Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Review [PC]

01 Dec 2009 at 17:01:00 by Peter Parrish
Systems used to review this title: (PC)

"Reissue, repackage, repackage," sang Morrissey, in a particularly acerbic moment from Strangeways, Here We Come. He was decrying the music industry's unholy love affair with the re-release and the attendant drain on people's wallets. As compilations of Smiths material now outnumber their actual albums by a ratio in excess of two to one, it seems he had something of a point.

Hand-in-hand with the practise of re-releasing old material for a new audience is the process of 'remastering.' In music this can often mean little more than whacking a bunch of digital compression on the tracks (making them artificially louder, while ruining the dynamics) and calling it a day. Sometimes they manage to do it properly though, as with the recent Beatles reissues. Films too are often re-issued in remastered form, with ancient flicks getting tidied up by an elite squadron of pixies with tiny brushes or something (I really have no idea, sorry.) Extras are added - be it bonus tracks, special features, a director's commentary - and the package is ushered into the general marketplace.

Videogames aren't exactly strangers to the re-release concept. All manner of classic (and not so classic) retro games have found themselves tarted up and ported to new platforms over the years. Back in July we saw something a bit more impressive; a Special Edition release of Monkey Island that added fancy-pants new graphics, a re-recorded soundtrack and full voice acting. Released with a modest price tag, it was by and large received rather well.

All of which brings us to Serious Sam HD. 'HD' in this case being shorthand for Holy crap Didn't they make this look nice. Sam's makeover has definitely been a successful one. New lighting effects, improved textures and a bucket load of extra technical sheen that I won't even pretend to understand properly have all combined to drag the title into 2009. While it can't quite compare to the cutting edge of contemporary FPS graphics, the developers Croteam have been careful to retain Sam's original aesthetic which, ultimately, is more important. Everything about the ancient Egyptian setting will be instantly recognisable to long-time players. The majestic 'Dunes' level that precedes a waltz through the suburbs of Thebes is looking particularly good. There's also an expanded co-op mode which allows for up to 16 players at once to go nuts in Sam's world dressed in their finest disco gear. If they want to, I mean. I'm not advocating the disco gear.

But that's it. That is literally it. There are no new levels,  no new weapons, no new enemies and no special new multiplayer modes. The PC version is selling on Steam for £17.99 GBP. Hmm.

For anybody unfamiliar with the original, Sam is a game in the classic First Person Shooter mould. That means no see-saw physics puzzles, no character progression and definitely no attempts to make the plot hang together properly. It's all about meeting monsters, selecting a weapon and shooting said monsters in the face. Except the monsters without faces. You can shoot those guys wherever you want to - just do it quickly. Hell, some of the monsters are ALL face. Anyway, it also means lots of little spinning shields representing extra armour, hammering the trigger button like crazy and doing the mystical circle strafing dance taught to us in bygone days by the village elders.

But back to those monsters. There are lots of them. Lots and lots (and lots.) Sam does hordes of enemies very well indeed. They're pretty innovative too, encompassing gatling-gun carrying scorpion-creatures, swarms of gaseous frogs and bipedal death-bots (ok, death-bots aren't terribly innovative.) There's a guaranteed rush of adrenaline as you survey the open surroundings and begin to hear the rumble of hooves, knowing you'll soon have to face off against a gigantic rush of steroid-pumped werebulls and skeletal cow... things. Not to mention Serious Sam's signature foe: the headless suicide bombers who will stop at nothing to detonate themselves at Sam's feet, holding their bombs proudly aloft and screaming, screaming, screaming all the way (how DO they scream anyway, out of their neck-hole?) There's some semblance of variety in whether you face these waves in narrow corridors, open vistas or tight combat arenas (and one especially well-executed sequence where you're running and gunning your way to the Great Pyramid), but all of this is really just gloss on gunning down hundreds and hundreds of foes. Which is fun.

It feels a little alarming, maybe even a bit shameful to admit that. For all the sophistication that some of us like to demand from games, it really can still be fun just to pummel the left mouse button and watch things explode in crimson and fire. Even the laughable 'puzzles' are simply excuses for more shooting and circle strafing until Sam bumps into the necessary switch/collectable that'll allow him to continue his violent way through Egypt.

However, this simplistic fun has its limits. The concept gets kind of wearing around the three hour mark (roughly two-thirds of the way into the game.) My trigger finger fell numb. The endless parade of slaughter became routine. Sure, it's fair to say that some people will not tire of it so soon. They may not want or need anything more from a title - but many others will. These are the people for whom some extra content would not have gone amiss.

The price is relatively prohibitive for what amounts to only four or five hours of single-player game time (unless you fancy replaying it on multiple difficulties.) If you know another 15 or so people who'd like to blitz through it in co-op over a couple of evenings, that'll undoubtedly extend the game-life further. If you're part of what must be the tiny number of people both unfamiliar with Serious Sam but keen on retro-oriented FPS games, then this could be worth it. Hardcore Samites, I suspect, will already have bought it anyway.

Given that the game's design is unchanged from its 2001 incarnation, it's held up fairly well - perhaps because it had no pretentions towards depth to begin with. There are plenty of moments of horde-gibbing joy, but it's so hard to wholeheartedly justify what amounts to an eight year old game being re-sold in a prettier form with no other additions. The Monkey Island Special Edition added terrific voice-acting and gave the (far older) graphics a complete overhaul - while also retaining the classic pixel art for those who wished to play through with that. Sam's additions look a little flimsy in comparison. It looks nicer now. That's it. There isn't even an "extra track and a tacky badge," as Morrissey would have it. Wait... it does have a handful of Steam achievements. There's your tacky badge.

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