Review: Shadows of the Damned
Much of the marketing campaign for Grasshopper Manufacture’s Shadows of the Damned has focused on the three names that come up first in the credits: Suda 51, Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka. While it’s impossible to know the extent of their contributions, there are clear influences in Shadows of the Damned. Mikami brings with him many of the core gameplay elements that powered one of the best titles of the last console generation, Resident Evil 4. Yamaoka, of Silent Hill fame, creates an eclectic and impressive score that’s sure to be one of the better video game soundtracks of the year. And what’s celebrated video game auteur Suda 51’s contribution? Dick jokes. Lots and lots of dick jokes.
To say that the writing is sophomoric would be an understatement. But at least it’s a more playful immaturity than the recent Duke Nukem Forever. This also plays into the way hell is represented, which is very quirky and unique. The game tries hard to evoke a B-movie charm, but just never seems to be able to get into “so bad it’s good” territory. It’s a difficult thing to pull off in a game, and outside of a poor “all your base are belong to us” translation, I’m not sure how it can be done.
Thankfully, the core gameplay of Shadows of the Damned is far more successful than its story. The shooting mechanics are very much like Resident Evil 4, though ammo is really not a major concern through most of the game. It takes a little while to get used to the lack of aim assist, which is so prevalent in console shooters today, but after an adjustment period it works much as it did in the Capcom game.
The regular enemies you encounter are varied and appropriately challenging. Aiming for the head is your best bet, as usual, though dismemberment also works well. You have your standard filler demon-zombies, and a generally appropriate sprinkling of stronger ones. There is enough variety in these regular encounters that it usually doesn’t feel too repetitive, though there are some moments towards the end where the game relies a bit too much on placing you in tight quarters with many enemies.
The laser sight aiming system draws heavily from Resident Evil 4, and as such works fairly well.
I felt that the boss fights were the weakest link in Resident Evil 4, and to some extent this is also the case in Shadows of the Damned. They aren’t terribly challenging or difficult to figure out, but the frequency you encounter bosses becomes tiring. For example, you encounter the same sort of grim reaper boss on three separate occasions, and just have to go through the motions of defeating them in roughly the same way each time. The placement of the bosses also creates a somewhat disjointed pacing. In some instances you’ll go through an hour of regular gameplay before you get to a boss fight; in others there may be two boss fights in less than ten minutes.
There were a few notable boss fights which stood out to me. I enjoyed the big bird fight, and the second-to-last boss was memorable as well. More often than not, however, the boss fights devolved into a lot dodge rolling followed by shooting a glowing red spot. I feel that fewer, more unique, boss fights would have better served the game. More emphasis then could have been placed on utilizing the stronger core mechanics.
A major component of the game is also its puzzle design. I was admittedly skeptical at the start, but over time I came to enjoy the puzzles in Shadows of the Damned. Many of the puzzles utilize “darkness” which is similar to what’s seen in Metroid Prime 2 and several other games. The darkness slightly changes areas when it’s active, and as such many of the puzzles require you to perform something in the darkness to advance. To make it challenging, the darkness will also slowly drain away your health, and enemies you encounter in its shroud are mostly invulnerable. This encourages you to keep moving and not dally for too long.
The darkness mechanic provides some enjoyable puzzles. Don't forget to shoot the goats!
The darkness can be removed in a few different ways. Sometimes there’s a goat head to shoot, other times you need to defeat a certain number of enemies, and in some cases you simply have to get past the darkness segment by completing a puzzle. It actually works pretty well, and there is a decent amount of tension in these sequences. There are a few instances where the darkness feels gratuitous, such as an area where you’re walking around docks, but for the most part I feel it’s appropriately employed.
Interestingly, the puzzle I enjoyed the most had almost nothing to do with the darkness. In one of the latter levels, you have to rotate and rearrange block segments in order to construct a path for a way through. It repeats a few times and throws some enemies at you in between the puzzle segments. This could have brought the game to a standstill, but it actually worked impressively well.
To this point in the review, Shadows of the Damned certainly seems like a candidate for a happy canary. And for most of the game, I definitely was leaning in that direction. Unfortunately, the poorly implemented Act 4 led me into sick canary territory. The act begins with a sniping level that goes from being a quick gag to extremely repetitive and momentum crushing. It’s immediately followed with a 2D side scrolling level that looks and plays like a terrible 2D Flash game. As if that isn’t enough, Act 4 features two more 2D levels, including the denouement with a forgettable boss fight.
The 2D levels in Act 4 are inexplicably bad.
I realize this is a Suda 51 quirk, and it’s intended as an homage of older games. But that doesn’t make it good. If the sniping and 2D levels had been quick diversions, it would be one thing. But they drag on for far too long, such that only the most extreme Suda 51 apologist would find these levels enjoyable. If the 2D levels had been optional side content, like an arcade machine as seen in other games, I wouldn’t have had a problem. As it is, these levels feel like filler content designed to push the game’s duration to the 9-10 hour mark. I was definitely happy once the side scrolling was over and it returns to normalcy in the fifth act.
One other area I feel the game could have improved on was its use of suspense. Unlike the Resident Evil series, the game never really has a tension of wondering what’s around the next corner. There are cases where you get stuck in bad positions, but it’s nothing compared to being trapped in a cage with chainsaw-wielding Ganados. Also, because ammo and alcohol (the game’s healing potion) are so plentiful, you lose the added impact and strategy of desperately trying to stay alive.
A final thing to note is that the replayability of the game is not very high. Unlike many other survival horror games, there is no “New Game Plus” mode, and in fact it’s impossible to return to earlier chapters after you’ve finished the game. And even if you were to restart on the hardest difficulty setting, none of the cut scenes can be skipped, which will make it a somewhat boring experience. This means most players will only play through the title once, which is a little disappointing.
The boss fights start to feel like repetitive exercises in dodge rolling.
It was difficult to settle on a verdict for this game, because I definitely had fun during parts of it. What ultimately separates a sick canary from a happy one is whether or not I’d recommend the game to a general gamer looking for something to play. While I did enjoy most of the core mechanics, the implementation of Act 4 was disappointing and I didn’t really like the boss fights. I also didn’t connect with the writing or humor. Because of these mixed feelings, I felt the game didn’t earn a happy canary.
VERDICT: SICK CANARY
Shadows of the Damned is available now on PS3 and Xbox 360. Reviews appear every Friday on Game Canary. The Game Canary review system is detailed here.
Check back later today for a review of Telltale Game’s Puzzle Agent 2.
Categories: Reviews
Tags: PS3, Shadows of the Damned, Sick Canaries, Xbox 360