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Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered has launched following another SUDA 51 game, Lollipop Chainsaw, earlier this year, and was created by SUDA 51 and Shinji Mikami, who brought us notable games such as Resident Evil, Ghostwire Tokyo and The Evil Within to name a few of his notable games.
You play as Garcia Hotspur (with the addition of a rude nickname in the middle), a demon hunter who has literally peeved off Hell and its various denizens over the years, including a few key demons. Of course, the hellish creatures and said demons decide to get their own back and kidnap Garcia’s girlfriend Paula, and put her through pain over and over again. As Fleming, Lord of the Demons, opens the portal and jumps in with Paula, of course Garcia decides to follow to rescue her. Here is where your road trip through the underworld starts, alongside your trusty ex demon sidekick Johnson, who is also your gun and can take different forms like The Boner (shotgun) as an example, so erm… yeah, puerile dick jokes abound throughout the runtime! You will either love with the dark comedy, laugh out loud moments, and associated jokes, or be extremely offended; there is no middle ground!
The reviews, scores and quirks mentioned in both physical media and on websites like IGN etc all stand, and are relevant to this day. After all, Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered is just that and not a remake. All that has been added is a New Game+, and you can access the few different costumes near the start of the game, which originally gradually unlocked.
So what we have is the existing assets of the game in Unreal Engine 3, essentially ported over to Unreal Engine 5, which includes things converting assets etc. that needed doing and so on. Originally, the game only came out on PS3 and Xbox 360, and I still have the former that I was bought for my birthday in 2011. Now, this remaster has been released on literally everything out there at the minute, including the Nintendo Switch and PC, as well as current and previous-gen PlayStation & Xbox consoles.
The PC version runs at a steady, locked 60fps, and runs at the same resolution and refresh rate as your monitor. In-game, there are no graphics options at all, barring a brightness scale, but the PC community are already tinkering. However, you are basically getting maximum detail and a decent resolution with a decent framerate, and it just works as it should with no issues at all.
The downside for me, personally, is you cannot turn off motion blur, which makes me feel sick and causes a migraine. Hence, the game coming out Oct 31st and only just getting he review finished now, as I could only play it in short bursts, which is a shame as I do love it. Another gripe is the aiming sensitivity – using a mouse to control the crosshair is extremely slow, unless you turn it right up in the settings and/or using your DPI switch on hardware. When using a controller, it is way too sensitive, and even if you take the slider all the way to the left, it’s still a bit fast, but you do have auto-aim, which locks onto the chest area, if you are having difficulty getting those sweet headshots in.
Overall, I have always loved Shadows of the Damned. The dark humour and setting are excellent, and Garcia is a great protagonist. I am a Gen-X’er, though, so stuff like this will always put a smile on my face, because of the bad jokes etc. Modern sensibilities now stifle games and media like this, unfortunately, and of course cancel culture, if something is deemed overly offensive. Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered is such a fun game that looks awesome, and is really twisted with the location and enemy designs, and it draws you in from start to finish.
It is a shame really, as it is an awesome game but I feel there are many of the younger generations that just won’t get it, and could well be offended by it.
But this is my review and opinion, and I love it and highly recommend it. Maybe those thinking not for me give it ago, you may just appreciate the humour and discover one hell of an action-horror game.
Thanks to our friends at Grasshopper Manufacture for the review code.
Developer & Publisher : Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.
Players : Single Player only
Thanks to our friends at Bandai Namco for the review code.
Shadows of the Damned Hella Remastered is out now on PC / Steam and the digital stores for Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5
Important info:
- Developer: GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC.
- Publisher: GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC.
- Players: Single player only
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered Official Launch Trailer – Grasshopper Archives
FINAL SCORES:
GRAPHICS
SOUND
GAMEPLAY
ENJOYMENT8
8
7.5
8OVERALL 8
Retro at heart and lover of all things ’80s, especially the computers, the music and the awesome movies and TV shows! Crazy huge retro gaming collection spanning the ’80s and ’90s with hundreds of tapes, discs and carts for various machines on top of a 600+ strong Steam library that is ever-growing. No I am not a serial hoarder, just a dedicated retro gamer!