Shadows of the Damned – First Impressions

Dick jokes and guns tend to go hand in hand, but the upcoming survival horror game Shadows of the Damned seems to be exploding this concept more than any other game yet. The use of the word “dick” in Bulletstorm was to the point of insanity, yet this game still takes the cake. It’s certainly making itself known as being very unique, which is to be expected from developer Grasshopper Manufacture, who’s previous games have been a bit out there.

The game’s protagonist, Garcia Hotspur, is a hispanic demon hunter who decides to fight through Hell to save his kidnapped girlfriend, who even insipred a tattoo on his neck as an oath to her. The main enemy of the game did this as revenge for Garcia destroying his demonic hordes. It’s a classic premise, but it still has an air of zanyness to it that makes it stand out above other games of this genre.

Modern Survival Horror

The game’s take on the survival horror genre seems to be similar to the more recent Resident Evil games and the Dead Space series rather than the classics Resis and Silent Hills. It is fast paced, with demons, monsters and zombies trying to eat your face off. You can move while shooting your weapons and even have access to a roll to evade enemy attacks. This has potential to make the combat faster than even Dead Space 2, which reigns as king of these survival shooters of late.

With the combat system looking incredibly fun, there are also gems you can collect. Blue gems allow your weapon to transform into more powerful configurations, while Red Gems “enhance your performance.” There’s a definite tone to this game, which could help propel it far away from being another generic demon hunter shooter.

Have you seen my Johnson?

The tone is described as being very “punk rock” with an enomous amount of sexually suggestive themes and humor thrown in. This is most obvious in a character Garcia meets early on in the game, a Skull named Johnson who loves to talk. Johnson helps Garcia in many ways, but the main reason he is there is pretty unique in itself as he transforms into many weapons and other items for Garcia to use.

You read that right, a big-mouthed, talking, floating Skull named Johnson that transforms into big guns and other useful items. The word unique feels inadequete to describe this idea, but it’s something that makes the game it’s own thing. With forms such as a machine gun called the Teether, a pistol called the Boner and a torch, it really seems like this is going to stick with you throughout the entire thing.

Not just man-on-demon action

To break up the action, there are also some small puzzle sections of the game. At some points, Garcia will find himself enveloped in Darkness. This causes the enemies to no longer take damage and Garcia’s health will slowly deplete until he finds and destroys a golden goat head. In other rooms, there will be doors locked by baby heads, which will refuse to open until they are fed the correct item, which Garcia is sent to find.

Again, this shows how much Shadows of the Damned wants to be it’s own thing, without referencing anything else or being similar to them. While these puzzles or obstacles do exist to break up the action, the developer has explained that it only takes up about 20% of the game, while the action sequences fill the other 80%. From this point, it seems like this will be a good balance without getting bored of either activity.

Damn those shadows

Though the games style definitely sticks out, the look of the game does have that genereic feel to it, being similar to Hunted: The Demon’s Forge and other “next gen” titles. It’s dark, grainy and generally has a lot of greys, browns and dirty coloured environments. The enemies do have a more inspired design, but the key here is the character and weapon designs. A lot of time has been spent making these images stick into your mind, and it looks to do this very well.

Hopefully this unique style they bring to the standard looking fair will be enough to interest people, or at least not bore you as you run through dark corridors. The giant boss fights and characters you meet will certianly bring a smile to your face and stick in your mind a lot more easily than the drab environments, so there is something to look forward to.

Demon Hunter with Style

Shadows of the Damned definitely has something special about it. It’s not afraid to seem completely insane and it brings it’s humor to bear without fear of anything. In some ways it succeeds in ways Duke Nuk’em did when he was top of his game. It embraces the dick jokes and it’s unique characters to it’s credit, rather than as a detriment. Best of all? It looks like it has a lot of fun while doing it.

With the “father” of the Resident Evil franchise, Shinji Mikami, working on this with Grasshopper, it certainly has a lot of potential. They aren’t scared of trying this out and the fact that they’re going so far with the jokes and style is a fantasticly fresh take on something that might become stale if it didn’t change often.