Review: Shadows of the Damned

One hell of a game.

Meet Garcia Hotspur, this is how he says hello

The terms ‘Supergroup’ and ‘Dream Team’ can very rarely be applied to the game industry, but they were the only words on my mind when I heard of the combination of forces that had been assembled at Grasshopper Manufacture. You’ve got the unmatched creativity and wit of the enigmatic Suda51, the arguable godfather of Survival Horror - Shinji Mikami, and Silent Hill’s musical mastermind Akira Yamaoka; their powers combined could only lead to one of the greatest games of our time, with unbridled innovation, stellar gameplay, and a top-notch soundtrack to boot, surely? Well, maybe not quite. The result of their collective talents, Shadows of the Damned, is a great game that does a lot more right than wrong, but isn’t quite the seminal masterpiece some of us had, perhaps a little optimistically, hoped it might be.

Of all the plaudits I could throw at Grasshopper Manufacture—and there are many—the one thing I admire most about the company is their creativity. Games like Killer7 and No More Heroes didn’t redefine genres but brought so many fresh ideas, off-the-wall hooks, and such an exceptional brand of humour that they felt like whole new experiences when compared to their rivals. Shadows of the Damned perhaps strays a little closer to the line of familiarity, feeling more or less like most other third-person shooters out there, but still retains enough charm, wit, and outrageous nonsense that serve to make Grasshopper games completely unique.

If I was making a case for "Why this game is cool", this'd be Exhibit A

The game opens at a pretty blistering pace and refuses to let up till after the credits roll. The scene is quickly set, our hero Garcia Hotspur loses his girlfriend to Fleming, the foul-mouthed, six-eyed Lord of the Underworld, and like any good boyfriend and proud demon hunter, Garcia, along with his buddy Johnson, must battle the hordes of Hell to save her. Thus begins a roughly 6-8 hour journey, or 'road movie' to cite the game's grindhouse stylisation, across the realms of oblivion, shooting a whole mess of demons, lighting up a host of goat heads, and collecting an awful lot of strawberries. Yes, as you’ll remember from earlier on, this game is made by Grasshopper, and despite SotD’s relative conformity when compared to their other titles, the developer’s taste for wonderfully obscure touches has rarely been more evident.

Garcia Hotspur, more or less a Mexican Dante drenched in tattoos, has the right to go down as one of this generation’s best new heroes. He’s a cocky, self-assured, supernaturally talented demon killer who loves what he does and is damn good at it. The guy could happily kill ‘hell monkeys’ 24/7, and a few times early on in the story his unwavering confidence might surprise you. We expect these sorts of protagonists to be fearless, but Garcia takes it to whole new levels. He’s the sort of supercool personality you can only find in video games and 80s action flicks; the ultimate badass who sees the ugliest, nastiest thing in the world speeding right at him, and doesn’t even flinch. At the outset of the game, he’s a character you may struggle to relate to, throwing out some pretty corny one-liners and cringeworthy innuendo; but as the game goes on, and his buddy relationship with the other central character Johnson begins to grow, you really may begin to love Garcia Hotspur. Speaking of Johnson, the English-accented, curiously cowardly flaming skull, who also acts as your weapons, motorbike and torch, provides plenty of the game’s humour, and is similarly one of gaming’s standout characters of recent times.

Can't say I'd battle the hordes of Hell for her myself, but Garcia digs the eye thing

As with a lot of Shadows of the Damned, in the early going the relationship between our heroes seems a little odd, as though you’re jumping into a TV season halfway through and catching a particularly rough episode, but as the game progresses everything begins to feel a lot more natural. The chemistry between the pair grows more and more over time, and the voice work behind the duo must be commended, along with the writing on the whole. For a game that gleefully throws so many awful d--- jokes at you, it sure does manage to seem cleverly written at times. And for every line of corny innuendo, there’ll be another of genuinely exquisite humour. As an example, you’ll occasionally stumble on storybooks scattered about this hellish oblivion, and, in a somewhat detached break from the action, you can elect to hear Garcia and/or Johnson read the story aloud, throwing in their own colourful commentary as they go. Normally I doubt I’d be able to muster the patience to put down my controller and listen to a game read me a story, but after hearing the first one, I couldn’t help but seek out and enjoy every other book in the game. The stories themselves are amusing and again, very well-written, but it’s the way our protagonists read and remark upon them that really brings the humour to life. Little touches like this, along with the countless hit-and-miss one-liners the pair trade throughout the game, lead to an obscure but highly entertaining double act between Johnson and Garcia, and by the end of the game they feel like much deeper, well-developed characters than you could have imagined at the outset.

