Serious Sam - Gold Edition (Xbox 360)

I've been waiting to re-visit Serious Sam having played the original PC versions when Croteam released them years ago. Here's my review on the new HD version:Serious Sam - The First Encounter (HD)The levels have been revamped to show stunning quality landscape, particle effects and enemy detail - whilst also giving Serious Sam Fans the nostalgic "I remember this part" as they progress. Whether you want to casually destroy hundreds of monsters with the infamous minigun or take your time exploring the brilliant landscapes for secrets, you won't be disappointed playing this game through again. The difficulties scale appropriately, offering higher score multipliers for those daring to go into Serious/Mental mode.Serious Sam - The Second Encounter (HD)Again, following on from the first encounter in storyline, the second encounter of Serious Sam offers even more carnage, high-detail explosions, effects and of course, Sam's humour throughout. You will definately appreciate the changes to landscape, enemies, weaponry and effects when re-playing this encounter on the new HD version.Serious Sam - Xbox LIVESerious Sam (Gold Edition) comes with a Deathmatch option on LIVE, however as I haven't tried this yet, I won't give any comments on it. It also comes with the option to venture into Co-operative play with other players on any level of your choosing. You can search for games in the lobby, review the difficulty/level before you join, and the added bonus is you don't have to wait for a NEW game to start - you can join other people's levels as they've progressed through it already. Excellent.You also have the option (if you feel lucky..) to join a random game, with a random level/difficulty. This adds spice to searching for the ultimate serious game. It also makes matchmaking quicker, if you're not fussed about where and who you play with. A voting system is available within multiplayer matches (if the host has allowed it) to give players the option to vote for a new level, difficulty or to kick another player. Other great settings include the ability to set specific respawn credits (AKA lives) so that you have to be 'serious' about how you play to progress. Alternatively, you can set it to infinite, so you can be as mental as you like and not suffer from failing to complete the level (Each death does affect your score, however).Overall rating and summary:Gameplay Experience - 4.8/5: You can't really improve on much, but if I had to pick something, I'd say that the high-end difficulties (Serious/Mental) are ever so slightly unbalanced at the start of the game, especially as you have very little to battle dozens of things trying to give your face plastic surgery without anesthetic.Multiplayer Experience - 5/5 : Its brilliant. Get a few friends together, grab your favourite weapon and let rip on hoardes of enemies. You can't get more fun - Seriously!Graphics: 4.8/5 : They're not *the* best that Xbox games have to offer, but they're close. Very good quality, worthy of high marks.Overall: I'm going to say this is worthy of a 5 out of 5, as the combined elements make for a great single AND multiplayer experience. Good all-round game - If you've ever had any doubts about Serious Sam, this game should clear them all up for you. SERIOUSLY!

AHAHAHAAH oh my god. i remember playing the demo of this game countless time back then. Now back to business. This game is so ABSURD, i mean, did you see the enemies? Well so absurd that is fun! and i mean it! LOTS OF SHOOTING AND FUN. Very challenging even at the lower levels. A great variety of weapons and (*chuckle) enemies. The plot isn't really and hollywood script, kinda like made by a 9 years old, but the environment and the place where it is set (egypt) is well recreated, and so are the models.If you are looking for a simple, long challenging game, well take a look at this.i am SERIOUS.

