Shadows of the Damned released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011, and by all accounts it sold terribly. A collaboration between Suda51 and Shinji Mikami, on paper it’s a project that should have sold decently: a surreal third-person shooter inspired by Kafka and straight-to-VHS schlock? No wonder EA published it!
Well actually, the trailer above—which celebrates the imminent release of the game’s PC debut—goes a little way towards explaining why it sold poorly. Console games in 2011 were all about macho grey shooters, not whatever that is. Unsurprisingly, it’s since established a cult following, so hopefully the new edition meets a better reception come October when it’ll release on Steam.
While the trailer is certainly bracing and stylish, it kinda undersells how crude—or let’s just say stupid—Shadows of the Damned can be on a moment-to-moment basis. It straddles the line between deliberately and inadvertently dumb, and while the art style, the mood, and the overall presentation are great-verging-brilliant, it’s definitely not a good shooter if that’s what you’re looking for.
It’s nice to see the game re-emerge, even though it wasn’t quite what Mikami and Suda51 had in mind when setting out. Mikami later bemoaned EA’s negative influence on the development of the game, while also noting that if they had stuck to Suda51’s initial vision it probably would have sold even worse.
The new version of Shadows of the Damned features unspecified “new content”, New Game Plus, some new costumes, and releases October 31. In related news, the Lollipop Chainsaw remaster is still on the way.