Croteam and Devlover Digital continue to ensure that Serious Sam is still blasting away at beheaded kamikazes in the latest side installment of the series in Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour. This is our One Hour Review of Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour. Bogus Detour is a retro styled graphics top down twin stick shooter than can be played with a controller or mouse and keyboard that is currently available on Steam for $14.99 USD. It’s made by Crackshell, the same team that made Hammerwatch.
Bogus Detour boosts a campaign that can be played alone or with up to four other people online. There are various skins to chose from for up to twelve players in versus mode and a twelve player survival mode as well. You can add modifiers to all these various modes like health regen, infinite lives, random perks. Further there is a level editor included with the game and Steam Workshop support.
You can level up during the campaign and collect various secret areas and stars. Stars are fairly important as they are what you use to buy perks. The perks are separated into three different categories; Combat, Survival, and Weaponry. Giving you access to such perks as Ricochet Bullets (your bullets do more damage whenever they ricochet) or Exploding Gibs (every enemy you kill can explode and do damage to nearby enemies). These can be pretty helpful depending on how you want to play. You come across the various enemies you would expect to have in a Serious Sam game like Biomechs, Beheaded Kamikazes, Kleer, etc. The mass of enemies that can get thrown at you during the game leads to some fast-paced dodging and weaving while shooting as many bullets at your targets as you can. There are all the types of guns you would expect from a Serious Sam game, like a Tommy Gun, Pulse Rifle, Cannon Ball Gun, Rocket Launcher, Double Boom Stick Shotgun, etc. They all do the deed of gibbing various amounts of baddies as you try to get to the next objective of the game.
The controls feel tight and responsive. I personally preferred keyboard and mouse over the controller, but that could just be me. Ever though it is a retro style top down shooter, it still felt very much like a Serious Sam game. Blasting baddies left and right as I looked for more loot and key cards felt fun and satisfying. Multiplayer worked well and was a nice change of pace from doing things alone or just to scratch that itch and blasting away other people. I could see hours of entertainment gained from this game, more so if you’re a person who likes to edit levels for single player and or multiplayer. If you a fan of the Serious Sam universe or a fan of twin stick shooters, give it a try.
One Hour Review Score: 8/10
Pros:
- Hits the Serious Sam vibe greatly.
- Tight controls.
- Good price
- Level Editor
Cons:
- The levels can get repetitive
- Dated, even if intentionally, visuals