Serious Sam

Rating:
Summary: Serious fun!
Review: I found Serious Sam on the bargain rack at a well-known electronics score for significantly less than retail. As I was on my way to a LAN party, I figured it would be a great game for the downtimes when people weren't all playing the same thing.

I was right. Serious is a First Person Shooter (FPS) cast in the Doom mold. You're a super-warrior sent back in time to eradicate the forces of evil, blah blah blah... the plot is utterly unimportant. This game's major strengths are it's sense of humor and it's sheer silly level of monster-killing action. I play on the "normal" setting, and I feel like I get a workout as I try to kill dozens of monsters at a time. The game constantly bombards you with a flow of well-designed enemies, and your weapons (which seem ridiculously overpowered when you first pick them up) are barely enough to keep you alive from one courtyard to the next.

Serious Sam has seriously large outdoor environments. There's a lot of distance running in the game which, while sometimes tedious, serves to impart a sense of realism. The monsters and environments are all mostly brightly colored, providing a change from some newer games' tendencies to paint in shades of gray.

This game is a run-and-gun shooter with almost no brain, and it's fun that way. You kill the monsters, move on to the next environment, and kill a ton more monsters (don't forget that quicksave key!). Sam has some great one-liner comments (in the tradition of Duke Nukem 3D) that add laugh-out-loud moments every now and again.

This game doesn't try to do too much, and knows exactly what it is and what to stick to. It's not a genre-redefining piece like "Half-Life" or a technical masterpiece like "Max Payne", but it's great fun, and if you liked Doom or Doom2 at all, you owe it to yourself to play Serious Sam.

Rating:
Summary: SERIOUS SAM = SERIOUS FUN
Review: It all started with a screenshot. There was this giant BFG-type weapon pointed at a multi-tentacled monster that took up nearly the whole screen. In the background, one could see the sun and it's glare. Unfortunately I couldn't remember the name of the game until I did a little research. The demo download took 5 hours, but it was all worth it. This game is AMAZING when you consider that it was made by a bunch of foreigners (Croatians)and it's their first game. Sure, this game could have been better in many ways, but it does so many things RIGHT. The textures are absolutely gorgeous--almost photo-quality. The sun, like I mentioned, is PERFECT. The weapons bring back memories of Doom. The enemies are far from smart, but they are the most original enemies that I've ever seen. I absolutely love that bull creature that kicks you up into the air with his horns! One other thing that I am VERY happy to see is WELL-LIGHTED levels. I CAN'T STAND FPS's where you're groping in the darkness and batting your eyes at stupid strobe-light effects. You want light? Why, you'll get so much of it it'll give you a sunburn. Five difficulty levels, lots of enemies and weapons. I hear there's a co-op mode as well as multiplayer..... Like me, if you can't shell out the dough, get the demo, it's GREAT!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best FPS ever
Review: Buy this game now. All I have to say. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Serious Sam - Serious Action
Review: With it's hardcore action and lacking storyline, this is *the* game for everyone who loved id Software's Doom games "way back then". Those that are too young, or for some reason never played these wonderful pioneering games, should also pick up this game, to see what they've missed, and also have a really good time.

What's wonderful about Serious Sam is the unique game engine these guys from Croatia (that's in Eastern Europe) has made. What do you do when you don't have the money to lisence an existing game/3D engine like the Quake engines or the LithTech engine? You make your own, of course! The engine that these Croatians came up with is unbelievable. It has all the fancy effects you could wish for, like fog, bumpmapping, particle effects, etc. But where it really shines, is when it comes to rendering the extremely large levels that Serious Sam is build up of, and the insane amount of enemies.

And insane it is. Actually in one of the level you're pitted in a quite small room, against 2-300 small toad-like creatures jumping over a wall with one mission in life: kill you. Mowing through them with the machine gun is unbelievably fun. Also in the normal levels, you're pitted against hordes of enemies, from small to HUGE, even at normal difficulty. When I played through the game on normal, I virtually had my finger glued to the quick-save button (F5 - remember that). You never know what's around the next corner, but you're likely to die.

Alas, the game is quite difficult (on Normal that is), but that isn't why i deducted a star in the rating. The reason for that is that after I had mowed through about 2000 enemies (I don't remember the number exactly, it might have been many more) with an impressive array of weapons, it was suddenly over! I had used only about 6 hours of effective gameplay. And that's a bit short. When a friend and I cooperatively beat the Serious difficulty, we used about 4 and a half hour.

If you aren't an experienced FirstPersonShooter-player, you probably will have some troubles getting through the game on Normal, but you also have Easy and Tourist modes, so there should be enough fun for eveyone in here. You also have Hard and Serious if you're feeling good, and also a Mental mode, only unlocked if you manage to beat the game on Serious difficulty...this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, buy it now! If you really like this type of action games, you've probably never had as much fun behind your computer as when playing Serious Sam. It's a bargain, and remember: Not all great games come from the US :)

Rating:
Summary: Serious Fun!!
Review: Remember how much fun DOOM was? Well, SERIOUS SAM is a definate throwback to DOOM and DOOM 2. There is non-stop action in this game! Great weapons and graphics. There are several instances in SERIOUS SAM, where you are just swarmed with monsters coming at you! I believe 368 monsters was the most on the screen at the same time! Pretty intense fun! Fun is the key word here. You'll have a lot of fun playing SERIOUS SAM! If you don't like FPS, you may like this one for sheer action!

