Shadows of the Damned: A New Vision of Hell Hits PS3 Today

38 4
Shadows of the Damned: A New Vision of Hell Hits PS3 Today

Shadows of the Damned for PS3

In my 20 years in the industry, I have never had an experience like the one working on Shadows of the Damned. First off, I spent the majority of last year living in Japan and onsite with the developer; Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture. It was a great experience living in Tokyo and working alongside the great team at Grasshopper Manufacture.

The concept of light and dark as a metaphor for good and evil is an old one, but the Light and Dark gameplay in Shadows of the Damned takes it to a whole new level. It is less literal, but rather metaphorical, in the pain and torment that is caused to our hero. As for gameplay, the player should not take the approach of “shoot anything that moves”. Each environment and enemy will require a thoughtful approach in order to progress. Usually, darkness is lethal to the player, but sometimes may be required in order to expose an enemy’s weakness. Each situation is different and the player must build upon the earlier concepts encountered in order to defeat the tougher enemies deeper in the game. Shadows of the Damned is the thinking man’s shooter.

Shadows of the Damned for PS3Shadows of the Damned for PS3

With regards to the story, our hero must find the love of his life, Paula, who has been taken from him by the lord of demons in retribution for killing his minions. Garcia Hotspur is a demon hunter by trade, but must now travel through Hell in search of his beloved, the most important thing in his life.

In the traditional view of Hell, sinners suffer punishment in body and soul for eternity resulting in everlasting punishment for the damned. Conversely, Suda51’s metaphorically twisted vision is Hell is a place where suffering is more mental than physical. It is a place where our hero must endure his trials of torment and can one day leave if deemed worthy. Suda’s version of Hell envisions the player passing through several tests and in doing so, purges and refines our hero, so that someday, when he finds his true love and defeats the lord of demons, he will be allowed to return from hell. If he fails, it will consume them permanently.

Shadows of the Damned for PS3

There are many interesting aspects in Shadows of the Damned, and we are really excited for the game to launch so our PS3 gans can enjoy it as much as we did making it. Until then, enjoy some of these PlayStation exclusive screenshots from the game!

Comments are closed.

38 Comments

4 Author Replies

  • My pre-order copy just arrived, now to get home and play it! Very excited!

  • I was a big fan of No More Heroes and Residejt Evil 4 so I’ll probably pick this up next week. Very interested to see how it is received.

  • Would we have a demo? :-) Or a trial for PSN+? :-) I love the concept of this game!

  • Looks pretty cool but will probably buy it after a price drop.

  • I can’t wait to play this tomorrow. Seems like this is going to be a sleeper hit.

  • Suda and Mikami, was there really any doubt? had this game since thursday for $30 and had a blast! sucks that theres alot of popping in the graphics but its bearable. trophies are pretty easy. boss battles are the best you never know what will come up next. kinda had difficulty with the controls at first but now got used to it. excellent game hands down!

  • I’ll pick it up soon

  • Unfortunately no demo was planned.

  • @6 is your avatar null from portable ops? if so im hating on you lol

  • So many good games came out from EA this year! My wallet is so empty…..

  • How about some move sharpshooter support……..ever since killzone 3 came out with such awesome move controls I don’t want to play any shooter without it.

  • why no game trials for new games and just old games? And why are there not very many digital PS3 game downloads! 360 has a lot of them?

  • No demo. That’s unfortunate; Suda51 is rather hit or miss for me. Din’t like Killer7, loved No More Heroes. I really do need to try this prior to making a choice. Which means I’ll have to rent it.

  • This post is worthless without a gameplay video.

  • I heard that the “thinking man” part boils down to “shoot the part that’s red” but I might get this with a price drop, no demo and no New Game + plays a pretty big part in that

  • No Move support?

  • Sorry – there is no Move support. :(

    You can watch the Launch trailer from this link:
    http://www.ea.com/shadows-of-the-damned/videos/launch

    Example Boss Battle trailer located here:
    http://www.ea.com/shadows-of-the-damned/videos/birdboss

    Enlarge your Johnson weapon trailer here:
    http://www.ea.com/shadows-of-the-damned/videos/enlargeyourjohnson

  • wow this looks great :)

  • Would love to see a video gameplay or demo!

  • This game has been on my radar for a while now. Definitely picking it up as soon as I can.

  • Shooter with no move support = no buy.
    Sorry but killzone 3 spoiled me and I think its weak for any dev to not support it on a shooter title these days but I do have to say I will purchase Uncharted 3 but for 1 reason only and that reason is because……well its Uncharted 3 so nuff said.

  • @steve

    ok i watched the trailers in your link, thanks.

    What did i think? well, it seems like a decent looking second tier game that i’d play if there weren’t so many top tier PS3 exclusives coming out.

    …You guys at EA should think about exclusive PS3 development for a franchise or two. Middle of the road multiplats tend to look all the same to me. Performance limitations imposed by the inferor technical specifcations of the ‘other console’?

    Probably.

  • @DarkRecoil

    Get over yourself dude. You just sound like a damn tool.

  • what’s that word after ps3 and before can last paragraph first sentence is it so post to be guys or something else please fix. overall good article and the game looks amazing thanks for the awesome work.

  • @darkrecoil

    Exclusive platform development has always been a tough sell both internally and externally with our partners. From both of those perspectives, each want the max return on investment. This is not a revelation – we’ve all heard this before. I recognize there are exceptions to the rule. Both platforms have had great examples of successful exclusive releases.

  • Shadows of the Damned is getting great reviews so far.

