Shadows of the Damned Review

I have a thing for insane games, which is probably apparent from my love of Vanquish, Bayonetta, Bulletstorm, etc. So obviously, a strange love child of Suda 51, Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka (composing the music of course) would be right up my alley. And it most assuredly is, considering all the bat-shit craziness that covers this thing. Add dick jokes to something this mad and you've apparently made a game that appeals to me wonderfully, but trust me when I say it's a lot deeper than that.

Everyone involved with the game did what they do best. Suda created the characters, the world, the tone, and the did writing. Shinji took care of the gameplay and mechanics (in case you don't know him by name, he is the gentleman that brought us the wonderful Resident Evil 4). Then, of course, there's Akira Yamaoka who knocked another soundtrack out of the park. Anyone who has played any of the Silent Hill games will know what I'm talking about. I've heard people voice concerns that there are too many creative forces at work for this to be great, which is a legitimate concern. Get too many great actors in a room and it becomes a group exercise in mugging (that's a theatre term; it doesn't mean a physical mugging; yes, I used to be an actor). However, with everyone having their defined jobs, it all meshes perfectly, starting with the combat.

Like I said earlier, this was designed by the guy who did Resident Evil 4, so it plays a lot like that. The main difference is that you can now SHOOT AND AIM. That alone makes it better (the combat at least). Being able to maneuver around a horde of demons while picking them off is a necessity so it really wouldn't have worked without it. There are also these dark zones that kill you slowly that you either dissipate immediately with a "light shot" to a goat head (I told you this game was insane), or you have to brave them because certain switches can only be triggered from inside them. Meanwhile, enemies made invincible by the darkness will be hoping to tear your face off, so moving while lining up the shot is also important. If I wanna get nitpicky, and I guess it's my "job" as a critic to do so, I will say that some more polish could have gone into making all this work perfectly. At it's core it's great, but Garcia (our protagonist) didn't feel as heavy as I would have liked. It gives off that weird "I'm not controlling a human" feel that I find hard to describe. There's also some stiff animations to go along with it, but like I said, I'm nitpicking. Sometimes the camera went wonky as I used the "quick-turnaround" button as well, but it never actually got me killed.

This should all look pretty familiar

The rest of the actual gameplay is superb, though, implementing your usual parade of upgrades. Blue gems, which you get from bosses, give you a set new weapon or weapon upgrade. For example, one will give you the teether, basically a sub-machine gun, while a later one will turn your Boner into the Hotboner which adds a bomb-launching capability to the weapon. Did I mention the Boner is your pistol weapon? I probably should have mentioned that first. Red gems, which you can find lying around or trade white gems for with a human/demon hybrid named Christoper, are used to upgrade your weapons and health as you see fit. It's all pretty standard fare. Unfortunately, and this is a pretty big unfortunately, you can't start a second play-through with all your upgrades carried over. This is a huge lost opportunity for replayability. We shall mourn for it and then move on.

So this won't carry over? Maaaaaaaaaan.

The world that Suda 51 has created is truly fascinating in a B-movie horror film kind of way. Hell, there's even a whole section that references Evil Dead, one of my favorite horror movies. The main goal is also about as video-gamey as you can get; the devil, Fleming, steals your girlfriend and you go to hell to save her. Along for the ride is your faithful companion Johnson, who is an ex-demon, floating, shape shifting skull. Everything you use (your torch, sub-machine gun, pistol, and shotgun) is all him. And as always, nothing with Suda is conventional as the guns don't shoot bullets at all. The only things that kill demons are parts of demons, so the boner shoots bones, the teether shoots teeth (which are technically bones), and the Monocussioner shoots skulls. I'm not going though everything, but each gun goes through permanent major upgrades throughout the game that ups their capabilities greatly. The Teether, for example, becomes the TeethGrinder (sprouting several barrels) and then the Dentist (which has auto-lock abilities). Needless to say, each blue gem brings excitement.

"Taste my big boner!" Yes, that is a thing that is said when this thing happens with a thing you only use once... thing... (The gun is actually called The Big Boner)

The tone is something that completely succeeds despite how hard it is to pull something like this off. It's completely over-the-top and goofy with a dick joke around every corner, yet at the same time it can be genuinely creepy and even disturbing. As crazy as your girlfriend is, seeing her suffer again and again in hell makes you feel something for her. What that is depends on you and whatever reaction you had to seeing a giant topless version of her writhing around in of the weirder parts of the game. Hopefully that's enough to entice you perverts out there. But at it's heart, it's an incredibly goofy adventure. Sure, the constant immature humor won't appeal to everyone, but that's because some people have strangled their inner-children. If you buy into what's going on you'll no doubt be entertained. The only parts that left me confused were the weird 2D section in which you fly around and shoot while collecting things and not being forced into obstacles by the moving camera. Sure, I know it's a throwback to retro games, but it's honestly incredibly bizarre. Not bad... just bizarre.

Like I said... bizaaarrrrrrrrrrre.

The soundtrack is, of course, a masterpiece that ties everything together. This isn't a music blog, so I won't go into any musical intricacies that I've picked up on from being a musician , but trust me when I say it's amazing. The second you hear the theme that plays when you follow around the glowing angler fish (like I said, insane) that are spread throughout the game, you'll fall hard for the music. Beyond that, there's not a lot more I could put into words. It's a weird-as-hell good time that definitely deserves a run-through. Now, if only they would have given us a playthrough+ option. I might never get over that.

9 out of 10.

Afterthought: You regain heath by drinking alcohol. How could I not love this game?