Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered

The 7th generation of gaming was wild! From the 5th onwards, the notion of “Edge Lord material”, and just going all in with crazy ideas, wild gameplay and over-the-top themes were commonplace for gaming. One of the craziest designers in gaming was Suda 51, the dude who brought us No More Heroes, and the brilliant Killer7, who decided to team up with his buddy, and father of survival horror Shinji Mikami, and powerhouse musician Akira Yamaoka, for the most edge lord game known to humanity ever! And so was born Shadows of the Damned, and back in 2011 … it was fine. Not a bad game, but one that felt something was missing.

Vital bits were missing in the original, which this remaster restores, including a new game plus mode, and extra costumes. But do these and 4K resolutions make it a better game in 2024?


What is Shadows of the Damned?


At the time, Resident Evil 4, Gears of War and Devil May Cry were popular. So there were plenty of imitators, trying new things, or simply kicking the gas peddle into overdrive. Enter Shadows of the Damned, which originally was meant to be quite a different game, and its trouble development has been well recorded (Matt Muscles has a good video covering it on Youtube). But EA back in 2011 wanted something with more bite, more grit, and more punk edge what we got is somewhat down to them.

Shadows of the Damned brings us to Hell, in the shoes of Garcia Hotspur, a legendary demon hunter and badass voice by ultimate badass Steve Bloom. One night, while on the hunt, Garcia learns of a plot to kidnap his beloved partner Paula right from under his nose, and while making a valiant effort to get back home, he is too late.

The King of Hell, known as Flemming, is there and he has Paula in his grasp. With a flick of his wrist, he returns to Hell, but Garcia is hot on his heels and follows suit into the underworld. Accompanied only by his wisecracking talking gun named Johnson, the pair venture through Hell to kill as many demons as possible, confront the King of Hell, and rescue Paula.

It’s a simple, yet romantically bleak tale that is reminiscent of Orpheus and his tragic venture to the underworld to save his wife. But Shadows of the Damned manages to pack in plenty of laughs next to the excessive and twists body horror, mutilation, and death-spewing gravitas.

That and it’s all about shooting demons in the face with a talking gun that’s named after a slang term for a man’s todger. Classic 2011 vibes right there!


I would go to Hell and back for you


As previously mentioned not long ago, Shadows of the Damned is narratively undemanding that doesn’t explore the deeper inner workings of the human condition. Go and play Silent Hill 2 if you want that. But what it does indeed present is a solid, and emotionally driven journey that’s brimming with charisma, charm, and plenty of edge. Now bear in mind, this came out back in a time when boobs, excessive cursing, and dick jokes were just a norm. And while it doesn’t present the most interesting female characters, unlike another 2011 shooter (Bulletstorm), it doesn’t bring much character development elsewhere, except for Garcia and Johnson.

These two are just legendary and I love them so much as characters, and replaying this again, made me miss wacky protagonists and supporting casts like this. The duo bounces off each other beautifully, and I always laughed when Johnson made commentary, a witty remark, or flipped his lid when s*** was going down. Garcia is an absolute tough guy, comically so, but has plenty of heart and love for Paula, and seeing him watching her suffer is truly heartbreaking. But the comedy is gold for the most part, and never did I cringe or groan at a bad joke.

There were jokes I long forgot and loved hearing again and seeing one of my favourite moments involving a door, demons and wishful thinking brought a tear to my eye. It’s down to Johnson, his voice actor and comic timing that makes it all come together, and Garcia the somewhat straight man, makes the energy come across more organically, and better executed. In short, I love these guys as leading characters and would have been thrilled to have seen a sequel that explores their backstories.

But aside from them being excellent leading characters, the rest of the game is not on the same level, be it for storytelling or humour. As said, when the heavy stuff needs to hit, it does, but that’s down to Steve Bloom’s performance. Outside of that, there’s just a ton of dick jokes, and off-beat random humour that’s mildly shocking, or humorous at first but loses its lust after a while. I mean, the checkpoint system is indicated by a one-eye bat that flies off and lays a flaming poop on the floor… it’s only funny so few times and even the friendly Southern accent demon trader didn’t have the same persona as RE4’s merchant. And the big twist at the end is … not a big twist and becomes so apparent when the game “subtly” hints at a certain bit of lore.

But that said, I love this version of Hell, the weird hierarchy, world-building, demon lore, and the lore for the bosses are some of the best including a travelling musician who never has “his fill” and resorts to eating himself to do so. This stuff is brilliant, along with Garcia and Johnson being utter stellar lads who bring some much warmth and joy to this game’s story … as much of everything else is not that compelling.

But the enemy designs, and Hell itself are visually outstanding! And I will mention that back in 2011, many 7th-generation games were pretty piss poor with grey, brown-washed visuals, and Shadows of the Damned decided to add in colour as much as possible, and it was a breath of fresh air. Even now, this is still a good-looking game, with plenty of style, and edge, made even better with the high-resolution upgrade.

There were a couple of low, very pixelated textures in small areas of certain objects, but everything else looked fantastic, and it all ran smoothly without any hiccups. So all and all, excellent presentation, and upgrading for a beloved cult classic, that while short in certain narrative spots, and the humour being wildly overly crude and tiresome after a couple of hours, still has great leading characters who are lovable, laughable and legends who deserve a sequel, in a version of Hell that is still vastly more compelling and interesting than a lot of counterparts even to this day.


Taste my Big Boner! (That’s a line in the game I swear to God!)