    There is a live chat with the producer tonight at 7PM EST at this address: bit.ly/jO4Spj

    If your on the fence about this game (and rightfully so, there has been very little hype) check out the reviews going up at different sites. Granted this won’t be everyone’s “cup of tea” but any game made by Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami at least deserves a look.

  • Het Steve,

    Demons are Buttholes. Love it so far.

  • @ 24

    It’s fans dummy. You’re not the editor of this blog. Go play in the street.

  • @steve

    Well i guess you’re right from a profit/shareholder view. …..but as a gamer, i think i have the right to think solely about buying the best performing software for my spesififc piece of entertainment hardware, which is normally content that is developed from the ground to up to display the best features and performance of my PS3.

    Not to say that all multi games are bad, your own Dead Space is a great example of a multi which can go up against some of the best exclusive content. I just think that with so much content coming out, its going to be increasingly easy for the consumer to find reasons to NOT purchase your game if it does nothing to distinguish itself from the crowd. Exclusivity does this by being the best technological display on any given platform at any given time, and also sends out a positive message to buyers about your commitment to their platform of choice.

    ….even former ps3 hater, Gabe Newall of Valve has realized this with the exclusive package he put together for Portal 2 on PS3. (of course he could of gone further and made the whole game exclusive, but i guess you cant have everything lol).

  • @marlyt

    Johnson doesn’t like to swear. :)

  • @Steve Matulac

    I am seriously looking forward to this game. Also, thank you for your time here. I really like it when publishers and devs take some time to share thoughts and and answer questions with/of their customers. Thanks.

  • iv been waiting for this game for a good long time. IM getting it tommrow. I CANT FREAKING WAIT!!!!

  • woot!!! johnson rap for the win hahahahaha!!!

  • I remember seeing something about this game not too long ago and thinking it was coming out next year. Maybe if PSN hadn’t been down for a month the blog would have had more coverage and this wouldn’t have snuck up on me. It looks good to me, a little Bayonetta graphically, a little Brutal Legend sense of humor. Think I’ll wait though as the lack of awareness makes me think this will go the way of Enslaved and be $15 by summers end. My pile of unplayed games is about a year long and I’ld like to finish WKC before the sequel comes out.

  • This game came out of nowhere. To all gamers everywhere. I work in retail in a rather large store for its chain, and when we normally get 8 copies for a smaller game, to sometimes closer to 20-50 or even more for the larger games we got 3 copies of this game for Xbox 360, and 2 for PS3. I am usually in the know on just about anything coming out to do with videogames, but this one came out of nowhere. If you liked No More Heroes, any other Suda 51 games or are just looking for something fresh, and new. PICK THIS UP! It is looking like this is going to be the lesser known hit of the year, and I think supples are limited basically everywhere, because again we got two copies of this in my store when we usually get at least 8 copies of the game. Though not many reviews have come in everything is positive so far, and having played it myself I have to say it really is quite amazing.

    Great Job Suda 51, and EA in making a truly original creative game that is sure to be an indie hit!

  • @Smokeadelic though I am not going to go so far as you will never see sharpshooter support, in an EA or Activision title I will go so far as to say it is highly unlikely. A game has to be built from the ground up to support the Sharpshooter peripheral, and when the game in question is multiplatformer as is 95% of EA, and Activision games it isn’t going to happen unfortunately. Don’t let that discourage you from playing what seems like a pretty cool game though. Playstation Move is more or less Sony just saying hmm what doesn’t our system do that our competitors does? Then they do it better. The move compatible games if properly developed, and given a decent amount of time to implement are going to be the hits with the move. LBP2 will (hopefully soon) come out with an add on that allows you to make games supporting the Move. When that happens you will have quite a few uses for move but currently it is the in House sharpshooter supported games, Sports Champions, and a handful of other titles. A lot of cool downloadable titles support it as well check around for demos you will find a decent selection of stuff.

  • Really love a demo, this is a game id buy regardless, the demo will hold me over till i can get the funds.

  • It’s too bad that I’m on vacation, now that this game came out. But I’ve got it on pre-order, so I should be able to play it when I get back. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time coming, and it looks AWESOME. Can’t wait!

  • Your “ps3 gans” eh?

    Put this on the network for 20 bucks and i’ll consider it.

  • Looks like a really great game and I will try to pick it up soon … can I ask one question though ?? WHY oh WHY has none of these game designers made a game just like Diablo on PS1 ? I wish someone would release a game like it on the PS3 console … it just doesn’t get any better … well perhaps a few more weapons/armor/rings available and maybe up to like 4 players online compatible … but c’mon I have spent countlesss hours playing that game over and over and over and I still pop it in sometimes …. its simplicity is what made it so good … nowadays everyone is wanting all of these special “main enemy” challenges and all of these crazy gadgets and combos … I mean this is a prime example of where you get more for less … Why didn’t diablo 2 get released on anything but PC????? …. so unfair …. anyways keep that in mind and if u ever do make a game like that thats hack n slash from start to finish … PLEASE someone let me know … good luck with this release it looks great!!

  • Seems pretty close to dead space/res evil4 if you ask me
    might check it out

  • I love the look of the game but the lack of a new game + feature definitely curbed my enthusiasm. In Resident Evil 4 it was a lot of fun to replay the game building up money for special weapons that were only available after the first playthrough. That kind of replay value is vital in a game as short as these tend to be and I have heard this one is no exception. Still might pick it up some time down the road but not at full retail price.

Please enter your date of birth.

Date of birth fields