Updated 19 Jun, 2013, 9:20 pm IST

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

04 Dec, 2009, 9:58 am IST | by Avinash Bali |

I’m not much of an Old School gamer but there are a few franchises that can bring a nostalgic tear to my eye. Serious Sam is most definitely one of them. This game was instrumental in bringing about a serious change (see what I did there?) to the first person shooter genre. The premise was simple as hell and didn’t waste your time with trivial stuff like reloading weapons allowing you to slaughter your foes with reckless abandon. Of course while this game was really simple it was seriously tough (you know I had to) as well. At any given point in time you’ll be faced with literally hundreds of enemies of different shapes and sizes. The only strategy you had to employ in the game was figuring out which weapon was best suited for a particular enemy.

And now after nearly eight years Sam is back in an HD avatar but gameplay and content remains unchanged. While running and gunning in HD is fine by me I’m still a bit disappointed by the fact that the game offers no new content be it weapons, levels or enemies.

Thanks to a brand new coat of high definition paint you can now enjoy the game without cringing at the age old visuals. Croteam have used their Serious Sam 3 engine to fluff up the game visually and while it’s no Crysis, it certainly is a pretty game. Also keep in mind that at any given point in time you’ll be up against hundreds of enemies and maintaining a sturdy framerate during those portions is instrumental to gameplay. And the engine handles the chaos just fine.

New to the Serious Sam experience is the inclusion of sixteen (yes 16) player co-op. Sadly not many people are playing this game online and the three servers that I stumbled across offered 600+ ping. The game’s not available locally in India but I’m hoping more players will come on board once it does.

A lot has changed since Serious Sam was released. Shooters have evolved to become more realistic fusing authenticity to balls to the wall gameplay. The Serious Sam series has never and will never adhere to those norms so if you’re fine with that kind of mindless action please pick up the game by all means. Since the game’s not hit Indian stores yet your only option would be picking up the game from Steam for $20.

Minimum System Requirements:

Windows XP (32bit or 64bit) with Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista (with Service Pack 2)
Processor: Intel P4 3.0GHz or AMD Athlon64 3500+
Memory: 1GB for XP or 2GB for Vista
Hard Drive:
Video Card: 256MB VRAM Graphics Card that supports DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3.0
DirectX: 9.0c
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card

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