Having never played the original Shadows of the Damned, I was expecting a sort of hellish world of spooky ghouls and terrifying landscapes to keep me on the edge of my seat. What I actually received, however, was a brutal adventure full of childish jokes, a smack-talking Mexican protagonist named Garcia and all the sexual innuendos only the most horny fans can appreciate. The demons of the underworld have taken Garcia’s lover, Paula, igniting a hate-filled chase through the depths of Hell to rescue the fated damsel in distress, “boner” in hand.
Pullin’ Out My Big Gun
The Underworld is a dangerous place filled with horrors in every corner. Luckily, Garcia has a peculiar taste for demon blood and would dare not enter the depths of Hell unarmed. Garcia’s main weapon for demon slaying is the magic Johnson (wink), a sentient demon that can transform into different weapons, including a handgun, machine gun and shotgun, each with their own descriptive names like “the Teether” and “Monocussioner”. Most demons can be dispatched relatively easily with a simple headshot, but there are several variations that require more than a simple trigger pull. The Underworld is filled with darkness that can damage the player and give invulnerability to demons, engulfing them in blue and black visuals that require light to dissipate, such as a strike from the player’s torch or a well-placed Light Shot.
Garcia Fu**ing Hotspur
Shadows of the Damned’s gameplay feels reminiscent of the shooter Souls-like games Remnant: From the Ashes and Remnant 2, allowing Garcia to dodge roll away from enemies and take aim with an over-the-shoulder perspective. A laser-sight system is used for aiming, which can be quite janky at times, giving body shots when the player is certain that they hit the head. Enemies are numerous and come in the forms of humanoid, shadowy demons that have several variations, like crawlers or armour wearers. These enemies make up the majority and can become quite boring to fight after a while, set aside the more challenging and refreshing boss fights. Each of these super demons require different methods of execution, changing the paces from the body of the game like utilising the light and darkness mechanics in unique ways. Sometimes, Garcia must embrace the darkness to bring back the light, one “boner” blast at a time.
Turn Up the Lights!
The Underworld is full of mysterious environments to traverse, packed with weird, locked baby gates, lanterns portrayed as demonic goats and a few strange storybook-style levels that add a whole new element of side-scrolling gameplay. The darkness shrouds many areas of the game, but players are given plenty of options to keep things fresh as the gameplay is pretty monotonous throughout. For instance, fireworks can be shot in the air in outdoor sections to grant a brief respite of light, luminous slugs can be used in dark corridors as guides through dimly lit spaces and gigantic hands of darkness can be destroyed to reveal wall-mounted goat candles that can be lit up, illuminating the game world. Soon enough, the Underworld will start to look like Las Vegas.
Saving the Mamacita
Most of the dialogue will come from our titular protagonist, Garcia Hotspur, and his sentient flaming skull companion, Johnson. Despite the fact that they are trapped in literal Hell, Garcia and Johnson are a duo of quirky comments and foul-mouthed insults, making what seems like a horror game turn into a pretty gory action-comedy. For instance, Johnson sees a graveyard for demons later in the story and exclaims, “Since when do demons need graveyards?”, and Garcia replies with, “Since I came to town,”, becoming one of the most brutal lines I’ve heard in a video game. Garcia’s mission is to find and rescue Paula, his girlfriend who was kidnapped from the hotel they were staying in. Most scenes involve Paula being dragged away screaming “Garcia!” or dressed in skimpy lingerie to enhance the male gaze but not before being butchered like a blood balloon in front of Garcia’s eyes. The personalities are what definitely keep me interested in the game, including the killer model designs and high-action gameplay.
Your Puny Bullets Don’t Belong Here!
Johnson is not just the companion of Garcia but can transform into various weapons that require unique ammunition, like skulls, bones and teeth, to vanquish enemies. Boss fights, or as Johnson calls them, VIPs, drop blue gems when defeated that are used as permanent upgrades for Garcia’s arsenal. The shotgun can go from firing single skulls to two, three or four at once for massive damage, and the machine gun can home in on enemies with a precise red lock-on. Shadows of the Damned offers New Game +, and with these upgrades at hand, enemy encounters and boss fights can be made more trivial. Similarly to blue gems, red gems can be used to upgrade Garcia and his ever-evolving arsenal, like increased maximum health, damage and reload times and ammo capacity for various weapons, adding plenty of upgrade choice for the player’s favourite go-to armament.
Final Thoughts
All in all, Shadows of the Damned is an excellent nostalgia trip for those wanting to return to the old game with updated visuals, higher frame rates and plenty of humour. However, first timers might be put off from the obviously dated gameplay of the 2010’s generation of gaming and its references to the male gaze with plenty of sexual innuendos. Alas, the Underworld has no care in the world for mortal emotions, so better to just jump in, kill some demons and have a damn good time doing so, Mexican style. P.S.: Steve Blum is an American.
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.
Publisher: Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
Release Date: 31st October 2024
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered was provided by the publisher.
