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The_SloVinator

Your opinion on Serious Sam franchise.

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What are your opinions on Serious Sam series?

 

Personally, I'm in love with it. From action to atmosphere to awesome musical score, fun weapons, cool enemy designs & more.

I wouldn't compare it to Doom since they do play differently albeit they both have statistics at the end of each level with secrets & enemies killed.

 

 

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SS:TFE

Desert, desert and more desert. At least this comes with some great songs like Dunes (both calm and the battle versions) as well as serpent yards. Honestly not really a huge amount of praise I can gift it nor hatred since it's the first.

 

SS:TSE

Took what made TFE good and tripled it. All the boss themes are some hardcore rocking guitar solo's (I especially love Mordekai's theme XD) as well as making the hoardes bigger than ever. The introduction of a serious bomb really makes things tolerable for any difficulty above easy (or normal in the case of TFE). Correct me if I'm wrong but I wanna say serious speed was added here as well so... yay for one of the most under-used powerups? XD

 

SS2

Hooo! What a good game! It's extremely lengthy, some really wacky and silly humour, some really punchy and nice sounding weapons across many worlds and the game keeps adding ontop of itself as it goes on! Personally I think mentalopolis can go suck a fat chode but apart from that SS2 really is what a good sequel to a series should be: Better!

 

SS3:BFE

Before first encounter. How appropriate. I rate this BEFORE TFE in terms of score. Seriously, why is this one so bad? From having a melee thats slow as balls, to enemies that can just force you dead in your tracks to lift you upwards and choke you hard (OwO) to weapons having clips. CLIPS. In a Serious Sam game. W H Y .

There's a reason none of the previous games had reloading outside of the pistols and shotguns: You're dealing with a hoard of enemies that want to smash you to bits, so you need to fire quickly to suppress their numbers.

 

The ONLY good thing 3 added was the ability to sprint. This does at least allow you to run away from enemies easier... except you're in tight hallways a good chunk of the time and sprinting doesn't work when going backwards (from what I remember).

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When I first played SS 1st & 2nd Encounters back in the mid 2000s I immediately thought to myself "This is a bit like Doom". I really enjoyed those games but I couldn't get into SS 2 as much and I haven't played 3 yet.

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The series is great, but I think lately the developers doesn't know what to do with the lore
As far as I know, Serious Sam 4 is a prequel to Serious Sam 3

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It's alright, but it doesn't interest me personally. I'd much rather Quake, or even Turok over Serious Sam.

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I was surprised to see a SS4 on the way. It's another prequel set, from what I can tell, before SS3. Do we really need another prequel or should they just let the franchise be already? I'm not sure.

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/257420/Serious_Sam_4/

 

As for my take; it's been a long old time since I ever played the older titles. I do know I thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of Second Encounter though. As for 3, I always though the point of the design was to poke fun at modern AAA shooters with repetitive environments, unremarkable weapons and enemies, then gradually build towards the more outlandish stuff. I know most times I've replayed SS3, which in all fairness I've done quite a lot (the online co-op mode was pretty fun), I've always gone for the later levels.It wasn't always easy, but then i tended to play on Serious difficulty so I can't really complain after not playing for a while.

 

Oh and for the sheer grind that it was, I did enjoy the last level of SS3.

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I've loved the series (almost typed serious) there since I played TFE back in the early 2000's. I mean, the graphics engine was pretty damn good for the time, and I loved the weapons, the enemy designs, the massive hordes, $20 price tag. Only thing I didn't really like was the fact that it was all in Egypt. I kept hoping it would go for a different level theme at some point. But I loved it. TSE fixed the only real problem I had with the first one, by having three different level types, added enemies, and the sniper rifle was bitching. 

 

Serious Sam 2, I tried years ago, and it was just too cartoony. I could see there were good ideas in there, and it is at heart a Serious Sam game. Because it's completely over the top. But I never got that far in it. I've been going through it off and on lately, and I can really see the love, care, and attention they put into it. I'm really liking it this time; just haven't finished it yet.

 

BFE, didn't much care for. And it has a lot to due with the fact that it started out as a military shooter, not a SS game. It has such an amazing slow pace for most of the game, it's not until the last few levels that it really shows as a Serious Sam game. And I understand, by that point they had already made so much content for the original game, that it probably wouldn't bankrupted CroTeam to go back and redo the earlier levels. I ended up finishing after modifying weapon damage, because the pistol and SMG in it feel so weak. Ended up making the shotgun fire one projectile with the same damage as the original shotgun. Did some other stuff, then it was actually kind of fun. But it was, ultimately, a disappointment. 

