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Serious Sam's Bogus Detour is a twin-stick shooter video game developed by Crackshell and published by Devolver Digital. It was released for Microsoft Windows and SteamOS on 20 June, 2017.[1] The game is part of the Serious Sam indie series, and is the sixth indie spin-off overall.

Plot[]

The game starts with Serious Sam inside the Temple of Ptah, where the Sign of Amon-Ra lays within; an important item for which Sam will need later on his mission. Sam makes it out of the temple, fighting some more of Mental's forces. Along the way, Sam encounters a race of mutants called the Orcs; once ordinary Zorgs who were sent to Earth by Mental after he forged an alliance with the Mental-Altani corporation, a wide-scale planetary mining company. With the help of Mental-Altani, it seems that Mental is planning on overthrowing Earth as part of his scheme to wipe out humanity in the past.[2][3]

Sam arrives in Alexandria and makes his way to the Great Library, where Mental has stationed one of his commanders, Major Slick Stinger, to defend the area.[4] Sam defeats Slick Stinger and boards a ship bound for Greece. On the way to Greece, a heavy thunderstorm hits the region, destroying the ship. Sam survives and is washed ashore on a beach not far from the city of Troy, but he loses all of his weapons in the process. Having to battle his way against mutated wildlife, Sam soon winds up in a large butchery, where an Orc aircraft is parked nearby. Some heavy fighting ensues and Sam obtains the parts he needs to repair the plane. Having done so, he uses the planet to fly to Greece which, according to NETRICSA, is the location of a portal where Mental's forces are being transported from.[5]

Fighting his way up Mount Olympus, Sam encounters another of Mental's commanders; Tetrachoke the Wizard, a large Aludran Reptiloid with powerful magical abilties, who serves as the portal's guardian.[6] After killing him, Sam enters the portal, which, to his surprise, leads him to a military base on Earth's Moon. According to NETRICSA, this base was constructed for the purpose of transporting Mental's troops down to Earth with the use of portal technology.[7]

Sam navigates his way through the base, destroying the power generator and finds out about Mental's ultimate plan: to destroy the Earth with weapons of mass destruction carrying an extremely dangerous species of pathogen that is capable of wiping out entire planets.[8]

With help from NETRICSA, Sam hacks the missiles so that they will destroy the base instead of Earth once they are launched. Before Sam can launch them, however, he is confronted by Director Doppler, head of the Risk Assessment Body of Mental-Altani. After a brief duel with the Director, Sam tracks him down again, who is now in the launch command room. There, he forces Sam to battle two war utility mechs, Tech-X and PRIME-209, but not long before the Director launches the missiles, initiating a countdown in the process. With only minutes to spare before the base is destroyed, Sam almost defeats the Director, but he teleports away before Sam can finish him off. Sam escapes the base and steals a spacecraft parked in the hangar just seconds before the base is obliterated by the missiles. After escaping, NETRICSA tells Sam that he can now relax back on Earth after taking a 'bogus detour', and now continue with his original mission.[8]

Characters[]

Allies[]

Other[]

Enemies[]

Weapons[]

Many weapons recurring in the Serious Sam series make a return. There are also a few unique weapons; most of which can only be acquired through secrets.

