Common Sense Media Review
By Chad Sapieha
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Shooter basks in gore, profanity, alcohol use, dirty jokes.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 18+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Shadows of the Damned
What's It About?
SHADOWS OF THE DAMNED is the product of a collaboration between heavy hitting Japanese game developers Shinji Mikami -- mastermind of the Resident Evil franchise -- and Goichi Suda, who is better known as Suda 51, the fellow responsible for the popular No More Heroes series. Together they have crafted one of the goriest, dirtiest, and most profane games of the year. The story revolves around Garcia Hotspur, a demon hunter who travels to hell to save his girlfriend. As he travels through the horrors of perdition, he sees her die over and over again in disturbing and ghastly ways, which strengthens his resolve to rescue her. His journey leads him to blow apart countless demons using a sentient skull torch named Johnson who can morph into various weapons, like the "boner," which fires bones and sticky explosives. A secondary ammunition called "lightshot" helps illuminate dark passages and drive off an encroaching, malevolent "darkness" that often threatens to overwhelm Garcia. Players are forced to constantly change tactics and weapons in order to survive their odyssey through the scary, demon-infested world.
Is It Any Good?
The jokes are often juvenile and may make adult players groan, but there's a very well designed game beneath all of the sex gags and dirty puns. The combat system requires players to continually change tactics to combat enemies with different types of defenses and varying weak spots. Meanwhile, the sometimes puzzle-like environments force players to keep an eye out for important features -- like goat heads and blood buttons -- that will allow them to progress.
Kudos also goes to the game's visual design, which can only be described as inspired lunacy. Imagine iron gates with crying baby faces that demand brains, eyeballs, and strawberries; villainous demons with grotesquely oversized heads and too many limbs; and creatures that eat their own hearts before releasing darkness-generating flatus. It certainly won't be for all tastes, to be sure, but there's no denying the imaginative imagery and solidly designed gameplay. It'll be a treat for hardcore gamers with a palate for excess.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about alcohol use in games. Does it make any sense that drinking alcohol should restore a character to health? Is there a purpose to using alcohol as a restorative beyond simply shocking the audience?
Families can also discuss violence in games. Does the depiction of blood and gore seem any less intense when the creatures bleeding are evil, inhuman demons? Should the targets of violence affect your decision regarding the suitability of certain games for your kids?
Game Details
- Platforms : PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Electronic Arts
- Release date : June 21, 2011
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : June 27, 2022
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