Game review: Shadows of the damned

Hell is always described as a pretty nasty place to be, but one game expresses it in such a manner it’s difficult not to want to visit it one more time.

Demon hunter Garcia Hotspur is about to enter hell to rescue his girlfriend Paula from the lord of the underworld; and he won’t be going alone. Teaming up with a floating skull called Johnson in an epic journey through hell, Shadows of the Damned is what one might call a true love story; and it’s hilarious.

At its core, Shadows of the Damned is a third person shooter. You travel through medieval era houses, dark villages and caves shooting everything which moves. Although the graphics aren’t breathtaking, the artistic design stands out.

Along your journey, you collect three kinds of gems. White gems act as the currency of the game, Red gems are cleverly hidden in every stage and can be used to upgrade guns and Blue gems are dropped by bosses.

Once you fit a Blue gem into Johnson, he converts your gun into a meaner-looking weapon and gives them bonus powers. The usual suspects — a shotgun, an SMG and a pistol are the only three types available.

The Darkness mechanism is probably the most interesting and unique part of the game. It creeps out of nowhere and eats away your health once you are inside. The only way to get out is to fire a light shot at a goat-head.

Shadows of the Damned makes you run through caves, hallways and corridors filled with Darkness to find a weak spot in a boss; it makes you gather courage to take that one step into Darkness in order to solve a puzzle. It’s moments like these which make the experience so fascinating.

The sound design is where Shadows of the Damned truly shines; and the voice actors have done an excellent job. Greg Ellis as Johnson is the life of the game; his perverted jokes will make you roll with laughter more times than you can count. The excellent score connects with your heart at many levels and the way rock themes and slow melodies have been used is absolutely phenomenal.

There is plenty of variety to keep things fresh. Chase sequences, a demon bowling alley and a few 2-D levels add to the charm of the game. There can’t be any health packs in hell, so Garcia resorts to alcohol. “In the underworld you don’t die from drinks; they un-kill people.”

There is no multiplayer and practically nothing to do after beating the game. Here lies the biggest flaw in Shadows of the Damned. You can go through the story again but the experience won’t be any different. There were also some issues with the camera and movement which can make things frustrating.

Shadows of the Damned is a different game. You haven’t played anything like this before and probably never will. The interesting story and boss fights definitely make it worth picking up, but the lack of different game modes hurts its value. Shadows of the Damned is available for Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.