Serious Sam: The First Encounter

The Good
Serious Sam: The First Encounter is unlike other first-person shooters that I have played, Quake included. Numerous sequels were made since the first game, and they all feature an ongoing story of Sam “Serious” Stone trying to stop Mental's forces from conquering the universe by traveling back to the past and changing the course of history. The first game takes place in Egypt which is where the battle starts to take place.

If you played first-person shooters from the Nineties such as Wolfenstein 3D and Rise of the Triad, there are some features in those games not found in today's FPSes, such as score, a high score table, and a demo that shows you what to expect in the game. Croteam decided to replicate this in Serious Sam, but although this type of information are represented by icons, not actual words.

The protagonist is equipped with the Neutronically Implanted Combat System Analyzer (NETRICSA). These are normal messages from someone that was in the same shoes as Stone, and these give you useful information about the locations you have entered, new enemies you encountered, and weapons you pick up. It also gives you hints on obstacles you will come across and how to overcome them. I like how your inbox flashes whenever you receive a new NETRICSA message.

The gameplay is a mixture of Smash TV and Robotron 2084. Most of the time you enter this huge area where you see your target destination in the distance, and you must get to it while fighting off enemies that teleport to your location rather than them waiting for you. Just like Robotron 2084, enemies will chase you wherever you go, and you can't proceed to your next destination until you take down all enemies. The battle becomes intense in these areas, and you will often find yourself running out of ammunition, and need to restock before the next battle takes place.

The enemies you meet in the game have different characteristics, and their animations are smooth. The kamikaze bomber, for instance, screams at you while they home to your location, so they can blow themselves up if they get too close. I like how you can tell whether they are closing the distance if their footsteps become louder in volume. There are bosses in the game, and most of them are gigantic. I also like how you can use certain enemies to your advantage. Those wild bulls that charge at you can take Sam to places that are hard to reach, for instance.

The cinematics add depth to the story. They mostly consist of Sam getting a precious artifact from some kind of podium, but the one that I enjoyed most was the introduction, where the story scrolls by while you get a good view of space, with all the galaxies and stars. You can skip the cinematics if you want to.

The music is excellent, and provides many easy listening tunes as you walk through each area. One thing that I admire in first-person shooters is the way the music changes when you are battling a huge number of areas, then changes back to the original level soundtrack once you have cleared all enemies. In Serious Sam's case, the battle music provides quite a beat to it, to the point where you can memorize it all.

Along with the main game, you get a technology demo where you have to walk through a series of hallways, and each room showcases what the Serious Engine is capable of, containing features that were not found in previous first-person shooters such as large view distances and a massive number of models. Some of the effects are quite stunning, especially the ones from the first two hallways. In addition, there is a training mode, but more about that later.

My highlight has to be wandering around Hatshepsut, admiring the graphical trickery the game has to offer, such as the flash of lightning in the horizon and the setting transition from storm to sunshine. Also, making use of the first easter egg where the developers come out of a secret room, and getting the Bio-Mechanoids to blow them up.

Croteam developed a remake of the game, using the third incarnation of the Serious Engine. I won't review this version as I would only repeat myself, but I will say that the graphics have improved, and other minor stuff has been added. The gameplay and soundtrack remains the same, though.

The Bad
There's not much point in trying out the training mode, as it is basically one of the later stages in the game but with a different setting. During the game, even the smaller enemies can run a lot faster than you, meaning that you can't shoot them at a distance without blowing yourself up if it is too late.

The Bottom Line
Serious Sam is an excellent first-person shooter that harks back to the days of Wolf3D and ROTT, while offering stunning graphics and sound. The game also throws in two of my favorites from the Eighties (mentioned above), and there is a certain strategy that is needed to defeat most of the enemies in the game. I played the Steam release which gives me the option of entering a program that allows me to create custom levels, and to create enemies for them. That is a welcome addition to the game, and means if you can't get enough Serious Sam, you can create levels yourself or download them somewhere from the Internet.