First Impression: Shadows of the Damned

So one of the first games on PS3 to interest me in a while for a purchase has to be Shadows of the Damned. I definitely heard good things from online friends, but I wasn’t willing to just drop sixty bucks on something I may not like. My worries were soon put to rest once I played the game, although I picked it up from Ebay. These are my first impressions…

Garcia Hotspur is a hispanic demon hunter with tattoos all over his body. He definitely looks like a badass despite the cover art of the game making him look like some emo character. Then once you hear his voice (by Steven Blum) you realize he really is a badass who is full of campy humor. Reminds me of Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes. 😛

The voice acting is just so spot-on from Garcia, to Johnson, and even Fleming are all pretty hilarious. Garcia likes to make sarcastic jokes to Johnson and I found myself snickering each time they speak.

The setting starts off in the normal world when Garcia’s girlfriend Paula gets killed, revived, and kidnapped (yes in that order) by Fleming, the king of the underworld. You end up fighting some demons, and then after that you plunge into the underworld after your girlfriend.

Anyway, so the game is a survival horror in a Third-Person Shooter setup. Johnson can transform into guns, a montorcycle, and other weapons that are upgradeable through the game. Garcia’s main gun is called the Boner (yes this game is full of phallus jokes and imagery). It’s pretty much a standard gun. Even if you blast a zombies head off, its body will keep coming at you so you have to shoot it a couple of more times before it finally dies. The other gun which I can’t recall the name of at the moment, basically causes the demon zombies to blow up; think one hit kills. He also has a light shot that can stun enemies, as well as light up dark areas. If the darkness occurs, you have to shoot a golden goat to light up the area to stop your health from decreasing in the depths of hell.

I’m really not very good at aiming with an analog stick. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it; and I am definitely still getting used to it. The thing I like about this game is that you can move Garcia and aim & fire your gun all at the same time. I think it will take me some time to master it.

So far I have finished Act 2-1 and I definitely died several times. I’m still getting used to the game, but I seem to already be enjoying it. I really do hope to finish the game someday.

I definitely recommend you try this game out somehow. If you end up liking it though, you should definitely go buy it brand new as the game has poor sells numbers due to no promotion from EA or awareness to the average gamers.