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ShadowsOfTheDamned.jpgFrom the 'twisted' imaginations of Suda 51, Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka; Shadows of the Damned is a Hyper Stylized, Cruder then Crude, Ultra-Violent trip to through an outragous take of hell. Decsribed and adveristed as a 'road trip.way south othe border',You play as Garcia Hotspur, a Demon Hunter who after killing one too many demons, has pissed of the Lord of the Underworld and has kidnapped his 'dead' girlfriend. Now in hell and armed with his shape-shifting demon friend 'Johnson', he travels to the city of the damned to rescue his girlfriend and kill any demon that gets in his way.

Kurayami DanceUp until only recently, Suda51 was very quiet about Kurayami becoming Shadows of the Damned, or even having a troubled development, even denying that Kurayami was in development multiple times before SotD was announced. It wouldn’t be publicly known that the game had a rocky development until Shinji Mikami mentioned in an interview after the game’s release that Suda had to constantly re-write and refocus the title, with SotD not being a thing like his original plan. Mikami would liken it to Suda’s heart and will being broken down each time EA would turn down his ideas. Fortunately, the ideas for the earlier drafts of the game would not go wasted. The first draft, the one before EA got involved, would become a manga released in 2015 named Kurayami Dance. The second draft would be used for a future Grasshopper title named Black Knight Sword as confirmed by Suda51.Shadows of the Damned is a game damned by its circumstance.

Marred by a studio and publisher who had no clear vision on what they wanted the game to be and lack of experience in the tools given. Coming after the release, none of the key people involved had explicitly positive things to say about their experience outside of Akira Yamaoka, who even had ideas for a potential sequel. Tonka search and rescue game. Shinji Mikami has gone on record, saying that the best part about development was Grasshopper learning how to use Unreal Engine, which would be their engine of choice going forward, with better results.

Despite all the flaws, the game is still an enjoyable, albeit brief game with an atmosphere that is difficult to match. Even with the RE4 esque shooting making for good, if not derivative gameplay mechanics, it does end up feeling much like every other title from Grasshopper, style over substance, with said style more than making up for lack of substance.