NIDZUMI+

Chaos. Complete, and utter, chaos. That is the easiest way to sum up Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter; however that wouldn’t make for an entertaining review.

Developed by Croatian developers Croteam, Serious Sam has been around for years, slowly gathering fans and appearing on more and more consoles. This is the first time I have played the game, although I have heard many positives, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. It harkens back to the bygone days of the first person shooter, attacking you with as many enemies as possible from every imaginable angle. In fact, it takes that mechanic and multiplies it tenfold, creating an entirely memorable experience. This game terrified me in places, leaving me a tense, fidgeting, wide-eyed mess. But I loved every maniacal second.

Sam is a soldier sent back in time to stop the evil overlord Mental from destroying the earth. To be honest, the story is not particularly important, and after a few levels you forget what Sam’s mission is. The game still retains its character as you enjoy Sam’s cheesy one-liners whilst he shoots his way through thousands of enemies. There’s even a little Indiana Jones homage that had me chuckling for a little too long.

The environments look nice enough but they do become bland and repetitive – open desert plain, closed corridors, massive rooms, rinse and repeat. Repetitive, but good looking, as the graphics are very polished, especially for an arcade game that is packed with as much action as this one. The sheer range of firepower, and amount of enemies, is enough to keep your bloodshot eyes glued to the screen. The weapons range from a single pistol to a massive cannon; in between these two drastic examples is a minigun, laser gun, rocket or grenade launcher, and more. It almost seems too much, until you see what you have to fight, endless hordes of enemies, all bizarre and more dangerous than the last.

The sheer range of firepower, and amount of enemies, is enough to keep your bloodshot eyes glued to the screen

The first minions you fight are challenging in themselves – headless soldiers (carrying their heads in their hands) wielding a variety of different weapons. It’s even worse when you couple them up with the other enemies; skeleton horses that throw chains before charging straight for you; giant bulls that will launch you through the air; laser wielding harpies, bipedal cybernetic monsters, headless, screaming, mine-handed suicide bombers; it’s amazing just how hectic it all is.

The developers, although obviously very talented, are very evil people. Every time you best a new gigantic, monstrosity of an enemy (which I presumed was a boss), they start throwing them in among the normal troops. So by the time you reach the later levels you are fighting against every single opponent you have previously fought in continuous waves, offering you no time to stop for a breath. Intense, but when the game is blasting out thrash metal, explosions echoing to the beat, a guttural voice screaming “MORE”, then it becomes something else. But it is brilliant. It really is.

As brilliant as Serious Sam is, it is also really, really hard. I got quite far on medium difficulty mode but eventually had to switch to easy – I would have liked to have continued on medium but this review would not have appeared for at least another few weeks. Ammo becomes sparse, enemies become plentiful and the whole situation becomes very intense. You end up constantly running backwards unloading all the ammo from your favourite weapon, switching to your second and so on, until you’re bringing harpies down with your pistol. It wouldn’t be so bad if the enemies didn’t spawn right behind you, appearing out of thin air and charging you in an instant. But that is what makes the game so good.

The game would be near impossible if it were not for the autosave: just tap the magical little Y button and all your woes are gone. You will need to auto save numerous times throughout every fight as death is never far away. It’s likely that I auto saved over thirty times during one battle alone.

However, no offline co-op, seems like a missed opportunity as the game could have captured more of that old school feel

Co-op helps the situation greatly, and with up to 4 player online it’s also great fun. The difficulty can be personalised to suit even the least skilled players, as well as the masochist’s that play it on serious mode. The games I played were lag free, a must if it is to have any real legs. There is, however, no offline co-op, this seems to be a missed opportunity as the game could have captured and continued the old-school feel that it is going for.

Serious Sam will leave you a dribbling wreck but it is definitely worth a purchase. Be warned though, if you are not a patient gamer then this is probably not the game for you, picking it up alongside two or three friends would make your experience more enjoyable. Sit back, stretch those thumbs, and prepare to cause some Samacide!