  • Fists: Melee weapon which comes by default when starting a new game. Very weak against enemies but useful as a last resort.
  • Pistol: Semi-automatic firearm that is dual-wielded. Has unlimited ammunition, but weak damage output and low rate of fire. Can be upgraded to deal more damage and increase its fire rate.
  • Sledgehammer: A melee weapon that can crush several weak enemies in a row.
  • Shotgun: A pump-action shotgun with a wide spread and decent rate of fire, but low firepower. Can be upgraded for increased range and higher fire rate.
  • Thompson submachine gun: Fully automatic submachine gun. Useful for clearing small to medium groups of weak enemies, but not much against larger groups.
  • Super Shotgun: A double-barrelled shotgun that functions identically to that of the Double Barrel Coach Gun from other Serious Sam games.
  • Laser Cannon: An automatic energy weapon that fires powerful laser beams at the target. Deals moderate damage in succession. It is based on the XL2 Lasergun from the classic games, but has two barrels instead of four.
  • Slicer: A utility tool that fires sawblades which can bounce and ricochet off walls and destroy obstacles in its path, as well as dealing damage to anything that comes into contact with them.
  • Anti-Humanity Sensor Mine: An anti-personnel mine that only reveals itself when the target gets close to it. When the targets steps on it or if the mine is destroyed, it explodes.
  • XPML21 Rocket Launcher: A weapon that fires unguided missiles that travel fast in a straight line. Useful for dealing high damage to tough opponents or for masses of weaker enemies.
  • A-24 Devastator: An automatic shotgun that uses high-piercing explosive rounds as ammunition. Has decent accuracy, range, and splash damage overall. It has to be reloaded after expending its magazine.
  • Auto Shotgun: An eight-barrelled shotgun with a tight spread, but has a high rate of fire. Useful against groups of weak enemies.
  • Erasergun: A portable railgun that uses supersonic bolts to deliver high-range beams at enemies. Can cut through multiple enemies at a time or deal high damage to tough targets.
  • XM214-A Minigun: An automatic weapon with an extremely fire rate of fire, but expends ammunition quickly.
  • Flamethrower:: A powerful gasoline-fed flamethrower which serves as an efficient crowd-control weapon.
  • Lightersaber: A powerful melee weapon based on the iconic weapon from the Star Wars franchise. it is exclusively a secret weapon.
  • SBC Cannon: A portable artillery weapon that uses uranium-filled cannonballs as ammo.
  • Oozegun: A strange weapon that fires a blob of ooze at the target. Projectiles that land emit a noxious cloud that damages targets over time. The player can press down the fire key to charge the oozegun to launch the projectiles at further distances.
  • Scrap Cannon: A weapon that fires high-damaging scrap projectiles. It can only be ported into the game with the use of modding software.
  • The Shaft: A lightning gun that fires a constant stream of electricity when the fire key is held down. It deals extra damage to metal-based enemies.
  • Tower: An automatic sentry weapon which is often found in Orc bases, guarding the area from intruders. There are three types of towers, each one firing different types of projectiles at targets.
  • Wall Laser: Automatic weapon that fires rapid bursts of lasers when someone steps over its red laser sight.

Gameplay[]

Mechanics[]

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour is a twin-stick shooter.[9] It functions pretty much like any other Serious Sam game, but it is set from a 2D perspective rather than 3D as seen with most games in the series. The main objective of the game is to battle hordes of enemies while making it through to the next level.[10]

The player is able to change their skin with the in-game menu, with multiple skins to choose from, such as Canned Cain, Dancing Denzell, or Mighty Marvin. There is no sprinting mechanic, but the player can roll by pressing the jump key (some characters have different animations when performing this action). Doing so uses up a dash charge each time, which is steadily replenished once the players resumes normal movement. The player can increase the dash recharge rate with perks.

NETRICSA, a recurring gameplay element and ally to Sam, appears once again in the game. She has also changed drastically in terms of design, with tabs positioned on the left (mirroring the version from the classic The First Encounter and The Second Encounter, respectively) labeled "Mission", "Notes", "Enemies", "Items", "Statistics", and "Upgrades".

Enemies and hazards, such as toxic waste, inflict damage on the character. Depleting the character's health causes them to lose a life, of which they initially have three. After losing all lives, gameplay stops and the player's progress within the active level is reset.

The player can obtain stars by gathering experience points through killing enemies. These stars can be used to purchase character upgrades, such as an improvement movement speed or increased rate of fire. Stars are also hidden within levels, alongside other secrets. Some areas can only be accessed by obtaining keycards or breaking destructible walls.

There are three types of upgrades; combat, survival, and weaponry upgrades; combat upgrades increase weapon range and ammo capacity, reduce reload speed, or provide weapons with a faster rate of fire; survival upgrades let the player increase their health and armor capacity, or upgrade their movement speed; weaponry upgrades increase a weapon's firepower or potential on the battlefield.

