Serious Sam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Serious Sam: The First Encounter | |
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| Developer(s) | Croteam |
| Publisher(s) | Gathering of Developers (GOD games) |
| Engine | Serious Engine |
| Version | 1.05 |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows) (Linux) |
| Release date | March, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Media | CD-ROM (1) |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse |
Serious Sam is the title of a series of first-person shooters created by the Croatian company Croteam. Originally released for the PC market only, Serious Sam's rising popularity resulted in the porting of the series to a number of different platforms, including the Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, and Sony PlayStation2 among others.
The series follows the adventures of hero Sam "Serious" Stone and his fight against the forces of the extraterrestrial overlord Notorious Mental who seeks to destroy humanity.
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[edit] Gameplay
The series's gameplay involves large amounts of enemies, large, open areas, and various hidden rooms. The levels in the games are massive, depicting vast plains, deep valleys and the exterior/interior of the monuments of different human civilizations. Monster fighting makes up most of the games, with Sam's only help being NETRICSA (NEuro-TRonically Implanted Combat Situation Analyser), an advanced computer AI surgically inserted in the hero's head. NETRICSA serves as an in-game strategy guide, cataloguing encountered enemies and powerups, and at the same time providing bits about the background story and hints on how to cross the levels.
[edit] Games
[edit] The First Encounter
The First Encounter was the first game in the series which had been in the making since 1996 and had a video showing its early game play in 2000. Apparently The First Encounter was originally developed by Croteam as a demonstrator for their engine and this is the reason why some countries saw its initial release priced at less than half the value of other games in the genre.
The game introduction reveals what happened before the game actually takes place: in ancient times, Earth was involved in a conflict between Mental and the Sirians, an alien race that left many of its artifacts to be found by humanity. In the 22nd century Mental's forces return to Earth hell-bent on eradicating humankind: as a last resort the usage of the "Time Lock" is decided: this Sirian device can send back through time a single individual who can, hopefully, defeat Mental and alter the course of history. Because of his bravery in fighting the monsters, Sam "Serious" Stone is chosen to use the "Time Lock". As the game opens, Sam appears in ancient Egypt: his travels from one Egyptian monument to the next, all the way fighting against the monsters Mental sent after him, make up most of the story of The First Encounter. During his wandering, Sam is able to activate a hidden Sirian communicator , located in Luxor, that summons to Earth a starship from the depths of space. Sam goes to the Great Pyramid for a rendez-vous with the ship and, after a titanic battle against Mental's general Ugh Zan III, he is whisked on-board the Sirian starship.[1][2][3]
| Serious Sam: The Second Encounter | |
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| Developer(s) | Croteam |
| Publisher(s) | Gathering of Developers |
| Engine | Serious Engine |
| Version | 1.07 |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows) |
| Release date | February, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Media | CD-ROM (1) |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse |
[edit] Reception
The First Encounter was the recipient of various editorial and consumer praise, with an overall 83% review ratio on Game Rankings[4] as of October 1st, 2007. It was the recipient of several major awards from the media, including Game of the Year.
- Game of the Year (PC) (2001) – GameSpot[5]
- Editor's Choice – IGN[6]
- Outstanding Achievement in Technology (2001) – IGN Action Vault[7]
- Surprise of the Year (2001) – IGN Action Vault[8]
[edit] The Second Encounter
The Second Encounter starts right where the previous chapter left off, with Sam travelling to Sirius on the starship. Unfortunately Sam's vehicle is accidentally hit by the "Croteam crate-bus" and plummets down to Earth's surface. Serious Sam crash lands in Central America in the Mayan age. However not all is lost, since the Sirians left a back-up ship on Earth. Since this vehicle is located in a different age from the one Sam finds himself, the hero has to uncover the locations of a number of Sirian time-gates that will help him reach his destination. With this objective Sam storms through Mesoamerica, then travels to Mesopotamia and finally to medieval Europe where the starship is located. Finally, in front of the Cathedral of Holy Blood, Sam confronts Mordekai The Summoner, the last obstacle to overcome on his path to the Holy Grail. After a time-consuming battle with Mordekai's minions, The Summoner is finally silenced forever. In the cathedral, Sam lifts the Holy Grail, followed by his confession of his sins in a booth... to Mental, during which he reassures Mental that "he's coming to get him."
