Serious Sam HD Review

Simply put, Serious Sam HD is old school. It’s a revamp of a older game, but not as old as it feels. The original was only made in 2001 and then, it was in a way a homage to shooters from the early days. Gone are the more in depth storylines and cover systems. The more personal battles and intelligent AI are done away with as well. Instead we have a straight up first person shooter in all its big gun glory. Masses of enemies are thrown at you and you have more than enough firepower to take it on.

Now just because this game is lacking those newer conventions doesn’t mean this game is easy. There are hordes of enemies, of all different types, including my favorite, the headless men running at you with bombs in hand, basically ready for suicide. And when they come, they come from all sides it seems. Thankfully, for some reason, they scream…. the whole way in. That, along with charging skeletons, mini-gun toting giant scorpions, and plenty of other off the wall enemies makes for a fun, if not frustrating solo experience.

The gold in this game really comes from getting a friend (or up to 15) in the co-op campaign. Instead of a fun but frustrating experience, it slowly turns in a war with you and your buddy(ies) vs all. The hordes of enemies are much more manageable, and unlike some co-op, this adds zero complication as all you need to do is shoot stuff, got it?

The weapons vary from your beginning pistol to a handheld cannon, literally shooting cannonballs at your enemies. By the end you tend to shy away from the early guns like the pistols and shotguns, but have to go back more often than you would like as ammo seems to run short more often than you would like. Still there is enough bigger better weapons by the end that you usually are able to take down most of the enemies in a large encounter if not all before you get down to those options.

Serious Sam HD is fun, do not get that wrong, however, for a lot of people, it may feel a bit old, and a little to simple. The encounters are scripted, A.I. stupid, and gameplay basic. And for those achivement whores our there this isn’t going to be your easiest 200 points either. however if you look back to the old days shooters, or just need to mow down some enemies and vent some steam, this just might be the ticket.

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is available on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 Microsoft Points.