The Serious Sam series is pretty much a celebration of the old first person games of yore, celebrating simplicity over gimmicks and story-driven gameplay. While there is a story of sorts, it's mostly irrelevant as you control Sam in his quest to save the world. Seriously, this is as cliched as it gets, and the story itself is meaningless. You could be doing anything really, as long as you get to shoot things. Maybe you're on a quest for the Holy Cheese Grater or something. I care not for the story, only for the gameplay, as Serious Sam does not need a story.If you're new to the Serious Sam games, allow me to enlighten you. The gameplay is very simplistic compared to many modern day shooters, and harks back to the days of Doom. The slight twist though, is that, depending on the difficulty setting, Sam is bombarded with spawning enemies, whose AI literally consists of charging towards you. Suicide bombers rush you with a rage filled yell, while skeleton-esque enemies throw bones in your direction.It's quite possible to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies, but you do have some conventional, if uninspiring and cliched, generic weapons to aid you.Serious Sam HD is basically two seperate Xbox Live games on one disc. It's also a port of the original Xbox Serious Sam game, which in turn was a port of the PC edition. Only in glorious HD.The game runs at a very smooth frame rate, helped mainly by the sparse and simplistic graphics. It's a colourful looking game, but in no way is any graphical technology pushed. The minimalist graphics also allow for some often ENORMOUS environments, but this can lead to Serious Sam's downfall in some ways. There are a few levels which simply have a very long and straight path to the exit in which enemies spawn upon it. These levels are not fun; they are merely filler - to pad the game length out beyond what is necessary, but that's not the reason why I'm marking the game down a star.That reason is because, due to the nature of the gameplay, Serious Sam is exceptionally repetitive. It's the sort of game you'd only want to play a couple of levels at a time per day. Partly because of the constant shooting, and partly due to the size of the levels.Split-screen Co-Operative Mode is probably what saves the game. Well, it would do if I had anyone to play with. Being 29 years old, I'm not the sort of person who invites friends over to play on the Xbox. But, remembering the days of split-screen on the original Xbox before my brother moved out, I have to confess to really enjoying it.To summarise then - by all means purchase Serious Sam. It's a good game. But it's a game which is lightweight in terms of gameplay. There is an obvious lack of variety (aside from certain stages where you are required to collect items before proceeding) and simply blasting enemies constantly can be overkill. But that's the point of Serious Sam - it celebrates the olden days of simplicity. It does nothing more than that, and there's nothing bad as such about the game. Don't expect an in-depth story or amazing gameplay mechanics because you won't get them here. What you WILL get (eventually) is a desire to turn off the game. Not because it's bad, but because you will have overdosed on your fix of mindless enemy death.

ExcellentVery Good

This is the shooter that really made a game good..LOTS of excellent 3D action and shooting. This is what the game is supposed to be about anyway. First person games are my favorite and I do not care much for a story but Serious Sam still has a general story and good graphics and sound! Although there are new shooters coming out that have newer graphics systems, this one made what those games are now, whether anyone wants to admit it or not! I never found one bug in these games and I have played them on several computers.

Serious Sam for years has been a very nostalgic game for me as a PC gamer along with Quake and Unreal Tournament. This game may not be for everybody but for me its a serious winner, you have got lots of guns, lots of enemies and huge boss battles with funny jokes woven in and set aside. This reworked HD version for the Xbox 360 has been done flawlessly in my opinion, its a great buy for gamers new to Serious Sam as well as for die hard fans, I am not saying this is a must buy for everybody but its a must buy if it sounds like your kind of game.

Quick delivery.Excellent condition and awesome game.

The Serious Sam games on PC were some of my favourite games as a kid. To this day I can't be bothered with all the frustrating stuff in games, I just like something playable. So seeing it with a HD revamp on the 360 for such a great price was like a dream come true.The game is fun. No doubt about it. But. And not necessarily a big but...It hasn't aged badly, as such. But over the years I've grown so used to a certain level of depth in my games (no matter how superficial it may normally be) that in the end Serious Sam's lack of it means it gets boring, fast.Waves and waves of scripted enemies charge at you in greater and great quantities for more wilder and wilder firefights and for the first hour or so, you'll probably be laughing your head off at the craziness of explosions and gore and body parts but by the second hour you'll probably be finding yourself asking, 'is this it?'.There's a little light puzzle solving and platforming with occasional new weapons to find and large quantities of enemies to kill but that's about it.So it's to be enjoyed in short bursts, if to be enjoyed at all. And honestly, I'm not sure how much a newcomer would find these fun. If I hadn't got constant nostalgia and joy of the HD graphics I'd probably be bored completely, with the kind of things most modern shooters offer these days.