I met Suda51 through Killer7and he was in love with him No more heroes and its continuation. After that, I feel like things calmed down a bit. He did a lot of…Desperate fightbut mostly I remember Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop chainsawAND The killer is dead.
It’s not that I didn’t like them; it’s probably me Really Love Killer7 AND No more heroes. These games, I just thought they were okay. Pleasant but not extraordinary. But that was a long time ago. My tastes have matured, I’m more open-minded and I look at video games more broadly, so I was looking forward to giving back Shadows of the Damned another chance with Remastered Hella version. Some people really like it, so maybe I just wasn’t able to appreciate it properly at the time.
Unfortunately, this time is no different. Perhaps I don’t pay enough attention to my past, because another playthrough didn’t improve my opinion of the game.
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (computer, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: Grasshopper Manufaktura
Publisher: Grasshopper production
Released: October 31, 2024
Suggested retail price: $24.99
I want to start by saying this Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered it is not remastered “hella”. It’s barely remastered. I’m sure some things have improved visually, but I don’t think the geometry has been affected. I would call these textures “cleaned up”, but I’m pretty sure they’re exactly the same, but maybe less compressed. There were times when he would take close-ups of certain objects and the surface would just be blurry and blurry.
Shadows of the Damned it wasn’t a terrible looking game for 2011, but it wasn’t impressive either. This wasn’t intended as some kind of technical presentation. But why call it a remaster when it looks like someone changed the settings from High to Ultra? Includes additional costumes and New Game+. It works in 4K resolution and 60 frames per second. Some visual effects have been improved, but it still looks like piss from Unreal Engine 3. The port is okay, especially for the price. Maybe we’ll call it “Hella Definitive Edition”. But if you want to call it remastered, then at least pull the rug down.
Anyway, Shadows of the Damned is about a guy and his talking gun who go down to hell to joke about dicks for a few hours. Not that there’s a problem with dick jokes. Destructoid was created on the principles of dick jokes. I just want you to be prepared for what you’re getting into.
Shadows of the Damned plays a bit like Resident Evil 4 if you suck some of the production value out of it. You play as demon hunter Garcia Hotspur, who takes his Johnson transformation pistol on a journey through hell to save his girlfriend Paula from the ruler of the underworld, Fleming. The goal is to reach the castle that always looms on the horizon, Hassle Castle.
That’s pretty much all there is to this story. You advance level by level and eliminate some bad guys along the way. Most narratives are really just plot. Being a former demon himself, Johnson will explain the workings of the underworld, while you’ll occasionally come across books that reveal the pasts of the bosses you face. It’s not the most stimulating story, but it works. His goal seems to be to try and create a murky fairy tale, but I don’t think it works very well.
However, the dialogue between Garcia and Johnson helps elevate it, as long as you can stomach the humor. There are plenty of references to sex and genitalia, sometimes in suggestive ways and other times just plain explicit. Not all of them are to my taste, and some of them completely escaped me, but the duo is cute enough. They may not stop talking about their penises and other people’s penises, but at least guys can bond with each other’s cocks.
I ended up enjoying Garcia’s hearty devotion to Paula. Although she is highly sexualized throughout the story and even shows her breasts at one point, Garcia’s main focus is on getting it right. It’s a subtle feature that sometimes gets lost under a pile of dick jokes, but becomes noticeable when it appears.
When you start the game Shadows of the Damnedit turns out it’s not spectacular. A largely linear affair, with a ponderous emphasis on combat with no real hook. Much of the scenery centers around the darkness that envelopes the area, which will damage Garcia if he spends too much time there, but otherwise it’s headshots and frail spots with a bit of dodging thrown in for good measure.
At least there is gyroscopic control when aiming. Or it’s in the PS5 version and I assume that’s true for the Switch. It helps in many places, especially when you are struggling with the Big Boner.
Everything about it is a mix. The art is often really mundane and gray, but every now and then there’s some intriguing character design. But even the intriguing characters are smeared with dirt, making their design arduous to appreciate. In a sense, it is a product of the generation in which it was released.
Soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill) is pretty good, but like anything, it gets a little lost. It doesn’t stand out as much as it should and is easily forgotten. It’s simple to forget that this game was created by the best in the industry because it is simply flat.
I’m not the only one who thinks this, and I don’t just mean it based on the original reviews. The original version of hella was published by EA, and if you want a feel for the dysfunction behind the scenes, that’s what gave Suda51 his grudge against former EA CEO John Riccitiello. Suda hates this guy so much that he later calls him an antagonist No more heroes matches after him – Damon Riccitiello. That was his name Travis strikes again. He reduced it No more heroescalling him Damon Ricotello as if that disguised the influence.
Shinji Mikami stated in 2012 interview with CVG that he felt “Suda51’s heart was broken” by the constant changes requested by EA Shadows of the Damned. He said it wasn’t the game they envisioned before it was released. It’s not like they could have fixed it in Remastered Hella version because they had to change so much. Instead, Suda took some early drafts and created a comic book Kurayami Dance with Syuji Takeya.
That doesn’t mean it is Shadows of the Damned he could not file an appeal even in such circumstances. While I appreciate original vision and hate the business end of development, it doesn’t always negate production. But regardless Shadows of the Damned he’s rather insipid, even with the constant dick waving. Maybe I’m naive, but I can’t imagine it would have turned out this way without management’s oversight. Of course, Suda51 is proud enough of the game that he felt it was worth re-releasing it, even if it’s not completely polished.
I gave Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered a good chance to win me over, but I feel the same way I felt when I played this game back in 2011: I was disappointed. Only now, after all these years, am I much better at analyzing problems and communicating them. It doesn’t assist that the remaster isn’t a remaster at all. The camaraderie between Johnson and Garcia, as well as Garcia’s devotion to Paula, has its charm, and the dick jokes assist a lot. However, it is arduous to get over how gray and monotonous the underground world is.
