toblix

Shadows of the Damned

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I. . .what?

What the fuck?

Did someone think "Dante's Inferno was a good game! Let's take it up a notch! TO HELL!"

What the christ. . .

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Yep, that looks like the game those guys would create. Not really a fan of the hell theme or the RE4 gameplay (anymore) but I'm sure it will do those things well.

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I think you misspelled the name of the game. It's "Shadows of the DAMNED".

Also, your torch is your side-kick is a talking skull is all your guns.

The only thing I wasn't sold on was the voice of Garcia Hotspur, but I can forgive that, because his name is Garcia Hotspur.

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Day one perch? SUDA 51. Hopefully the tongue-in-cheek isn't lost on people...

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Giant Bomb did a quick look if anybody wants to check that out.

So this is out and i played it.

It's fine, it's fairly easy to recommend, a reasonably lengthy solo shooter. Aiming is pretty loose, but in the RE4 sense of it, which i would say is good. Been seeing a lot of random complaints about the control, but it took me literally twenty minutes to adjust myself to the aiming, so i think people bitch too much. The puzzle design feels like it sometimes gets in the way of fun though, really actually feels tremendously artificial and forced, perhaps not surprising given the design pedigree. Those puzzle mechanics will probably be the most divisive thing about the game.

Suda's "punk is not dead" sensibilities are fairly restrained here, but as a fairly minor spoiler

you do run across the breasts of an immaculately rendered giant nude woman at one point

, so there's that. Game definitely does go a little unhinged at points, just not to any Killer 7-like heights of insanity.

There's a lot of technical rough spots in Shadows of the Damned, a lot of small harmless things, small animation glitches all over the place. Nothing game-breaking, but it made the game seem like it was lacking some finishing polish. Really mirroring kind of the overall impression i had of the game, it's totally adequate and just lacking something extra to top it off, because for all the incredible talent that collaborated on this game, it doesn't feel like the best work for anybody involved.

Also, wondering if transforming guns are going to become a trademark for Shinji Mikami, considering that Vanquish had one too. Heh.

Also also, it's probably just that i played them one after the other, but the game kind of felt to me like the anti-Duke Nukem Forever in a way. These are both offensive, violent, and completely sexist games, right? The key is that Shadows of the Damned manages to also actually be really fucking cool and funny where DNF falls completely flat.

Also also also -

reminds me of Alan Wake for some reason

I had this response to the game too.

It's really weird that, if you were really reductive about it, they would sound like the same game. In both Alan Wake and Shadows of the Damned, you are using light to peel off impenetrable layers of shadow from enemies before you can harm them will bullets, and there are puzzles that revolve around creating pockets of light to hold back encroaching darkness.

I don't mean to actually suggest that the two games are in any way similar, it's just an odd curiosity. It's like Remedy and Grasshopper independently had kind of similar ideas about what they wanted to do, but went about them in just wildly opposite and opposed ways. Shadows of the Damned is much more unnatural about everything, much more of a game.

Edited by Sno

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Considering that this fits into the category of games in which you need to respond to an onscreen button prompt in order to hop off a small ledge which is otherwise blocked by an invisible wall, this is quite good fun. The general gameplay and feel is a lot better than comes across in videos.

There's one really fucking stupid thing in this game that really winds me up. I don't play many linear things like this any more so maybe this won't stand out as much for other people, but I really get pissed off when I'm arbitrarily prevented from backtracking and can't check for stuff that I missed. This is made even worse when you're given multiple paths, since if you take the path that progresses rather than the one to the extra item, you can't go back. At one point I was in an area with a path leading off into the distance, and a ladder going up to a ledge. I picked the ladder, which turned out to lead to the next area and did not allow me to climb back down. Another point later on I spotted a blue gem (a major weapon upgrade) on the other side of a barrier composed of some foot high pieces of wood and a convenient invisible wall, it was in the previous now arbitrarily inaccessible area.

Some video game level builders really must live on another planet.

The music deserves mentioning, it's quality and often quite unconventional. I don't think I've played any of the guy's other games.

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The music deserves mentioning, it's quality and often quite unconventional. I don't think I've played any of the guy's other games.

The music was composed by Akira Yamaoka, formerly of Silent Hill fame, and is the third big name attached to this game in addition to Shinji Mikami and Goichi Suda.

And the part you're talking about the ladder, i know exactly what you're talking about. I reloaded immediately and went down that other path and found a bunch of supplies. (There was also a pretty cool atmosphere beat with a bunch of disembodied heads rolling down a hill.) I don't really like that kind of stuff either, making you 50/50 guess about which path will have a reward and which will force you along the critical path, but it happens all the time in linear action games.

The other thing though, the blue gem thing, i don't think you can actually miss any blue gems. I'm pretty sure they were all forced on me via cutscene. (Also, don't waste all your white gems on healing items earlier in the game, you'll eventually be able to spend them on red upgrade gems.)

Also, color, this game has lots of it. It's such a strange and vivid color palette, really gorgeous game.

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There was definitely a blue gem sitting there, in the bit where you chase Paula in the water.

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Picked it up yesterday, should have some time later this week to play it. It's fighting for priority with Alice: Madness Returns at the moment. I'm a huge Akira Yamaoka (and I adore Grasshopper and Suda51) fan so that was the main selling point for me. Also this little excerpt from the game manual:

Set up traps for your enemies by using Hot Boner payloads. Attach them to the ground in front of a group and then explode the payload.

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So apparently nobody has bought this game.

I see copies in stores all over the place already marked half off, and the sales figures floating around are shocking.

This all makes me very sad.

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I feel kind of bad about this. I had my money in hand, looked at the two games over and over again, knew I only had cash for one, and bought Child Of Eden. Of course, Child of Eden also sold like crap, but I still feel bad about not buying Shadows of the Damned. Soon, I shall remedy this. Still, I wish I'd been able to support it earlier.

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Man, really a lot of games tanked last month, a lot of mid-range releases competing for a tepid market.

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Yeah there seemed to be some rushes to get things out before the end of the quarter. Some of those games might have done better (both from an extra polish standpoint and a less competition standpoint) if they had waited for July or August. Apart from XBLA titles, there's nothing I care about until Deus Ex at the end of next month.

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I feel kind of bad about this. I had my money in hand, looked at the two games over and over again, knew I only had cash for one, and bought Child Of Eden. Of course, Child of Eden also sold like crap, but I still feel bad about not buying Shadows of the Damned. Soon, I shall remedy this. Still, I wish I'd been able to support it earlier.

Yeah, I'm not in a place to be buying as many games as I'd like and this one doesn't make the cut. Which sucks, because I absolutely love its "fuck you, this is a video game" ethos.

Also, Garcia Hotspur.

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Also, Garcia Hotspur.

No, Garcia Fucking Hotspur.

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Just finished this game and I have to write that I much preferred it now than I did 2 years ago when I first tried it.

 

There are still some really annoying sections like the Big Boner moment that will haunt me until my end of days and there are the chase sequences that utterly infuriate but overall I did find myself thoroughly enjoying the weapons, the art work and the soundtrack.

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I really enjoyed my time with this game, it definitely deserved more of an audience than it found.

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