So the story, characters, and general aesthetic are solid, but how does it play? Well, maybe this is the part where Shadows of the Damned starts to break down. The game is much more run-and-gun third-person shooter than anything resembling survival horror, and the actual act of shooting, while perfectly competent, never quite feels particularly satisfying. The over-the-shoulder perspective and controls are taken straight from the likes of Dead Space, and the guns themselves are certainly well-designed, with a variety of increasingly powerful weaponry unlocking as you go, granting a sense of progression to proceedings. All the ingredients for excellent gunplay are here, but in practice it just doesn’t quite live up to expectations. The guns lack that sort of punch you’ll find elsewhere, the shooting itself never seems as fun as it should be, and even the boss battles, for all their grandeur, rely on traditional and tired mechanics that seem unbefitting of the studio’s aspirations of innovation. It’s as though there’s some intangible piece of third-person action, some sprinkling of magic that games like Gears of War 3 and Resident Evil 5 have been privy to, but Shadows of the Damned missed out on. Unfortunately, it seems like one of those games that just isn’t too great at being a game. So much of the overall package is brilliant, from the story, to the sound, to the writing, with all of these aspects demonstrating a fastidious nature in the game’s development team. Plenty of Shadows is so well made, that I can recommend it regardless, but the part where you have to sit down and play this game, for all its variety and genuinely smart design, remains decidedly underwhelming. It’s an unfortunate truth that simply can’t be ignored.

Shooting isn't great, but it sure looks pretty

So how do goats and strawberries factor into all this? Well the game plays with the dichotomy of light and dark in some varied, if rather simple ways. Areas blanketed in darkness are much more dangerous, as the enemies therein will be invincible, and Garcia will gradually lose health if he spends too much time in the dark. As such, the only natural solution is to light up the area by any means necessary, which usually means shooting one of the numerous goat heads dotted about the place with a special light shot—goat heads of course being the Underworld’s primary light source. Once an area is illuminated, enemies can be defeated and Garcia is relatively safe. As the game progresses, the idea evolves a little and enemies will do their best to keep you from turning on the lights. The game never becomes especially difficult, but certainly ramps up as you approach the finish line. The use of darkness is a simple mechanic that complements the overall experience, and the variety doesn’t stop there. Shadows of the Damned is a very linear game, but there are a decent amount of puzzles along the way, a few are unique and relatively complex, most are simple, and many involve locked doors that can only be opened by force-feeding strawberries to demonic baby faces. Just re-read those last few words before carrying on, make sure you got it. Yes, it’s as simple as keys and locks, but with a garish Grasshopper touch that makes one of the oldest systems in gaming just that little bit more enjoyable. The strawberries and other items are never hard to find; this isn’t Resident Evil, you won’t be hunting down countless keys and crests, or pixel-hunting every area, and there’s almost no backtracking in the game to speak of. So the puzzles aren’t exceptionally hard or tedious, but they do a decent enough job of keeping the levels varied. On top of all that, there's even several other pretty special tricks—that I won't spoil—that Grasshopper employ to keep the experience fresh, and prevent the game slipping into the old trap of becoming one shootout after another.

