In the year 2104, monsters spawned from another
dimension, attack human civilization. In
the battles that follow, humankind fights valiantly, but nothing can stop the
monsters from coming. Earth’s
forces are steadily defeated, planet-by-planet, from Alpha Centaury back to
their own solar system. World leaders must now turn to their last chance, an ancient
artifact called the “Time-Lock”, which is a relic imbued with the power to
teleport a single person back in time. The
choice of whom to send is obvious…Serious Sam becomes the final hope for
humankind. He must return beneath the sands of the earliest known human
civilization, to another, even more ancient, but technologically advanced-
civilization. His goal is to save
his race from extinction from an evil force determined to purge the galaxy of
all intelligent life. Now that you
have the skinny of the introduction, you are ready to ROCK! (These are bits and pieces from the manual, but you can get
the full scoop at the SS web site). http://www.croteam.com
SS website
This FPS is a nice breath of fresh air that will
bring you back to the root of what FPS’s used to be.
Lots of bad guys (literally thousands) with end-of-level bosses
complimented by many somewhat challenging puzzles.
Add that to stunning graphics, beautiful landscapes, superb sound and
music, and you have a quality FPS and a new engine that will rock every PC
around the world.
You will have ten weapons in your arsenal as you
acquire them as you progress through the game. They are a
Military Knife, Schofield
.45 w/ TMAR, 12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun, Double Barrel Coach Gun, XM214-A
Minigun, M1-A2 Thompson Submachine Gun, XPML21 Rocket Launcher, MKIII Grenade
Launcher, XL2 Lasergun, and SBC Cannon. These
weapons are much needed for the assault that will be unleashed upon you from
some 18 different types of monsters, not including the end game boss.
To name a few you will encounter many headless-bombers, bio-mechanoids,
arachnoids, beheaded kamikazes, Sirian Werebulls, Gnarrs, Scythian
Witch-Harpies, electro fish, etc. Some
fly, some swim, some charge, some shoot at you, all with one thing in
mind…KILL SAM! There are plenty
of power-ups scattered throughout the maps that offer a plethora of health,
armor, and ammo to aid you in your quest.
The
puzzles are not too difficult. You
pretty much need to push buttons to open doors, or gather artifacts that you
will place in certain areas to progress through the game.
But beyond that you will need to kill hoard upon hoard of baddies that
will seem neverending. Just when you thought you might be done, here come another
100 or so. It’s pretty much a
blood bath to sum it up!
Ok, so
you bought the game and you beat every difficulty setting including the hardest.
(Like that might be possible without riding the save key and dying a few hundred
times). Now it’s time to play
multiplayer via LAN or Internet. You
can play cooperatively or go for the all out death-match. A nice change to the
DM from most FPS’s is that you receive more points for fragging another player
who has more kills and has been alive longer, then you do for camping a newbie
the whole game. Co-op allows you to
actually progress through all 15 levels of the game, which you do not see all
that often. In co-op, if the
players increase, so do the bad guys…even during mid-game.
That is just plain awesome! Keep
in mind even though you may be playing a LAN game, other players can see your
game on the internet and join in, so be careful to select the amount of players
that you intend to host for. If
making your own maps is your thing, well you can do that too!
The only
downside that I see is that the game requires a fast PC.
You see my test model here at the bottom of the review…all the bells
and whistles and as you would expect, the game ran beautifully.
Playing on my slower PII 350 MMX with a 32MB 3D video card and 128MB of
RAM was quite a bit slower with a few timeouts while playing LAN games.
It is a bit slower but definitely playable. If you boast a 550Mhz processor or better, you should be
fine. 200 Mhz is required, but I
would be a bit hesitant at that speed.
The
graphics are fantastic! The
landscapes are beautifully rendered with special attention to lighting and
shading. They really make you feel
like you are actually there. Changing
environments are smoothly done and the 3D perspective is great. You gotta love Serious Sam’s skin too. Gone is the fancy armor, but replaced with skin that could
just about represent anybody in the world.
Blue jeans and a white T-shirt with the Serious Sam logo on the back!!
Can’t wait for their marketing Department to get on the ball and start
printing those shirts!!! If that
doesn’t suit you and you need some other variety of skins, there are plenty
futuristic ones available for multiplayer games including Elvis and Santa
Claus…QUITE COOL! All this for 20
bucks …you can’t go wrong!
Installation: Easy
But slower processors will take some time.
Gameplay: 9
Interesting storyline accompanied by puzzles and an OVERFLOW OF WHOOP-ASS.
Slower processors may strain a bit but if you have a fast PC with a good video
card, the results are terrific.
Graphics: 9
The new Serious Engine provided stunning environments.
I hope to see this new technology licensed out to future FPS genre games.
Sound: 9
Great sound effects and music make a nice complement to the game.
If you hear the music getting louder, it’s because hell is about to be
unleashed.
Difficulty: 10
Catered to everyone from the novice to the most serious gamer with 5 levels of
difficulty to choose from. Plenty
of bad guys to keep the game interesting. Will keep anyone busy for hours at a
time.
Concept: 9
Nice to see a game that gets back to the basics of FPS genre with puzzles,
storyline, TONS of killing bad guys, and end-of-level bosses.
Multiplayer: 9
Deathmatches and Cooperative play through ALL levels make this a great
multiplayer FPS. I experienced some
lagging during play even with a fast processor and cable modem, which may be the
fault of the Host or browser, but either way can be a drag when it does happen.
Overall: 9.5
Puzzles, plenty of weapons, tons of secrets, hordes of bad guys, sprawling
landscapes, splendid music and sound effects, great multiplayer capabilities,
give this title a great overall rating!
