29 June 2009

By: Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor
Serious Sam Returning to the Xbox and PC

Via remakes

Serious business Croteam
Croteam, the developer of the franchise, and publisher Majesco have announced that Serious Sam, one of the biggest heroes of old school shooters, is coming back. The two companies, with help from Devolver Digital, will be releasing a remake of Serious Sam: The First Encounter on the Xbox Live Arcade service from Microsoft. It will sport the suffix HD and will be enhancing the look of the game to modern standards while delivering the same frantic, explosive experience as the original release of the game, which came in 2001. Roman Ribaric, the Chief Executive Officer of Croteam, stated that "We are really excited to update our hero and recreate Sam in stunning high definition for Xbox LIVE Arcade players. The fans have lobbied us hard to do this, so we are stoked about bringing Sam back as big, bold and bad as he ever was." Serious Sam was widely recognized for its lack of pretense. The game delivered neither an elaborate storyline nor complex characters but focused on what it did best, offering up large crowds of enemies that players could slaughter with a wide array of powerful weapons. The enemies are completely over the top and can pose a serious threat through the power of numbers. Serious Sam HD is set to offer 4 player co operative play so that people enjoy team play as they slaughter alien invaders. Croteam and Devolver Digital are also partnering up with cdv Software Entertainment AG in order to offer Serious Sam HD on the PC on all markets, except for Russia. No release date has been set in stone and players will be getting the same high-end graphics as the Xbox 360 release while also benefiting from the keyboard and mouse control scheme that a lot of first person shooter lovers still favor.
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8 January 2011

By: Alexandru Niculaita, Games Editor
Serious Sam HD: Second Encounter
Developed by Croteam, Serious Sam has made a name for itself with the brutal, non-stop, visceral action mixed with exotic lanscaped and witty comments.   For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Serious Sam is a first-person shooter where real world elements blend in with mythological creatures, aliens and fantasy. Sam, a cool and buffed hero dressed in jeans, T-shirt and snickers, is sent back in time to kill an alien that takes refuge on Earth and threatens to destroy the planet! Serious Sam: The Second Encounter with high-definition graphics will take you back in the tunnel of time and give you that same intense feel like back in the day, now mixed with nice looking graphics, new game-modes and intense multiplayer action. Will the game rise-up to the name it made for itself back in 2002? Let's find out! Story Being a remake of the Serious Sam: Second Encounter game, the story line remains exactly the same. We all know that Sam isn't the greatest story teller out there so, even if most fans already know the story, here's how it unfolds. Sam's flying all relaxed to Sirius in his cool spaceship, after defeating general Ugh Zan III, when all of a sudden he gets hit by a strange bus and crashes to Earth's surface right in the middle of Central America in the Mayan Age. Nothing to worry about: the Sirians left a backup ship on Earth. In order to reach it, Sam will have to uncover the locations of a number of Sirian time-gates. Don't think it will be an easy task: on his way to Medieval Europe, our hero will have to face thousands of minions, three bosses (Kukulkan the Wind God and the Exotech Larva) and, of course, Mordekai The Summoner, who is the final boss. The story isn't there to hook you and take you into a magic journey through the marvelous world of Serious Sam; it's there to amuse you and to justify all that killing!
Gameplay The first thing you notice when you start the game is the new Xbox Live (multiplayer) button. So even if you've completed the single player campaign, this button makes the acquisition profitable again. The wide array of difficulty choices is another plus to this game. With the head count of monsters being so high, Croteam has left everything in your capable hands.
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In single player, you are allowed to choose from starting the classic campaign or practice your skills on the Survival mode. Here you have seven cool maps where you'll be over-run with monsters, while trying to reach health packs and ammo.
Depending on the difficulty of each scenario, the highest survival time can range from two and a half right up to six minutes. When I first played the game, the way Sam acted and, also the size and power of the weapons, reminded me a lot of Duke Nukem. That feeling went away after a few minutes as I set foot in the tropical jungle. Here, the lush vegetation hides powerful secrets as well as powerful foes, all minions of the evil Mental. Escaping the luxuriant Amazonian forest, Sam finds a portal that takes him right in middle of South America's Mayan ruins. Assaulted even from the very beginning with wave after wave of opponents, our hero needs to find several relics that will open the next rip in time.
Watch out because placing them on the right pedestals will unleash entire armies of monsters! This thing can be fun at first, but later it can get boring as with the right weapon in hand, all you need to do is click the fire button and wait a minute or two until the waves have worn out. This won't be the case if you're playing with hard, serious or mental difficulties. This time hole takes you back to the ancient ziggurats of Mesopotamia, where elephant statues, long and mazy tunnels (sometimes overrun with water) and huge rooms filled with intricate traps, where gravity has no meaning, complete the fantasy Persian landscape. After a stop in Babylon and a fight with a terrifying boss, Sam arrives at the last setting, which is the bloody and stony medieval era. In this savage realm, Sam explores castle after castle and finally reaches the Cathedral of Sacred Blood.
Here he confronts Mordekai The Summoner, the last obstacle to overcome on his path to the Holy Grail. The game ends with Sam reassuring Mental that "he's coming to get him". This mix has been spiced with a handful of new weapons like: the cool looking chainsaw, the swarm killing flamethrower or the powerful sniper rifle. As an advice: try to always walk around with a powerful weapon because monsters will teleport from nowhere and you don't want to be out-powered in this serious game! If you're walking around carrying a deadly melee hacking tool like the chainsaw, then expect your enemies to do the same. So, new monsters were added, an example being the pumpkin head chainsaw-wielding redneck. A cool addition to the game is the achievement system that tries to make players more competitive as they enjoy every aspect of the game. For example, looking for secrets, completing levels at various difficulties or accumulating 100,001 kills will earn you a well-deserved achievement.

