Serious Sam
2002
- shooter
- adventure
- action
- science fiction
- comedy
- single player
- multiplayer
The story
A port of Serious Sam: The First Encounter and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter for Xbox that compiles them into one cohesive game. Features a visual makeover with a redesigned menu and main character model which are far more cartoonish, alongside expanded story cutscenes.
What it’s like
Bright, sun-baked arenas under a blazing desert sky, with cartoonish colour and a deliberately jokey sheen: the Xbox port swaps in a more exaggerated, comic-styled hero and a redesigned menu, while the levels keep their wide, open, Egyptian and temple-ruin vistas and enormous crowds of grinning, cartoon monsters. The sound is loud and bombastic, all pounding percussion, roaring weapon fire and wisecracking one-liners, with the cutscenes now stretched into fuller comic beats. Pacing is relentless: you sprint through open spaces, strafing and circle-running while hordes swarm from every direction, and the rhythm rises into chaotic, goofy set pieces rather than dread. It is a loud, silly, adrenaline-driven shooter, best for a rowdy evening or a stress-release session with a controller, and violence is constant but stylised, with cartoonish gore and no real horror. It suits players who want frantic, tongue-in-cheek action and nothing that unsettles.
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