the outset Shadows of the Damned establishes it's over the top qualities in it's opening cut-scenes and dialogue. It even has a freaking motorcycle into late title card sequence which simultaneously establishes the game as cheesy as all hell and Garcia Fucking Hotspur, the main character and demon hunter, as a complete and total bad-ass. Through playing the game I often laughed at what Hotspur would say because it was exactly what I was thinking. Hotspur asks his companion Johnson all kinds of things about the underworld, and is obviously completely over his head and lost in the same way the player is in the new environment. Dialogue like this is really Shadows of the Damned's strong side, as the game is really in tune with exactly what the player is feeling at that part of the game. Hotspur expresses confusion at puzzles, Questions suspicious pickups and ultimately just submits to just how ridiculous the world and it's mechanics are (I found myself doing the same thing exactly when he said this dialogue, by the way.). There are lots of posters and other side exposition things in the game that I religiously hunted down in a way that I searched for story in Mass Effect to understand and bathe in the world that the game created.

Hotspur's actions throughout the game suit the character Suda51 sets out to establish brilliantly, and overall exposition of the story, which comes mainly through conversation between Hotspur and Johnson, the floating skull tour guide, is paced extremely well and left me chomping at the bit for the next dialogue sequence to kick in.

But what about the stuff between all this awesome conversation and exposition? You know, the game? Well that's great too. Effectively if you liked playing the resident evil series, you're going to end up loving this too. One of the consistent gripes I see from reviewers, however, is over the controls, which they say seem lose and dodgy. I felt that it controlled perfectly, and I was popping headshots on demons left and right throughout the entire game. The guns shoot, and feel great, and the sound design to go with those guns and every other interaction is absolutely brilliant. Lots of games these days seem to miss out on the fact that music can really set the mood for a scene much better than a flashy explosion or particle effect, but Shadows of the Damned certainly isn't one of those games.

Regarding value, the game delivers an experience that is well worth your hard earned 60$ USD. Gameplay lasts around 11-12 hours, and I found myself playing through a few sections then setting it down for a bit. It really felt like a story telling experience surpassed even the likes of RE4, and did away with the clunky and unnecessary mechanics that those previous games carried with them like inventory management.

The only reason the game gets a 4.5 from me is that, in graphics, models are very plastic looking, and it feels like layer upon layer of shaders tried to make up for this. It wouldn't have been an issue for me if this game wasn't as linear as it is. I didn't run into any issues of texture popup like remarked in other reviews playing the retail 360 version either, so overall the game is well worth your money, even if it doesn't look like Battlefield 3.