Review – Serious Sam Double D 0
Serious Sam is an FPS franchise that has been quite fun over the years. It takes an old-school approach and makes it as wacky as possible. Enemies just teleport in to slay, but Sam usually packs a large arsenal of rocket launchers and mini-guns to lay waste. Serious Sam: Double D is the first of three indie Serious Same games to be released around the launch of the third Serious Sam FPS.
Double D is a side-scroller shoot-em-up, using the right analog stick (or mouse) as the aiming mechanism. It’s pretty much how you would play an FPS as a side-scroller. You collect weapons which allow you to stack them on top of each other for simultaneous firepower. I hope that made sense – you literally stack a weapon on another. This game lets you do that. The game encompasses a series of stages in various locales which include boss fights and old school-style secret areas.
Enough of the basic description – this game is wacky. Not only is there forgettable but smirkable dialog full of innuendos between Sam and a Cortana like ‘helper’, but you will fight dinosaurs outfitted with robotics who in turn fight other dinosaurs. Chimputees, chimpanzees amputated and outfitted with guns, shooting exploding bananas, a giant pink mech with a purse that shoots kisses at you, and lava monsters on pogo sticks. This game really has everything. I was able to use the 360 gamepad flawlessly, and the controls were tight, which was necessary for secrets that require Sam’s jump-pad to scale walls.
And that everything equals fun. It’s your standard side-scrolling shoot-em-up, but enough strategy is required as to not die. Running in guns blazing will not work, though you are doing that most of the time. But that’s all there is to it, and it’s enough. Any old-school gamer will appreciate this, and I’m sure the newer generation would also have fun.
The visuals consist of hand-drawn graphics which do look cheap, but work well for the game. I’m not sure if these style of graphics would ever be accepted for a mainstream, full-priced game. There’s something about the style that looks cheap. But if it means banging out a fun game quickly, I’m all for it.
Serious Sam: Double D is totally worth the purchase. I grabbed it on Steam for under $10. It’s supposed to be released on XBLA at a later date, and I would be willing to buy it again and play through for achievements. Yes, that’s sad.
