Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Review

When it was originally released in 2001, Serious Sam: The First Encounter took a lot of people by surprise. Up until then, players had been used to confined spaces with extremely linear level design and predictable enemies, but when Serious Sam arrived on the scene, it completely threw this out of the window. It was bold, it was bloody and it became a cult classic. We're now eight years on, and Croteam have decided to test out their new Serious Engine 3 on their original title, which has lead to the creation of Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

The story has remained intact and there are no changes. Players take control of Sam "Serious" Stone, who has earned a reputation for being a fearsome warrior in the fight against Mental. Humanity's empire is slowly being wiped out and things have become so dire that the fighting has come all the way back to Earth's doorstep. As a last resort, the Humans use a device known as the "Time Lock", which is capable of sending a single being back through time. Sam is chosen and he is sent back to Ancient Egypt, where the game kicks off. That's pretty much the extent of the information given to players, and there isn't a massive connection between the different levels that are played, other than they fact they're all in Egypt. The motivation to play is killing lots of aliens and getting to the end of the level.

Fortunately, there are plenty of aliens to kill and it's easy to see why Sam earnt his nickname. Levels can be very spacious and while sometimes situations may initially look relatively tame, things can quickly change. Don't be surprised if a scenario occurs where enemies are approaching from every angle, and in a first person shooter, that's a very daunting prospect. Most first person shooters at least give players a few tight boundaries, and in some levels throughout Serious Sam this is true, but in most situations there isn't really a good defence other than to kill lots of enemies, and kill them quickly. Luckily, Sam's arsenal helps with this a great deal and while there isn't a massive amount of weapons, they certainly pack a punch.

The array of weapons is pretty standard fare. Sam has a melee weapon, which should literally only be used as a last resort, and he also has some pistols that have unlimited ammo. On top of this, he has some shotguns, a tommy gun and the more hi-tech explosive weapons like a rocket launcher. There are also some more unconventional particle weapons which are extremely handy, but players expecting some extremely innovative weapons won't find any here. They're all very point/shoot focused, and it's easy to see why. With the amount of enemies on screen, that's exactly the type of weapon that's needed, and even the weakest guns can still do a commendable amount of damage against low quantities of enemies. To make things even easier for players there is also essentially no reloading either, aside from guns that literally force it like the double-barreled shotgun.