I really like it when a game isn’t for everyone. Look at the games that are made for everyone and you’ll get a good idea of why. Games made for the masses, the biggest possible audience usually follow market trends in terms of structure, interactions and genre. It does not necessarily dictate the quality of the product but there’s a certain framework that a lot of them follow. Not one of these games will contain a sequence where you fire a gigantic cannon, held at groin level, called the ‘Big Boner’ at huge enemies in a neon cityscape, will have you running across the gyrating bodies of kaiju-sized women and jumping into a papercraft shmup segment.
Shadows of the Damned is a miracle of a game. A game created by three Japanese gaming icons - Shinji Mikami, Goichi Suda (Suda51) and Akira Yamaoka - and released by, of all people, EA. It is unapologetically crass, violent and wears its grindhouse cinema influences on the sleeve of its leather jacket. A lot of people are going to play it and find it to be immature. Many will find the bloody violence towards women and general titillation throughout the game to be misogynistic. It is a videogame that a large section of the consumer base just isn’t going to enjoy at all for a whole load of reasons and, for that reason, I absolutely love it.
Now of course, I get that as a straight white lad I’m in a position where I can afford to not be put off by the content in Shadows of the Damned. I’m also in a position where I can point out these aspects and perhaps, not support it. I would be lying to you, dear reader, if I said that was the case. Shadows of the Damned is a problematic fave - sitting alongside my penchant for grotesque international horror, paedophile hunting videos on YouTube and big naturals. It’s a love letter to a style of movie that, for all the reasons you’d expect, will never be mass market but is still enjoyed by a whole host of people.
The game very much is the sum of its creators’s DNA. It doesn’t feel quite like the evolution of the Resident Evil 4 formula that The Evil Within is, sitting somewhere between the two games, partly due to it being shackled to the more ‘creative’ moments straight from the mind of Suda51. The thing about Suda51 is that his games are never perfect but not a single thing is by accident. It never reaches out and out survival horror due to a leaning towards action and one-off setpieces. There’s always something during each combat scenario that messes with what would otherwise be a serviceable Resident Evil 4-a-like and keeps feeling a lot more unique. Not all of these stick the landing, but that’s where the charm lies.
There’s combat puzzles that utilise the game’s darkness mechanic - a blue fog that drains your health if you spend too much time in it - allowing you to see targets you need to progress or a bosses weak spot. Chase sequences that end up with a very on the nose homage to The Evil Dead. The aforementioned ‘Big Boner’ sequence, essentially a turret section and, honestly, one of the weaker points in the game. Using one of the weapon’s upgrades to play Pachinko and Bowling. There’s always something happening that keeps you guessing and keeps you having to think about how to use the Resi 4 style combat in new, refreshing ways. Sometimes, it doesn’t quite work - but it is always trying something.
Weapons upgrade at specific points during the game so you can’t miss any, nor have to pick and choose, so there’s more scope for tailoring combat encounters to an arsenal the game knows you have. Although you CAN stick to one weapon for most of the playthrough, you’re encouraged to chop and change between them and utilise the best one for each situation and figuring out which one is the best - or your favourite - to deal with what is thrown at you is very rewarding and something that very clearly was expanded upon with The Evil Within, when Mikami wasn’t beholden to Suda51’s wonderful brain.
I need to make this clear, when I say that the progression in regards to the combat and game structure from Resident Evil 4 was held back by Suda51’s ideas, I personally do not consider that a bad thing. The Evil Within is a great, probably a bit underrated game, that allowed Mikami to ramp up both the horror and action aspects of the formula he created with that brilliant fourth Resident Evil game but Shadows of the Damned has its own completely unique charm and a lot of that is entirely down to Suda51’s own ideas for the game.
It all looks and sounds so good, too. The hellscape you fight your way through is equal parts grim and dark and neon and surreal. Enemies are horrific one second and almost hilarious the next. It is violent and disgusting but full of black comedy. Suda51 set out to riff on the trashy vibe of American Grindhouse movies and nailed it, warts and all. The four major characters - the brilliantly named protagonist Garcia Hotspur and his talking gun and sidekick Johnson (and yes, that’s a dick joke), Garcia’s captured girlfriend Paula and the big bad Fleming, who is so over the top in his threats to cause all sorts of evil acts to Paula he’s a superb, almost camp-y horror villain.
The music is by Silent Hill soundtrack legend Akira Yamaoka and, although plenty of it is that atmospheric, somber guitar driven stuff from the Silent Hill OSTs, there’s plenty of industrial noise and straight up punk and rock here, all of it perfectly suiting the tone of the game. It is probably Yamaoka’s most underappreciated work - the Silent Hill games getting deserved high praise but for my money, this absolutely stands shoulder to shoulder with the stuff he wrote for the third and fourth games in that series.
