Serious Sam

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Serious Sam
Serious Sam Logo.svg
developer Croteam
Publisher Take 2 Interactive
First title Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2001)
Last title Serious Sam: Tormental (2019)
Platform (s) Android , Game Boy Advance , GameCube , iOS , Linux , Nintendo Switch , Microsoft Windows , Palm OS , PlayStation 2 , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Xbox , Xbox 360 , Xbox One
Genre (s) First person shooter
Logo variant of the game packaging

Serious Sam is a computer game series with the main character Samuel "Serious Sam" Stone . In the series originally planned as a trilogy by the Croatian manufacturer Croteam, three games and nine spin-offs have appeared so far .

chronology

Serious Sam II was released in the fall of 2005. First and Second Encounter are counted as one title, they were both sold in the middle price range and released on the Xbox as a single game. Serious Sam HD , the remake of the first part of the series with improved graphics , was released in November 2009 . With Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter , a remake of the second part was published. The fourth part Serious Sam 4 for PC is announced for September 25, 2020 .

  • 2001: Serious Sam: The First Encounter
  • 2002: Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
  • 2002: Serious Sam (for the Xbox )
  • 2004: Serious Sam: Gold Edition
  • 2004: Serious Sam: Next Encounter (for the Nintendo GameCube and the Sony Playstation 2 )
  • 2004: Serious Sam Advance (for the Game Boy Advance )
  • 2005: Serious Sam II (for the PC ( Linux , Windows ) and the Xbox )
  • 2009: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter (new edition of the first part with contemporary graphics)
  • 2010: Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter (new edition of the second part with contemporary graphics)
  • 2011: Serious Sam Double D
  • 2011: Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! (for iPhone , iPad and Android )
  • 2011: Serious Sam: The Random Encounter
  • 2011: Serious Sam 3: SFOE
  • 2016: Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope (game specially developed for virtual reality glasses)
  • 2017: Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter (new edition of the first part for virtual reality glasses)
  • 2017: Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter (new edition of the second part for virtual reality glasses)
  • 2017: Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE (new edition of the third part for virtual reality glasses)
  • 2017: Serious Sam Fusion

action

The starting point of the game series is the 21st century, in which mankind has a multitude of colonies in space, these are attacked by hordes of extraterrestrial monsters. The strangers, who are commanded by the villain Mental, conquer colony after colony until finally the entire empire of mankind has shrunk to earth itself. To ensure the survival of mankind, the war hero Sam "Serious" Stone, a living legend, is sent back into the past through an ancient portal found in Egypt and lands in Egypt over 1000 years before Christ and finds out that it was back then Sirians who landed on earth were worshiped as gods by the Egyptians. Apparently the Sirian spaceship is still somewhere in the solar system at this point in time. In the search for it, however, Sam Stone confronts countless hordes of extraterrestrial creatures.

In The Second Encounter, however, Sam crashes with the spaceship that was finally found on earth in South America and has to fight his way through the jungle as well as through Babylon and medieval cities. In a Gothic cathedral he finally finds another spaceship, with which he sets off again towards Sirius to face Mental.

The basic plot of Serious Sam builds on the idea of pre-astronautics . In The First Encounter , for example, you learn that the extraterrestrial people of the Sirians ended up in ancient Egypt and influenced the culture there. In the last level of the game you get to a Sirian spaceship via the Cheops pyramid , with which, similar to the movie Stargate, the pyramids represented a spaceport for alien spaceships. However, the other parts do not go into the topic in greater depth, but merely use it as an initial hook to provide an explanation for the design of the game world .

Gameplay

Serious Sam differs significantly from other standard first-person shooters in terms of game design . Contrary to the trend triggered by Half-Life and similar games, Serious Sam did not rely on an epic plot, realistic game world and the highest possible realism. The plot is kept simple: The player in the role of Serious Sam wants to keep the intergalactic arch villain Mental and his henchmen from conquering the universe and for this purpose travels to different worlds in order to put a stop to different opponents.

The games are characterized above all by a colorful level design, spacious and clearly arranged areas and bizarre opponents. These are, for example, headless kamikaze bombers, bull-like animals, harpies or giant scorpions with weapons instead of arms. The player has a colorful mix of old (e.g. shotgun) and futuristic weapons (e.g. plasma gun) at their disposal. You are confronted with an extremely large number of opponents who, however, only have a minimum level of artificial intelligence. The course of the game is therefore usually very hectic and consists in the quick killing of numerically superior but stupid hordes of monsters. The level design mostly follows a basic scheme: The player enters a relatively manageable room, after which the exits and entrances are automatically locked and hordes of opponents are teleported in. After these have fallen, either the doors to the next section open, or ammunition, armor and life energy are first teleported in on a large scale, which is then followed by further waves of opponents.

The game contains a variety of hidden levels and secret passages (secrets) that make the player smile. For example, in one of the levels you can find a room in which a group of opponents is holding a round of poker, in another place you can find a penguin frozen in a refrigerator, and in a secluded corner an opponent who disguises himself as a tree Has.

The heated mass battles are combined with a bizarre, self-deprecating humor. The Serious Sam games contain many allusions to other first person shooters such as Quake (quote: "The earth can shake, but I won't quake!"), Unreal (quote: "I like collecting big guns. It looks so ... unreal. ") or Duke Nukem . The descriptions of the opponents as well as the comments of the protagonist ("Double your gun, double your fun!" Or "Rocketranger, ready to rock it!") And his implanted (in the first part gender-neutral, in the other parts female) computer system offer an opportunity more jokes instead of (as is usually the case) going into the background story. The atmosphere of the game and the background music are not typically gloomy, but rather carefree. In the first two games you travel to Egypt, Babylonia, India and Central America with the respective sights, and accordingly many levels are kept relatively bright and colorful. In The Second Encounter you wander through a “medieval Europe” without any historical reference in the style of a fantasy world, and in the sequel Serious Sam 2 the game world contains even more unreal fairy tale landscapes.

In multiplayer mode , the genre - typical game mode Deathmatch and a co-op mode for the single player missions can be found. In co-op mode it is possible to adapt the course of the game as far as possible, for example not only can the level of difficulty be changed, but it is also possible to handicap the monsters up to 400% of their normal life energy. Here, after their premature demise , the characters materialize again close to the current battle scene.

Graphically, both parts did not set new standards. Both games use the OpenGL programming interface . However, the performance of the graphics engine was seen as outstanding . Even with a very large number of animated opponents, the flow of the game always remains fluid.

Single track

Serious Sam HD

Serious Sam HD (HD = High Definition , in the sense of improved graphics) are the new editions of the first and second part in a heavily revised graphic. The level design has also been adapted and optimized for "Serious Engine 3". Otherwise Serious Sam HD and Serious Sam: The First Encounter and The Second Encounter have the same content except for a few secrets. The uncut version of the first HD remake was approved by the USK from the age of 18 and was released in German on December 10, 2009 in Germany.

In the computer game magazine Gamestar received Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter a score of 60%. The graphics were also criticized for being out of date despite Serious Engine 3 .

Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter was released on April 28, 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Serious Sam 4 on Spiele-Release.de
  2. ↑ http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/serious-sam-kamikaze-attack!/id457410259?mt=8
  3. ↑ SERIOUS SAM FUSION 2017 FAQ :: Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (beta) General discussions. Retrieved February 14, 2019 .