A copy was provided by Grasshopper Manufacture for review. Thank you
Grasshopper Manufacture has had a lot of their older titles brought back in remaster form lately. Last year, we had Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, and this year, we had Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, though both of these did not involve Grasshopper in its development. Now, we have the first recent remaster that directly involves the original studio: Shadows of the Damned. This was the company's first PS3/Xbox 360 game, and while there are some quality-of-life features that would have been nice here, it's still a really fun and great remaster that is worth your time, especially for portable play.
For more context, the original game was released in 2011 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. This remaster doesn't change too much from the original as the developer still felt it holds up to today's standards, and I mostly agree with them. There are some changes that could have been made that I feel would have enhanced the experience, but I still had a blast playing. We do have a New Game+ mode to carry over progress after first completing the game, as well as four new costumes to utilize.
Shadows of the Damned is a third-person shooter that has you running through the demon realm, taking down enemies and horrifying bosses in a glorious, gory mess in fast-paced combat. As you fight, you will get different colored crystals that you can use to purchase drinks to replenish your health and upgrade gun damage and their capacity. You will also get blue gems to unlock new weapons and give your current ones new abilities.
There isn't a lot of depth to the gameplay, but that's a big part of the appeal for me. There are so many games that have all of these layers, and while I do enjoy them, Shadows of the Damned feels like it's more focused on fast-paced arcade-style gameplay, and it's a nice change of pace. You can dodge and roll around, as well as switch between your guns on the fly, and there's a cool zoomed-in camera angle if you shoot a demon in the head on your first shot, but it all is there mainly to enhance the way you play and make it faster instead of adding extra more complex layers.
Some of the puzzles in the game will require finding a specific fruit for certain doors or going into the darkness to illuminate a specific button to shoot to unlock a different door. Some bosses and enemies will also require some thinking to expose their weakness to defeat them, but I didn't find any of them to be too complex.
This is a pretty faithful remaster of the original, which is both a positive and a negative. I love the feel of the arcade-like shooting and how fast-paced it can be, but it also makes moving around a little bit clunky. You can do 180-degree turns on the press of a button, but dodging feels clunky, and running around feels a little awkward since you have to move the right stick to turn while running. Being able to dodge diagonally would have been nice, as I found myself multiple times wanting to go that way instead of just forward, backward, left, or right.
There are also a solid amount of cutscenes that aren't all skippable and some animations that look a little rigid. That, and the fact that there's a small fixed camera angle and animation every time you want to jump from a ledge or out of a window or use a ladder or watch a half-demon throw up every time I buy an item, is very reminiscent of that era, though it isn't something we see in modern games. I don't mind it, especially knowing the roots of Shadow of the Damned, but for newcomers, it may be seen as a bit cumbersome.
The visuals themselves hold up really nicely, though. I love the darker tones with the intriguing demon designs, and the way the world changes when you enter darkness is interesting. Everything fits within the context of the game and looks more stylized, which helps it withstand the test of time. I could see the visuals being for a PS3/Xbox 360 game, but it still feels like a beautiful game to play right now with a solid soundtrack.
The story itself does the job and has a couple of twists here, but it isn't a big highlight for me. You play as Garcia Hotspur, a demon hunter who has to rescue his girlfriend Paula from the demon king, Fleming, who has taken her. You will go with your demon pal, Johnson, who is your guide, torch, guns, and motorcycle. Together, you will run through the demon world to save her and stop her torture of being killed over and over again.
It's an interesting story with some solid one-liners in there and an interesting world, but II wouldn't call it genre defining. There are a lot of cutscenes, and I did like learning about the past lives of some of the bosses I fought, George Reed is definitely an interesting one, but I never found myself itching to know what happened next. It is interesting, but it didn't completely hook me.
However, Steam Deck performance is near perfect.
Shadows of the Damned runs near perfectly on the Steam Deck, and I’m glad it’s able to! Despite this being a remaster of a PS3/Xbox 360 game, it could still have had very poor optimization overall. Luckily, this isn’t the case, and that makes it wonderful to play on the go. There aren't any in-game quality settings to change, which did worry me at first, but with the solid 60 FPS throughout the game and battery drain that sticks below 13W, I couldn't complain.
You can turn down the framerate/refresh rate to save some battery, but it isn't necessary and 60 FPS feels perfect. 50 is okay, but turning it to 45 or below will not feel nearly as smooth.
In the settings, you can invert controls, change aiming and camera speed, toggle subtitles and aim assist, and change volume, but that's about it.
The game does have 16:10 resolution support and gamepad support. Although it isn't listed as a feature, the game does have cloud saves. There are no HDR settings.
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is a great remaster that keeps it a little bit too faithful to the original. The gameplay is fantastic and a nice break from the more complex games that are made today, while the visuals and story are appealing and worth seeing for yourself. There are some minor quality-of-life issues that could have made it a bit more modern feeling and engaging. It does run nearly perfectly on the Steam Deck, and even with its minor QoShadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is a faithful remaster of the 2011 release, for better and worse, and it is perfect on the Steam Deck. Despite the small issues, it is a great portable experience that is worth being in your library.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is a faithful remaster of the 2011 release, for better and worse, and it is perfect on the Steam Deck.
