Ah, Shadows Of The Damned… a cautionary tale for makers of games everywhere. If your publisher doesn’t market your game *at all* there could be trouble ahead.
Releasing in the traditionally quiet period of June with no fanfare at all (I don’t recall seeing a single ad anywhere) Shadows Of The Damned is a third person shooter with hints of Resident Evil and a completely deranged plot to boot. Marketed properly it could’ve cleaned up.
But it wasn’t. And it’s sold 120,000 units since release, which is pretty poor. As a comparison Rage, which is (apparently as I’m yet to play it) an average game that has been marketed everywhere, notched up over 600,000 units in A WEEK!
And that’s the best comparison I can think of because Shadows Of The Damned is not a bad game. It’s a few hours too long but is generally fun to play.
You take on the role of Garcia Hotspur – demon hunter – as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Paula from the clutches of a demon in hell.
My main problem was the marmite humour – it’s very much a case of lowest common denominator. While there were a few funny moments the fact that one of his weapons is called ‘The Boner’ says it all really.
The actual story was interesting and eventually asked some great questions – which I’m guessing we’ll now never find out about due to the poor sales of this title.
And that is a sad state of affairs – Shadows Of The Damned might not be the best game I’ve played this year but it was something different and by the time I got to the end I would’ve been tempted to pick up a sequel had one been announced.
Rating: 7/10
