Serious Sam: Double D (PC) Review
A BrutalGamer review.
When you think of well stacked, misogynistic, foul mouthed game characters you’re more likely to think of Duke Nukem than you are Sam Stone (aka Serious Sam).
Croteam’s mascot character has been around since March 2001 and made a reasonably big splash on the PC at time of release. Flash forward 6 or 7 years and 90% of gamers could not have pointed Sam Stone out of a line-up as Croteam seemed to disappear. This is despite an attempted relaunch in 2005 using Serious Sam 2.
In 2009 Croteam introduced the world to Serious Sam once again with the updated HD remakes. Once again Sam was placed back on the map – this time as a reminder of “the good old days” of shooters. A time of GIBS and throwing as many enemies as possible at you in an arcade fashion.
Bolstered by this new found interest Croteam are now producing Serious Sam 3 for Devolver Digital to hit multiple formats later this year. They also announced something call Serious Sam Indie. A scheme where by small indie teams get to take a pop at creating their own interpretation of the Serious Sam universe. This is where Serious Sam: Double D comes in with indie developer Mommy’s Best Games (aka MBG) taking the reins for this outing.
Here we see Sam involved in the usual time travelling crazy that he has so many times before. Using the patented Time-Lock travel device he must go through time destroying the enemies of the past to save humanities future. Or, to make it more attractive – run around blowing the shat out of everything with many, many guns.
MBG have taken a side scroll approach to the title and made it look a little like a polished up version of a PC shareware title from the 90’s – something like Commander Keen or Jazz Jackrabbit. This is no bad thing though as it makes the game have a more cartoon-like feel to it. In fact it reminded me of a cartoon inspired Abuse.
The game plays very much like a Contra or a Metal Slug with you using the mouse or right analogue stick to rotate your weapons around you in a 360 degree motion. You then make your way across the level blowing, what can only be described as, the mother loving crap out of anything that twitches.
There is no real depth or complexity to the game play on offer here. In fact the 18 levels will not probably take you more than a few hours to plough through and there is very little to make you return other than some challenges that are unlocked via the single player story game.
Control is a slight issue with the game. If you rock the keyboard alone then you will be using the traditional WASD to move about and the mouse to do the aiming. I found this functional but maybe a little clunky on the odd occasion. Throw in an Xbox 360 controller and things get a whole lot smoother and I tore through most of the game like this.
The biggest tool that Serious Sam: Double D has at it’s disposal is the wonderfully absurd weapon stacking system. As you discover more weapons you also find linking arms that allow you to literally stack up to six weapons. This means you can make some crazy combinations – my favourite for most of the game was Machine Pistol, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher and Chainsaw – all in use at once in a stack of enemy mushing awesomeness.
Serious Sam: Double D could maybe have done with a little more to do and a little more engagement but there is no denying it is good fun while it lasts. The game does feel a little soulless as you plough through it and sometimes you realise you have just been going through the motions. In this way perhaps it is a good thing the game is over frailly rapidly – it manages to end just as the monotony swamps you.
Finally Thoughts
Serious Sam: Double D is a great little time waster. For the price you get a few hours of pure crazy entertainment that gives you a taste of the Serious Sam universe. Some of the humour is spot on but it misses more than it hits.
Overall I would recommend you check this out for the money. Plenty of mayhem, blood, guts, wobbly bits and female Kamikaze bombers with their bombs held in just the right place to make you smirk like a 10 year old.
As a fan of Serious Sam I enjoyed it for what it was. People less familiar with the Same Stone character might find it a little off-colour at times but there is no denying that a stack of weapons, all used at once can never be anything but good fun!
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Zeth is our EU Senior Editor and has been writing about video games since he joined BG back in 2008. He's pretty old and has been a gamer since he played Space Invaders as a young boy in the 80's. His genre tastes lean towards platformers, point-and-click adventure, action-adventure and shooters but he'll turn his hand to anything.
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