Armed, Dangerous and Dead

In 2000, LucasArts released their last new adventure game, Escape from Monkey Island.  After that, they shut down adventure game development and focused nearly exclusively on Star Wars.  Armed and Dangerous is one of the few post-2000 LucasArts games that isn't based on the Star Wars IP.  While it is a third person shooter, in many ways it the spiritual successor of its adventure game antecedents, steeped in parody, over-the-top snark, and crazy props.

Being a Steam game, it was a breeze to get running, which was a welcome change from the nightmare that had been Anachronox.  So I booted up, watched the first cutscene, and got started.  My companions, a English-accented, tea drinking terminator-esque robot and a grumpy Scottish mole, and I are rescuing an old blind sod from the forces of the evil Hitler king and his SS soldiers.

I'm baffled by whatever it is that is going on here.  

Unlike so many others, LucasArts invariably made the default weapon in their shooters a gun worth having, and Armed and Dangerous is no exception.  The basic gun is iron-sight bolt action rifle with unlimited ammo, and headshots are a thing.  Most of the first level is pretty easy.  The occasional need for spray-and-pray justifies the machine gun I was given halfway through, but generally I didn't even need it.

Insane old dude rescued.

Also, I need to ask:  What the hell is going on with the penguins everywhere?  I think I get a score penalty for killing them, but beyond that I'm confused

*penguin*

The second level brought a pretty sharp difficulty spike, which ended up bringing about my demise.  Not, however, before I got the single most awesome gun in video game history:

RAWR!  *nomnomnom*

The landshark launcher!  That's right.  It launches sharks.  That swim through the ground.  And eat bad guys.  There is nothing better than this.  Regrettably, I am dead, and must needs continue on.  Next on our list: Atom Zombie Smasher.