 

I'm cautiously optimistic about SS 4. It looks like they're going back to the massive fights, taking out reloading weapons, and apparently set in an open world. I'll get it when it comes out, certainly. I just hope they learned their lessons from SS3.

 

And I'm sure I'll be hearing the kamikazes in my sleep.

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I tried out SS:TFE and SS3 briefly at one point. Like the setting in each game, not so much a fan of the gameplay.

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Since this thread popped out, I decided to take a look at the gameplay videos of all the main games, and I think I'd spend hours on any of the games if I owned them, although I'm not sure about BFE.

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Serious Sam is a great game franchise and I can't wait for SS4.

 

For me, those games exemplify why I don't like Doom slaughter maps. The weapons in Serious Sam are made with crowds in mind (even though TFE plays weirdly like a full-3D "Doom clone" in a lot of interior sections - TSE and onward don't have so much in the way of low-key, small encounters and ambushes breaking up the larger hordes) and the enemies either charge you at a decent speed, or are sniping/harassing or doing area denial in some fashion. You can shoot down the worst of the homing projectiles and have a weapon specifically designed to clear out large corridors all at once, and all you need to do is charge it a little first. Chuck in the power ups from TSE and 2, which tend to focus on speed, restocking ammo and clearing large areas immediately and you've got a perfect recipe to take on large hordes in (often gorgeous, and usually) archaeologically themed areas.

 

Compare that to Doom, where you're much faster than even the fastest enemies, can outrun most projectiles and a lot of your weapons are designed for, at best, small groups of enemies. The rocket launcher, with lots of ammo, is good for clearing weaker crowds, and the BFG is great if you've got an arc of enemies in front of you, or something big you can close right up to. The infighting and generally slow movement of enemies means that you'll want to circle strafe to round up large groups of enemies into a more manageable lump. The added Doom II bestiary and SSG make for more interesting small-scaled encounters and better entrenched positions, whilst the bosses carried over from the original game are highly prone to infighting entire rooms of enemies.

 

In Serious Sam, you're running backwards trying to fend off a horde, or you're mixed in with the horde and it's all about switching weapons to deal with what's most urgent. In Doom, you use your speed advantage and generally have a pretty clear weapon hierarchy, based on ammo and opposition. It feels close, and the way things like the SSG are balanced (one shot up close will kill a Demon or a Kleer Skeleton, for example) are very similar, but the difference in player speed and enemy speed, plus enemy size (something like a Khnum or Major Biomechanoid is very striking in Serious Sam, even though you can eventually blast through big groups with ease) makes for different experiences. Doom is versatile and justifiably a classic, but Serious Sam is an adrenaline rush that thrives on balance and scale. Strangely enough, this difference is reinforced when compare Doom Eternal to (for example) BFE. They're both incredibly exciting (even if you have to wait a little to get going with the latter) and have big fights that are thrilling and challenging, but in Eternal you're doing a lot more dashing and evading whilst managing your resources, whilst in Sam you'll almost definitely be back-pedalling and trying to thin the horde before they close in.

 

Plus, the usage of music in the Serious Sam games is exemplary - for the dynamism, the glorious way it enhances each theme and the sheer intensity of the combat tracks. Chuck in the local split-screen multiplayer and heavy customisation settings for game play, and you've got a great game to share, too.

 

 

EDIT: I will say that the Serious Sam franchise isn't without it's flaws, though. It seems like every game they make one decision that makes you go "Why?!" - the pillar sections with the cave monkeys in SS3 have to be the biggest example, as they massively disrupt the flow of the levels and often lead to you taking damage with no real recourse but to blow up every pillar in the room. The joke "boss" swarms of Marsh Hoppers in TFE are a stand-out from the classic games.

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Awesome atmosphere, great guns, incredible music and visuals, and AWFUL level design. I think the levels are atrocious. From SS1, where the game starts out great and then slowly degrades to "empty arena with 100s of enemies -> another empty arena -> another empty arena", to SS3, which does the exact same thing, but now there's more enemies, you're slower and your weapons have less punch.

Everything else about SS - I'm in love with.

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I remember this series more for its epic music more than anything these days. I remember getting into the series by watching GalleyUK's playthrough videos (did he delete channel?) and then playing them well they were quite fun: level design is linear, there's barely any puzzle, the game gets straight to the point with the action. SS2 is over-ridden with cartoonish moments which sort of brought it down but SS3 isn't bad.

Unpopular opinion: TFE is harder than TSE. TSE has longer levels and more arenas or gauntlet runs, but most are surprisinigly easy to control or choke. Phobus mentioned the swarms of Marsh Hoppers earlier and they are some of the harder battles, particularly since that game lacked the weapons and powerups that would make them and other battles easy to cheese.

