QCF: Serious Sam Double D

 

Serious Sam lives in a very bizarre universe. Headless enemies with bombs for hands and time traveling is just another day for Sam "Serious" Stone. It would be nearly impossible to create a more insane story or concept.  As the latest offering in the Serious Sam series nears, Mommy's Best Game has made a tribute to the franchise that may even surprise the most hardcore Serious Sam fan. The indie darling that has developed such games as Shoot 1up and Weapon of Choice are a part of the Serious Sam Indie Series, and their contribution, Serious Sam: Double D is their latest release. Although the title may not seem like much to most Serious Sam faithful, it is the best work that MBG has released so far, and truly shines amongst other indie-developed games. The game, like Serious Sam himself may be rough around the edges, but is able to really deliver when it needs to.

Let’s just be honest up front: There is nothing serious about Serious Sam Double D. This is a game where you can stack multiple guns on top of one another, to vaporize and exterminate pancakes with vuvuzelas and monkeys with jet packs. The actual storyline of the game makes even less sense than the enemies and weapons. An alien look-alike of Donald Rumsfield has taken some of Sam’s most notorious enemies and a few new villains and is now sending them through time to eliminate Sam once and for all. The conversations can be humorous at times, but really does not add much to the experience at all. The game is really only meant to accomplish one goal: Go forward and shoot anything in the way. There are some puzzle elements and platforming throughout the game, and does add a sense of exploration to the constant shooting and running. Some of the best moments of the game came from trying to find secret paths and holes in the wall that would lead to great power ups and secret areas.

The platforming in the game will be simple at first, however later in the game two great additions make the jumping and climbing more enjoyable. As you mow down enemies, the bodies will begin to pile up, and will create a makeshift hill that Sam can climb to reach higher levels. Timing your shots to create a staircase of corpses was a very pleasant surprise, and would lead to more secret areas and higher plateaus. The other great tool, besides the Gun Stacker was the Jump Pad, which once placed will allow Sam to jump to higher spots. The other use of the Jump Pad, which was accidentally discovered was launching enemies in the air to destroy or eliminate from the action all together. Using the pad on the sides of walls would also be a way to bounce up to undiscovered areas and find more secret power ups. All of these elements made the experience more diverse and led to some great moments.

The combat is pretty straight forward initially, but as the enemies begin to multiply and become much larger in size, some strategy is required to progress. If Sam’s Gun Stacker has all explosives and rocket launchers, up close shooting is dangerous since the blast can also hurt Sam as well. However when facing a screen-filling boss such as a mechanized giant gorilla with a saw blade for a hand, using only shotguns and machine guns will not be enough fire power to topple the giant. Finding connectors for the Gun Stacker and creating the right load out for the various enemies will be essential to taking out the multiple creatures that will spawn from all sides of the screen. This was painfully obvious when the final battle occurred, which by far was the toughest experience in any game in recent memory. The review itself should have been completed days ago, but the last boss fight was so challenging, it’s surprising that their is still a working keyboard that can actually type out the text. It truly was a tough encounter, but very satisfying when completed.

For a game that was developed to promote the newest release in the Serious Sam series, Serious Sam Double D stands on it’s own merits and should be considered not only as a indie release that honors Serious Sam, but as a full fledged game in the series. Mommy’s Best Games has taken the fun and fast paced action of a Metal Slug or Contra, mixed with Serious Sam’s monstrous enemies and firepower and their own brand of humor and craziness to create a title that many will thoroughly enjoy. Hopefully we will see more PC titles created by the developer in the near future, it truly is the best game they have released yet.