Other than the more varied locations, The Second Encounter features some additional weapons — a chainsaw, a flamethrower, a sniper rifle, and the powerful Serious Bomb — and a number of new monsters that Sam has to face. This game has also seen the release of an expansion titled Serious Sam: Dark Island, featuring some new levels for single and multiplayer mode.
[edit] Gold Edition
Serious Sam: Gold Edition is a special Serious Sam release featuring all the contents of The First Encounter, The Second Encounter and the expansion Dark Island. The games are on separate CDs (in the UK version) and are identical to their individual releases, although the Sam character model for The First Encounter has been modified to match the one used in The Second Encounter.
[edit] Serious Sam (Xbox)
The Xbox edition of Serious Sam had notable differences including the model of Sam being changed from the model of First Encounter, to form a more cartoon style Sam, removing the shades to make a less Duke Nukem looking character making how Sam looks today. The graphics were improved, levels were tweaked and enemy models too. Also some brand new cutscenes were added to make more fun for the player. The gameplay was changed slightly too, creating 'treasure' to collect as well as the secrets in the previous PC games, a combo system for killing enemies and collecting secrets was also added to make use of the score in the PC games, the score then earned you lives to respawn instead of starting from a save point, finally, weapons from The Second Encounter were added to the levels that were part of the First Encounter on PC.
[edit] Serious Sam The Next Encounter
Next Encounter is a console exclusive version of Serious Sam that was released for the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo GameCube. The weapons in Next Encounter are all remakes of those from the PC games (e.g. the revolvers are renamed to pistols), also support for vehicles and brand new levels with previously visited history periods new have been added; in addition, different types of ammunition were available for certain weapons. In line with the PC releases, Next Encounter retailed at a budget price of 19.99 (USD). While this game was not developed by Croteam, but by Climax under stylistical and technological terms, it is still identical to the other games in the series. Climax also developed Serious Sam: Advance. It starts off with Sam Stone stepping into a time machine which teleported him into ancient Rome where large groups of Mental's forces are waiting.
[edit] Serious Sam II
The third game in the series was officially announced by Croteam and Take-Two Interactive for both the PC and the Xbox in April 2005 and released on October 11, 2005. A PC demo was made available on September 21. Although Serious Sam II is actually the third game in the series, the first two games are widely considered to be two halves to one larger game, similar to Doom and Doom II. Thus, Serious Sam II might be considered as the true sequel to The First Encounter and The Second Encounter.
[edit] Serious Sam III
Announced by Croteam and printed in many gaming news articles such as Eurogamer[1], there is a third game in the works. The game will be powered by the new "Serious Engine III" designed to run on modern systems. So far, there is no information as to what consoles the game will appear on or if it will appear on the PC.
[edit] Development
Croteam created their own engine for use in both First Encounter and Second Encounter. Named the "Serious Engine", it is designed to cope with extremely large view distances and massive numbers of models, unlike most FPS engines which are developed for a limited draw distance and only a few animating models (i.e. enemies) on screen at a time: it is very efficient, capable of maintaining dozens of moving enemies (often stampedes) even on a modest system challenging the well known Quake, Unreal or Half-Life engines. The "Serious Engine" can render through both Direct3D or OpenGL and, while it does not support pixel or vertex shaders, it is optimised for Direct3D 7's hardware transformation, clipping and lighting. The "Serious Engine" has been also available as a licensed engine from Croteam.[9]
The next, more powerful iteration of the "Serious Engine" has been developed for use in Serious Sam II and has been called "Serious Engine II".
[edit] References
- ^ www.seriouszone.com/ssgold/festory.php. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ www.seriouszone.com/ssgold/feoverview.php. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ www.globalstarsoftware.com/games/serioussam/pc/. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/257237.asp. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/bestof_2001/p5_06.html. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ pc.ign.com/articles/165/165156p1.html. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ actionvault.ign.com/features/specials/awards01_a.shtml. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ actionvault.ign.com/features/specials/awards01_a.shtml. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
- ^ Serious Engine Overview. Croteam. Retrieved on 2006-09-05.
[edit] External links
- Croteam website
- Serious Sam series at MobyGames
- Seriously! – Serious Coverage – Forums, Downloads, News, Interviews, etc.
- Nitro Family- Licensed game made with the Serious Engine, with similar gameplay.
