"Time to start this adventure for real!"
— Sam "Serious" Stone, after taking on a swarm of Marsh-Hoppers.
Serious Sam's Bogus Detour is a twin-stick shooter developed by indie developer Crackshell, creators of Hammerwatch, in cooperation with Croteam and published by Devolver Digital on June 20th, 2017 for Microsoft Windows and Linux.
The sixth indie spin-off to the Serious Sam series, Bogus Detour takes place during the events of Serious Sam: The First Encounter, right after Sam obtains the Sign of Amon-Ra during his mission to take down Evil Overlord Mental. However, instead of continuing onwards like normal, Sam's path leads him to discover the presence of the Mental-Altani Corporation in Ancient Egypt and their experiments with a Mutagenic Goo. Sam decides to go on a little detour to stop them and then get back to his mission.
See also
This game shows examples of
- 1-Up: The game uses a lives system represented by a number of sunglasses. How many you start out with depends on the difficulty (3 on Normal and none on Serious), but there are also a few that you can collect within levels and a skill that gives you an additional pair of sunglasses per level. Lose all of them and you have to restart the current level from the beginning, unless you have Hardcore enabled.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Zorgs and Orcs were simply disposable foot soldiers in Second Encounter and II respectively. In this game, they are the primary threat.
- Big Bad: Director Doppler, head of the risk-assessment (security) body in the Mental-Altani Corporation, is the one in charge of their operations on Earth.
- Burning Rubber: Evil Ferdinand, the boss of the "Ring of Fire" survival level, is a black Sirian Werebull that hates flowers so much that he leaves a trail of fire as he runs so that no vegetation may grow in his wake.
- Convection, Schmonvection: The level "Trouble in Troy" features large lava lakes Mental-Altani has drilled out of the ground, which won't damage Sam or other enemies unless they step in it.
- Composite Character: The Orcs in this game, originally introduced as common Mooks in Serious Sam II, are actually mutated members of the Zorg enemies from The Second Encounter.
- Chainsaw Good: Orc Butchers carry chainsaws to grind up flesh and attack Sam with. You yourself can also find the Slicer gun, which fires sawblades that bounce off walls and pierce through weaker enemies. The Fattie Swallower uses two massive versions of this weapons.
- Drop Pod: Mental-Altani sometimes sends reinforcements this way. The secret level "Serious Sabotage" revolves around disabling their ability to do this.
- Elite Mooks: Orc Captains, which take a lot more punishment than other Orc enemies, are ususally the ones carrying keycards vital to progression and have a wide arsenal of weapons to use against Sam.
- Exact Time to Failure: You are given an exactly two minute timer at the end of the game. Escape and you win, do not and get destroyed alongside the Moon base.
- The Exile: While the Orcs were partially successful in regrowing their skin, the rest of Zorg society eventually banned the mutagenic substance they used, gave them a new name to differentiate them from the unaffected Zorg population and shipped them off to the planet Orazio, where they founded the Altani mining corporation and were eventually found by Mental.
- Exploding Barrels: Red barrels are scattered along the walls of enemy outposts, which explode after a brief delay upon being shot.
- Fat Bastard: The Fattie Swallower is another minion of Mental who is as obese as he is dangerous. He also has a strong tendency to eat his own troops, though he at least spits them out later without harm. Usually on top of you.
- Flunky Boss: Almost every single boss in the game has minions appearing to support them during their battle, the only boss who averts this being Director Doppler himself. Major Slick Stinger summons units via air drop, the Fattie Swallower vomits up the minions he swallowed, Tetrachoke has Antaresian Spiders crawling out of the massive hole in the ground, while Tech-X and PRIME-209 are supported by groups of non-combatant scientists that repair them.
- Foreshadowing: The third level features a massive butchery where mutated turtles are cut up into fillets. In the fourth level, you meet who they are being fed to.
- Giant Spider: The Antaresian Spiders from Serious Sam 3: BFE make a return, usually climbing out of holes in the ground. This time you only encounter their juvenile forms though, never hatchlings.
- Glass Cannon: Light Orc Zone Troopers and Orc Assassins, which deal a lot of damage but take about as much punishment as the most basic troopers.
