Serious Sam is a long-running action FPS series which lets you kill huge armies of alien enemies in semi-open, arena-style maps. The collection offers the HD remasters of three games (TFE, TSE and BFE) and all of their DLC content.
The First Encounter is the most simple of the trilogy, The Second Encounter introduces new enemies, powerups and jump pads and Before First Encounter introduces sprinting and aim down sights. All three games share a traditional approach to shooter gameplay and feel very arcade-y in that regard.
If you're not familiar with Serious Sam, it's not much different to games like Doom or Duke Nukem. There's not a lot of story and it's very easy to pick up and play.
In the distant future, a collective of alien species ruled over by overlord Mental attack Earth. Famed US soldier and all around badass Sam "Serious" Stone uses an ancient relic to go back in time to periods such as Ancient Egypt and the time of the Aztecs in order to fight the aliens and secure artifacts.
While I mentioned these games are very accessible to anyone who has played any FPS game in the last 10 years, it can get overwhelming at times when you are forced to fight hundreds of enemies at a time. Some of these encounters are also treated as puzzles, which get you to take in the environment and strategize. You will be using a lot of circle strafing and rocket jumping if you want to have a fighting chance.
Despite Serious Sam being a linear, level-by-level shooter, the map design is incredibly dynamic for the time it released. A lot of maps are large and have an open feel towards them, which compliments the hidden secrets and endless hordes of enemies attacking you all the time!
The weapons in these games are standard, and no different to weapons you would find in Doom or otherwise. You have a pistol, which you can duel wield. You have two shotguns, including a double barrel shotgun for double damage. You will get a Tommy Gun and Chaingun. A laser gun, a grenade launcher and rocket launcher and a handheld cannon which acts as a BFG 9000 of sorts. You don't get all of these weapons straight away, but you can carry all of them in your inventory and are not limited to just 2 weapons like Halo or COD.
There are different enemy types you will encounter in each game includes standard headless grunts that shoot you, screaming headless zamikazes (which this game is most known for), one-eyed monsters which can run or fly at you from the air, flying eagle women, alien mechs that can either fire rockets or laser ammo at you, insanely accurate scorpion monsters which shoot you down, lava monsters and much more. There's a good amount of variety of enemies and they all have different tactics to take you down. I forgot to mention the running jackal skeletons and bulls, which can be most deadly in groups!
Achievements here can all be done in singleplayer, and nothing is out of the ordinary for a game like this. The hardest achievement to unlock would have to be playing one of the campaigns on serious difficulty, but this is not too bad as you only need to do 1 of the 3 campaigns.
All in all, Serious Sam Collection is definitely worth your time if you enjoy FPS games. It's very easy to get into and has a lot to offer for its price. For game series which started on a really tight budget, it sure shows its influence in modern games of today.
4.0