Double Action: Boogaloo – A SquishView Review

A SquishView (Squished Review) is a game review which focuses on being short, spoiler-free if possible, and unscored. If you want to know about the game, read on!

Double Action: Boogaloo

Double Action, built with the Source Engine, is a John Woo Hard Boiled inspired stylish multiplayer-only shooter. The more cool stuff you do while killing, the more points you get for the kill. Jump, dive, flip, slide, shoot, explode, or punch your style into your opponents, also it’s free!

Guns, Guns, where are the rest of the guns?

There are only eight guns to choose from, but they all feel and sound special, they are:

• The Sentinel 9 – A 9mm pistol 
• The Stallion .45 – A .45 caliber pistol 
• The Undertaker – A 9mm sub-machine gun 
• The Mac Daddy – A .45 caliber sub-machine gun 
• The Persuader – A combat shotgun 
• The Vindicator – A fully-automatic rifle 
• The Black Magic – A burst-fire rifle

You can dual wield all pistols, which makes you feel like your playing as Tequila (the player character from Stranglehold, the game based on Hard Boiled). There are no unbalanced weapons, so no point calling out, “[gun name] is OP, please nerf!” Just find the gun which you get on the best with and if you have the “eye of the tiger” then just make sure you “kill with the skill to survive,” then you can win. Even with only eight guns, you have enough to choose from, but being able to dual wield sub-machine guns would also be nice. However, this may break the finely tuned weapon balance.

With the added ability to punch has hard as Rocky – staying with the Rocky theme – or throw some grenades there is always a way to become “the last known survivor.”

Skills to get close and style with

There are five skills to pick from these are:

• Marksman – Improved gun handling and extra firearms damage 
• Athlete – Faster speed and better stunts 
• Bouncer – Deal more damage when brawling 
• Reflexes – Super-slow-motion and bullet time 
• Nitrophiliac – Extra grenades, more explosions

Picking a skill dictates the sort of weapons you want to carry, I’ve found when using Athlete the best bet is a shotgun, sub-machine gun combo. And when using Marksman, either dual pistols (due to the extra damage granted) or an assault rifle. But this is what I’ve found works, experiment for yourself, find what works for you and stick with it!

Maps, objectives, mayhem – divin’ and stylin’

All of the maps allow for epic moments, be it diving off a 4 story tower, sliding up – yes up, not just down – a flight of stairs, diving off balconies, or through windows, each map has a unique quality about it. Please don’t ask me to pick a favorite map, they are all special in their own way.

During a game, there are random objectives. The match starts out with a standard deathmatch, but then can suddenly transform into a race where you run between 2 or 3 different checkpoints, or a mad dash to grab a briefcase to take it to a drop-off point, or finally you may need to kill the target (or if you are the target get ready to defend yourself). These random objectives keep the match flowing and gives the game an edge of unpredictability, which makes Double Action stand out. You might be winning the deathmatch, but if you are slow moving around a level it can stop you from getting to the objective or briefcase, maybe you are super good at running around distracting other players but not so good at killing them, there is always a way for you to win or at least do well.

Free, free, free, doesn’t need the best PC

Double Action: Boogaloo is free, so that means download it from Steam, now. There’s always a decent amount of players online, so it’s easy find a server with at least one person. If you are worrying about ping, stop! Many servers have very low ping.

One of the coolest features is that you can play Double Action as a first or third person shooter, and both work super well. I tend to lean towards first person, but I haven’t found any advantage of using either, the game is simply too frantic to gain an advantage of being able to see over walls or around corners.

Be sure to download the game, while it’s downloading read the Steam reviews, there is some real comic gold in there.