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The humor plays an important part in the game, as comments, actions, room setting, enemies and even sounds can trigger a chuckle or even a laugh. Control of the character is easy and intuitive, you can easily cycle from one weapon to the next and the quick save button is right where it needs to be. I mentioned this button, because you'll need it a lot, as the waves of opponents can overpower you quite easily if you're not equipped with the right killing tool. Also, some rooms or corridors are fitted with deadly spikes that kill in the glimpse of an eye. Secrets also play a very important role in the single player campaign. While some are funny (yes, you're going to have to kill Blondie), others will give just the edge you'll need in defeating the next wave of enemies (early weapon). Finding all of them will require a lot of attention, exploring and skill.
Overall, gameplay can get very addictive if you haven't played the game before, or you're exploring all of what the game has to offer. If you're a skilled FPS and you'll try it on easy, then it could be pretty boring. Graphics and Audio While the game features all of the monsters and weapons from the previous version, the Serious Engine 2, has been replaced with Serious Engine 3 (that will also be used in the up-coming Serious Sam 3 game). This brings an amazing feel to the game as the look of weapons, monsters and especially the scenery are seriously improved! Starting from the jungle and ending with the medieval setting, everything looks and feels very real. Destroyable vegetation allows spectacular glimpses at the sun while the blue crystal clear waters make the diving experiences a real treat. Temples, pyramids and other ancient relics give superb sense of grandeur. All weapons look cool and you'll probably use most of them (except from the knife that's going to get you killed fast). The game is not entirely bug-free, so if you look hard enough you'll find a few glitches that can sometimes spoil the fun, for example: enemies that won't shoot even if you sit next to them, monsters that won't chase you or get stuck facing the wall and even key texture points inside temples, where you can observe the outside landscape.
While all the explosions and weapons look very cool, in my opinion the flamethrower could use just a little more work - the flames are totally unrealistic. The sounds are exactly what you would expect from a game from 2002. They don't excel, but they do the job right, meaning they'll put you in the right mood for killing. Playing without the sound is not an option, as the music will tell you when swarm of enemies is rushing to drain the very last blood drop from your body!

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Multiplayer Nowadays, a game without multiplayer is not much of a game. As more and more of the biggest gaming names are embracing this concept, so did Croteam. This highlight increases the playing value and also allows you to match your strength against friends and other people online. The downside is that there are almost no other people online. The multiplayer modes are addictive and varied while adding supports for up to 16 players at a time. Co-op can be played in Classic (complete the campaign along-side friends), Survival (last as much as you can on a map) and Coin-op (battle with just three lives). The classic multiplayer modes from Serious Sam HD: First encounter have been improved and enlarged so Deathmatch, Capture the Flag or Last Man Standing welcome alongside Beast Hunt (compete in a killing competition for points), Instant Kill (for those who enjoy a cool sniper game) and My Burden (where you have to carry a weight around for points) Conclusion The Serious Sam HD: Second Encounter game holds his rightful place in the top shooters of 2010. This tribute to the 90's FPS will provide an awesome distraction from the real world while, at the same time, giving you a lot of fun in single-player as well as in multiplayer games. You'll run, you'll jump, you'll shoot a wide variety of enemies, monster and bosses, you'll even swim, you'll search for secrets, you'll keep your balance on moving platforms and, most of all, you'll be stunned by the way this "old" game looks! So, what are you waiting for?
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