The original Shadows of the Damned has an impressive credits screen if nothing else.
It boasts the involvement of Killer7 creator Suda51, Resident Evil 4 mastermind Shinji Mikami, and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka, as well as legendary cult manga artist Q Hayashida, and that's a pretty darn big sell.
Released in 2011, Shadows of the Damned didn't do much sales-wise, but it did garner a cult following in the years after its arrival, so here's Suda's company Grasshopper Manufacture, along with new owner NetEase, to give demon hunter Garcia Hotspur's journey through hell a new coat of paint.
Lo and behold, Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered (very funny, Suda) is exactly what you think it is: a lovable, flawed relic of the seventh console generation. This is the kind of remaster that preserves all of the original's warts and selling points; it's just as fun, just as janky, and just as unfinished as it ever was.
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered Is Good Old-Fashioned Fun
Perhaps unsurprisingly given Mikami's involvement, Shadows of the Damned plays like a sort of grungy heavy metal-inflected Resident Evil 4, complete with over-the-shoulder third-person shooting and a slightly insane smorgasbord of gameplay styles thrown into the mix.
Over the course of Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered's eight-hour running time, you'll explore Resident Evil 4-style villages, solve what could generously be described as "puzzles", and even take part in side-scrolling shooter stages apropos of nothing.
All of this adds up to create a package that feels pleasingly old-school. Shadows of the Damned feels concerned not with wringing every last drop of dopamine out of your exhausted brain, but with showing you all of its many toys and letting you play with each one for just enough time that it never feels boring.
Unlike many of its contemporaries, Shadows of the Damned is split into stages rather than being one continuous journey.
Each stage has something unique and interesting about it, whether that's a gameplay style switch-up, a new puzzle mechanic, or a boss fight that asks you to demonstrate some of the tools you've been amassing over the past few levels.
Blessedly for our bloated modern age, Shadows of the Damned doesn't outstay its welcome, either. As soon as it runs out of ideas (and some may say sooner than that), it makes its exit, so you won't have time to grow restless or bored while you're experiencing this Suda51 trip.
The core combat feels great in Shadows of the Damned, too. Each weapon has a pleasing kick to it, and the upgrades you receive over the course of Garcia's journey feel meaningful, making slaughtering demons a consistent delight throughout.
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered? More Like Barely Remastered
If you feel like I've only talked about the original Shadows of the Damned so far in this Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered review, there's a very good reason for that.
NetEase and Grasshopper Manufacture haven't exactly gone above and beyond to show Shadows of the Damned how much they love it. This is very much a barebones remaster; it's a resolution increase, a few extra costumes, and a slightly half-hearted New Game Plus mode, and that's it.
You won't find a Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster-esque visual overhaul here, nor will you see the kind of attention to detail that Aspyr has shown its Tomb Raider remasters.
In essence, Hella Remastered is a "hella" lot like playing the original Shadows of the Damned, and the visual upgrade isn't particularly great at hiding some of the original's ugly Xbox 360-style sharp edges, curves, and low-quality texture work.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a graphics fiend; I honestly don't care how good something looks as long as it plays well, and so I'm willing to give Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered a pass on this front.
Just be aware that if you passed on the original when it launched back in 2011 and you're hoping that this remaster will somehow transform the core experience for you, that's very much not the goal here.
That also means that some of the original Shadows of the Damned's more questionable moments make it in unchanged, too. If the original put you off with its casual objectification and borderline xenophobic stereotypes, you might want to apply elsewhere.
On the plus side, the fact that Hella Remastered is effectively still a seventh-gen game means it works great on Steam Deck (at least in my testing, anyway), so it's not all awkward moments and leftover jank.
All of Shadows of the Damned's Jank Is Still in Hella Remastered
Yes, that's right: for all its superstar names, Shadows of the Damned often felt like a fairly uneven and janky game, and hey, Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered still feels like a fairly uneven and janky game.
On the whole, the difficulty here is pretty low. I died once or twice during some of the hairier moments, but I managed to breeze through most of the game on normal difficulty without trouble. You might say that's my fault for not bumping it up to hard, but normal does not provide a particularly balanced challenge.
Shadows of the Damned's inconsistent enemy design makes up for some of that lack of challenge, although not quite in the way that I would like.
Some enemies (I'm looking at you, psycho-Paula) can kill Garcia in a single hit, and others feel infuriatingly annoying to pin down and deal damage to, making some engagements frustratingly drawn out with the promise of disproportionate punishment for failure.
It's also worth mentioning that Shadows of the Damned felt unfinished in places (the side-scrolling shooter stages and abrupt ending spring to mind) and that hasn't changed in this remaster.
Happily, there were times when the original Shadows of the Damned's jank worked in its favor, and that's the case here, too. Although Shadows of the Damned feels a touch creaky, that's often the price you pay for the level of variation you'll find here.
This is also still a charmingly, gleefully stupid experience. Any game in which the main character can fire a giant-barreled gun from between his legs while screaming "taste my big boner" legally cannot be bad. It's in the Constitution, I think.
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered Review | Final Thoughts
Shadows of the Damned is a fascinating relic of the seventh console generation. Despite Suda51's presence as a writer and Akira Yamaoka's score, this feels like a Shinji Mikami production through and through (although he didn't serve as a director on the project).
If you can imagine a jankier, grungier Resident Evil 4 - perhaps one birthed from the B-movie-loving brain of Robert Rodriguez - then you're not a million miles away from what Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered can offer you.
You won't find a dramatic overhaul here, but Hella Remastered offers just enough nostalgic thrills to overcome its almost lovably abundant jank.
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered was reviewed on PC with a copy provided by the developer over the course of around 8 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.
Review Summary
Pros
- Enjoyably varied gameplay
- Satisfying core combat
- Gleefully, endearingly stupid
Cons
- Still feels janky and unfinished
- Inconsistent enemy design
- Basic, barebones remaster