Visually, the game is a little hit, a little miss. On the technical side of things, it runs with a solid frame rate, and there are no glaring graphical issues to speak of. Characters and enemies are mostly very well-designed, if not graphically spectacular, with the bosses being the real stars of the show. And the game successfully captures and conveys its grindhouse inspirations to a standard that many other titles have failed to reach. On the downside, aside from a few notable exceptions, most of the environments in SotD are bland and forgettable.  Of course, it would be unrealistic to expect Hell to be full of vibrancy and colour, but perhaps more could have been done to make each level look and feel distinctive. There are several standout areas in the game that certainly fulfil that description, with some levels and sequences feeling very carefully-crafted and visually exciting, but it’s a shame that the same can’t be said for the rest. There were simply too many occasions where I found myself wandering grim, dimly-lit webs of city streets. On the flip side, I can do nothing but hurl bundles of acclaim with both hands at Akira Yamaoka and the rest of the sound design team. In a similar manner to Silent Hill, the audio really drives this game, and it’s evident that a lot of attention went into every voice recording, sound effect and musical track. Every voice actor does a wonderful job of paying tribute to the fine script, bringing the characters to life, and injecting yet more personality into the package. Musically, Yamaoka’s soundtrack is fittingly ludicrous, but brilliant, with hardcore punk rock riffs and melancholy guitar solos making notable appearances.

This guy only wants a handshake

The team behind Shadows of the Damned did a lot of things right. They perfectly captured the grindhouse motif; they struck a fine balance between childish gags and savvy self-awareness; and they successfully invented a rich world in which to tell their story, and some compelling characters that you’ll probably remember for quite some time. They made a game with rough edges but a good heart. A game that takes some time to settle in, but once it does, if you can cope with its problems, it becomes almost irresistible. That you should feel so compelled to see it through despite its issues is testament to how enjoyable the majority of it is. It’s saddening that for all the things they got right, there are still a few obstacles preventing SotD from being the true classic it so clearly had the potential to be, but unless you have a powerful aversion to cheeky innuendo, guns with names like the Skullfest 9000 and Big Boner, or the idea of jamming a strawberry right down a demon’s throat to open a door, then you have no reason not to give Shadows of the Damned a try.

For the purposes of this review, the Xbox 360 version of the game was played.

Review: Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

Frank-tastic

Guess who's back?

Upon witnessing the unveiling of Dead Rising 2, many fans, myself included, will recall being unable to hide their disappointment at the severe, almost frightening lack of a certain cocky photojournalist in the starring role. Chuck Greene made for an interesting replacement, and he was certainly a strong enough protagonist to make the original Dead Rising 2 an enjoyable game, but there was always something missing. Chuck’s sarcastic comments weren’t quite as sharp, his ingenious use of magical duct tape was a fine talent, but his refusal to carry a camera was a fatal flaw, and he very rarely, if ever, used the word ‘fantastic’. In short: he wasn’t Frank West. Capcom clearly noticed this too, and to continue their never-ending trend of updating and re-releasing games, decided to give us all the Frank we had been craving with Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. How did they do? Well, it begins with 'F' and rhymes with 'bombastic'.

The game presents a ‘What If’ scenario, the sort of thing history channels insist on churning out in some vain effort to show off their 'wacky side'. In this case, we discover what might’ve happened if Frank had been at the centre of the Fortune City outbreak. The original game’s story is official canon, where Off the Record's is just for laughs. This gives the developers license to go a little wild with the plot, something that they perhaps don’t take full advantage of, with most of the story being very similar to DR2. However, there’s still enough new twists and turns here to make it worth seeing all the way through, with the finale in particular a real highlight. Those who missed out on Dead Rising 1 or 2 might not appreciate every wink and nod, but the story is more than competent enough to stand on its own. Meanwhile, the very concept of a ‘What If’ video game does inspire some contemplation, and I can't help but wonder how some other franchises could incorporate the idea, it’s unquestionably something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of.

Ever wondered how Frank might've handled the Fortune City outbreak? Here's your answer

Off the Record is, unsurprisingly, very much like Dead Rising 2, and I won't assume that all readers are fully-versed on Dead Rising 2, but to go in-depth on that game would be treading over old ground, and there's plenty else to discuss with OTR. Hence, I’ll draw up a simple summary of the original game: there’s been a zombie outbreak in the glamorous complex of casinos and malls known as Fortune City, and you’re trapped right in the middle of it. Naturally, you slaughter a preposterous number of zombies, use duct tape to unite axes with sledgehammers, and explore this faux Vegas on the hunt for needy survivors, the truth behind the outbreak, and elusive boxes of the much sought-after drug Zombrex, daily doses of which can keep zombification at bay for the infected who are yet to turn. In the original Dead Rising 2 Chuck needed Zombrex to save his young daughter Katey, this time around Frank needs it for himself. If you have any experience with DR2 then plenty of this game will seem pretty familiar, but just like Frank's hairline, some things have changed.