Again, not to sound like a broken record, but Shadows of the Damned came from a time long ago when RE4 and Gears were super popular, and everyone wanted to imitate them. Interestingly the creative consultant working with Suda 51 for this game was Shinji Mikami, who directed RE4 and later directed the underappreciated The Evil Within. There are a lot of RE4 vibes here, but just much more “arcade” and clunky in tone and vibes.

Shadows of the Damned is a ball to the walls 3rd person shooter, with a shoulder camera, light resource management, and an upgrade system which is quite gratifying the deeper you get into the game. You shoot demons, explore the environment for treasures, and partake in the odd set piece or two.

Now the shooting is as I said, very Arcade-like (not archaic … even if it is a little compared to today’s standards), but more so that it’s simple yet wholesome with a straight-up run, gun, and makes sure everything is dead. You point your Johnson, fire your Johnson, and blast enemies into bits. That’s the core from start to finish, it’s not the deepest and mechanically flexible combat system unlike RE4, but it does the job and can be fun with some upgraded guns. But there are some neat inclusions along the way.

The main one is the factor of darkness, which was meant to be more dynamic in the original concept, but it is used more so for set-dressing, set-pieces and frantic moments of gun touting dread as Garcia can’t withstand Hell’s version of darkness. So you may enter an area and it becomes bathed in darkness, so you either have to race to a spot with light or shoot a Goats Head on the wall to ignite the area with light. You do also come across enemies who are converted into dark forms, that require a “Light shot” to remove the darkness allowing you to kill them. Like Alan Wake, but not as tactical or interesting, but is never overused like in Alan Wake.

Darkness is also used for a few puzzles, and boss encounters, but never is elevated for grand set-pieces or used in unique ways to deal with problems. Aside from one or two moments, where you can choose to use darkness to kill off a couple of bigger enemies, but then have to deal with a dozen smaller ones that spawn because of the darkness. It's fascinating however that things do come together and expand towards the very end, as elements such as areas engulfed in darkness are bigger, more maze-like, and chase sequences, arena fights and even a puzzle or two feel fleshed out. But this is literally for two chapters (The Catacombs and F*** up Room) where everything is pushed mechanically ... and then the game rushes to the finish line. 

Darkness aside, there aren’t any other dynamic gameplay elements, but the developers did try and feature as many funky set-pieces and combat encounters as possible. The bosses are usually quite frantic and grand in scale, often a visual treat to behold, while other moments, including a paper marionette-style side scroller, give a nice break between the three-dimensional chaos we’ve had plenty of. Puzzles are for the most part not the most engaging, but there is a level focused on a room which is a giant puzzle cube which was neat, and secrets are generally so easy to find that I wouldn’t call them secrets, not on the same level as DOOM Eternal or Tomb Raider. 

Shadows of the Damn feels like a game that’s a perfect, Jack of all trades, but a master of none. It does a lot of its gameplay stuff well and it is consistently fun throughout. But it never elevates to a level close to its influences such as RE4. Which while clunky, did have a lot of variety in combat, deep exploration and treasure hunting, and threw in epic bosses and thrilling set-pieces that differentiate from one another. Shadows of the Damned feels like they wanted an RE4 clone but with limited time and budget (check out the behind-the-scenes for more info on that).

But what it does, it does incredibly well, but never goes to exciting new levels has the odd set-piece and boss battle that breaks up the straightforward shooting.

I will admit that the last couple of chapters do feel rushed, and while not lacking visually or in concept, they’re over and done within minutes. Again, this game had a tricky development, and more apparent as the extras here weren’t included in the original release.

As for extras, we do get some nice ones if not many. First are the extra costumes, unlocked immediately and others you need to finish the game. They're neat and one of them grants double firepower, but the rest are for show. More dynamic changes could have been added personally, but thankfully there is a new game plus mode now too, so you can go through Hell again, just even more stocked up!

These were sorely missed from the original game, and they do make the whole thing worthy to pick up and play right away for old and new fans. But I honestly feel more could have been added in. I’m always a sucker for behind-the-scenes, and this or a commentary would have been amazing!


Overall?


Shadows of the Damned may not rocket past its older brother RE4, but it’s still a grand cult classic that I’m happy it seeing a second chance in the gaming mainstream. Yes, some story elements and aesthetics are outdated, a tad bit dull in the plot and the gameplay never truly focuses on anything new or refined… but there is so much to like here and it’s just good, rustic gaming fun.

I love Garcia, and Johnson as our leading pair, this version of Hell is stellar, to say the least, I like solid combat that’s toned up by some great boss battles and set-pieces, particularly the City Showdown with “The Big Boner”, and visually this game looked terrific before and even more so now with the remastered presentation.

I’m a sucker for old games like this, and I have my original copy for the Xbox 360 on my gaming shelf. It’s a fond cult classic that did deserve more love and a chance of a sequel back then. And maybe now, Johnson and Garcia could be brought back for one more adventure…

I would love to hear Johnson rap again (another great moment that brought a tear to my eye).

Pick up and play this edge lord of the game, I demand you do so now, otherwise, you’ll get a taste of Johnson!


++ Visually stunning and looks/feels even better in 4K 
++ Johnson and Garcia are excellent leading character 
+ Solid, comfortable and enjoyable gameplay 
+ Nice extras, including New Game Plus 

-- The Story is not all that compelling and some outdated/annoying jokes 
- Various elements such as puzzles, and darkness never evolve to exciting heights 
- More extras could have been added in, such as director commentary


The publisher kindly provided a review copy of Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered.