First Person Saturday — Double Action Boogaloo

In Double Action: Boogaloo, I once dove across a rooftop, shooting a golden submachine gun at another player who was soaring through the sky. Oh, and there were doves flying and everything was in slow motion. This isn't some crazy video game sequel to Face/Off, no, it's just one of the best free FPS games I've had the pleasure of playing on Steam: Double Action: Boogaloo.

Double Action: Boogaloo is a first/third person shooter focusing on style. How focused on style? Well, instead of a jump button, right click causes the player character to dive, or jump off walls if you're close enough. On top of all of that, there's also a bullet time system that slows time for everyone around you, allowing you to line up accurate shots.

One of the main draws of the game is the style system. See, to get to the top of the leaderboards, you need to do more than just kill enemies. You need to kill them in style. Every hit that you land zoomed in, midair, or to the head (among others) will grant you extra style points, rocketing you higher in the leaderboards. So that means that someone who barely has any kills can be higher than a more kill-centric player based on their style. Plus, the more style you get, the more amount of bullet time you have.

Also contributing to your points are objectives that appear each match. From racing from checkpoint to checkpoint to delivering a briefcase of money to an objective marker, side-objectives in Double Action: Boogaloo are a great way to raise points and can break up the pace of just shooting people.

Something to note is that Double Action: Boogaloo is a Source mod and it certainly feels like it at times. I could've sworn I was seeing assets from Half Life 2 every now and then, and one of the characters is literally just Left 4 Dead 2's very own Nick. While I wouldn't consider it a knock against the game, as the gameplay is great fun, you should at least expect it to look and sound like an average Source mod.

Double Action: Boogaloo does have its issues though. Before each match you select a perk, and I found the one that gives you better melee to be extremely broken. See, in a game where you can close the distance between you and your opponent so quickly and easily, the last thing needed is a way to buff the melee powers. Not only that, but if you score enough melee kills in a row, you get golden fists which make it even easier to beat down opponents.

The good thing is that aside from the melee, basically everything about this game is fun. It was great rounding up a group of friends and diving around rooftops or construction sites, all while blasting at each other. And plus, it's a free game, so really the only thing to lose here is spare time. If you're sick of the normal shooter formula and want something with a little more style, then Double Action: Boogaloo should be right up your alley.