Bogus Detour has multiple difficulty settings, as well as "switches" that allow altering specific gameplay elements, such as granting the character unlimited ammunition or disabling the heads-up display. The game can be played cooperatively with up to four players, either online or locally in split-screen. Up to twelve online players can compete in head-to-head deathmatch gameplay or a cooperative survival mode. Additional levels can be created using the built-in level editor and shared via the Steam Workshop.

Locations[]

The game is set in several locations, such as Alexandria and Memphis in Egypt, the city of Troy in the Mediterranean, Mount Olympus in Greece, and a high-tech research base on the Moon.[11][12]

Weapon mechanics[]

The player's character can use weapons, by default brandishing two pistols with unlimited ammunition. Further weapons and their required ammunition are scattered throughout each level. There are a total of eight weapon types, each with multiple variations, that can be selected from a weapon wheel. Many recurring weapons appear in the game, such as the Thompson submachine gun (which now has to be reloaded after emptying the magazine), Serious Sam's signature weapon, the minigun, and the XL2 Lasergun, which has been renamed as the "Laser Cannon".[12]

The game introduces several new weapons, like the Erasergun, a powerful, hitscan energy weapon that fires extremely accurate beams, The Shaft, a lightning-gun type weapon that fires electricity with a very high rate of fire, and the Slicer, a weapon that fires bolts that can ricochet off walls.

Enemy mechanics[]

Enemies of various types are placed around each level and mostly attack in waves, sometimes alongside bosses.

The majority of enemies that appear in the series once again make a return to Bogus Detour. Examples include the infamous Beheaded Kamikaze, Gnaar, Kleer Skeleton, and Major Bio-mechanoid. An enemy that appears in Serious Sam 3: BFE, the Scrapjack, also makes an appearance. The game also introduces infantry units known as the Orcs that behave identical to the Zorg Mercenary and Cloned Soldier from Serious Sam: The Second Encounter and Serious Sam 3: BFE. A few Orc enemies, like the Orc Sniper, will remain invisible until the player enters their range, at which point a laser sight from their rifle is revealed and they will open fire. Their sniper rifles are very dangerous and Orc Snipers present a large threat to the player if they are not quickly eliminated. Other Orc variants, like the Orc Butcher, are melee units and can only attack with a chainsaw, while the Orc Captain, a tough variety of Orc soldier, is equipped with an arsenal of dangerous weapons like a shotgun, grenade launcher or flamethrower that he will use on the player.

Modes[]

The game features several gamemodes. The game features a single-player campaign, survival mode (which can be played either offline or with up to 12 players) and online multiplayer (for up to 4 players in the cooperative campaign and 12 players in both versus and survival modes) and full modding support, which can allow players to make their own mods, gamemodes, and even change the game completely with the game editor.

Development[]

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour was developed by Crackshell, a Swedish indie game studio founded by former Overkill Software developers.[13][14] It was the studio's second game, after Hammerwatch.[14][15] Crackshell's designer, Jochum "Hipshot" Skoglund, enjoyed referencing old media he liked in his games. The team added the Beheaded Kamikaze, an enemy from the Serious Sam series, as an Easter egg to Temple of the Sun, a 2014 expansion for Hammerwatch. Considering to turn the Easter egg official, Skoglund got in contact with Roman Ribariฤ‡, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Serious Sam franchise owner Croteam, through friends at the studios Skoglund had previously worked for. Ribariฤ‡ had played and enjoyed Hammerwatch, and gave Crackshell free rein to use Serious Sam multimedia assets for their endeavour. He was also fond of the resulting crossover, and while talking about it, Skoglund asked whether he could pitch a game idea to Croteam. Subsequently, he and an artist at Crackshell created a tech demo titled "2D, Seriously?", featuring Sam seen from a top-down view with rough environment details. Other working titles included "Serious Top-Down" and "Serious Sam 2D". Skoglund sent a screenshot of the in-development demo to Ribariฤ‡, who was fond of it and provided Crackshell with a contract to develop a full game based on it.[14]

