- Publisher: EA
- Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
- ESRB Rating: “M” for Mature
- Genre: Third-Person-Shooter
- Pros: Satisfying gameplay; great music; best loading screen around; nice visuals; boss fights
- Cons: Chapter 4; chase sequences; no New Game+; dick jokes get old
The story in Shadows of the Damned follows demon hunter Garcia Hotspur. He's killed a few too many demons and angered the lord of darkness, Fleming. Fleming kidnaps Garcia's girlfriend, Paula, and takes her to the Underworld. Garcia gives chase, and what follows is 7 hours of trekking through Hell to save Paula. The experience is pretty twisted, though, being Hell after all, so Garcia has to witness Paula getting tortured and killed and brought back a dozen times before the end.
Garcia has a secret weapon, though, in the form of a friendly demon named Johnson who can change form at will to become anything Garcia needs. A torch, different guns, even a motorcycle.
The story and setup is definitely interesting, but is overshadowed a bit by how vulgar the game is. Garcia swears a lot, both in English and Spanish. Johnson, in various forms, is basically a talking dick joke, and it does get tiresome after a while. I'm not saying it isn't funny and clever at times (Garcia reading a storybook out loud is hilarious), but it gets old.
Gameplay
EA
An interesting mechanic in the game is darkness. Darkness kills Garcia if you stay in it too long, so you have to find ways to light up areas in order to survive. On the other hand, darkness makes the demons more powerful. Using a special light shot from his guns, Garcia can illuminate lamps (or goat heads mounted to the walls ...), or burn away darkness from enemies to make them vulnerable. Some switches can only be activated in the darkness, and some bosses can only be harmed from within darkness, so it is a constant balancing act of keeping Garcia alive while still getting the job done.
Another great feature are your guns. You have a pistol, shotgun, and machine gun that all upgrade and get better as you progress through the game. The machine gun gets homing bullets. The shotgun turns into a grenade launcher. And more. You always have new toys, which keeps the game fun.
In an effort to give the game more variety, four levels in Chapter 4 are made up of completely different gameplay. First is an overly long and annoying turret section where you blast huge demons before they reach you. It is fun at first, but has a total of three parts that are just boring. Next, you have 2D shoot-em-up levels where Garcia sort of floats in the air and you shoot enemies like you're playing Gradius or something. Again, it is fun the first time, but obnoxious by the end. And the boss fight for Chapter 4 takes place in this 2D space and is a major letdown compared to other boss fights. There are a couple of normal third-person-shooter levels in C4, but for the most part it is a major buzz kill.
Also popping up that kills the fun a bit are chase scenes where a deranged Paula chases Garcia through levels and if she catches him you die. Fun and kind of thrilling at first. Boring and frustrating every time after.
The game has a habit of being frustrating and annoying at times. I turned it off in disgust quite a few times. But I always came back. It is a fun and compelling game, that keeps you coming back even through the rocky parts, which is always a good sign. It also presents the puzzles and action scenes in fresh and new ways throughout the game that keep it entertaining.
EA
Visually, Shadows of the Damned is a nice looking game. The character models are nice. The enemy designs are pretty wild. And the environments are appropriately crazy and creepy and full of blood stains and corpses. It is a horror game, sort of. It isn't scary, but there are lots of traditional horror elements around.
Sound
The sound design is definitely the best part of the presentation. The weapons sound powerful and the enemy screams are perfect. The voice work is also quite good, and Johnson and Garcia sound very natural together. The real star here is the music. Absolutely amazing all the way through.
Bottom Line
In the end, Shadows of the Damned is a solid action adventure all the way through. It manages to be interesting and entertaining from start to finish, which is something many action games struggle with. You might be using the same mechanics through the whole game to fight enemies and solve puzzles, but they are presented in fresh and new ways that always keep things interesting. The boss fights are creative and fun and really cap off the gameplay in a great way. We don't exactly love Chapter 4, but the rest of the game is definitely worth the effort. The game is 7 or so hours long, with multiple difficulty levels, so there is a fair bit to do even without multipayer or New Game+. The immature humor might turn some folks off, but all in all, Shadows of the Damned is a solid game that is highly recommended for action fans.
