His Review with Ian

Without doubt, the game of the year…so far!

We know there are some spectacular titles coming out this autumn. We also know that during the summer, it’s normally an absolute drought for decent new titles, so praise be to the double genius of Suda 51 (No More Heroes) and Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil ) as well as the good folk at Grasshopper Manufacture because now your summer is going to get a whole lot better with several cans of horror zombie whoop ass ready for you to unleash in this genuinely hilarious, action horror masterpiece.

Damned follows the story of Garcia “F***ing” Hotspur, a Mexican demon hunter who makes his way to and through Hell in order to save his one true love, the scantily clad Paula (pronounced Powla, not Poorla). But evil, in particular the opera loving kind of evil called Fleming wants to stop him and keep Powla all to himself. By his side and between his legs, he has his trusty side kick, “Johnson”, a former demon with a cracking English RP accent, who can transform into anything from a motorbike to a light gun to a “red hot boner” weapon to aid them in their very own road movie.

You can tell as soon as you turn this game on, you’re going to be in for an absolute riot of a ride. It’s filthy, funny and gory and doesn’t profess to be a deeply spiritual game contemplating life, the universe or Utopia; it knows what it wants and succeeds whole-heartedly. It feels great, with a Japanese and self-knowing sensibility about it. Executive Director Suda 51 explains his approach “My first encounter with games was unlike anything I had experienced up to that point. It was fresh and exciting, I’d like to create video games that try to evoke that feeling.” Well, Damned piqued my interest and I loved playing it. A feeling I’ve not had for some time.

The principle gameplay (third person, over the shoulder) is suitably outlandish from a game which has regular encounters with “One Eyed Willie”, a mini demon who leaves behind him a steaming pile of defecation to mark your save points or has for example, an area where you have to run across a giant, naked, writhing Powla to get to the next set of zombies. Garcia has to keep enemies in lit areas to be able to kill them and does this by shooting laughing goat heads to light up dark sections of the city whilst he progresses by feeding freaky cherubs heads (acting as gatekeepers) a cocktail of strawberries, brains and eyes in order to access more of the creeping darkness. There’s a real and successful sense of dark and light in the game with some superb shading and textures realised which play on our fears of night, darkness and the unknown.

The bosses are intense and genuinely tricky including; a horse headed man astride a man headed horse, big birds’ evil brother as well as the grim sisters. The weapons are suitable for hot and heavy hell; a big boner, the dentist and a skullfest 9000 whilst the writing and narrative between Garcia and Johnson is hilarious, but a little too rude and crude to put down in print.

It has an incredibly rocky, spiky, punky soundtrack, like Guitar Hero gone to the cinema on a grindhouse double bill. Composed by Akira Yamaoka (famed for his work on the Silent Hill series), the soundtrack is one of the reasons why the game is so brilliant to play. It has a perfect pairing for the title track - Yamaoka worked with the iconic 70s English punk band “The Damned” - a match made in heaven/hell. The loading screen and between level cut screens sound design is particularly catchy and deserves a special mention.

Shadows of the Damned deserves a big audience and hopefully won’t simply become a cult classic. It has a wicked charm whilst all its constituent and brash parts shouldn’t work, but do. It comes together perfectly and gives you the chance to spend the summer hunting zombies, chasing darkness and having a riot in a fiery hell.

Her Review with Tracey

When a game’s opening scene features a dimly lit alley with a bare chested, mightly tattooed Mexican stomping on the bloodied head of a daemon, who then curses said hot Mexican’s girlfriend before spluttering his final wheeze, you instantly know you’re in for a dark ride.

Daemon hunter Garcia takes a road trip to Hell as he tries to rescue his beloved Paula from becoming a permanent sex plaything of Flemming, the evil overlord of Hell with 3 pairs of eyes, jaggy teeth and a penchant for sick innuendo. Guided by the brilliant ex-daemon and fruitarian Johnson (talking, flaming skull on a stick that can also change into a tasty range of weapons), the trip through Hell is of course challenging with everything you’d expect to see along the way – boxes of hacked legs lining corridors, rows of chunky intestines decorating the walls or metal instruments of torture adorning the cobbled streets. However, this is as Ian rightly points out, not just a lewd, shoot your way through to the end affair. It’s cinematically grotesque, crudely funny and totally addictive. It always strikes the right balance between delivering gory visuals and action with tongue firmly in cheek. The dialogue is vulgar and inventive; as are the beasts you battle along the way. Storybooks along the way give you a morbid hint as to what lies awaiting for you at the end of the level be it a crazed posse of scythe welding sisters or a giant Minotaur that unzips his flies and pees out a stream of life sapping darkness before mounting a giant horse that poops out yet more of the black night and tramples you.

Toilet and sexual references plus mother-fudging swear words (Hells dictionary not mine) are the currency of Hell whilst drinking tequila and absinthe boosts your health. A lot of the gameplay involves you purposefully having to plough head first into inky darkness that eats away at your life. Only in the darkness will solutions to puzzles and weakspots on baddies reveal themselves. You’re constantly having to calculate how long you can stay in the darkness in order to complete tasks before you have to return to the light – which is done by stepping out of the darkness or if it’s totally engulfing, by shooting a munching goat head in order to light up the candles on it’s antlers. Little quirks here and there bring relief, not from the creepy horror of Hell, most of it is actually quite funny but from the tense panic that sets in as the darkness sweeps across you. Garcia is agile enough to get the job done as you can move whilst shooting though he never seems to quite be nimble enough in the sections where a raging Paula is chasing you. Timing, positioning and being a crack shot with the Hot Boner Light Gun or the will get you through and if you do have to redo a bit, the reload screen is a super little walking animation with a grindingly great soundtrack.

Music and sound play a big part in the game – the darkness brings a sort of alarm-laden warning whilst your heart pulses loudly. The vocal performances are full of character and it flows really well whilst the soundtrack is dirty rock with guitars and drums exploding all over the place.

Damned feels very familiar to Shinji Mikami’s Resident Evil 4, the over the shoulder camera, shooting staggering dead guys with hollow eyes outstretched arms, plenty of boxes to smash open and loot and even a hellish version of the Merchant who is now called Christopher, has a Southern American drawl and will puke your items up for you in exchange for white gems whilst Suda 51 has brought a grindhouse aesthetic and atmosphere to proceedings – Garcia has a rather cool purple leather jacket…

Damned won’t instantly appeal to everyone but the combat, the bosses and the look of the whole game is brilliant and worth checking out. Sex and death, guns and all things gothic intertwine to create a genuinely funny and horrific without being alienating, shocking or rude for the sake of it. Certain phrases have already become cult here in the His & Hers SFL office whilst I’m hunting on eBay for a purple jacket. It’s not sci-fi but it’s cinematic and rocky, gruesome, damned good fun.

Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and Published by EA, Shadows of the Damned is out now for Playstation 3 and Xbox360.