Reviews - Serious Sam: The First Encounter

Great game, every enemy and weapon has its purpose, and it does a great job at easing you in to fighting hordes of enemies counting in the thousands. It's only in Luxor that it feels like a slog, but given that I've played through it about four times in two months, I'd say it's a great shooter for me! I just wish that I got to play it sooner.

Serious Sam: The First Encounter (TFE) is indeed a classic FPS and arguably a must-play for everyone who loves this genre of games. However, even when compared to contemporary or older FPS, Serious Sam: TFE doesn't shine due to its below-average graphics and AI, absurd and uninteresting narrative and repetitive gameplay that can get old real fast.

The Egyptian landscapes are a good choice, and although the graphics may not be the best for a 2000s game, they definitely contribute to the ambience. Player characters are varied and you can customize several things like your crosshair and your name, which comes in handy for multiplayer (perhaps the best thing this game has to offer). However, enemies' models make little sense, ranging from decapitated humans to big four-armed demon-like creatures. They aren't particularly visually appealing by start-of-the-century standards, although they are tolerable. The soundtrack deserves a little mention, as it is packed with epicness that immerses you in an ambience that blends Egyptian features with a killing spree-style gameplay.

As for the story, the more I try to I understand it, the less sense it makes. You are supposedly an explorer looking for treasure in an ancient Egyptian temple, but all of a sudden you encounter strange, unfitting creatures and even extraterrestrial beings. Each step in the story makes less sense than the previous one. It's a shame, because I can see effort in creating a complex and interesting story, but at the end of the day I couldn't care less about it.

The gameplay is dynamic and, generally speaking, meets the minimum standards of every FPS. However, the worst thing about Serious Sam: TFE lies in its poorly executed enemy spawning. Maybe the whole point of this game is to explore the well-designed maps and suddenly be ambushed, but it isn't enjoyable when you're in a large open area and enemies come from all sides (not when you're alone, even less in higher difficulties). The game systematically tries to make you die in absurd ways, throwing big enemies at you so you have a bad time trying to take them down. You end up getting used to being ambushed around every corner, but that doesn't make it more tolerable.

Also, sometimes the AI is buggy, so it isn't uncommon to find small enemies running to the walls and big enemies standing still even when you're nearby. Even when weird designed NPCs doesn't necessarily clash with the Egyptian and desert environment, these gameplay problems crucially affect how enjoyable the game is.

Classic status of a game doesn't mean is untouchable and it's exempt from criticism, and Serious Sam: TFE is proof of that. I can't not recommend it though, because it can be fun if you're in the mood for mindlessly killing things with plenty of weapons, especially if you want to do it with company. Just be aware that there are many FPS that outshine this one in almost every sense.

Best Croatian game ever

My childhood.. ehh, just amazing game.

Serious Engine is really nice engine for 2001, cuz it looks great and can support many of fashion features! we still can modding for it, do some maps, weapon models, animations..

Fun fact: Serious Engine (only classic one) uses vertex animation, so any models in game doesn't have any bones. But still, this vertex interpolation looks so ******* great! It's not like in Quake or Quake 2, it's really nice and optimized one!

Thanks Croteam for this awesome game and engine.

Amazing game! Easy to download mods also.

Awesome.

Old good first Sam
How much time i spent playing this game

Requires Steam to run.

Monster-heavy FPS fun.

Ancient EXCELLENT engine...