Serious Sam's Bogus Detour

Preamble: I guess "someone" of the developers played too much MINESWEEPER in his life (HINT). Mines are taking a serious amount of the gameplay, better know how to deal with them and LEARN patience... Review: Serious Sam: Bogus Detour is a top-down spin-off of the classic Serious Sam games. The basic concept remains the same: fight your way through hordes of enemies, only this time from an overhead perspective. The gameplay itself can be fun, but the difficulty is extremely frustrating—even on Easy. The final bosses are a real nightmare to deal with, and the global achievement completion rates say a lot about how unforgiving this game can be. You can find stars throughout the levels to upgrade abilities, weapon stats, health, and armor. However, even with a fully upgraded character, the game remains brutally difficult. The achievement requirements make matters worse. For example, one achievement requires you to find two secret documents in the Troja level. After finally collecting them, you can rush toward the next checkpoint, die beforehand, and lose all your progress. Having to repeat that entire section is incredibly frustrating. The lack of a map is another major issue. Some levels are large, confusing, and filled with locked doors. Troja is a perfect example. You are forced to search for blue, yellow, red, and green keys before you can unlock shortcuts and make meaningful progress. This quickly becomes tedious, especially when you have no map to help you keep track of where you have been. The gameplay has its enjoyable moments, but the achievement system turns the experience into an exhausting grind. The amount of time and effort required for certain achievements is simply not justified by the rewards. I would not recommend this game to serious achievement hunters unless they are prepared for a long, repetitive, and often unfair grind. This is one of the most frustrating “grind for nothing” games out there. Proceed with caution!