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360 Metacritic Scores 78% as of 06/21/11.

PS3 Metacritic Scores 80% as of 06/21/11.

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Reviews:

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"The first review for the hotly anticipated survival horror game from the makers of Resident Evil and No More Heroes has surfaced. The first review came from the popular Games Master magazine which gave the game an excellent score of 90% saying the game is 'Nothing short of a revelation.' "

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Player UK reviewed Shadows of the Damned on a recent episode:

+Incredible quirky atmosphere
+Very funny humor
+Solid story, with a very nice pace (never gets to tedious, always keeps you on the edge)
+Loved Yamaoka music, gave them flashbacks of there Silent Hill days


+Great combat, awesome enemy designs, solid difficulty

-On the shorter side (dissapointed that it only took them 11 hours to finish)
-Nothing to do after your finished


They ended the review saying: It's defintly a title you want to experience solely to witness Suda 51's veering charm, and to listen to the sweet slaying of Yamaoka guitar.

Score: 8/10

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Game Informer:

Shadows of the Damned is not shy about its inspirations. Early in the game protagonist Garcia Hotspur proclaims that he and his traveling skull companion Johnson are making “our very own road movie.” Like the grindhouse films that it pays homage to, Shadows of the Damned is vulgar, violent, over-the-top, and way more fun than it should be. This is Resident Evil 4 rewritten by a 12-year-old obsessed with d--- jokes. As it turns out, that’s a good thing.

In the opening moments of Shadows of the Damned, Garcia’s apartment is invaded by demonic forces that drag away his girlfriend, Paula. The tattoo-covered hero swears vengeance and jumps through a portal to Hell. Garcia’s journey takes him through multiple colorful regions of the underworld, from a Mexican marketplace to a racy red light district.

Throughout the eight-hour adventure, Garcia and his buddy trade boneheaded one-liners that would have had me groaning if they weren’t presented with such straight-faced glee. Despite being the hero, Garcia is a dimwit who chuckles at his own horrible jokes and stumbles into enemy traps constantly. Plenty of games with dumb writing use self-awareness as an excuse, but Shadows of the Damned isn’t just aware of its stupidity, it embraces immaturity with an abandon that I can’t help but respect. It doesn’t seem like Grasshopper considered any situation too outrageous or any line of dialogue too goofy to include.

Grasshopper Manufacture scored a major victory by getting help from Resident Evil mastermind Shinji Mikami. Unlike previous Suda51-developed games, polished, rarely frustrating gameplay backs up the off-the-wall insanity. Mikami’s classic, over-the-shoulder third-person shooter style is present, but now you can move at the same time. Whether you’re fighting a giant Frankenstein creature with a huge spotlight on its head or a tiny demon wearing spike-covered armor that rolls toward you as a ball, Garcia has enough grace and speed to survive any situation.

Despite his bravado, this demon hunter doesn’t spend all his time shooting up the legions of Hell. Each level contains a handful of interesting puzzles, most of which involve manipulating light and dark. If a room is enveloped in shadow, Garcia’s health will slowly drain until he leaves that region or fills the room with light by shooting a goat head. Other brain-teasers involve moving platforms around a room to form paths and hunting down keys in the form of brains that you feed to demon babies. It only takes a couple of minutes to solve these problems, but enough of them are spread throughout the game to provide a change of pace when you tire of shooting.

Both the puzzles and the combat are aided by an ever-growing arsenal of new weapons and tools. For example, halfway through the game, Garcia receives the ability to place light mines with his pistol. In combat, he can stick mines on an enemy and then shoot them for an explosion that damages both the unlucky demon and any surrounding baddies. In exploration, the mines can be detonated on certain walls and rocks to discover hidden areas. Each upgrade provides similarly inventive new approaches to combat and tactics for dealing with the oversized boss encounters.

The only major flaws in Shadows of the Damned come in a few frustrating late-game scenarios where you’re put in arena fights against an absurd number of opponents, and a handful of chase sequences where Garcia is instantly killed if caught by a pursuer. I was also saddened to discover that there’s no new game-plus option. Given the huge number of upgrades, I wanted to restart the game as a powered-up *** on a higher difficulty.

Shadows of the Damned is unapologetically adolescent, but instead of trying to be cutely ironic and wink at players, the humor comes off as genuine, playful, and fun. Even if you don’t find the idea of a sniper rifle called “the Big Boner” funny, you should still enjoy the solidly designed shooting and bit of thought required to play the game. Grasshopper has finally come into its own, and I hope it carries this momentum (and Mikami) forward to whatever project is next.

