When you see a demo at PAX East, the demo can typically mean one of three things. The first and most typical demo is for a game that’s about to be released within the coming months. The second type of demo is for a game that’s in development but still has a good bit to go. The third type of demo can be a student project or a proof of concept that a creator wants to turn into a game. At PAX East 2024, we met with GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC. to try out their demo for Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered and talk with Suda 51.
While the demo may have been an interesting taste of what to expect from the remastered project, it was just that, a taste; due to time constraints, we only had a limited amount of time to try out the demo (Early Stage in the game). The real interest came when talking with Suda 51, Goichi Suda, and discussing why he chose to remaster this title and what he potentially wanted to do down the line. Between the interview and the demo, we knew that we had to play Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered when it was released on Halloween (Oct 31, 2024).
Sadly, life doesn’t always allow you to do what you want when you want to but despite some obstacles, we said, “to Hell with these obligations,” and attempted to dive into this underworld thriller. Here is our review of Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered on the PlayStation 5.
Story
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is a love story revolving around Garcia Hotspur and Paula. After the Lord of Demons, Fleming, kidnaps Paula and drags her to the underworld, Garcia dives into the underworld to save the love of his life. Despite being a demon hunter on Earth, Garcia is helpless when taking on the Lord of Demons. Now in the underworld, Garcia’s sidekick, Johnson a retired demon, helps Garcia to find his way and learn the rules of hell. As Garcia explores the underworld with the help of Johnson, they are confronted by the Lord of Demons’ generals.
Exploring the underworld, Garcia is able to use the gems recovered from the Generals to upgrade his guns and get close to taking on Fleming and his stronger demons. Things take a dark turn when Fleming taunts Garcia about having killed his love and torturing her in the process. The story gets even more weird when one of Fleming’s generals makes things complicated. With a boss fight that gives acid-trip vibes, we quickly discover that the rest of the game will be a mind trip in some capacity. The game’s ending leaves us with the feeling that a sequel could be in the works when Paula snaps and we hear Fleming’s voice.
As far as a story goes, Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered remains faithful to the original game even with its dated jokes and sometimes cringy dialogue. If you can get past those two aspects, you get an emotional story of a man who will go to hell and back to save the woman he loves no matter what obstacle stands in his way.
Gameplay
The story itself may be a strong emotional tale but the gameplay elements felt rather dated. Yes, the updated graphics and systems did feel like an improvement, but the mechanics felt like they came right out of the 2000s. The running in the game is reminiscent of the older Gears of War roadie running system. While playing on normal, the combat felt slow and almost like it was trying to hold your hand.
Yes, there is the occasional oh shhh! moment, but most of the time, you can easily move out of the way, shoot the weak spot, and move on. Weak combat in a shooter makes the game feel like it is trying to focus on the story, but the story itself isn’t overly compelling; it is a mix of Let’s slay demons because they’ve wronged us and I want to save my love (Gears of War X Dante’s Inferno).
The game takes the tried and true upgrade approach with making your weapons stronger to take down difficult enemies. Like Bayonetta, you can buy a resource (Red Gem) to increase your health, weapon damage, capacity, reload speed, and increase Johnson’s other abilities. Red Gems can be found either in the demon world randomly or by purchasing them from Christopher, The Merchant; The price of the Red Gems will change based on the game’s difficulty. Players can also upgrade their weapons by slaying the story bosses and getting Blue Gems; these blue gems transform either the pistol, shotgun, or machine gun.
Resident Evil Style
While the overall gameplay might not be mind-blowing, it is still a fun experience for the most part. The only portion of the game that was not fun was running through the Darkness in chaotic moments. With no clear indicator, we sometimes got lost in high-pressure moments and would have to redo that portion multiple times in order to figure it out. The game doesn’t assist you in finding it if you fail multiple times and makes you feel like an idiot for doing so.
A lot of the mechanics within the game feel like they come out of Resident Evil. The game prioritizes the ability to move and turn quickly to avoid enemy attacks. The player can turn in 180-degree intervals to avoid attacks or change direction quickly. In fact, if someone showed me a comparison of the two games, I would believe they were from similar developers or those who previously worked at Capcom.
Graphics
With Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, there is a love-hate relationship with the game’s graphics and engine. While the art style and dark visuals are typically things that we love, this game has certain aspects that can be offputting. There were times when hits wouldn’t properly interact with the target. Additionally, the Darkness without a key indicator made certain levels feel more dull. The game’s art also felt like it was contrasting at times when certain aspects would be highlighted while others seemed blurred. The level design looks good but there are some interesting art style choices that take you out of the action and environment.,
Outside of the art direction, there were two key issues we had when playing on the PlayStation 5. The first was rendering or loading within the game; no, we are not talking about loading into a level, but rather certain objects would not load properly and would cause awkward collisions or interactions. This typically would happen when interacting with Christoper but it happened a lot later in the game. The second key issue was the game frame dropping on numerous occasions; we originally thought it was dropping due to high action sequences or different textures loading in but the more we played, the more we noticed it happening almost like the game was created for a high-end PC vs consoles.
Controls
When it comes to Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered controls, they are fairly simple to understand. The game’s controls are almost identical to Resident Evil 4’s controls with the player using the back left bumper (L2) to aim and the back right bumper to shoot (R2) while L2 is held; otherwise the player will run with R2. X is used to turn at 180 degrees. The circle button is used to melee, however, the melee mechanic does not always work properly and will typically fail to destroy boxes or barrels.
The game also has a weird control scheme using the PS5 and can throw off your experience.
Audio/SFX
Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered has an interesting musical composition. The music, sound effects, and special effects feel like they have been recomposed/remastered while some of the character voice lines felt reused but enhanced. This would make the scene feel off and take away from the story. The music can get you head banging but a dumb line from Garcia can take you right out of the experience.
Replay Value
When it comes to action-adventure shooters like Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, you will have to either explore every corner or each area or have to play through again. Luckily, the game does have a New Game Plus where you can carry over your weapons and upgrades. Boss fights do change slightly and you have the ability to change the difficulty when starting New Game Plus. If you want to get any weapon-specific trophies, you will have to play through the game with a new save if it is a lesser version of the weapon.
Verdict
When we first saw Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered at PAX East 2024, we eagerly awaited the release of it based on the demo that we got to try. While we waited for the remastered version of the game to be released, we played through the original in order to be able to compare the two once it was released. Now that we have played through both versions of the game, we can appreciate that the remastering remains faithful to the original, however, we feel that it did not massively exceed expectations.
The gameplay is enjoyable and the story remains true to the original game, however, the remastering feels like a quality-of-life update versus a new standalone experience. The gameplay has improved slightly alongside the visuals but paying for a new game outright feels like it could have been remastered further down the line rather than only a little over a decade later.
Yes, it is a fun experience and it is great to relive a quirky and raunchy game, but out of all the games created by Suda 51, it feels like it was chosen as a safe bet rather than bringing back a different title.