- Interquel: The game takes place immediately after Sam pick up the Sign of Amon-Ra in the first game's "Metropolis" level. Sam then takes the titular detour and ends up in
- King Mook: Tetrachoke the Wizard is an interesting example of this. Aludran Reptiloids have their own species-wide version of this in the orange-scaled Highlanders, but Tetrachoke is notably not a Highlander and instead an overgrown common green one. According to his NETRICSA file, this was caused the magical powers the Reptiloids received from Mental, which had an unintended side-effect on him.
- Laser Blade: A secret melee weapon can be found in the penultimate level "Illogical Biological". It is called the Lightersaber and has the unique trait of boosting experience gain.
- Lightning Gun: The Shaft fires a continuous beam of electricity, which deals bonus damage against enemies made of metal.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Enemies usually explode into chunks of flesh and blood when they are killed. Only bosses leave behind a body that you can then blow up yourself.
- Mutagenic Goo: The "Ooze", a highly toxic chemical that mutates any organic material it comes into contact with. Flora and fauna infected by it attack anything in sight, regardless of affiliation. It is so unstable that it sometimes even comes to life all on its own, forming the "Ooze Spawn", tiny Blob Monsters that go after all uninfected creatures in the vicinity and expire within seconds.
- No-Gear Level: A violent storm on the sea causes Sam to be shipwrecked at the start of the third level, leaving him with only his fists and a nearby sledgehammer for the first section of it.
- Nonstandard Game Over: Run out of time before escaping the Moon base and NETRICSA will tell Sam that It Has Been an Honor as it goes up in flames, followed by a unique game over screen showing Sam's sunglasses and a few drops of blood floating away from the detonation.
- Our Orcs Are Different: The Orcs employed by and leading the Mental-Altani Corporation are mutated members of the imperialistic alien species known as the Zorg, which attempted to use the Ooze to regrow their lost skin.
- Ray Gun: The Erasergun fires a purple laser that penetrates through most enemies, dealing the damage equivalent of a rocket to whatever it touches. There's also an enemy type, the Light Orc Zone Trooper, who wields this weapon against Sam. Thankfully though, they only appear in the secret level.
- Secret Level: "Serious Sabotage", which can only be accessed by finding two pieces of parchment in the "Trouble in Troy" level beforehand. Completing this level disables Drop Pod enemy reinforcements for the rest of the game, as well as contains the secret automatic shotgun weapon.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Since ooze-infected creatures attack anyone and anything non-infected they come across, it is possible to set captured specimen against enemy troops.
- Skill Scores and Perks: Killing enemies, finding secrets and a few items allows Sam to gain experience and earn skill points, which he can then use to purchase perks and upgrades divided into three categories: Combat, Survival and Weaponry. There are also collectible stars scattered throughout each level, which each give a skill point.
- Slaughterhouse Fight: Half of the "Path of Feast/Fear" level takes place in a massive slaughterhouse, complete with giant saws actively spinning on the ground. In the following level, it turns out it was set up entirely to feed the bottomless appetite of regional commander: the Fattie Swallower.
- Space Base: The headquarters of Mental-Altani is located on the Moon.
- Timed Mission: Overlaps with Time-Limit Boss. At the end of the game, after defeating Director Doppler's two mechs, Sam has exactly two minutes to defeat the director one last time and run to an escape vehicle before the IRPDs hit the Moon base.
- Timed Power-Up: Scattered throughout the game are power-ups with a variety of temporary effects, including making Sam invincible, doubling his damage output, giving him unlimited ammo, boosting experience gain, regenerating his health and increasing his movement speed.
- Unique Enemy: Outside of the Survival levels, the only Light Orc Zone Trooper in the main campaign is found in the secret level "Serious Sabotage".
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Director Doppler teleports away after the final battle with him, leaving a small bomb behind as he curses Sam. This leaves his fate uncertain, as his Moon base is destroyed by his own IRPDs shortly after.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Interplanetary Renewal Devices (IRPDs) are missiles loaded with the Exolyse bacteria, which originate from planet Slake in one of the furthest reaches of space. These microscopic organisms consume almost anything at a rapid pace and turn it into nitrogen, though they die quickly outside of their natural habitat. Just one missile is enough to wipe out an entire civilization, leaving no trace that it ever existed.
