Shadows of the Damned

Let's get one thing perfectly straight; Shadows of the Damned is not your ordinary game. Bringing together some of the biggest names in gaming, it plays rather like a movie... or is it a movie that plays like a game?

In all honesty, it's a bit of both.

The intro brings us face to face with the main man, Garcia Hotspur (a man with more tattoos than our entertainments editor) and the love of his life Paula. Some super giant demon bastard named Flemming shows up on the scene and takes Paula with him to hell... possibly a bad move seeing as Garcia is, in fact, a demon hunter. With his trusty sidekick Johnson, he follows Flemming in order to bring Paula back.

With a story that sounds like it's about to get a bit soppy, nothing could be further from the truth. There are more dick and fart jokes in this game than an episode of Bottom, with everything from gun names like Big Boner right through to a boss whose steed literally farts the darkness... as in, an evil place where light fears to tread, not the band. Most of the recurring elements in this game are pure gold, comedy or otherwise. Your autosave feature is a floating eye named Willy, who takes a massive flaming dump on the floor to mark your progress, and you restore your health by getting shitfaced... which is fine with us.

In regards to the boss fights, it's a throw back to the old skool style, with big, lumbering bad asses with repeating attack patterns and red glowy weak points. The gameplay is smooth and fluid, with the only minor irritant being some quicktime events, but they're usually in place to get you to escape from enemies when they catch you. To rectify this... don't get caught. The graphics are not to be sniffed at, with some rather disturbing locations and characters (like the rather lovely, yet terrifying Christopher), all fitting nicely together with the masterful soundtrack.

It's quite hard to compare Shadows of the Damned with anything else, as nothing is quite like it, but if you like games and movies like Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry, Evil Dead/Army of Darkness and enjoy highly immature humour, then you'll love Shadows of the Damned.

In short, we thought it was FUCKING AWESOME. Make sure you pick it up.

All games are reviewed for Maxim.co.uk using the Mad Cats Tritton range of headsets!

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