From the aesthetic that riffs on a cult genre of movies full of things that many find a bit distasteful to the actual gameplay that feels like it is occasionally at odds with the ideas and encounters you come across, it is a tough one to recommend. It is far from a bad game but definitely quite divisive. The Grindhouse styling might put you off. You may find it inferior to Mikami’s other forays into survival horror. What can I say, it isn’t for everyone. It is, however, absolutely for me.
Shadows of the Damned is a miracle of a game. A game created by three Japanese gaming icons - Shinji Mikami, Goichi Suda (Suda51) and Akira Yamaoka - and released by, of all people, EA. It is unapologetically crass, violent and wears its grindhouse cinema influences on the sleeve of its leather jacket. A lot of people are going to play it and find it to be immature. Many will find the bloody violence towards women and general titillation throughout the game to be misogynistic. It is a videogame that a large section of the consumer base just isn’t going to enjoy at all for a whole load of reasons and, for that reason, I absolutely love it.
Now of course, I get that as a straight white lad I’m in a position where I can afford to not be put off by the content in Shadows of the Damned. I’m also in a position where I can point out these aspects and perhaps, not support it. I would be lying to you, dear reader, if I said that was the case. Shadows of the Damned is a problematic fave - sitting alongside my penchant for grotesque international horror, paedophile hunting videos on YouTube and big naturals. It’s a love letter to a style of movie that, for all the reasons you’d expect, will never be mass market but is still enjoyed by a whole host of people.
The game very much is the sum of its creators’s DNA. It doesn’t feel quite like the evolution of the Resident Evil 4 formula that The Evil Within is, sitting somewhere between the two games, partly due to it being shackled to the more ‘creative’ moments straight from the mind of Suda51. The thing about Suda51 is that his games are never perfect but not a single thing is by accident. It never reaches out and out survival horror due to a leaning towards action and one-off setpieces. There’s always something during each combat scenario that messes with what would otherwise be a serviceable Resident Evil 4-a-like and keeps feeling a lot more unique. Not all of these stick the landing, but that’s where the charm lies.
There’s combat puzzles that utilise the game’s darkness mechanic - a blue fog that drains your health if you spend too much time in it - allowing you to see targets you need to progress or a bosses weak spot. Chase sequences that end up with a very on the nose homage to The Evil Dead. The aforementioned ‘Big Boner’ sequence, essentially a turret section and, honestly, one of the weaker points in the game. Using one of the weapon’s upgrades to play Pachinko and Bowling. There’s always something happening that keeps you guessing and keeps you having to think about how to use the Resi 4 style combat in new, refreshing ways. Sometimes, it doesn’t quite work - but it is always trying something.
Weapons upgrade at specific points during the game so you can’t miss any, nor have to pick and choose, so there’s more scope for tailoring combat encounters to an arsenal the game knows you have. Although you CAN stick to one weapon for most of the playthrough, you’re encouraged to chop and change between them and utilise the best one for each situation and figuring out which one is the best - or your favourite - to deal with what is thrown at you is very rewarding and something that very clearly was expanded upon with The Evil Within, when Mikami wasn’t beholden to Suda51’s wonderful brain.
I need to make this clear, when I say that the progression in regards to the combat and game structure from Resident Evil 4 was held back by Suda51’s ideas, I personally do not consider that a bad thing. The Evil Within is a great, probably a bit underrated game, that allowed Mikami to ramp up both the horror and action aspects of the formula he created with that brilliant fourth Resident Evil game but Shadows of the Damned has its own completely unique charm and a lot of that is entirely down to Suda51’s own ideas for the game.
It all looks and sounds so good, too. The hellscape you fight your way through is equal parts grim and dark and neon and surreal. Enemies are horrific one second and almost hilarious the next. It is violent and disgusting but full of black comedy. Suda51 set out to riff on the trashy vibe of American Grindhouse movies and nailed it, warts and all. The four major characters - the brilliantly named protagonist Garcia Hotspur and his talking gun and sidekick Johnson (and yes, that’s a dick joke), Garcia’s captured girlfriend Paula and the big bad Fleming, who is so over the top in his threats to cause all sorts of evil acts to Paula he’s a superb, almost camp-y horror villain.
The music is by Silent Hill soundtrack legend Akira Yamaoka and, although plenty of it is that atmospheric, somber guitar driven stuff from the Silent Hill OSTs, there’s plenty of industrial noise and straight up punk and rock here, all of it perfectly suiting the tone of the game. It is probably Yamaoka’s most underappreciated work - the Silent Hill games getting deserved high praise but for my money, this absolutely stands shoulder to shoulder with the stuff he wrote for the third and fourth games in that series.
From the aesthetic that riffs on a cult genre of movies full of things that many find a bit distasteful to the actual gameplay that feels like it is occasionally at odds with the ideas and encounters you come across, it is a tough one to recommend. It is far from a bad game but definitely quite divisive. The Grindhouse styling might put you off. You may find it inferior to Mikami’s other forays into survival horror. What can I say, it isn’t for everyone. It is, however, absolutely for me.