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I spent a lot of time with the Xbox port of 1e/2e. The splitscreen coop with the score/lives system was extremely fun. I had an awesome time with my college buddies cussing those bola-skeletons. It's a charming and colorful game, and felt like such a joyful outlier, almost a protest, during the years when gaming began rapidly devolving into grey-brown muck. Sam travels between episodes on a flying surfboard, because it's a cool videogame. Save me from "canon" and "lore".

 

Nowadays, I don't have much time for videogames and my deep Doom backlog interests me more than most other things.

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They mastered multiple-wave arena battles in Serious Sam FE and SE. I found it entertainig (to some degree) to enter the next Egyptian courtyard, enjoy the suspicious silence for a moment and then see what kind of enemy combinations they would spawn in. The horde battles made me develop new tactics, like circle-strafing in a spiraling way, then spam them with rockets or grenades when they were comfortably crowded together.

 

Enjoyed some of the ideas and settings in Serious Sam 2, but hated that over-the-top cartoony approach and the constant nonsense storytelling. Also they seemingly forgot what a good arena battle was, enemies now mostly come swarming towards you in spacious hallways.

 

Haven't tried Serious Sam BFE yet.

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Serious Sam 2 is considered as the black sheep of the series but it isn't a bad game. It was hilarious but yea, the cartoony approach wasn't exactly something I liked but not necessarily hated. It also acted as if it was a sequel to TSE but I don't see it as one.

Plus it was the only SS game that was first released on consoles & then ported to PC. Usually, it's the other way around with SS games.

 

On 6/17/2020 at 5:52 PM, Phobus said:

the pillar sections with the cave monkeys in SS3 have to be the biggest example

 Oh man. I can't agree more. Those don't even pose a challenge. They are just there to, as you said, disrupt the flow of the game.

I hope they don't make a comeback in 4.

 

Edited by The_SloVinator

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I absolutely love Serious Sam and the 'greatest' slaughtermaps in DooM cant handle a candle to even the worst designed SS levels.

 

The weapons are the fun, the enemies are fun to kill and the goofiness keeps it all moving smoothly.

 

 

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I think I should up this topic, since Sam's birthday is within a shotgun blast.

 

Very nice of them was to pack it with level editor.

 

Overall a tragic tale of the series in which nothing can capture the magic of the 1st one. Is it necessary to be an indie garage dev to make great games? 

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I hate the Kleer and monsters spawning out of thin air. Those are the primary reasons why I cannot seem to enjoy the games as much I want.

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1 minute ago, Rudolph said:

I hate the Kleer and monsters spawning out of thin air. Those are the primary reasons why I cannot seem to enjoy the games as much I want.

 

Yeah, the game has an enormous amount of F U moments.

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Great protagonist, subpar enemy/level/weapon designs. I might give the twin-stick shooter a go at some point, but the original game is spectacularly overrated in my mind. 

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3 hours ago, [McD]James said:

Great protagonist, subpar enemy/level/weapon designs.

 

The weapons are a mix of tried and true Doom and Quake guns, what's wrong with that?

 

Enemies are a mixed bag, I agree, but they do have some fun and unique monsters.

 

Level design in the first two games is based around multiple wave arena fights, very simple but effective.

 

Oh, and the protagonist: I like that he doesn't take himself serious, but apart from that, he is just like a southern European, less self-absorbed version of Duke Nukem.

Edited by Tetzlaff

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4 hours ago, incel said:

Yeah, the game has an enormous amount of F U moments.

Also, the Kleer is just a bad enemy all around: it is as if Croteam looked at Quake's Fiend, but decided that the monster was just too satisfying to kill and not annoying enough, so they made it a skeleton (thus no gore), allowed it to change its trajectory while lunging at you and gave it a ranged attack.

 

Yet for whatever reason, Croteam keeps bringing it back in every sequel.

Edited by Rudolph

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Well, killing Kleers can be fun as well if you huddle them together through circle strafing, like I described above, and then bombard them with explosives.

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They actually did pretty well by giving basic grunts slow projectile attack.

 

Frogs I hate dearly (like a q1-blob, but there's always millions of them). And scorpions are total BS, they are like giant chaingunners, always blocking you from moving, when stopping is a sure death, since you barely manage to outran anything.

Edited by incel

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TFE good

TSE good

2 decent

3 meh

4 better than meh a bit

 

4 did something that I really hate, which is selling concepts (another example is "Blast Processing" by a particular company) which doesn't mean anything, and that fight utilizing the "Legion System" is awful. The last level is pretty great, but it's just ruined by that concept.

 

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