Thirteen years might not seem that long in the grand scheme of things, but the video games industry has changed drastically since 2011. During the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, we saw the birth of new genres and cool twists on established ones as creatives were willing to push for new ideas within shorter and cheaper production cycles.
It wasn’t heaven — lay-offs, studio closures, and toxic practices are nothing new in this industry. In fact, Suda51’s and Shinji Mikami’s originalShadows of the Damnedreceived myriad edits and changes from publisher EA before seeing the light of day when it was first released. However, those years still feel very different from the creative bankruptcy and pessimistic scenario we are living through right now.
You can find fantastic and original titles from big developers coming out every now and then.Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami, for example, is one of my favorite games of the year and blazingly original in its concept.
These are some of the thoughts I had while running through dark streets, diving into catacombs, and dealing with vicious monsters as protagonist Garcia Hotspur. Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered takes us back in time to an era when third-person shooters and action games were prevalent, but distinct enough from one another to offer varied and memorable experiences.
Add cheesy but hilarious dialogue, unexpected scenarios with wild things happening all the time, and satisfying combat that makes you want to take every single enemy down in the sickest way possible, and you’re ready for something very much out of the ordinary.
This Is Still Pretty Much The Shadows Of The Damned You Remember
If you’ve never played any adventure by studio Grasshopper Manufacture, picture this: you’re a devil hunter following the trail of your kidnapped wife, Paula, who’s been taken by a demon lord. Paula appears from time to time wearing only white lingerie, acting seductive and helpless. She seems to occupy the exclusive role of psychically torturing the protagonist, because she’s always screaming, dying by dismemberment, just to be revived for your next meeting.
On the way, you’ll engage in pun-filled conversations with a floating skull named Johnson, who can turn into the demonic equivalent of a torch, a handgun (named “Boner”), a machine gun, or a shotgun. One example of the cringiness to expect is that Garcia, faced with danger and ignoring Johnson’s calls for caution, tells him, “I’m a Mexi-can, not a Mexi-can’t.”
Expect many, many sexual jokes and imagery, like Garcia holding his torch like an erect penis when lying down on the ground, defeated.
Sex Sells, But Who’s Buying?
If you have a high tolerance for crass humor and god-awful puns, this might be the game for you. If not, though, I’m afraid you won’t have a great time with Shadows. This type of writing is all over the place, throughout the constant dialogue between characters and the stories you read before facing every major boss.
The use of sexual themes was already passe back then, with the classic trope of the damsel in distress being played to absurd lengths, and I imagine that newer audiences will find these attitudes particularly dated now, in 2024.
However, this time I found a few more layers to Paula’s character — sadly off-screen, as Garcia tells heartwarming anecdotes that position her in a more active role before the events of the game. The constant sexual imagery in different scenarios and some weird situations — at one point, you have to walk over a giant version of Paula’s nearly nude body to reach your destination — also strikes me differently than it did back then.
It feels like the game leans into the crassness not just as a mode of humor, but to ridicule the concept of sexual obsession as a whole and paint Garcia’s journey as an absurd tale. Our protagonist feels more authentic when he ignores the suggestive neon signs and voices and reminds us of the things he likes about his wife outside of her attractiveness.
The overall plot is still nothing to write home about, and according to director Suda51, this is merely his twisted version of Super Mario Bros, but I haven’t had this much silly fun with a video game in a while.
Classic Shooter With A Few Twists
Combat becomes tense and exciting as you earn upgraded weapons, like a shotgun that shoots flying skulls or a sub-machine gun with eight barrels that can track enemies. The melee aspect still feels as clunky and unresponsive as before, never making it clear if you’re close enough to hit an enemy or not, but the guns are the highlight.
Thematically, Shadows plays a lot with the contrast between light and darkness, and this is integrated into gameplay: darkness can invade your battles, making enemies invulnerable and dealing continuous damage to García until you exit the area or solve the situation.
This mechanic is also present in almost every boss fight, with charming enemies like a dude that only ever curses at you and, for some reason, also turns into a giant bird. Each encounter presents a gimmick, usually making you hit them in a specific spot and use the darkness to your advantage. Some battles run for a little too long, unfortunately, leading to grindy and repetitive encounters, but others manage to find the balance between inventiveness and excitement.
Hella Remastered? More Like A Serviceable Port
In classic Suda51 fashion, the remaster doesn’t run great — I experienced multiple FPS drops on PS5, which were surprising because they didn’t happen when the screen was filled with monsters, but in specific scenarios that didn’t feel too dense. That said, my experience was mostly smooth, and the higher frame rate was a more than welcome addition to a shooter like this.
4K support is also great, and the characters and settings generally look better than ever. However, if you pay attention to details, you’ll also find poor textures that clearly haven’t been touched since 2011 and are full of distracting aliasing.
The new costumes are a nice touch, although some of them obviously had more effort put into them than others (one is just a shirtless Garcia), and the New Game + mode is something that fans have been asking for since the launch of the original. It’s a shame that it doesn’t come with more difficulty modes, because Shadows is a very easy game. Playing on the hardest difficulty offered some challenging moments and kept me entertained throughout the seven-hour campaign, but it was nowhere near the test of skills I was hoping to face.
One costume is a sweet reference to Ocho Corazones, the main antagonist of another Suda51 game: Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes.
Shadows Of The Damned: Hella Remastered is a nice throwback to an era that feels more distant every day, and it still holds up as an adventure that you want to go over from beginning to end in a single sitting. Unfortunately, the remaster ends up being undercooked, with some lacking features and issues that prevent it from being a better package.
