3. The Vision Of Hell
Shadows of the Damned's vision of Hell is almost as unique as its gameplay is tried, tested, and old. Where it does nothing new, or particularly good, on the handling side of things, Grasshopper Manufacture really step it up a notch when it comes to showing us exactly how they imagine the dark side as looking. Dark side is, in fact, a pretty good link as light and shadow play a pig part in how the other world looks. Demons cast in shadow are invincible until you light them up with a flare or what have you, and if the shadows finally manage to catch up with you they'll swallow you whole, and thus ending the journey of Garcia Hotspur. Elsewhere, the various stages of Hell are a mash-up of old architecture, steam-punk, manga-esque factories, crumbling cathedrals, and each area is run through not just with rust and decay, but a pulsing worm of organic awfulness that makes it its mission to be as repugnant as t can. Eyeballs glisten bulbously from walls, doors are decorated with the faces of wailing babies, and unsexy nudity is splashed about the place as though it's white on a painter's radio. It's unpleasant, offensive, dirty, and mean... and exactly how you'd expect Hell to be. But it doesn't stop there. Enemies are mostly inventively disgusting, though the familiar grunts that you have to wade through by the hundred are just your typical zombie-looking cannon fodder. Bosses, however, come into their own and though some of them are absolutely atrocious to fight, they all look the part. Ranging from skyscraper-sized, stone colossi, to a demon horseman that attacks you on a flaming you guessed it horse, and hitting beats such as evil punk rocker, a body multiplying banshee, and a chainsaw handed, pig-headed butcher in between, they all look suitably disgusting and evil. And that's not even to mention the times when you have to fight mutilated versions of the girlfriend you're trying to save...