A great gorefest heralding to time of Duke 3D (Serious Sam - The First Encounter (PC))

Member Name: steve_pc

Product:	Serious Sam - The First Encounter (PC)
Date:	20/11/01 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: FUN game - Doom & Duke 3D fun

Disadvantages: Repetetive, Tourist mode too easy, Not enough enemies/guns

That's Serious Sam alright.

Fed up of the thinking man's shooter? Sure, Half-Life is an amazing game, and all that it spawned were perhaps more mediocre, but sometimes there's those days when you want to play a game where you can pull out a shiny minigun, almost as long as you are tall, and mow through hoardes and hoardes of odd creatures. This is what the mighty Doom taught you to do, and of course the classic Duke Nukem 3D.

Serious Sam shares many traits with Duke Nukem 3D: The witty commentary, large guns, aliens, - in fact the only things really lacking are the babes, and city scenes. Because lets make no mistake, Serious Sam is not set in a seedy city. As with all mindless mow-em-downs, they attempt to show a story, like the weak ones in Doom, Quake et al. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because nobody really wants to sit around watching a story with flashing lights and pathetic explanations when we all know we just want to get onto the large guns and killing.

Serious Sam's story briefly goes something like this: "Somewhere in the future, some people attempt to create something or other, and just by some cruel twist of fate, release a gate through which a whole bunch of aliens will come and destory the earth... etc etc." Told you it was weak. But screw that, after all, this isn't a thinking shooter. You (Sam "Serious" Stone) get sent back in time to ancient Egypt, and for some reason or other, there are masses of strange alien things, a few which extremely remind me of Doom chracters - Demons = Gnarrs or whatever they are called.

Anyway, here's a basic synopsis, you start on some portal thing, and mow your way through progressively harder levels, the details of which you will find out if you decide to buy.

The downside to this game is that it is does get repetitive, with many of the monsters being the same, and after a while you will have met all the monsters, and
it's a shame no new ones get introduced to you. And you will die a LOT if you choose anything but Tourist, for the later levels are riduculous in their "bringing it on". Tourist mode is too easy, and is almost God mode, making the idea of playing it in again in another mode a little less of an enticing prospect.

One thing I do love about this game is the great engine. It runs well on my computer, and I have a K6-2 450@495 with a Voodoo3 3000@179mhz. It also makes the textures VERY detailed when you move in on surfaces, which looks sweet.

The sound is relatively generic, screams and explosions feature highly throughout the game.

The gameplay is rather generic as well, like all 3D shooters of today. However there is a 3rd person option, however I have not used this, and expect it to add little in the way of extra enjoyment/playability.

Multiplayer - I cannot vouch for Internet/LAN play, but a great feature worthy of mention is the split screen. Rather impractical without multiple keyboard/mice, admittedly, but a good idea, and one I'd like to see a lot more in PC Games today.

Conclusion:
A game that heralds back to the mindless days of Doom and incorporates the style of Duke Nukem 3D, to make a fun game, even if for a while - don't play in Tourist like I did, it makes it too easy.

Summary: