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Combat admittedly feels a little clunky at first, and the somewhat awkward aiming reticule makes targeting a challenging affair, but once you compensate for it, its easy enough to start blasting back enemies. Imagine if Resident Evil 5 had allowed you to actually move around, while ducking and rolling out of harms way while shooting back, and you’d have a good idea as to how the game plays already.

While the combat and navigation is a linear, nothing out of the ordinary gameplay mechanic, its the way in which these stages are presented that gives SOD some originality. The balance between light and darkness plays a crucial role here, with Garcia needing to navigate his way through pure darkness, an environmental hazard that will kill if he stays in it too long.

Garcia has enough agility to keep himself from being torn to shreds if used correctly, as he can roll out of harms way quickly enough in any direction, but don’t expect any slow-mo action when he does this. While aiming, players can also do a quick 180 degree spin, something most shooters should include, but few do.

Likewise with the demons, they can wrap themselves in darkness and become invulnerable to conventional attacks, tasking Garcia to activate a light source to rob them of this shroud, or blast them with a shot of pure light from Johnson which can stun them and buy him some time.

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Exploring levels will oftentimes lock you in, resulting in arena moments that will only allow you to progress once enemies have been wiped out, or balance has been restored. Gates that are guarded by the chubby baby-faced demons will only open once you find the right item for them to chew on, while demonic “pubes” that cover gates will require you to step into the darkness and quickly destroy their blood source.

While the light and dark mechanics give the game a nice challenging edge to the action-orientated gameplay, SOD relies a little too much on the mechanic, giving players repetitive puzzles far too often, resulting in a somewhat annoying experience that offers little reward.

Some side-scrolling levels are thrown into the mix, in a haphazard fashion, but the visual design is somewhat cute for such a bolldy game, as players fly around littering the screen with bullets and dead demons, in a style that resembles a cut out collage, if it were made from nightmarish images. Shooting gallery modes are also thrown in during certain levels, where players will use the “Hot Boner” weapon mode to destroy waves of demons.

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As for the difficulty, SOD offers three different modes that provide a decent scaling of challenge between them. Lemon hunter is great for people unfamiliar with the genre, while Demon Hunter will test seasoned players without ever feeling unfair or cheap, while the hardest mode is for those players who tend to play games on the masochistically difficult side.

Hell itself looks thoroughly depressing. From meat markets that are littered with dismembered corpses to wastelands that spew out darkness and bile, its a picteresque and horribly enchanting place. White gem currency and, health restoring wine and tequila and hidden around the levels, but if you miss them the first time, then tough luck, because SOD doesn’t allow backtracking.

Visually, SOD is nothing special. The graphics are competent enough to not be distracting, but they’re not of a level where you immediately notice them, sit back and gasp excitedly . There are a few glitches and bugs that pop up in the game, but this happens occasionally and generally doesn’t kill the experience for a player.

Scoring

Gameplay: 8/10

It may feel clunky and awkward at first, but once you get past these teething problems, SOD packs enough fluid features into its mechanics, giving fans of the genre moves and tactics that work wonderfully.

Design and Presentation: 8/10

While its doesn’t boast visuals on par with Crysis 2, its clearly obvious that some effort was thrown into the design of this game. But the presentation of these levels are done in a manner that is fantastic, with scenes playing out like a high quality action film without a budget and expendable stuntmen. The macabre levels of the underworld are dripping with blood and nightmarish images, while the spicy soundtrack that mixes some fantastic guitar riffs with an energised Mexican soundtrack.

Value: 6/10

Its only around 6-8 hours in length, and there’s no replay+ option, or any form of multiplayer, meaning that a new game is started completely from scratch. Still, if you enjoyed the title and you like challenges, then the optional difficulty modes will put your thumbs to the ultimate test.

Overall: 7.5/10

Its violent, edgy and just showers players with genitalia jokes and bad puns, yet SOD still manages to be a violently fun thrill ride with attitude to spare and a few guilty laughs in between.

Played on Xbox 360, medium difficulty.

Last Updated: June 30, 2011

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Shadows of the Damned
7.5

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