Arcade gaming at it's best.
Serious Sam is a first-person shooter set in Ancient Egypt. The main plot is simply about humanity suffering a threat of extermination by alien forces. Sam 'Serious' Stone, a war hero to the people, is sent back in time to the Ancient years of Egypt in the hope of finding a way to stop the monster threat. Sam is alone while he fights a variety of foes on his quest. Sam is guided by a computer AI in his head called NETRICSA who provides valuable information for progression and answers any questions about the area or weapons or enemy creatures.
This game is perhaps most famous for it's engine. The fact that the Serious engine can put up with dozens of AI at once without dropping a single frame is simply remarkable. The lack of any bugs and glitches, as well as the low system requirements for the time just add to the quality. When I looked at what were considered outstanding graphics by critics in 2001 games, I just got more impressed by the detailed visuals of the game. The environmental detail (e.g. concrete) reminded me of a 2004 game. The only thing I criticise is that Sam's animation when shown in third-person, is a bit blocky, but the engines positive points are just too good to let down by that little flaw.
The gameplay is very straightfoward, but it is the most important thing about this game possibly. As Sam, you just shoot and kill your way during smooth, gory and quick action. It is very intense, and enemies sometimes made me jump because some pop out of nowhere. The game also features massive wide-open environments when you are outdoors, and even some of the indoor environments are not too small. In order to progress, you will need to sometimes defeat waves of enemies, or solve easy puzzles to open a door. While the easiest difficulty of the combat really is for 'non-FPS players', the hardest ones will almost feel like the real thing have you standing behind cover whenever possible in order to survive. It is an old-school, arcade game so you cannot expect anything more deep than that, but all these things are massive fun.
However, that is not to say that Serious Sam is a dumb game. It may be mindless arcade, but there are some brilliant ideas put in. The game plot, although very simple in general, is quite decent for an arcade. The AI creatures all have very unique designs and there is a large variety of them. The game contains some awesome secrets in each level, one of my favourites being a hidden Croteam Papyrus somewhere in the Karnak level. This game is a comedy and aside from some funny hidden locations, you will often get some hilarious quotes from Sam (he is not very serious, isn't he). For example, listen carefully to what movie theme he whistles when a boulder drops towards him. If the action does not satisfy you and keep you going, the laughs certainly will.
What this game also triumphs in is the level design. Like I said before, the game has MASSIVE open environments right from the first level that give lot of exploration and room to discover a few secrets. The beautiful Egyptian setting stays the whole time, but I felt that it really worked to just keep it there, and the beautiful, interesting environments do differ throughout so it is not frustratingly repetitive. This arcade game does feature a few puzzles as well. While some of them are pretty darn simple (like simply find a key), there are also some pretty easy, but clever and unusually original ones (like a moving sphinx-pair moment) and you would get the idea that the team has been researching a lot on ancient Egypt for the puzzles as well as the areas. The last boss battle is not won by merely shooting it and there is a puzzle to solve for it. And considering that the team consisted of only six people, it still feels like a game developed by a pretty big studio.
The sound in this game is another remarkable achievement. The gun sounds all manage to help each weapon feel different and fresh. The creatures also sound quite unique and can sometimes surprise you if they appear unexpectedly. The voice-acting for Serious Sam by John J Dick, the only voice-cast member - Sam is the only human in this game after all - is also well done and brings a great character to life (NETRICSA is also amusing in personality). Let's not forget about the music which consists of bass riffs and Egyptian style tunes. The music softens when you are alone, but intensifies when enemies appear and that works incredibly well. All the bass riffs are catchy, but it is the complete Egyptian style tunes that really stand out apart from the final boss battle music: Some examples are the peaceful background music for the Oasis level, or the scary action music in Ramese III's tomb which even features creature scream sound effects in it and make it feel grisly.
This is a stunning game for its time, and I am very proud of Croteam for being able to create an outstanding arcade shooter with such a small group of people. For a few gamers, the frequent repetitiveness will understandably bore them, but if you enjoy it as much as I have, you won't get bored any time soon, and you'll keep going back for more. I wouldn't give it a perfect ten, but for a game as fun and technically advanced as this, it is impossible not to. This game and it's (true) sequel 'The Second Encounter' are all must-owns. Serious Sam 2, although fun, is not near as good as the original games are. I played the HD version first, but I still enjoy this original version so much, and that is saying something.