Serious Sam Double D XXL (Xbox360) Review

Have you got tickets to the GUN SHOW?!?

Serious Sam Double D XXL takes in-game weapons to a whole new level, all while paying homage to old school in a mashup of new and old that turns out to be just right. With a unique weapon stacking mechanic and loads of low brow humor, it’s a perfect game to while away some cold winter nights.

As you begin the game, Serious Sam is dropped off in Egypt. You are given a rather anemic amount of story line to set you on your way about a strange general who is unleashing a variety of extremely strange creatures on the world. You must travel through time to save the world’s future….or something like that. Really, other than a few very short cutscenes that really don’t go into the story much, the gameplay has to stand on its own. What it lacks in plot, though, it makes up for in weapons – and who can argue with that?

As you make your way through the game, you can find a variety of weapons – and in fact, you can find several of the same weapon. Why would you want more than one, you ask? Herein lies Serious Sam Double D XXL’s best feature – weapon stacking. Basically, you can create stacks of weapons – up to six. As long as you have that many weapons, and have also collected enough Gunstacker Connectors, the sky is the limit. Weapon stacking quite literally stacks the weapons on top of each, in whatever configuration you choose, to create one massive weapon that fires simultaneously with the push of a single button. If that’s not enough, you can purchase upgrades for each of the weapons that add all kinds of cool features, making near endless options for you to play around with.

The finished stacked weapons are ludicrously large, and fit the overall atmosphere of the game perfectly. Serious Sam is not a subtle guy, and nothing in the game is either. From the ridiculously large weapons to the teenage boy humor, this is a game designed to appeal to the baser instincts – and it does, to a point, appeal. It is just uncomplicated fun – aim, fire, and repeat, as the piles upon piles of enemies charge at you. In many different ways, the weapons and the enemies are all there is to it. Your main task in the game is how to use both to your advantage.

Yes, you have to use the enemies, and as more than just something to shoot at. Once you have killed an enemy, its body doesn’t disappear. It stays, and as you defeat more and more of them, they pile up into stacks of corpses you’ll need to use to your advantage. That may sound a bit macabre (and it really is, if you stop to think about it too much), but everything is very cartoony and retro looking, so it doesn’t come across that way as you’re playing. In fact, it takes quite a bit of skill to pile them up just so to cross a length of spikes, or to climb out of a pit. It’s a really clever addition, and gives you a little bit of a break from the endless shooting (not that there’s anything wrong with endless shooting, mind you).

Actually, when it comes right down to it, despite its Mature rating, Serious Sam Double D XXL is anything but mature. Like I said, there is some very lowbrow humor at play (which may require excessive eye rolling for us gamers of a female persuasion), but it’s all done in good fun. Despite the aforementioned stacks of corpses, you can mess around with the game options to make it pretty much general audience appropriate. You have the option to turn off swearing, and the blood (which is customizable in several different ways) can be turned completely off….or, if you have a quirky sense of humor, you can switch the blood option to “donuts” for a colorful display of tasty treats every time an enemy is defeated. Mmmmmmm, donuts.

One of my favorite features in Serious Sam Double D XXL is the way they’ve done coop. Your friend can drop in and out at any time, making for some interesting sessions that will advance you in the campaign either way. The campaign plays the same way whether there’s one of two of you playing, so having a friend pop in is the perfect way to get past parts that are particularly challenging. You work cooperatively in every sense of the word. You share weapons, you get floated to your partner if you get behind, and you can even revive a dead player simply by standing next to them.

Coop mode isn’t completely perfect though. You both play on the same screen, so when there are huge battles the camera pans out. This, added to the piles of enemies and retro styling, can often make it very difficult to actually see where you are. Sure, your shirt is a different color than the other player, but that doesn’t mean a lot when it’s a tiny spot buried in a pile of colorful enemies. Still, it’s all good if you just keep shooting, and you’ll find your guy soon enough.

With tons of hidden areas to find, some seriously weird opponents to slay (pancakes? Why on Earth would I want to kill pancakes? They’re delicious!), and flat-out fun cooperative play, Serious Sam Double D XXL has a lot to offer. While it doesn’t have a lot to offer by way of plot, it makes up for that in wave upon wave of enemies to shoot and gratuitously large weapons to shoot them with. It’s a lot of mindless fun, and well worth the price of a download.