Deric Cunningham CIS 487 A Review by Deric Cunningham CIS 487 9 28 03 Deric Cunningham CIS 487 Basic Information Title Serious Sam The First Encounter Developer Croteam Publisher Gathering of Developers Take 2 Interactive Type of Game First Person Shooter Price 19 99 and this isn t bargain bin either This was the price when I purchased the game two years ago Serious Sam The First Encounter is no longer available in stores Croteam has since released Serious Sam Gold The Gold version can be found for 12 99 on amazon com Requirements MinimumProcessor PII 300 or equivalent RAM 64MB Hard Drive Space 150 MB Recommended Processor PIII 500 or equivalent RAM 128 MB Hard Drive Space 450 MB Video Card 16 MB Overview Serious Sam is a first person shooter or FPS set in ancient Egypt The player assumes the role of Sam the title character and sees the three dimensional world through his eyes Throughout his adventures Sam will need to be equipped with various types of weapons and armor in order to survive Levels consist of pyramids temples desert canyons sand dunes etc The completion of a level basically involves getting to the end of the level alive while blowing up everything in your path Sam is also equipped with some sort of computer called NETRICSA Accessing this computer will allow the player to view information about The current level goal of the level Types of monsters weapons weaknesses strengths and available weapons strengths and weaknesses Story The premise of Serious Sam The First Encounter goes something like this At the dawn of the 21st century mankind makes a startling discovery Beneath the ruins of an ancient civilization lie the ruins of an even more ancient although technologically advanced civilization Using this newfound technology mankind explores outer space to the far reaches of the universe In the year 2104 monsters from another dimension arrive In the ensuing battles the forces of mankind are steadily beaten time and time again A man known as Sam Serious Stone becomes a legend for his valor in battle But Sam isn t enough to turn the tide of war Mankind gets pushed back to the edges of the solar Deric Cunningham CIS 487 system until finally the planet Earth is under direct attack The leaders of Earth turn to an ancient artifact known as the Time Lock a device able to transport 1 person back in time The choice of who goes back is obvious Now you control Serious Sam in his battle to defeat the other dimensional space monsters Installation Installation of Serious Sam is much the same as the installation of any other Windows application After you put the CD in the drive a wizard pops up and guides you through the rest of the installation such as where to install the game whether you would like full install of minimum install etc User Interface The user interface for Serious Sam is nearly identical to the user interface of most FPS s on the market today You see the world through Sam s eyes and move him using a combination of the keyboard and mouse The keyboard is used to make Sam move strafe and jump while the mouse is used to make Sam look around shoot his weapons and use items found during game play In the lower left corner of the screen is Sam s health and just to the right of the health meter is the weapons currently being used In the lower right corner is the amount of ammunition Sam currently possesses for the weapon that is equipped The number in the upper left hand corner is your current score and the number to the right of that is the score of the person in first place used in multiplayer games The number in the upper right hand corner represents the number of unread messages from NETRISCA Game Play Serious Sam plays much like any other FPS on the market only on steroids Chaotic is the best way to describe it Enemies attack in droves sometimes 30 at a time You never go more than a few seconds where you aren t trying to evade fire and kill something Serious Sam lacks the puzzles and problem solving found in other FPS s such as Half Life or Jedi Knight 2 but it makes up for with its sheer action and ferocity You walk around a level kill anything that moves pick up the power ups and make it to the end While levels make good use of open spaces you never get confused as to where Deric Cunningham CIS 487 to go next The enemy AI in the game is adequate enough Changing the difficulty level not only adds more enemies but makes them faster and more accurate in their attacks The weapons in Serious Sam are pretty standard fare for any FPS pistol shotgun chain gun grenade launcher rocket launcher and laser gun The only weapon in the game I found to be truly unique and cool is the biggest weapon in the game A giant cannon Similar in power to the BFG in the Doom series the cannon looks more like a weapon that should be mounted on a pirate ship not being wielded by a man Nevertheless it manages to annihilate almost everything in its path Due to the fact that this game is a few years old and newer versions are currently available I was unable to test the multiplayer mode According the multiplayer option it offers standard FPS multiplayer fare Death match Capture the flag etc Serious Sam also comes with an editor to allow a player to make his own MODs Scoring Scoring works like this The more enemies you kill the better your score The bigger the enemy is the more points he is worth Artwork I found the artwork in Serious Sam to be one of its most engaging aspects Even though most of the game takes place in a desert setting the environments are lush and alive with color Bright greens blues and reds dot the landscape I never once felt like I was playing a level that I had played before The art team also made the enemies look great From the giant scorpion with a chain gun look of the Arachnoid to the Star Wars esque AT ST look of the biomechanoid most enemies were a mixture between giant alien creatures and futuristic cyborg technology While the enemies look great the textures in the game can use a bit of work Everything has a metallic sheen to it even sand and walls of buildings The lighting effects are also done very nicely which are noticeable as Sam moves from the shady hazy indoor tunnels to the wide expanses of open desert and canyons A nice touch to the lighting was when Sam looks into the sun you can see glare see the picture one page up to see what I m talking about Music and Sound The music in Serious Sam works like the music in horror movies Just before something big is about
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