Shadows of the Damned

There’s a lot to talk about with Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered. The wild world, the funny writing, the varied and tense gameplay, the rockin’ soundtrack, the silly characters, the serious moments, or the awesome sense of progression, just to name a few enjoyable things. It only took me about 8 hours to finish the game and most of that was in one sitting. I have only played Shadows of the Damned once at PAX East 2024 earlier this year and it was such a great demo, the full game delivered all of that and more. Add in the New Game Plus feature that lets you keep your late game upgrades ...

Another issue is that lights, fire, smoke, explosions, and any other particle effects look incredibly pixilated. This becomes pretty evident once you hit chapter 4 (when you acquire the Big Boner) and each blast from the gun not only releases a cloud of pixilated smoke, but also follows that up with a pixilated explosion where it landed. I honestly couldn’t tell whether this was done on purpose or just incredible laziness. The only effect that I thought looked somewhat impressive where the scan lines that appear when Johnson transforms into a gun. Oh yea, the soundtrack is actually pretty damn...

This is the inherent conundrum of Shadows of the Damned. Your own tastes will determine whether it's more or less than the sum of its basically functional but not-especially-interesting parts, and the attitude and style it carries like a chip on its shoulder. As an action game, Shadows of the Damned is a passable exercise in a few interesting ideas often buckling under the weight of controls and level design stuck firmly in the past. But as a weird tour through a Hell we haven't seen before, with a love for subject matter that neatly sidesteps the likes of other Grindhouse-inspired games over ...

Shadows of the Damned is easy to criticise, but it's got character - brimming with the stylishness of Suda 51 and the maturity of Mikami. It's a cool game, and is likely to earn a loyal following.

If you have an affinity for over-the-top and in-your-face male characters who lead the way with testosterone and are armed with one hell of a potty mouth, then 2011 has you covered. Whether you’re talking the Duke from Duke Nukem Forever or the entirety of the Bulletstorm cast, it’s clear that there seems to be a bit of a revival this year. Next up to the plate, Shadow of the Damned’s male lead, Garcia Hotspur, or as he’d like to put it, “Garcia fucking Hotspur,” and his sidekick,...