There isn't much story, but who cares? The whole reason this game was made, was to make a DOOM-style game with a ton of enemies coming at you. it isn't to hard for newcomers either. There aren't a lot of eloborate puzzles to solve, just a lot of shooting of monsters!

CroTeam has made an impressive game here people. The graphics are indeed stunning, but I am no expert when it comes to grapics, but it looks just as good as the QUAKE 3 engine.

To top it all off, this game is seriously fun; ....

Rating:
Summary: Good Game
Review: I admit I was skeptical at first about Serious Sam, but it was a fun game. The graphics are superb and the game is pretty fast paced. It even has a decent plot. But the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of the full 5, was that I found the game lacking in it's challenges. I mean when you have to find something in this game like a key or an object to trigger a door, it's usually in plain sight and easy as pie to find. I was impressed with the sheer volume of enemies I had to face though they were all dumb as bricks. In one spot you face around 140 enemies at one time. I had to use the godmode, otherwise this game is near impossible to finish because of the sheer number of enemies coming at you. Over all it was worth the ($) I spent on it, but I wouldn't pay full price for it. But I enjoyed it for what it was. A pure shootem up to win game. Basically Doom with better graphics

Rating:
Summary: The Best First Person Shooter
Review: Serious Sam is actually the best first person shooter I have ever played. Compared to the pricing of the other games this is also very cheap. The graphics are seriously hard core with one of the best graphics I have ever seen. In addition there's a lot of blood and gore as well as enemies. In some games its always the same but here the levels totally difer from another and next to all the shooting there's also quite some good puzzles and sercrets to be solved. The enemies are original and well designed. The game also offeres four player games. Its split screen but you can play cooperative or deathmatch. This doesn't slow down your computer too much and as long as you have something like a joystick keyboard mouse and gamepad there should be enough controlers. This makes the games especially fun on parties or sleep over with friends. Even online play offers fun and a diveresity. I hope that you have as much fun with it as I have and will always have. I seriously think that this is the best first person shooter yet made.

Rating:
Summary: In Spirit of DukeNukem & Doom, an Old School Shoot Em Up
Review: Serious Sam is a game that makes you remember the first days of FPS (first-person shooter) games before everybody and their uncle decided to make one. A game that doesn't take itself seriously and has old school tricks such as hidden rooms, panels to push, secret entrances, etc. The game reminds me of Duke Nuke Em in that the main character, Serious Sam, is always uttering a funny phrase or something that is extremely ironic. (Like when he yells, "Is that all you got?!" and suddenly about 100 beasties start running at him.)

All the usual weapons are available: gattling guns, rocket launchers, etc. The monsters are creative departures from the usual FPS games. But the best part of the game is the price. The game also comes with (or you can download) utilites to make maps, skins, etc. The multiplayer mode is fun and uses three different types of formats for online games.

Not a disappointment for FPS fans and a game that could draw in computer game users that normally shy away from FPS software.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this game, Seriously.
Review: I got this game and played it all day until I beat it. I never, ever play games for that long, so this should tell your something. Serious Sam is all about blowing away hordes of enemies. That's it. No annoying mazes, no boring puzzles, no thinking required here. Not that those things are bad, they're just not what I look for when I play a first person shooter. The graphics are great, the gameplay is always smooth, and the sound is also very well done, with catchy music to pump you up during battle. Of course, I am playing this on a brand new computer, so the smooth gameplay thing doesn't really mean much. You will need a decent PC to play this smoothly. It does get frustrating on higher difficulty settings, but almost everyone should be able to win on Tourist and Easy modes. Multiplayer is excellent (cooperative mode is a blast), and there are going to be more user created mods and maps than you can shake a stick at for this game, so don't worry about being bored once single player is done with. The ... price tag makes this a must-have game, especially for you old school FPSers out there.

Rating:
Summary: The best bargain game money can buy.
Review: After playing this, all I have to say is WOW! Take everything good that was in Doom, add a little Duke Nukem 3D, and then you've got Serious Sam. This is by far the best FPS Action game I've played in about five years. Truely awsome. The game runs excellent as well. At times, over 100 enemies (all rendered in 3D) will be on the screen at once, charging after you, and the game wouldn't even think of slowing down for a second (on an AMD 1.1GHz Thunderbird w/GeForce2 card). I cranked the detail settings to the highest and ran the game in 1024x768x16 resolution and it was GREAT! If you liked Doom and/or Duke Nukem 3D, then this game is for you. It's no Half Life when it comes to story, but when it comes to mindless and extremely fun shooting, it's simply the best game out there.