Serious Sam

A first person shooter with a wacky sense of humor

Some first person shooters try to enter the horror genre while other try to follow a semblance of realism or even serious historic representation. Serious Sam, then, would be a comedy and is anything but serious about itself. Serious Sam is what happens when aliens try to invade the earth and one man, Sam, stands between them and the earth's domination. The game, produced in 2001 won awards for it's innovation and fun game play.

Game Play

Serious Sam is a throw back to an older generation of first person shooters. Emphasizing on a 'run and gun' strategy, Sam would be forced to battle his way through way after wave of enemies using an arsenal of weapons including pistols, chain saws, mini guns and rocket launchers. Minimal use of cover was rewarded and most of the time jumping headlong into the fray was the recommended method to beat each level and advance in the game. The action was fast paced and fun, focusing on a variety of imaginative enemies. Two statistics, health and armor, were the gauge of success. neither regenerated, but health packs and armor packs could be found scattered throughout maps and as drops from defeated enemies. Likewise weapons could be found scattered and hidden through out maps, usually needing minimal exploring to find. Emphasis is on shooting and dodging incoming fire as the player tries to keep Sam alive from level to level.

Presentation

Serious Sam is fully 3D and offers a rainbow of color up on the screen for the player to enjoy. The game engine was specially designed to deal with large amounts of models on the screen at one time over long distances. The result is a a frantic presentation as wave after wave of enemies try their best to shoot, punch or blow Sam up. Effects are continuous and the action is very fast paced. Varied enemies add to the presentation, the aliens react differently and are designed very differently from gun toting soldiers to headless robots rushing forward with bombs.

Pros

• Very fast paced action that's easy to just pick up and play
• Humor sprinkled throughout

Cons

• Levels never change so once you beat this game, you may not pick it up again for a while
• Standard weapon selection that could have seen a little more depth
• Very little story, this is tongue in cheek alien invasion with a one man army as an opponent