Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: N/A

Honestly, out of all video games, when it comes to Suda51 and his games, I never know what to expect. One thing I do know is that the game will be super original and the level of imagination will be high. A friend recommended Shadows of the Damned to me a long time back and I never got around to playing it back then. The Hella Remastered version is my first time playing the game and man, have I ever missed out! Shadows of Damned combines the talents of Grasshopper Manufacture (Suda51), Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka, and it definitely shows. As usual, with a Suda51 game, the game is brimming with style, it has highly addicting gameplay (sort of like RE4), and the soundtrack very much has the presence of the Silent Hill composer!

You play as Garcia Hotspur, a demon hunter, who has just had his girlfriend, Paula, kidnapped by Flemming, the Lord of Demons. Garcia follows Flemming to the underworld to get her back. Garcia is joined by his demon sidekick, Johnson. Johnson is a floating skull that can transform himself into a number of weapons, a torch and a motorcycle that Garcia can use. Johnson acts as a guide for Garcia to help him through the demon realm.

Shadows of the Damned plays very similar to Resident Evil 4 with its core gameplay - it is a “behind the shoulder” shooter for much of the game. If you’re familiar with RE4, you’ll fall right in line with this game. The game rewards you with headshots by giving you more pickups per headshot. The overall shooting is so very satisfying. Enemies splatter and bleed and lose limbs as you shoot them. Throughout your journey, you’ll gain upgrades for Johnson that will allow him to transform into other weapons as well. Your main three guns are a handgun, shotgun and machine gun and they all get upgrades that make them more powerful eventually.

Darkness plays a big role in the gameplay. You’ll be forced to go into areas of darkness and this will eventually drain your health once your shield is gone. While in darkness, you must shoot goat candles to extinguish the darkness and light up the area. Garcia must use his light shot to light a candle. The light shot also serves as a way to get the darkness off of enemies. Enemies are invulnerable when they have darkness around them (it acts as a shield). Besides the light shot, you also gain access to a type of bomb shot that you can shoot to blow up walls or destroy armor on enemies.

The game throws all types of enemies your way. This game has a good variety of enemies also. It is constantly switching up the enemies that you’ll face and introducing new enemies. There are also many bosses to fight. The game has several mini-boss battles and there are also main bosses that are much bigger. Each boss has a hidden weakness that isn’t always so obvious, but the game does try to help you out in finding the weakness if you watch the battle closely. Besides the shooting gameplay, you’ll also get some variety stages every now and then that break up the shooting into other types of gameplay. One area resembles a Black Knight Sword type of look – it’s a really nice break! There are also a few puzzles here and there.

Johnson can also transform into a torch. The torch is your main melee weapon. Enemies can be hit with the torch normally or you can hit them as a counter attack when they try to attack from off-screen. A quick QTE will appear when an enemy tries to hit from behind and pressing the button will allow you to counter. Besides leveling up Johnson, with new weapon types, you can also upgrade each of the guns with red gems to make their stats more powerful (damage, reload and cartridge). Garcia himself can also be upgraded in certain ways (more health).

The game uses the darkness areas quite well. There are some areas where you have to shoot a type of fish that will guide you through a dark area as it lights up the surrounding area. You must keep up with the fish and stay in the light all while enemies try to attack from the darkness. Struggling to survive in the darkness is a big part of the gameplay. The game will sometimes force you to stay in the darkness (as it zaps away your health) in order to shoot some objects that only appear in the darkness. You’ll also have to run through some dark areas and grab collectibles to keep your shield from running out along the way.

This game controls really well. The controls are tight and responsive and it just all feels good. The A button allows you to dodge forward, backwards and to the sides if you press a direction along with using it. Pressing the A button alone will give you a quick turn. The game also has some great music. There are some songs that sound like they belong in a Silent Hill game. Akira Yamaoka did a great job with the soundtrack! The voice acting is spot on. You get a GREAT feel of the characters in this game. Garcia and Johnson are too good together. Their jokes and comments are fantastic. If you like strange Suda51 characters and humor, you’ll feel right at home with Shadows of the Damned.

It’s amazing how good the game still looks for a game that is two generations old. It moves quite smooth and the lighting effects are really good. Shadows of the Damned deserves more recognition than it gets. I hardly ever heard anything about it when it first released and even now with the Hella Remastered release I still don’t hear much about this game. Suda51 fans already know of its greatness – I’m pretty sure of this. If you haven’t played this game and you like RE4, you definitely need to give it a try. This game is literally calling to you but you haven’t heard it yet. Answer the call. It’s trying its best to get through to you!

The Good:
+ Very satisfying gameplay (a total rush every time I pick it up)
+ A good amount of variety here and there
+ Overall great sound (soundtrack and voice acting especially)
+ Lively characters (as usual for Grasshopper Manufacture)
+ Still looks pretty good for a game that is two console generations old

The Bad:
- Camera can be bad in tight areas (mainly in buildings)
- There is no sequel! :( ...at least not yet.