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| .............CONTENT
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Intro The little game that could - that is Serious Sam's history in a nutshell. Developed by Croteam out of Croatia, Serious Sam was meant as a tech demo, but quickly exceeded all expectations as the demo was passed around online and word of mouth garnered it enough attention to catch the eye of a major publisher. Seeing the potential, GODGames funded the title, giving the team the time and aid needed for them to make more levels, weapons, and so on. Released as a budget title, Serious Sam was a breath of fresh air in a market filled with Rainbow 6 one-shot-one-kill clones. Its throwback to a more innocent time in first-person shooters made it a hit with fans and it literally changed the way gamers looked at budget titles. As Serious Sam finally makes its way to the Xbox, what would've appeared to be the perfect home for the title proves to not be so. Gameplay: 8/10 It really doesn't take much to describe Serious Sam: Sam gets an ungodly arsenal and fights off monster-like aliens through a primarily Egyptian setting. To help get updates on new weapons and enemies, mission briefings are given, as well as the in-game e-mails, which are usually ignored in the frenzy of battle. These both do an adequate job, but I found the e-mails to be fairly useless, as I think we all know what a shotgun is and what to do to a guy who is running around holding his own head and firing at pistol in your vicinity. Fortunately, they are shown as an envelope in the corner of the screen, keeping them from being too distracting. The enemies are a wild sort with zombie genetic soldiers who hold their own heads and also fire weapons, explosives, or the Kamikaze units that simply run screaming at Sam with bombs in each hand. There are skeletons that charge and toss chains, harpies, creatures that resemble hash browns with mean faces - who also come in a version that floats, giant monster bull-creatures that charge Sam and can send him flying into the air if impact is made, and a host of other oddities. To help combat them, Sam has a very nice arsenal at his disposal. The standard revolver and knife are present, but there's the far more satisfying double revolvers, shotgun, double-barrel shogun, Tommy gun, chain gun, and then there's the excessively destructive rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and cannon. Keeping in tune with the whole sci-fi theme, a beam weapon is also available. All of the weapons feel very satisfying, which is one big reason why Serious Sam is so much fun, and letting them loose on a horde of baddies was always enjoyable. The levels aren't nearly as varied though. The outdoor Egyptian areas look nice, but they soon become tiresome and are used so much that they fail to inspire awe towards the end. They are large though, meaning the player isn't limited to a linear path; while the course that needs to be taken is linear, some portions just seem to widen the path up so much so that it can feel like a little adventure. Those daring enough to brave the wilds can stumble upon secret areas that hold stashes of health and ammo. The primary gameplay scheme of 'find the switch' does get very old, though. Another fault of Sam is that the game turns it up way too high, way too early. Just a few levels within the first episode will have the player fighting off hundreds of enemies at a time. Now, I'm all for taking down mass armies, but when this is done so early and repeated very often, it loses its luster and begins to become a bit tedious. This is primarily why the game really can't be played for extended periods of time as the levels, enemies, and their attacks will make it seem like just one gigantic level and that zero headway is being made. Couple the lack of scenery and simplistic puzzles with the endless barrage of enemies that seems to happen in every single section of a level, and it's enough to make someone go insane. All of the enemies and environments also come at a price. While this is primarily a graphic problem, it did cause significant gameplay problems. The game doesn't seem optimized for the Xbox as synching is horrible and the later levels suffer from serious slowdown and even freezing. When turning, the screen jitters and is extremely distracting, and it's made even worse in more detailed areas. I also had bad slowdown in later outdoor levels that made it nearly impossible to shoot at my targets; it was like I was having lag in a single player game. There was also the problem of the game freezing; now, this hasn't happened before or since for any Xbox game I have ever played, or I could've gotten a bad copy (although the CD looked fine), but I got the dreaded 'this disc is damaged' error that basically meant whatever progress I made from the last save point was null and void - I guess it's a good thing the saving points are pretty frequent. The
core of Sam's gameplay, unbridled mass destruction, is still represented
well and it has an undeniable charm to it. Multiplayer modes allow for players
to select their own monikers and personas, and battle out against each other or
in co-op - I would advise trying to use different Xbox systems as sharing one
can be a little hectic with the synching issues. The variety of weapons and enemies
does good to keep the game fresh, but as I said, it's essential to play the game
in small spurts as it's a lengthy game and not taking breaks could result in potentially
disliking it. While not revolutionary, Sam still provides hours of fun,
and a little frustration as well.
Graphics: 6/10 Sound: 7.5/10 Control:
7.5/10 Overall:
7/10 [ top ] | |||
