Shadows of the Damned is a sparkling gem, but this gem isn't without its imperfections.
The story is the best part of this title. Every line is ripe with B-movie flare worth a chuckle and the nooks and crannies of the Underworld are littered with storybooks and posters that each serve to entertain perfectly. The story never for a second lets up or falls flat. It's just right. And the sound design is the best that it can be in any game and punctuates every moment of the story and the action absolutely perfectly.
The gameplay variety is also perfect, using a light-dark system that doesn't feel cheap or tacked-on, but well thought out and complicated and every time it's implemented it feels different and refreshing. Also, pace-breakers like a Boner-Turret game, bowling and a side-scrolling paper-cut out portion are all placed right where they should be and are short enough to not overstay their welcome.
Technically, there are hitches and glitches riddling this game from the little to the nearly game-breaking. When a cutscene breaks into the action of the game, there will often be a hitch that never freezes the game, but can certainly last long enough to worry you. There's also plenty of texture pop-in and the animations can be stiff and the mouth movements rarely match the dialogue being spoken, but these are very small issues that aren't intrusive enough to detract from the overall presence of the game.
The real issue lies in a single boss fight. All the other boss fights of the game are smart and challenging, but never too challenging. But this fight against Fleming is glitchy and, at times, downright broken. Sometimes you'll doge a beam just for it to randomly hit you anyway, or the bombs you fire at him will stick in the air, or pass right through him. And, it may even happen that you can't beat him at all, if you don't have the machine gun in the game powered up to its highest level. This is a flaw that may severely hamper your experience with the game.
Although the presentation and the gameplay are powerful and some of the best gaming has to offer, especially the sound design, technical hitches and glitches detract from what could have been the perfect demon-destroying road movie.