The original Serious Sam was a big hit, celebrated for bringing back sweet and simple Doom-style gameplay to a genre that had otherwise moved on.


Blood on the sand.

I recently played the HD remake of the “First Encounter”. Metacritic gives it a score of 68 (whereas the original got 87). Read on for my thoughts…

The Good:

  • Arena Areas
    The best bits of the game are where you’re in an enclosed (but often large) area and must fend off literally hundreds of enemies in waves. Your reflexes will be tested by the constant movement and shooting. Your smarts will be tested by the way you prioritise targets and select the best weapons for the job.
  • Enemies
    Good variety, unique designs.
  • Weapons
    Again, good variety. They all serve different roles. Some are awesome to use.
  • Scenery HD
    The HD remake is pretty, especially when it comes to scenery. It’s more art than tech, so it will run well on older hardware.
  • Difficulty
    The game scales to different skills. I suggest you go a little easy on yourself — if you start riding the quick-save/quick-load you won’t be having fun.
  • Multiplayer
    Adversarial and co-op exist. If you try co-op, jack up the difficulty and limit respawns to encourage teamwork.


It won’t be so pretty by the time Sam’s gotten to the other side.

The Bad:

  • Corridor Components
    Corridor levels are a bit dull, but make up around 40% of the game. That’s not too bad in and of itself, but corridor levels tend to also be…
  • Sadistic
    Serious Sam can be a bit like Cat Mario — evil and sadistic. The severity of this varies by level. In moderation, it’s a good way to add challenge. The odd mechanical trap or unexpected enemy spawn is fine. But when every health or ammo pickup is bait for an enemy-spawn trap that will cost you more than you gain… that gets tiring.


Turn undead… TURN UNDEAD!

The Ugly:

  • Screech!
    During some levels you will hear an annoying screaming sound, like that of a eagle, a few times every minute. I suspect this is the “idle” noise of a certain type of monster. Whatever it is, it’s damned annoying.


The bigger they are… THE FASTER YOU RUN!

Conclusion:

  • Rated Ordinary (on the Amazing, Good, Ordinary, Marginal, Critical scale).
  • A fun, “back-to-basics” shooter that plays well and looks great. Sadly, it is held back by tracts of gameplay that are dull and frustrating. Buy it on Steam during a sale, as I did, and you can’t really go wrong.

See all Good, Bad, Ugly reviews by clicking here.