Serious Sam vs Doom

So anyone played it? I tried it a while back and I found the whole egypt thing kinda boring after the first 5-6 levels. Also, the way the engine cleans up after your wild rampages kinda makes the game feel kinda sterile. That's just me tho. Anyone played this game want to comment?

I like SS chapter 1 and 2, however it doesn't get close to Doom at all.

Doom = Atmospheric survival horror FPS

Serious Sam = Arcadeish shoot-em-up FPS

I don't think they are that compareable.

Heh, Serious Sam is fun for two hours.

Shaviro said:

Doom = Atmospheric survival horror FPS

No, that's Doom 3. Doom is atmospheric horror arcade FPS.

Fredrik said:

Heh, Serious Sam is fun for two hours.

No, that's Doom 3. Doom is atmospheric horror arcade FPS.

Whatever. It's still not a shoot-em-up, luckily.

I actually haven't thought of the definition of "survival game" until now, but I guess it'd be a game where you can take very little damage, forcing you to avoid hazards rather than slaying through them.

Fredrik said:

I actually haven't thought of the definition of "survival game" until now, but I guess it'd be a game where you can take very little damage, forcing you to avoid hazards rather than slaying through them.

In other words: "It's more about surviving than shooting"

I always thought Doom was a straight shoot'em-up, heh. I've never played Serious Sam, so I can't comment on that.

SS is certainly a fun game (be sure to check out WillRock if you liked SS) but has very little replay value.
the fact the player moves so slow was frustrating to me, but they are fun games to play for sure.

DooMBoy said:

I always thought Doom was a straight shoot'em-up, heh.

The fact that most of the original maps (and many of the well-known pwads) can be done Pacifist-style suggests otherwise.

Always liked a simple shooter, Serious Sam being up there with my favorites. As for Will Rock.. meh, it would have been an excellent game but apparently the schizophrenic mouse sens issue that was present in the demo version went unresolved in the retail game. Kinda strange that it wasn't addressed, and a damn shame, considering how many people experienced this.

I would say Doom is a straight shoot em up. Atmospheric and all, but still a shooter. Just because it can be played pacifist style doesn't really contradict this. The presence of large amounts of weapons and ammo would, however. Although I could get off my bike and run to the finish line, I don't think Road Rash could be considered a marathon game.

Anyway, I really liked Serious Sam - no replay value whatsoever, but still fun. I couldn't believe the size of the battles when I first played it. The second one had some incredible levels, too, although I agree with Opulent that movement was too slow. Suprising I like it actually, since I usually cannot stand slow games.

I think they made you move slowly so it would seem like the levels where bigger, it almost worked for the exteriors too..

Anyway, SS was fun for a while, but i got bored with the same thing over and over, like "Run into big area, get attacked by 1000 enemies, get ammo and health, get attacked again"

Is the ending any good? I never got too see it because I only ever played the full game co-op.

//Edit: Second one too, I never saw either...

For all Serious Sam tried to emulate the feeling of Doom, it didn't pull it off. It's environments were too big, its weapons too powerful, and its enemies too weak. The whole "thirty suicide bombers spawn in a klick away, blast 'em all before they get to you" didn't match up to the "oh shit, where the hell did these things come from, I'm surrounded" feeling of Doom. In Serious Sam, you were never really surrounded.

ToXiCFLUFF said:

Is the ending any good? I never got too see it because I only ever played the full game co-op.

//Edit: Second one too, I never saw either...

SS1: Sam takes off in the giant spaceship that arrives at the great pyramid after beating the gigantic final boss (only to have it go down at the start of SS2).

SS2: Sam gets to the Holy Grail at that church beyond the Corridor of Death before Mental and has a funny conversation with him in the confession booth. You see him taking off for Mental's world in a new spaceship.

I enjoy SS2 more than SS1 overall... the sequel has some gimmicky trap rooms that are more frustrating than fun, but the bosses are more challenging rather that just being huge and amazing to look at the first time around.

My problem with SS was the predictable scripted battles. Every time you walked into a large courtyard with a closed door on the other side, you just knew you were going to be faced with wave after wave of spawning enemies. All you had to do was kill and survive until the script was finished and the door opened. No logic to it, no way to change the odds or influence how the level played. Just a big open area with a series of unoriginal, scripted enemy attacks. Fine maybe once or twice in the game but just plain boring when it happens on almost every level.

Another gripe I had was the copy of SS I got had the Voodoo3 card in its recomended spec section on the cover. However, open up the case and burried in the manual was information telling you that voodoo cards had compatability problems and they gave links to third party drivers that may be able to resolve the problem. At the time I had a voodoo3, and the stock drivers certainly did not work well with SS.

Nothing wrong with Croteam not supporting the voodoo3. It was on its way out even when SS first came out, but there is something wrong with telling you it is the recommended card for the game when they know it has some quite nasty graphical problems when using its own drivers.

I've only played the SS demo, but I dont think it can possibly compare to DooM. Hell, it cant even compare to DooM shareware.

SS was fun though. But the giant areas made the game knida boring. It was cool to look at. But Im the claustrophobic coridoor kinda guy.

When I first saw serious sam I rofled, the sounds some of those things make is funny. :D

ToXiCFLUFF said:

I would say Doom is a straight shoot em up.

I was making a distinction between a "shooter" and a "shoot 'em up".

"Shoot 'em up" tends to suggest mindless mowing down of enemies, with very little strategy involved. For instance, consider the term "stealth shoot 'em up" - a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it?

I like both of the games, good action and awesome textures. The weapons are also balanced well. The game is nonstop fun in co-op mode.

SS was fun for only a few hours it just go to repetative for me the lvl's where mostly the same with thousands of monsters running after you. Doom games are MUCH MUCH better.

Enjay said:

The best fight was in the demo at the end. There were some other good fights, but they were indeed like enjay said, executing the same script. It's hard to believe that they could design a game engine and then kill it's potential by repeating the same sort of fights, over and over again.

I didn't like it, it's like doom but with less atmosphere, slower movement and shittier enemies and weapons (nice bosses though).

Serious Sam can be rediculously hard sometimes but Doom beats it by a long shot

Hmmm... Well, aside from the weapons, it wasn't much like doom at all. I loved Serious Sam's weapons and the Kamikaze bombers where hilarious. If it had better level design it could have been considerably better. the best thing about SS was the buget price! I'd have been annoyed if I'd paid $99 for it, but I got it for $14.

oh. and Co-op is a blast!

I love SS and Doom and I play SS on the net all the time. I don't think the one player SS is better then Doom cause Doom will always hold that special something with me. But the net play on Sam is just down right fun.

SS has a neat engine, with the large outdoor areas and such. Single Player gameplay is too boring though. DM and COOP are alright, but Doom is better, less linear.

Serious Sam was funny the first time around, and fun in co-op for a few play throughs. Netcode was horrid, so you don't get a decent play experience even at low pings, especially with the numbers of monsters involved. It holds no candle to Doom.

SS2 sucked because of the deathtraps.

Another X vs Y thread with a one way ticket to hell..

Not unless people spam it or troll it.