Crackshell's Niklas "Myran" Myrberg created a proprietary game engine (later named A000FF)[16] and level editor using C++ and AngelScript, improving on issues the team had faced with the C#-based engine he had developed for Hammerwatch.[17][18] They collaborated with artists Victor Ankarberg and Christian Nordgren.[19] Nordgren created rotating weapon sprites with 3D models made in Autodesk Maya that were rendered in 2D at sixteen angles.[20] Skoglund devised the plot after reading through the synopses of previous Serious Sam games, settling on a diversion during the story of Serious Sam: The First Encounter. He chose to also include characters from other Serious Sam games, such as the alien marines featured in Serious Sam 2. He noted that the Serious Sam series had a lot of hardcore fans, especially "older gamers" in Eastern Europe, which made it pleasant to fill Bogus Detour with references to previous games.[14] Skoglund thought it was fun to work on a third-party intellectual property (IP) and to have access to all Serious Sam and The Talos Principle assets, including audio, visuals and the Serious Engine. He liked how material and ideas from The Talos Principle, which originated as an experiment during the development of Serious Sam 4, could be used in a Serious Sam project.[14] Skoglund wanted to show Croteam that Crackshell had taken the project seriously and sought to deliver a good take on the series that felt substantial. He hoped to be able to use the game to get to work on other IPs he had been a fan of, such as Syndicate.[14]

Skoglund revealed Bogus Detour through TIGSource's forums in December 2014, saying that the studio intended to self-publish the game in 2016.[17][21] The Crackshell team, which spanned five members in May 2016,[14] shared development updates on TIGSource and later through Twitter and YouTube.[22][23] In April 2017, Devolver Digital, which had since become the game's publisher, released a first trailer for the game. Bogus Detour was exhibited at the E3 game conference in early June 2017. It was released on June 20, 2017 for Linux and Windows,[24][25] delivered via the Steam and GOG.com storefronts. The game is considered part of the Serious Sam Indie Series, which also included Serious Sam: Double D and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter.[26] Multiple patches released until August 2017 fixed bugs and added features like split-screen functionality.[27] The game's soundtrack, composed by Damjan Mravunac, was released to YouTube in July 2017.[28]

Reception[]

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour received "generally favourable reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average rating of 76/100 based on twelve critic reviews.[29] The progression system received mixed responses, while criticism was given to some minor design elements. The game sold poorly and failed to recoup its development costs by December 2017. Crackshell, in conjunction with the cracker Voksi, subsequently created a free version of the game in March 2018 to be pirated to entice those players to purchase the original. James Cunningham of Hardcore Gamer opined that the game was a "perfect" translation of the Serious Sam franchise to the twin-stick shooter genre.[30] Clotaire Jacquier of Jeuxvideo.com felt that the top-down view complemented the series' core elements and that the game was a "successful mix" between the series and the genre.[11] This was echoed by Enrique Garcia of Vandal, who stated that, although Bogus Detour was neither perfect nor innovative within its genre and mechanics, the game respected all common elements of a Serious Sam game.[31] In a 2020 retrospective on the Serious Sam series, Jonathan Kaharl of Hardcore Gaming 101 said that Bogus Detour was "easily the best of the Serious Sam spin-offs".[32]

Cunningham lauded the game's "gorgeous" pixel art as "well detailed and animated". Similarly, Jose A. Rodrรญguez, writing for IGN's Spanish outlet, called it a "work of art" and cited satisfaction in gradually distributing enemies' remains on the levels' floors.[12] Garcia also liked the "retro-style" visuals, while Jacquier labelled the graphical and musical presentation as solid.[11][31] According to Rodrรญguez, the music and sound well underlined the gameplay. Also noted positively were the difficulty, exploration rewards, and multiplayer, although Jacquier was disappointed by the scarcity of online players at the time of his review.[10][11][31] Rodrรญguez considered the progression system the best part of the game, while Jacquier criticised it as unclear and laborious.[10][11]

Jacquier faced some irritation when tracking long distances over empty areas, especially due to Sam's initially slow pace.[11] Rodrรญguez found that the small size of the player character could cause disorientation with numerous elements on-screen, which was amplified when there were multiple players.[10]