So let’s move on to the new content, aside from the aforementioned story changes, Frank’s presence marks the return of the much-loved photography mechanic from the first Dead Rising, working just as well as before, with the added bonus of a camera that requires no battery changes, allowing Frank to be as snap-happy as he pleases. There are a few new psychos, one of which in particular will please long-time fans, some suitably ludicrous additional combo weapons, and plenty of new, physics-defying skill moves for Frank to utilise. A whole new area has been added to the map in the form of ‘Uranus Zone’ a fittingly over-the-top, futuristic amusement park that perfectly complements the rest of the Fortune City spectacle, being more or less what you would expect if Disney World’s Tomorrowland were to be rebuilt in Las Vegas. On the multiplayer side of things, the game’s co-op has been updated and improved, allowing Player 2 to jump in as Chuck Greene, and the poorly-received Terror is Reality competitive multiplayer has been removed altogether. I doubt many will miss it. Plenty of smaller bonus touches have been added too, including some clever management of save slots for the first time in the series, and the option to add a custom waypoint to the map. Only little things, but they all come together to make Off the Record feel like a lot of attention and care went into its production.

Typical gameplay screenshot

Then there’s sandbox mode, a feature that Dead Rising fans and detractors alike have long yearned for. Fans of the original Dead Rising will remember its ‘infinity mode’ where players could roam the Willamette mall and do as they pleased, but this feature was plagued by some awful design choices: constantly depleting health, inability to save, disabling of the camera, it simply wasn’t what people wanted. I’m happy to say that Off the Record’s sandbox mode is exactly what people wanted. It boils the game right down to its core ingredients, allowing you to freely roam Fortune City with no time limit, no story, and no need to save any of those pesky survivors, because they’ve all gone insane and will attack on sight, along with the psychos, naturally. The sandbox can be a refreshing alternative to the fast-paced, time-centric story cases, and it can be a lot of fun, and almost disturbingly relaxing to jump in and while away the hours slaughtering some zombies, inventing your own stories and missions as you go. The developers even threw in some singleplayer and co-op challenges to complete for bonus cash, with more unlocking as your kill tally rises, giving the mode some semblance of progression and objective for those who need it.


Sandbox mode is exactly what the series has been crying out for, doing a fine job of demonstrating why people love Dead Rising, and showing off the huge potential these games still have. Without the confines and stresses of the main story, like that time limit constantly playing on your mind, the game becomes an exercise in childish delight as you run about the place, gleefully smacking zombies over the head with all the toys of Fortune City. The mode grants a sense of freedom that complements the core of the game perfectly. There's a lot of detail in the world that you finally have the opportunity to notice, plenty of places to explore, and countless areas you'd likely miss or rush past in the story, with sandbox mode lets you see them all. For the first time in a Dead Rising game, you feel unconstrained, granted all the time in the world to use every comical item you encounter, to try on all those silly outfits, to fully experiment with the combo weapons, and to actually relish in the fun of killing some zombies, rather than rushing through them in pursuit of your next mission. Sandbox mode is reason to buy the game alone, a pure indulgence in fun, hopefully pointing in a promising direction for Dead Rising 3. Plus, all your cash and experience can be carried over to story mode, and vice versa. A common criticism of the franchise has been the unforgiving nature of the game, and the way that most players feel compelled to restart their story time and time again, in order to grind up enough levels to take on the game’s later challenges. Sandbox mode addresses this as well as anyone could ask for. Stuck on a boss in the story? Jump into the sandbox for an hour or two, boost your Frank up a few levels, and then dive back into the main game to show off your new skills.

