Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2001)

Serious Sam is a first person shooter that released over 20 years ago! Since it’s release, the game has been remastered and rereleased in HD. Let’s consider the pros and cons of Serious Sam: The First Encounter…

Pros: Firstly, Serious Sam is up there with Doom, as a pioneer in the FPS genre. A snarky mercenary versus an extraterrestrial threat is all you need to know to get sucked into this story. Secondly, the voice work by John J. Dick is fantastic. Although he’s mostly limited to one liners and short quips, it fits the tone of the game perfectly! Speaking of tone, the Egyptian inspired soundtrack is also great, tuning in and out depending on the environment. Lastly, the multiplayer option is a nice feature. In fact, I’d highly recommend playing this in co-op mode because the levels get increasingly difficult!

Cons: Piggybacking off my last point under “pros”, this game is not easy! I played on normal difficulty and still found myself dying, time and time again. Dying is all part of the fun when completing games like this, but I still considered giving up multiple times. Some of the areas felt unnecessarily impossible to get through. Of course, there’s an option to adjust difficulty, but I’m stubborn and pushed through anyways. Secondly, the button mapping is slightly frustrating, at least for PC. Even when using a controller, some hotkeys are permanently bound and can not be swapped. Besides that, this is a very straightforward game. Kill the enemies, stay alive, collect the artifacts, and you’ll be okay!

I give Serious Sam a B. It’s a solid action game with cool weapons, exceptional voice acting, and a fun story. It’s slightly dated, but a good time nonetheless. Grab a friend if possible and go forth and save the world! Happy Gaming!

“Are you Serious?”