Serious Sam
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Serious Sam is the title of a series of first-person shooters created by the Croatian company Croteam. So far the following computer games have been released:
The third game in the trilogy, titled Serious Sam 2, was officially announced in April 2005 by Croteam and Take-Two Interactive. This game is currently set for a third- or fourth-quarter 2005 release, for both the PC and the Xbox.
Several games has been released for video game console systems:
- 2004 Serious Sam: Next Encounter for the Nintendo GameCube and the Sony PlayStation 2
- 2004 Serious Sam: Advance for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance
The games follow the adventures of hero "Serious" Sam Stone and his fight against the forces of the alien overlord Mental. While they are at least as gory as other FPS games the tone is lightened through humor — in the form of one-liners by the eponymous hero and a series of implausible weapons and enemies (including Santa Claus in the second game) — and an enjoyable rock music track.
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The story
In ancient times, Earth was involved in a conflict between Mental and the Sirians. In the 22nd century Mental's forces return to Earth, and in desperation Sam Stone is sent back to ancient Egypt through the Time Lock in an attempt to defeat Mental and alter the course of history.
In The First Encounter Sam's task is to battle his way through the cities of ancient Egypt and locate a transmitter that will call a spaceship to take him to Mental for a final showdown.
At the start of The Second Encounter Sam's spaceship collides with the Croteam Cratebus shortly after takeoff and crash-lands in South America. Sam must do battle again, this time through ancient Mayan cities, ancient Babylon and medievel Eastern Europe, in his quest to bring Mental down.
Enemies
Enemies marked with an asterisk can be found in Serious Sam - the Second Encounter.
- Marsh hopper
Marsh hopper is the weakest enemy in the game. However, they are deadly in swarms.
One of the most uncommon enemy in the game, especially in Second Encounter (Tower of Babel level is an exception). They will fire a weak missile like projectile and are very easy to kill.
They are even less common than beheaded rocketeers. They will sweep the small arena in front of them with 5 'crawling' projectiles. They are also easy to kill.
Beheaded bombers can be found only in some places. They will throw bombs and explode after dying.
Beheaded kamikaze, the most recognizable enemy, rushes at the player with a distinctive Doppler effect scream and attempts to blow up at a point-blank range.
Zorg commanders fire 2 reddish projectiles. They are one of the main infantry units.
Zorg commanders fire a spread of five projectiles and are commonly found among Zorg mercenaries. Their projectiles are purple-colored.
Low level enemy, who runs (ground form) or flies (flying form), trying to punch (ground form) or bite (flying form) the player. Few gnaars are nearly invisible.
Similar to male gnaar, but these ones are bigger and has more health.
Considered as the most annoying enemy in Serious Sam. They will lurk underwater and fire an electric beam towards the player.
Harpies launch projectiles from a distance and dive-bomb at closer ranges. They sometimes carry other enemies into battle.
- Static cannon*
Static cannons fire cannonballs, which can kill the player very quickly.
- Rotating cannon*
Similar to static cannons, but can rotate, thus giving them a larger arena to fire at player.
Skeletons have a slow, easy to dodge missile attack, but they mainly try to lunge at the player. They can be found alone as well as in large groups.
The chainsaw-wielding Cucurbito usually charges in a straight, easily sidestepped line.
The werebull is tough to kill and attacks in a stampede directly at the player.
- Young arachnoid
They are armed with an instant-hit machinegun and are usually sniping the player.
- Adult arachnoid
Similar to young arachnoids, but they are heavily armored and their attack lasts longer.
The Zumb'ul launches two strong projectiles at the player, which are easily dodged at long range, but deadly at mid-close range.
They will usually try to attack you from a long distance with fireballs. Fireballs have homing abilities in large arenas.
- Minor biomechanoid
This blue walker fires a stream of laser shots at the player, and is not very hard to kill.
- Major biomechanoid
This tall red walker attacks with repeated rocket attacks, and is hard to destroy.
- Aludrian reptiloid-common
They are usually found on elevated spots. They fire green homing projectiles, which can be destroyed.
- Aludrian reptiloid-highlander
These are very large, heavily-armored and deadly enemies who launch 3-6 fireballs at the same time depending on health. They are very rare.
- Aludrian reptiloid-highlander's bride*
They are even larger, more rare and more heavily armored enemies than the regular highlanders.
- Lava golem - small
They are low-level enemies, who throw magma chunks at player.
- Lava golem - large
These are high-level enemies, who throw magma rocks at player (they can calculate your movements). When they are heavily injured or dead, they will usually spawn small lava golems.
- Lava golem - huge
These lava golems are very rare. They will throw large magma rocks at the player. When they are hit or dead, they spawn large lava golems.
- Kukulkan-the wind god.*
The boss of the Mayan chapter of the Secound Encounter. Kukulkan is fought in a large arena with other enemies pouring in, and can only be harmed by explosive weapons and lasers.
The boss of the Babylonian chapter of the Second Encounter. It will fire a lot of plasma balls at you and when it's a low on health, it will fire its devastating lasers.
The final boss from the Second Encounter. He just summons enemies to do the dirty job for him.
The final boss from the First encounter. Ugh-Zan III is 90 meters tall, carries 4 weapons (lava chunk launcher, lasergun, zappergun and a rocket launcher, all gigantic) + he can launch fireballs from his mouth.
Trivia
Both games are based on the "Serious engine" and it seems that the first game was originally developed as a demonstrator for the engine. The games are interesting for several reasons:
- The graphics are of very high quality for the year 2001 standards; the use of color and lighting is atypical of the genre and many of the game areas are truly breathtaking.
- The game engine is very efficient, capable of maintaining dozens of moving enemies even on a modest system — something that would challenge the Unreal or Half-Life engines.
- Even at the original release the game was priced at less than half that of other games in the genre.
- There is a large amount of replay value, brought about by the extraordinary amount of secrets, and the multiplayer modes, which includes a co-operative mode, something not commonly seen in modern first-person shooters.
Sequel
Serious Sam 2 is currently in development using a brand new iteration of the Serious Engine known as "Serious Engine 2." featuring many state-of-the-art features. The last media from the new engine was released at the 2004 Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com) (GDC). Both in-game videos (http://files.seriouszone.com/catdisplay.php?catid=84) and screenshots (http://www.seriouszone.com/gallery/ss2) were released in the time surrounding the GDC. Since then the only additional official information released has been in the form of development reports (http://www.seriouszone.com/cms/news.php?action=dosearch&catid=11) on the Engine released via Croteam's official website (http://www.croteam.com).
Serious Sam 2 (or Serious Sam II) was officially announced in the middle of April and showcased at E3 in the year 2005 and should be relased in 4th quater of the year 2005.
Console versions
- 2002 Serious Sam (Xbox)
- 2004 Serious Sam: Next Encounter (Xbox, GameCube)
- 2004 Serious Sam Advance (Game Boy Advance)
External links
- Official Serious Sam website (http://www.serioussam.com/)
- Croteam website (http://www.croteam.com/)
- Moby Game's entry on the Serious Sam series (http://www.mobygames.com/game_group/sheet/gameGroupId,518/)
- Seriously! - Largest Fan Site on the Internet (http://www.seriouszone.com) - Forums, Downloads, News, Interviews, etc...de:Serious Sam