The sandbox challenges often have inventive objectives, with amusing results

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a surprising package. What some might have expected to be little more than a quick re-release, has turned out to be by far the best Dead Rising game to date, combining all the finest facets of its predecessors and delivering one of the most polished and enjoyable zombie games you'll find on any system. There’s not exactly heaps of new content here, but there’s enough to justify OTR's existence, and make it a markedly different, and much better game than the original. Every single addition and modification has comprehensively improved the experience, with sandbox mode in particular being a gratefully welcomed addition, and perhaps heralding a brighter future for the series. Unfortunately for those who still aren't quite sold on the Dead Rising formula, this isn't the huge overhaul you were waiting for, and plenty of the old issues remain. The controls remain less than ideal, the time limit of the story continues to frustrate, and there are still many blatant improvements to be made if these games are to ever fully realise their potential. Many criticisms have been levelled at the franchise, and while Off the Record isn’t going to convert many of the cynics, it’s clear to see that Capcom Vancouver understood the problems people had, and has worked to address at least some of them, whilst preserving the parts of Dead Rising that made fans fall in love in the first place. The developers did the best job anyone could have realistically expected of them, and Off the Record is a game I can wholeheartedly recommend to almost anyone, from fans of the franchise to Frank West first-timers. 

For the purposes of this review, the Xbox 360 version of the game was played.

Thoughts: Black Ops 2 and the Future of Call of Duty

Call of Duty, I think we need to talk about where this relationship is going...

Another year, another unabashedly high-octane, explosion-filled trailer for, yes, another Call of Duty game. As someone who lauds originality above all else, and would have happily aborted the concept of ‘constant sequels’ before birth, you’d think I would utterly detest this franchise by now, as indeed many gamers seem to. On the face of it, the games are little more than rehashing, repackaging, and re-wildly-succeeding with the same formula since 2007. This is the series that virtually defines the word ‘divisive’, it managed to bring gaming to the mainstream in a way nobody could have anticipated, and is also, however indirectly, at least partially responsible for some of the most loathsome trends we see today. Sequel fatigue, annual releases, social network integration, market saturation, 'casual gaming', we have reams of detestable crap to thank Activision for, and I’m sure that the longer this whole thing continues, the worse it will become for anyone who truly dislikes the way the industry is headed. Yet, as much as it does pain me to admit, I like these games. They have some alluring appeal that never fails to seduce me. Maybe it’s my lifelong love of action movies coming to bear, my infuriating addiction to maddeningly unbalanced multiplayer progression, or hey, maybe it’s just the fact that, as much as many will strive to deny it, these games are pretty damn good.

I could go on all sorts of rambles about Call of Duty and the state of gaming, yada yada. However, let’s instead keep our focus on the only thing people have been talking about for the past week or so, Black Ops 2. Black Ops was a fantastic game, it, like every Call of Duty, brought its own small iterations to the formula, some additions and some changes. I often like to compare modern Call of Duty to a sculpture or painting, not too far from being a masterpiece at its grand unveiling in 2007, and in the years since the likes of Treyarch and Infinity Ward have delicately added their own small new touches to this sculpture, re-moulded certain parts, delicately changed it here and there, re-releasing it to the public each year. It’s always very clearly the same sculpture, but just different enough each time to keep the world interested and yearning for more. Black Ops was perhaps the first real time the sculpture was unveiled to a collective, resigned sigh. It was in 2010 where perhaps the concept of diminishing returns could finally begin to apply to the global gaming phenomenon. Yes, the game would go on to do fantastically well commercially and critically, but even the die-hard fans began to realise that maybe this Call of Duty thing was getting a little stale, maybe it did play a little too much like all those that had gone before. Modern Warfare 3 did little to ease concerns. There was something of a reluctant acceptance amongst fans of the franchise, we knew we had something great, and still enjoyed the games tremendously, but it was beginning to become clear that the people behind Call of Duty had very little intention of ever truly breaking the mould.