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Official Xbox Magazine:

"Shadows' combat, on the other hand, is a fluid and darkly beautiful display of vivid carnage. Switching between weapons could be more responsive, and you'll take damage every great now and then because the camera decided something riveting was happening on the ceiling. But everything else about blasting a gruesome collection of emaciated minions just feels right. Smooth thumbstick targeting, 180-degree spins, and the ability to elbow anyone behind you in the kisser make you feel like a complete badass even when you're surrounded and near death.

You get only three weapons - the Boner pistol, a shotgun, and a machinegun that shoots teeth - but a steady stream of nutty upgrades keeps each feeling brand-new. Tag armored opponents with explosive balls of sticky goop, fill the air with locked-on bullets from a hilariously nonsensical bouquet of gun barrels, and reduce anyone who gets in your face to crimson mush. You'll find and purchase dozens of red upgrade gems on your journey, too, and use them to increase damage, boost ammo capacity, and reduce reload speed.

Hell is more than just some glorified shooting gallery, though. True to its title, Shadows' masterstroke is its use of darkness as a hostile living substance. This suffocating ether slows you to a crawl, while granting enemies a glistening armored coating that only special "light shots" can banish. Instead of merely swiveling between targets, you'll have to light and defend lamps fashioned from ever-chewing goat heads, partner with creeping bioluminescent slugs, and exploit the temporary safety of fireworks stations. It's not just a matter of keeping fires lit, either, because some targets are vulnerable only when you're enveloped in darkness.

As tense and exciting as the more crowded encounters are, the real high points of Shadows of the Damned belong to the bosses. They're not the most challenging contenders, and popping glowing weak spots doesn't exactly scream innovation. But figuring out how to tear a horse-headed behemoth, a foul-mouthed phoenix, and even Death himself to pieces is great fun, and plentiful checkpoints minimize frustration and repetition.

Shadows of the Damned saddles itself with too much fetch-the-widget downtime to be the wholly unpredictable thrill-ride it aspires to be, but it is stuffed full of boisterous personality and pulse-pounding bloodshed. With any luck, this is just the beginning of Garcia Hotspur's legend."

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Shadows of the Damned isn’t for the fainthearted, nor is it for those who are after serious titles. In fact, if you approach it with a survival horror mindset you’ll actually find yourself confused. Anyone else will love it. Its freshness shows just how stale a lot of the industry is and it’s what’s needed in an era of grey, modern shooters. Go buy it now. -- Strategy Informer 93% Review.

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If there seems to be a lot of criticism in this review, it's simply because ripping off RE4 and putting it in a different wrapper feels like an average game decision versus something a little more substantial -- and to be fair it doesn't even rip off the source material that well. RE4 worked well because of variety and pacing. By contrast, Shadows of the Damned plods along on easy mode for most of the "normal" campaign; it then transitions to really hard through one-hit minibosses before dialing back the difficulty. Creative story, presentation, and wonderful music provide the saving grace in doses, but almost all of your gameplay encounters can be summed up as average at best. The last weapon upgrade especially makes the final set of encounters a virtual cakewalk. While I have nothing against toilet style humor and style, but they do little to hide the game's lack of substance. 1Up.Com's C+ Review. (No Money Hat for You!)

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For the most part, however, Shadows of the Damned remains a campy, silly and over-the-top adventure. It's certainly pleasing to annihilate demon hordes, but the real drive of Garcia's "road movie" is to see what weird and wonderful thing pops up next, be it a friendly demon with a southern drawl or an unexpected series of 2D shoot-em-up levels. In the end, it's worth taking the trip to Hell. Just don't bring the kids, okay? Joystiq's 4 out of 5 Star Review.

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*Only REAL Men with Large Johnsons Need Apply!*

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Coming out next week in the U.S. but elsewhere I have NO idea!

I'll look it up!

New Developer Diary:

No idea! You would think a game co-developed by one of the developers of one of the most critically acclaimed games of the last 10 years (Resident Evil 4) would warrant a little more attention and advertising dollars!

Suda's name on it kinda worried me actually. He has great ideas, but his games tend to be a bit... buggy and un-polished. Suda's ideas + Mikami's gameplay style and polish = Win!

phantom_leo said:

Suda's name on it kinda worried me actually. He has great ideas, but his games tend to be a bit... buggy and un-polished. Suda's ideas + Mikami's gameplay style and polish = Win!

Hopefully you are right, I just can't help thinking it looks extremely generic.  Coming off of the two No More Heroes games I would prefer something more unconventional or ... out of leftfield even if it were a bit un-polished