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Unabashedly excessive, delightfully vulgar and constantly exciting, Shadows of the Damned, a new horror-comedy game, packs a delightful punch. The game is based on the partnership of two video gaming auteurs — Resident Evil creator Sinji Mikami and Suda 51, a k a Goichi Suda, whose resume includes the highly successful No More Heroes series.

It is startling to see just how well these two directors’ seemingly disparate styles work so well together. Mikami’s grotesque supernatural elements lend themselves naturally to Suda’s brand of over-the-top zaniness. Imagine riding through the zombie-laden lands of Resident Evil as Travis Touchdown, the cartoonishly brutal, anime-obsessed protagonist of the No More Heroes series, and you’ll get a good idea of how Shadows of the Damned plays out.

Players take control of Mexican demon slayer Garcia Hotspur, whose penchant for cursing is equaled only by his ability to kill hell spawn. Garcia heads into the underworld in order to rescue his girlfriend, Paula, who is kidnapped at the start of the game by a beastly, opera-loving demon named Fleming.

After that odd-ball beginning, the game quickly introduces players to more quirkiness, such as Garcia’s close companion, a British-sounding skeleton head named Johnson, who can transform into a motorcycle, as well as goat lamps that must be shot to light up darkened areas and a monstrous bison that want to trample you to death. The game piles on the weird, but it’s all rendered using beautiful, moody graphics that never fail to hold the player’s attention. Shadows of the Damned is full of memorable moments and images for gamers to savor.

And those aesthetic strengths help keep the focus away from the thin plot and none-too-original game play. At its most basic form, Shadows is essentially just another third-person shooter with some comically supernatural twists. Players aim, shoot, upgrade weapons and improve their skills to fend off enemies.

But Mikami and Suda manage to push every cliched aspect of conventional shooters to its most compelling limit. The humor is unbelievably immature, but in a so-stupid-it’s-kind-of-hilarious sort of way. The strange gameplay elements, such as the goat head lamps, are so bizarre you want to keep playing just to see what they’ll throw at you next. By the time players have to use a giant, partially naked body as a bridge, they’ll be hooked.

Even Garcia comments on the absurdity of it all when Johnson — a former demon — tells him about some of the rules of the underworld. It’s this kind of knowing meta-humor that makes the insanity of Shadows so easy to get on board with.

Then there are the level bosses. While the lesser demonic minions are, for the most part, easily defeated, the astounding array of grandiose bosses are a treat to fight against. There’s a horse-headed man who sits on a man-headed horse, a gigantic wing-flapping bird and a demonic version of Garcia’s girlfriend, among many other notable abominations.

Apart from the usual over-the-shoulder shootouts, Garcia also has to solve many puzzles along the way, mostly to move on from one section to another. These mildly challenging puzzles give players a nice break from the action and add another layer to the gameplay.

Shadows smooth controls are a breeze to master and get into, making it easy to grasp each new challenge the game offers.

The audio also plays a crucial role in setting the mood. A crying baby, a demon growl and a host of other ambient noises add a spooky atmosphere to the whole adventure.

The only issue related to the graphic and control side of things is the sometimes erratic animation, making some battles unnecessarily challenging. Oftentimes, Garcia will find himself stuck in the corner of the screen during an intense fight or the camera will automatically zoom in at the worst moments.

Nevertheless, that slight clumsiness distracts only slightly from the overall gaming experience. The game’s creative presentation and challenges are so plentiful that immediately after players finish the 10 to 12-hour story, they will want to pound through it all again. Shadows of the Damned is a funny, ghoul-filled adventure most gamers will happily undertake.
Report Marcel Thee
Shadows of the Damned (Grasshopper Manufacture/Electronic Arts)

 

Single player, available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, rated M