Serious Sam HD: First Encounter Review

Serious Sam: The First Encounter originally released on PC back in 2001. For it’s time it was a pretty good, if not repetitive, wave first person shooter in which the player traveled through different dungeons shooting at endless waves of monsters and demons ripped straight from Doom. The game was mindless, but garnered a cult following for its endless amounts enemies, tongue in cheek humor, and hilarious levels of gore. Overall, it was an ok game for its time. The gameplay was similar to Unreal as was the overall feel of the game, again, a perfect product for the times.

However, we’re now living in 2010. Times have changed, and a lot of games have released since Serious Sam, including sequels to Serious Sam. But that didn’t stop the guys are Majesco from releasing the “remade” version, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. I put remake in quotes only because this game is barely a remake at all. So, what is it exactly, and more importantly, is it worth your Microsoft points? Let’s take a look at the HOTs and NOTs of Serious Sam HD: First Encounter.

HOT

Fans will love it
Right off the bat I will say that this is a very true to the original remake of the first game, so true to the original that some might consider it a glorified port. Remakes have become a staple in the gaming industry. Games like Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, and even Megaman have had their fair share of modernized upgrades. Serious Sam seems to be no exception. The game has been remade in HD, though I’ll get to the graphics later, but the overall feel and flow of the original is still in tact. All the levels have been perfectly recreated, as have the weapons and even the sound effects, again, more on that later.  Fans of the original game should have no trouble jumping right into this game.

Waves of Enemies keep the challenge high
Serious Sam has always been, excuse the pun, a very serious game. By that I mean, it’s not a game that fools around. The enemies start off easy, but quickly intensify in both strength and in numbers. By the end of the game you’ll be frantically switching from tommy gun, to shotgun, to rocket launcher just to fight off the tons of different enemies rushing at you from all sides. Serious Sam keeps you on your toes, albeit the charm starts to wear thin on anyone not familiar with this style of gameplay.

Humor is still intact
The humor of Serious Sam is still here. You still get the headless kamikaze bombers that run at you and scream(though what they use to scream without a head is anyone’s guess) and Sam’s little quips here and there still provide some nice laughs. With this being a very true remake though, all the dialogue is exactly the same, so don’t expect to hear any new jokes or quotes.

NOT

Graphics
Yes, this game is in HD, and some of the textures have been smoothed out. However, the graphics in this game look horridly dated. The second you load it up, you know you’re playing something old. I’m not a graphics hound, Disgaea is one of my all time favorite series, but for something to be called an “HD remake,” you would expect something a bit more. The game also suffers from lots of pop ins. Enemies will literally appear from nowhere, as will textures, blocks, and other environmental elements. Point is, this game looks old.

Gameplay is boring
Like I said before, this will mainly appeal to fans of the series. Serious Sam has always been about surviving waves of enemies, and it does that very well. Fans of this style of game will instantly love the amounts of enemies thrown at you at one time. For anyone looking for something with a bit more substance, it’s best you skip this one. The very thin plot involves sending Sam back in time to fight off the evil scourge that threaten humanity, this is all told to you in a text crawl at the beginning of the game. Best to skip over it though since the plot is mostly non-existent and not why anyone is playing this game. As for the gameplay itself, it’s ok, but again, it feels dated. With games like Left 4 Dead on the market, Serious Sam First Encounter just feels like and old game, mainly because it is. It looks and plays like an old school Unreal game, and offers nothing new to those who have played older versions. Newcomers might enjoy it, assuming they haven’t played some of the newer games like this, but again, fans will get the most fun out of this game.

Sound isn’t all that great
Now I’ll say this, even for 2001 standards, the sound in Serious Sam fell below what I felt was the standard. Most of the music is recycled, and the monsters all make the same three noises. The game is cursed with the dreaded “one footstep” sound. The guns all have different sounds which is nice, but everything else just sounds lame. The worst, is that while this game got a visual HD makeover, the sound still has a very old and scratchy feel to it. The sound in this game is anything but good, I’m just glad the 360 has custom soundtracks, it makes playing through this a lot more enjoyable. If you don’t go that route, I suggest turning the sound down low and playing music from a stereo.

This is NOT a remake
This is a port, plain and simple. Anyone who calls this a remake is fooling themelves. There’s nothing new here other than cleaned up visuals. The level designs, the guns, the sounds, everything is exactly as it was back in 2001. The game sells for 1200 points, or $15 USD. Personally, I think it should go for about 10 or maybe in 5 bucks. Like the original, this game will only last you a few hours, the single player can be completed in about 2-3 hours. There’s also online co-op, which is mildly fun when played with friends. However, until the patch adds in deathmatch, this game won’t last you very long with either it’s single player or multiplayer.

VERDICT

Overall, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is a lot less of a remake and is pretty much just a port. The HD does little to make the game look better, though it does look a bit better than the original. However, the overall game is exactly the same, so unless you’re a Serious Sam nut, or someone who enjoys wave FPS games, you probably won’t find much here that you can’t get in newer, better games. If it were $5.99, I’d probably say check it out, but as it stands, 1200 Microsoft points seems a bit steep for this game.