Well maybe that’s about to change. I write this with as much exposure to Black Ops 2 as most people, that is to say, very little. I’ve seen the sole trailer, and read whatever articles I can find. There’s certainly not any real volume of information out there yet, but there’s a surprising amount we can gather from what has been shown and said, and while it would be foolish to get excited already and proclaim Black Ops 2 as some saviour of the franchise, there’s definitely reason to at least indulge in every gamer’s old friend; cautious optimism. Beginning with the obvious; the setting. This will be the first Call of Duty game set more than a few years into the future, opening up all sorts of avenues for an original story, with original conflicts, characters, weapons, and so on. Of course, it isn’t Call of Duty 2142, it’s still a sequel to Black Ops, with the names Mason and Woods playing their parts, so this is, of course, a continuation of that story, but Treyarch have gone so extreme with it that they really do have license to tell a completely unique tale with this game. There’s certainly a lot of potential with this setting. It’s probably the best thing a Call of Duty fan could have hoped for. Instead of trudging through famous battles or history-inspired conflicts with weapons of old yet again, we will at least get to experience genuine original creations, not only in the story, but in the arsenal, which leads me nicely onto my next point. Robots. Robots everywhere. Flying attack drones, tanks with legs, the military equipment shown off so far simply looks fantastic and holds so much potential. Again, the futuristic setting allows Treyarch to play with crazy ideas, and if there’s anything I can commend the studio on, it’s their creativity and attention to detail, so there’s reason to have faith in their ability to craft some pretty unique gear.

Just like Call of Duty, it looks like this tank is walking in the right direction

A new setting, with so much original content could really be the breath of fresh air the franchise needs, and then to top it off, Treyarch only went and mentioned the ideas of a sandbox campaign, and branching storyline. The game will play out in different ways depending on your actions, missions will have multiple angles of approach and objectives to choose between, and the areas of conflict themselves are said to be much more open, bringing something to the table that many would say has been sorely lacking from the Call of Duty franchise; choice. The individual touches that Treyarch are adding may be minor, but together they hold the potential of delivering a freedom to players that we’re yet to see in a franchise that has been such a traditionally linear, on-rails experience.  There’s even talk of objectives that can be failed without causing a game over, having a knock-on effect to the story and introducing the idea of a player’s skill impacting the way his or her story plays out. Multiple ending variations and a plot that changes with the way you play have been commonplace in gaming for a long time, so this is hardly new ground for the industry, but there’s a lot to be said for Treyarch seemingly trying to push the boundaries of what a Call of Duty game can be, being unafraid of taking some risks with the formula, and doing more than perhaps most will have expected of them. The multiplayer side of things also holds reason to be optimistic, with Treyarch vowing to look at each and every part of the franchise’s competitive mode, and rebuild or modify any they see fit. This, combined of course with the whole new futuristic setting and weaponry to play with, may provide hope for those who want more than the usual annual perk-reshuffling and rise in level cap.

Zombies! One of the more divisive aspects of the Treyarch games, but an irrefutably popular feature nonetheless. This time out, the developer seems determined to continue building on the foundations they have laid over the past two games. Zombies was little more than an amusing and unexpected mini-game at first, back in World at War, but the mode became so popular that more maps were delivered, rich with new features. Teleporters were introduced, perk vending machines, George Romero, and more madcap weaponry than you’d find in a Borderlands treasure chest. There’s even a somewhat incomprehensible backstory and ludicrous easter eggs tucked away for the most hardcore zombie fans to uncover. This time around, the team seems focused on really delivering for those fans, and it was only a matter of time before someone said this so here I go: Zombies looks set to be bigger, badder, and better than ever before in Black Ops 2. Ouch. As cliché as that little line was, it doesn’t seem far wrong, Treyarch have not only mentioned new modes, but have gone as far as saying Zombies will have its own fully-realised world. Now what exactly that combination of words means, and how it will actually play out, we can’t be sure, but it certainly seems like due care is being taken to ensure that our co-operative undead-slaying experience will be more than enjoyable than ever before.

Overall, the future remains a cloudy shade of grey for Call of Duty, money will continue to stream in, the hype train will continue to roll, everyone will go on having remarkably extreme opinions on the franchise, and these games will keep on coming out, for better or worse. The only question is whether or not the developers will ever take the risks we hope for, and somehow recapture that magic of 2007, or will these games continue to be shovelled out the door with fewer and fewer iterations, dying a gradual, painful death and losing their fans one by one. For now, all us optimists can do is put our trust in the clear potential that Black Ops 2 has. While most of the world waits and expects just another Call of Duty. Maybe this time a few of us might be allowed to hope for something more.