Preamble: This isn't a review. It doesn't contain critical analysis, just the subjective opinions of one person. The intent is to remember the games I've come across in my life and share the nostalgia, nothing more. And some of those games I didn't play in great depth.
I can't say that this was one of the most important games in my life at all, but it was pretty classic in its own super simplified way. First person shooting in a very raw form.
Serious Sam
Game: Serious Sam Developer: Croteam Platform: PC Release Year: 2001
Basic Plot
You play the role of Sam "Serious" Stone and you travel to different time periods to defeat an ancient alien enemy called Mental.
Gameplay
This is an unashamedly non-realistic first person shooter. The guns are huge and powerful, the enemies are enormous and come in huge waves, the colours and bright and unnatural.
There was only one way to beat the game. Jump backwards in circles and hold the fire key down. There was simply no other way to get past the enemies.
There was a nice sense of distance and size within the game world which had an almost peaceful feel about it at times.
Health and armour do not regenerate - instead the player needs to seek out kits to replenish these resources. One of the things which is characteristic about the game is the level design. Each level is often designed as a series of connected "arenas" which huge waves of enemies will engage the player. These arenas are often large in size giving the game it's "larger than life" aesthetic.
Positives
I like how the game doesn't try and be anything other than what it is - a really bad first person shooter with lots of STUFF. It fulfills that niche which Duke Nukem also sits in but does it with more nouse in my opinion.
Negatives
It's a fairly repetitive game and it really doesn't have much of a story. There isn't a lot of skill involved other than jumping backwards in circles.
Typical enemy from the game. I bet the player is jumping backwards in circles.
Memorable Moments
Jumping backwards in circles? I did clock this game so it can't have been that bad. DRTsorak swears by it and has purchased the sequels.
On September 24 2012 11:56 DRTnOOber wrote: There isn't a lot of skill involved other than jumping backwards in circles.
Which difficulty did you play the game on?
I can't remember, probably "normal". If I played it on the hardest, what would change? Was there any other way to survive other than jumping backwards in circles?
On September 24 2012 12:10 DRTnOOber wrote: I can't remember, probably "normal". If I played it on the hardest, what would change? Was there any other way to survive other than jumping backwards in circles?
Normal isn't very challenging, but on Serious you can't fuck around. You have to kill the enemies as fast as possible and dodge almost every projectile. I don't understand why you would jump backwards in circles but I doubt it would work terribly well since you need to be careful of your movement and can't just circle strafe against everything, and since jumping doesn't really help you to dodge projectiles unless you time it correctly.
If you still have the game installed, try playing The Great Pyramid on Serious difficulty and see if you can beat it.
Here's a video of it:
If you're at 100 health and 0 armor, then: -5 of those Kleer projectiles will kill you -2 hits from the Kleer jumping attack kills you -10 laser beams kill you -1 rocket will probably kill you if it hits you directly -2 hits from a bull will probably kill you but the damage is kind of random
To this day, this game remains the reason i cant go in water on action games without getting really scared.
I can go in real water, sea etc and be fine, but not in "action" games (im fine in guild wars 2 for example, but not DayZ)
Why?
Because of that god damn mother fucking sewer level and its shit faced garbage piranha's.
Fuck that level and my 12 year old mind. Fuck it to hell.
TL:DR Serious sam is the most awesome game you'll ever experience, go play it. And find the secret room on the first level that lets you kill those giant heads!
Oh and i was so terrible at this game, what i would do is host a LAN game on X difficulty on whatever map i wanted to start on (usually the start or wherever i left off) and then whenever i died i could just respawn endlessly I still tried my hardest, but it just made things easier xD
This game was so perfect to blow some steam off! I hadnt heard of it until a friend told me about it, and I loved the hell out of it. stuff just keeps coming and coming lol, and the all melt to you! hahaha!
I played a lot more of second encounter though, and one of the things I remember was this freaky eastern European setting level, and suddenly in the next part of the level, there's a heavy metal version of jingle bells lolol. This game was totally bonkers, in a good way. and also the first game where I stayed up to like 2 in the morning to finish (I finally had a pc in my room :D), watching the cut scene where ss repents to the evil alien thing in the church lol..
Still one of the best games ever created because it encapsualtes what games are about: FUN! Still busting this one out from time to time or on a lan just having a laugh blasting through hordes of faceless monstrosities.
Serious Sam, was like a flashback of Duke Nukem to me, great stress reliever, and a great underrated game. The game movement and pace was super slick. And just mowing the monsters with a minigun was so enjoying.
On September 24 2012 17:44 Aerisky wrote: Oh sh*t, serious sam. This game was just crazy lol.
Serious difficulty.......practically bullet hell in fps form rofl.
I nearly finished it on Serious.
Then a friend came by at a Lan party and overwrit my savefile with his ultraeasymode game.. *ROOOAR*.
OMFG! That happened to me a couple of times in my life.
One time he brother deleted my main character in Ultima Online! I just about murdered him. To be fair I'd only been playing a few months and I didn't know what I was doing and there was also the new Oceania shard that I wanted to play for the better ping (I was playing on Catskills)... so it didn't turn out too bad.
The other time happened to be another Ultima game, but this time it was Ultima IX: Ascension. Now this is the buggiest game ever, so starting again is like playing roulette. I left it on the savegame screen by mistake and dad came along and wanted to use the computer and "accidentally" deleted ALL of my save game files. I swear he saw the word "delete" and did it on purpose.
EPT![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cOBME8eWGBM/TuaiYmSokcI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/fKPcxrUwgY4/s1600/Ssfebox.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S8Qd6J0gCR0/TuailUjLyeI/AAAAAAAAAsY/TSzg72tQttg/s320/sc_SeriousSam_3.JPG)
I still tried my hardest, but it just made things easier xD
