Serious Sam, first impressions

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When I saw the architecture and all that egyptian art, I wanted to cry. The size, the grandness, the weird writings and pictures. It was like I was really there. Unfortunately those stupid looking and pointless monsters never gave me the chance to scrutinize. BLAST IT!

The monsters are really dumb. If you like holding down the mouse button, jumping up and down and shooting shit pointlessly, you will like this game. It has a lot of things for you to shoot. It has many weapons which are mostlyy cosmetic.

I find only three things good about this game. The first is the world map of sorts. I felt like I was Indiana Jones travelling in Ancient Egypt. The second was the maps and areas itself. Sure running around and shooting monsters for extended periods of time makes the large, winding areas very boring, but if you really take the time to look at the nuances...

Third is the minigun. After playing games like Counterstrike, Rogue Spear and other "realistic" shooters, I really miss the feel of letting go with a really big gun. The minigun does that for me. 999 bullets, really nice sound of barrels whirring, cool impact effects as dozens of bullets rake across a wall...I felt like Arnie!

Of course that feeling left me as soon as I realised that no matter how many idiots I shot down more is to come and I'm being forced to go through several gauntlets. Death was not a threat either.

What Serious Sam needs is better monster AI. The monsters in the game are really dangerous by themselves, it is a waste that they're used as bullet absorbers.

This is not to say Serious Sam is lacking. Lots like it the way it is. The thing is, the game has so much potential.

What Croteam needs to do is release an add on pack. Go through the areas again, this time with less monsters but more cunning ones that hunt you down and use their strengths to the max.

 

Rak, you sound just like all the other reviews out there. What most of them said was that if you liked running around and shooting stuff with big guns then it was a game for you. Otherwise look elsewhere for fun.

 

Does anyone want to make a mod?

Redo the original levels, but with more of an Indiana Jones and Halflife-ish feel?

I am really sad to watch all that beautiful egyptian architecture go to waste.

 

Whahaha! Death was not a threat?!?! I guess you either played through it on easy, or didn't bother to finish it. At the near end of the game, when the screen was filled with those skeleton doggies and my minigun was empty, all I could do was DIE and reload the game... And they keep coming and coming. The end boss is invincible and HUGE and took hours to finish off (with the help of aliens?!? )

The fact that those critters are dumb asses adds to the game IMHO. When those large bull like creatures storm at you like that and keep bashing you, than I think no more Intelligence is needed to get you dead as a.s.a.p. The best defence is offence.

And the fact that their behaviour does not involve so much calculation has a purpose: They can send 100+ critters at the same time in the same screen and still things run smooth It was just a choice the programmers had to make. Nuff games with good AI monsters out there, and more coming up.

I missed the biggest pro in your review Rak, the enormous amounts of critters that come for you at the same time. You can really keep the minigun spinning

Great game, just the last gun sucks, they could have thought of something more fun then a big cannonball spewing pirate-gun....

 

Hey, Serious Sam impressed me enough that I wanted a better thought add-on or mod.

How do you kill that stupid boss anyway? If there's no trick other than to shoot him for hours while he sucks energy from some reactor than the designers are IDIOTS. That part of the game really bummed me off. Pray to your deity? More like pray for a Celestial Host to descend on Croteam HQ.

The minigun was damn cool. I really liked using in on those waves. Then after a few hours of those same waves it got boring.

I want to use my BRAIN damnit, not practise my twitch skills!

The environment and atmosphere would have been excellent for some Rogue Spear meets AvP type play.

 

Ooo, I know how to kill Ugh Zan the Third! You have to jump into those four stupid rings suspended in mid-air, and he'll be zapped by the pyramid's power. Silly me. Why didn't I think of that before? Is it because it is not logical? Is it because there is no reason for it to work the way it does?

Were there any hieroglyphs I could try to decipher? No. Did Netricsa give a clue other than to "pray to your deity"? No. Was there any dialogue to clue you in? No. Did the arena seem to have any kind of purpose other than to house Ugh Zan's big ass? No.

So how does jumping through four loops help you win? Because Croteam said so. Yay. "Are you serious?". Yes I am.