I've been trying to figure out why I've enjoyed my time with Shadows of the Damned, a wildly over-the-top third-person shooter stuffed to bursting with dirty jokes, so much more than the wretched Duke Nukem Forever , another recent shooter also loaded with off-colour humour, and I think I've finally got it figured out. It's got little to do with comedy and everything to do with game design.
Shadows of the Damned is the product of a collaboration between a pair of heavy hitting Japanese game developers: Shinji Mikami-mastermind of the Resident Evil franchise-and Goichi Suda, who is better known to some as Suda 51, the fellow responsible for the popular No More Heroes series. However, I'm pretty sure that just about everything I enjoyed about the game came from the former, whose previous titles have been personal favourites, while that which I didn't care for much-namely, most of the potty jokes-originated from the latter, whose comedic sensibilities have always struck me as crass and juvenile.
It is agreeably easy to get sucked into both the action and the story, which sees a Spanish demon hunter named Garcia Hotspur travelling to the underworld to rescue his beloved from the clutches of an uber-powerful fiend named Fleming. As he travels through the horrors of hell he is forced to watch her die ghastly deaths over and over again, each one strengthening his resolve to save her from an eternity in perdition. It's a simple, well-trodden tale, but it should prove at least somewhat compelling for anyone who has ever loved and lost.
His constant companion is an English-accented torch named Johnson, a good demon that can transform into a variety of ballistic weapons, such as a handgun called the "boner" that fires bones and "sticky wads" that serve as plastic explosives. I didn't think much of these overt references to that which can not be named in a family publication, but I did appreciate how Johnson's various forms keep Shadows of the Damned from becoming a standard fantasy shooter that has players doing naught but holding their fingers on the trigger.
In addition to blasting demons to bloody shreds-which is satisfying in a gory, Resident Evil kind of way-players also have to use the secondary fire button, which launches a "lightshot" intended to combat an inky incorporeal malevolence known simply as "the darkness" that spreads over both the environment and some demons, making them nearly impervious to standard rounds.
When not blasting the darkness off ghouls, players need to keep a lookout for ways to ensure their surroundings remain lit. Firing lightshots at goat head busts protruding from walls will cause areas to light up, while taking aim at strange, fish-like slugs will make them illuminate and begin to crawl, creating a small radius of vision to help Garcia traverse especially dark areas.
Point being, players need to strategize at all times, alternating between Johnson's many forms and abilities to figure out how to progress through the sometimes puzzle-like environments and effectively dispatch a cast of enemies with varying weaknesses.
On the subject of environments and enemies, their design can only be described as inspired lunacy, and nearly on par with what might be found in a Hayao Miyazaki film-though I don't think the Japanese animator has ever conjured up anything quite so dark. Expect to encounter crying baby faces bound in iron gates demanding to be fed brains, eyeballs, and strawberries (?) and villainous spirits with oversized heads and the wrong number of limbs. I even stumbled across a cabin lifted straight from Sam Raimi's original Evil Dead, complete with a laughing demon witch in the cellar (just one of countless homages the developers have made to their favourite bits of pop culture).
Perhaps the strangest thing I saw was a creature who started off looking a little like Frankenstein before tearing out and eating his own heart and transforming into a horseback warrior that releases darkness-generating flatus and urine. That's the sort of bathroom humour-unexpected, wholly original, and full-on weird-that makes me chuckle. (See, I'm not a complete prude when it comes to dirty jokes.)
I doubt very much that Shadows of the Damned will find a large audience in North America. Its game sensibilities are a little too Japanese for mainstream Western tastes, and some people will find its relentless stream of dirty gags and gory weirdness too much to handle. That said, there's no denying the action is well designed or that its imagery is memorable. Expect it to become a cult favourite among a niche group of core gamers who appreciate a challenging shooter and have a palate for imaginative excess.
Shadows of the Damned
Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
ESRB: Mature
Score: 8/10