Shadow of the Damned Hella Remastered Review (PC)
Summary: Shadow of the Damned: Hella Remastered keeps the original’s charm but fails as a proper PC remaster due to minimal effort and outdated design.
3.1
A Lazy Port
There’s a begrudgingly charming quality to Shadow of the Damned. It’s strange, it’s loud, and it’s not overly concerned with subtlety. Released back in 2011, this grindhouse fever fantasy was the frenzied offspring of Suda51, Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka: a team that combined punk-rock attitude, Resident Evil-style shooting and horror, and surreal narrative in a single package. When Hella Remastered was announced, fans (myself included) dreamed of a reboot that could do the original justice. Sadly, though the underlying experience continues to shine through, this PC version of the game plays more like a cursory port rather than a genuine remaster.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first: this is a terrible port. As soon as the game boots up, it’s obvious that not a lot of effort was put into making the experience feel native to the PC. One of the first things that struck me, and not in a positive manner, was the dated save warning that actually informs you, “Don’t turn off your console.” That’s correct, console. Not your PC. That small misstep might appear hilarious at first, but it’s telling of the effort (or rather, the lack of effort) that went into porting this title to PC players.
Things don’t get any better when you attempt to modify the graphics. In a time when even lowly indie games include resolution options and visual customization, Hella Remastered doesn’t even try. No resolution settings exist. No graphics options at all. No toggles for shadows, anti-aliasing, or even a simple windowed mode. It’s as minimal as it possibly could be. For a 2025 re-release, that’s rather unacceptable. You’d think a “remaster” would at least let you control the look and feel of the game on your computer.
This limited visual choice also impacts how you play the game. I wanted to play the game on my television by plugging in my laptop, but since the resolution settings couldn’t be altered, the image didn’t scale correctly. So rather than having that cinematic full-screen viewing experience that I wanted, I had to play it on the screen of my smaller laptop. This is just one illustration of how restricted the port is, not at all considering real-world PC setups or playstyles.
Now, having said all of that, there is a silver lining. At its center, Shadow of the Damned’s, Suda51 flair, the completely over-the-top style, the juvenile humor and rapid-fire shooting, none of that’s gotten a day older. It’s still bizarrely charming. Even a dozen-plus years on, shooting through levels filled with devils as Garcia Hotspur and your demon-gun-turned-talking-skull sidekick Johnson remains refreshingly new. It’s embracing absurdity and camp in the best possible ways, with more-sexed-up metaphors, immature jokes, and plenty of grotesque visuals to put a smile on any horror buff’s face. If you haven’t played it previously, this title can still provide a fun and highly uncensored ride.
And that’s why the letdown hurts so bad. Because this title deserved better. It deserved the visuals of a modern touch, the optimization it deserved, and perhaps some bonus content or even developer insight in there too. What we received instead, though, is a straight console port with a slight facelift. Sure, a couple of textures look a bit tidier, and the brightness levels have had a faint tweak, but it’s not something you’ll really notice unless you compare it directly side-by-side with the original. Lumping this as a “remaster” is a reach; it’s more a repackaged edition of the original with not a lot of polish added on top.
Frustrating, though, under the technical sloppiness, Shadow of the Damned retains a robust heartbeat. Its combat is taut, its levels imaginatively designed, and its music remains a straight-up banger. Akira Yamaoka’s creepy, eclectic soundtracks bring every fight, from spooky hallways to battles against bosses that are half fight, half fever dream, to life. And when Suda51 is let loose, the outcome is usually so wildly bizarre it turns back in on itself and is brilliant.
If you’re a returning fan, this port will likely satisfy the itch of nostalgia. But if you’re new to the series and had hoped to play a remastered product, you’ll likely feel let down, particularly if you’re a PC player. Without quality-of-life changes, no options to customize, and the same console UI errors, Hella Remastered winds up a missed chance.
So the upshot is: Shadow of the Damned: Hella Remastered is worth playing just for the experience, but buckle up and get ready to fight a clunky, half-hearted port that doesn’t even do a great deal to upgrade or polish a cult favorite in any meaningful way. Suda51’s house style is as crazy and zesty as ever, but the remaster? Hardly. Maybe next time, give this devil-killing punk opera the PC treatment it deserves, warts and all.
About the Author
S. Masoud Kazemi An admirer of art that doesn't stop talking about films and games.
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