Shadows of the Damned
In a nutshell, yeah, it would be fair to call this No More Heroes with guns. The full story is a little more complicated; but this is very much a modern Goichi Suda game. (And that's pretty great.)
Just as NMH and its sequel built up Travis Touchdown into a crazy badass/nerd superhero, SotD characterizes its protagonist, Garcia "Fucking" Hotspur, as an unstoppable demon hunter with a flippant attitude and a less-than-100% grasp of the English language. He is ruthless when it comes to killing demons, and so when his girlfriend Paula is kidnapped by an evil lord of the underworld named Fleming, it's only natural for him to go on something of a spree.
Garcia is an expert gunslinger, although his technique is a little messy. His weapons - a pistol (the "Boner"), a shotgun, and a machine gun - have an RE4-style laser sight, but he can strafe, too, which is pretty nice. Low-level enemies move erratically, and their heads bob and weave a lot, which makes headshots somewhat difficult; but in general the shooting isn't hard. Different enemies have different weaknesses and techniques, and as long as you use the right weapon for the right job, and don't expect to be incredibly accurate, it's rarely very frustrating.
Darkness is a central mechanic: if Garcia stays in darkness for more than a few seconds, he'll start to lose health (think Metroid Prime 2), and enemies in darkness can't be defeated. You'll use various methods, mostly centered around an alt-fire ability called the Light Shot, to fight enemies in the light instead. But enemies which have come out of the darkness are still coated in it, so you have to Light Shot them before they can be defeated. Additionally, some puzzles and encounters include targets that only appear in the darkness, so you'll have to carefully manage the time you spend in it.
The light/dark mechanic is a neat gimmick, but it's also an extremely effective graphical mechanic. Not all of SotD's visuals are of the highest caliber, but the glowing and darkness effects are really quite impressive. Similar to Zelda: Wind Waker's cel-shaded style, the light and dark in this game really help sell the atmosphere.
Damned's voice work is fantastic, and I would easily classify it as among the best in the industry, despite its fairly small cast. Secondary roles - Fleming, and the half-demon Christopher who acts as an item shop - have great actors who really bring out their eccentric personalities. And the performances for Garcia and his gun/partner Johnson really outdo themselves. You won't be able to ignore the fact that Garcia is voiced by that guy who does all the voices everywhere, but his not-entirely-convincing hispanic accent is pretty funny, and a scene where he struggles to read some English text is easily one of the best-acted scenes in any game.
The music, too, is very well done -- the downloadable soundtrack that came with my pre-order didn't impress me very much, but when it's in the context of a corpse- and darkness-filled demon underworld, and when it's emphasized by creaks, groans, and screams, the eerie, unsettling background music completely engrosses me. Even when the slightly repetitive scenery doesn't.
SotD has solidly competent gameplay, and shows absolutely no signs of Suda losing his creative insanity. It's not without occasional annoyances - like the level I'm in now, where I must flee from one enemy while engaging others - but its playability and attitude are doing a more than adequate job of keeping me interested.
As an aside: EA was not super-helpful with my busted-disc problem. They have a warranty/return policy, but it includes a $20 replacement fee. What! Deciding that this was absurd, I tried Amazon's customer support, and they mailed a replacement copy out straight away and helped me send the old one back -- free of charge. It would be dishonest of me to say that this makes me a more loyal Amazon customer - I already buy pretty much everything from them - but as for EA, I doubt I'll be purchasing a new physical product of theirs anytime soon.
Progress: Chapter 3