Serious Sam The First Encounter
$19.95		(Win95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP) (Retail) (SERIOUSSPR)

Publisher: Croteam / Gathering of Developers

Game

Violence, Blood and Gore

Ratings:

9/10 from Eurogamer

In the Near Future

During the first interstellar travels, humans encounter great evil roaming the galaxy for last few eons. The evil being is an incarnation of the last of the ancient immortals named Tah-Um (or in English - Notorious Mental). Mental has set forth to wipe the earthlings out for sheer fun, just like it did with all the other civilizations in the galactic history. This time, humans have a secret weapon left to them by an extinct civilization from Sirius - Timelock. Timelock will enable special forces veteran Sam 'Serious' Stone to return to the time of ancient Egypt and assassinate Mental.

Serious Sam is a high-adrenaline arcade-action shooter heavily focused on frantic arcade-style single player action. In a world where cyberpunk meets fantasy-fiction and advanced technology is mixed with black magic and psycho-powers, Sam travels through the beautiful world of ancient Egypt and several diverse planets, confronting countless Mental's minions on his way to the Mental's base.

Standout Features of Serious Sam:

Multiple Gravity: You can fight with enemies who are jumping from one wall to the other, or ambushing you from the ceiling.

Multi-Player 2-4 split screen support: Multi-player capabilities over the Internet or LAN allow you to play through the entire game with others online. And the 4-player split screen function supports single computer multi-play. How much abuse can your keyboard take?

Powerful 3D technology featuring advanced tools: Directional light for daylight scenes. Portals and mirrors. Truly dynamic volumetric fog and haze.

Bright and Beautiful surroundings: With such a clear picture you may want to get out the suntan lotion. Lens flares so real you'll have to squint.

Serious editor and modeler included: Create your own levels, models and enemies, then import them directly into the game.

Serious Sam = Serious Fun

Serious Monsters: Serious Sam features over 15 kill-hungry monsters all bent on introducing you to the afterlife. From Giant Scorpions to missile-launching Biomechanoids, you'll have to shoot blast and rocket your way through all of them. And that's just the first level.

Serious Weapons: Over 10 weapons, including a Gatling gun, Colt .45, double-barreled shotgun, Tommy gun, rocket launcher, laser blaster, cannon and more.

Requirements:

Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/NT/XP: AMD K6-3 400 MHz, Pentium II or Celeron-A 300 MHz (AMD Athlon 550 MHz or Pentium III 550 MHz recommended), 64 MB RAM (128 MB RAM recommended), Fully Open GL compliant 3D video accelerator (nVidia GeForce256 or GeForce2, PowerVR Kyro, S3 Savage2000, 3Dfx Voodoo5, ATI Radeon recommended), Windows compatible sound card (SoundBlaster Live recommended), 150 MB free hard disk space (450 MB free hard disk space recommended).

Reviews:

Eurogamer by John "Gestalt" Bye

"Despite its title, Serious Sam is a first person shooter which doesn't take itself too seriously, replacing the intricate storylines, elaborate scripted sequences, realistic weaponry and advanced artificial intelligence which we have all become used to in the last few years with its own unique brand of high octane action and oddball humour. Sam himself seems to have been part of a bizarre cloning experiment involving the DNA of Duke Nukem (locked away in cryogenic deep freeze since his last excursion back in the mid 1990s), and is always ready with an amusing one liner, equally at home laying down the smack on his enemies and whistling the Indiana Jones theme as giant boulders roll past him."

"The focus is very much on action, with a Doom-like intensity which makes even last year's KISS: Psycho Circus look tame in comparison. One of the most chaotic maps features more monsters than appeared in the whole of Quake, although thankfully there is usually a plentiful supply of ammunition on hand to deal with them."

"This is one of the wildest, most scary games I've played in a long time, with monsters hiding around almost every corner waiting to leap out of the shadows and maul you. Many of your enemies like to get up close and personal, making for some real in-your-face action as you fight off their unwelcome advances. At times you will physically jump in surprise, while some of the most hectic boss encounters will have your heart pumping pure adrenaline through burning veins as you struggle to take down entire armies of monsters single-handed. AI is not a strongpoint of the game, but what your enemies lack in brains they more than make up for in numbers and sheer persistence."

"Serious Sam isn't particularly intelligent or even enormously original, but if you are looking for a game where you can disengage your brain and indulge in some good old fashioned wholesale slaughter then this is about as good as they come. The button pounding action is the most frantic you will find this side of an arcade shooter, the graphics second only to the likes of Quake 3, and the brightly lit Egyptian scenery a refreshing change from the norm."

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