Sales[]

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour sold poorly compared to other games in the series and had not recouped its development costs by December 2017. Bulgarian cracker Voksi, who was friendly with Crackshell and had tested the beta version of the game, approached the studio in March 2018 with the idea of creating a sanctioned build that could be pirated. This version was distributed through Voksi's forum, Revolt, and prepared with a note asking the player to buy the game to support the developers, though otherwise not obstructing the gameplay.[33]

Gallery[]

External links[]

Videos[]

YouTube favicon Gameplay trailer on YouTube

References[]

  1. โ†‘ https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/serious-sams-bogus-detour-released
  2. โ†‘ Serious Sam's Bogus Detour level: "Knee Deep in Sand"
  3. โ†‘ Serious Sam's Bogus Detour - NETRICSA - Notes - Orcs
  4. โ†‘ Serious Sam's Bogus Detour level: "Public Library No:1"
  5. โ†‘ Serious Sam's Bogus Detour level: "Path of Feast/Fear"
  6. โ†‘ Serious Sam's Bogus Detour level: "The Cradle of Democracy"
  7. โ†‘ Serious Sam's Bogus Detour level: "Biological Illogical"
  8. โ†‘ 8.0 8.1 Serious Sam's Bogus Detour level: "Interplanetary Ballistic"
  9. โ†‘ Ia icon Serious Sam's Bogus Detour game review (Archived)
  10. โ†‘ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/serious-sams-bogus-detour-preview
  11. โ†‘ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 https://www.jeuxvideo.com/test/708277/serious-sam-s-bogus-detour-un-retour-dans-le-temps-reussi.htm
  12. โ†‘ 12.0 12.1 12.2 https://es.ign.com/serious-sams-bogus-detour/120158/review/serious-sams-bogus-detour-analisis-para-pc
  13. โ†‘ https://www.croteam.com/serious-sams-bogus-detour-footage-screenshots/
  14. โ†‘ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 https://archive.org/details/podcast_den-fjrde-vggen_jochum-skoglund_1000369708181
  15. โ†‘ https://steamcommunity.com/games/239070/announcements/detail/124169580520946211N/
  16. โ†‘ https://twitter.com/RealCrackshell/status/985788604696932352
  17. โ†‘ 17.0 17.1 https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=44915.0
  18. โ†‘ https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=44915.20
  19. โ†‘ https://twitter.com/RealCrackshell/status/911250829432229888
  20. โ†‘ https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=44915.40
  21. โ†‘ https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=44915.40
  22. โ†‘ https://hardcoregamer.com/2016/07/09/screenshot-saturday-featuring-serious-sam-cranks-goggles-eleven-more/216211/M/
  23. โ†‘ https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/serious-sams-bogus-detour
  24. โ†‘ https://hardcoregamer.com/2017/06/20/serious-sams-bogus-detour-gets-a-launch-trailer-with-multiplayer-mayhem/262515/
  25. โ†‘ https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/serious-sams-bogus-detour-released-with-day-1-linux-support-some-quick-thoughts.9867/
  26. โ†‘ https://www.croteam.com/serious-sams-bogus-detour-coming-summer/
  27. โ†‘ https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/serious-sams-bogus-detour-adds-full-split-screen-support-for-local-play-steam-controller-now-works-properly.10235
  28. โ†‘ http://www.croteam.com/freshen-fine-serious-sam-tunes-available-now-youtube-streaming-platforms/
  29. โ†‘ https://www.metacritic.com/game/serious-sams-bogus-detour/
  30. โ†‘ https://hardcoregamer.com/2017/06/20/review-serious-sams-bogus-detour/262209/
  31. โ†‘ 31.0 31.1 31.2 https://vandal.elespanol.com/analisis/pc/serious-sams-bogus-detour/47641#p-13
  32. โ†‘ http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/serious-sam-spin-offs-after-serious-sam-3/
  33. โ†‘ https://torrentfreak.com/voksi-pirates-new-serious-sam-game-with-permission-from-developers-180312/
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