Serious Sam

Serious Sam Anylysis

Here are my thoughts on Serious Sam, a First Person Shooter game that I haven't actually played, though I've watched plenty of "Let's Plays". My gaming has kind of transitioned into that.

Serious Sam HD (TFE & TSE) looks pretty good in action I think. The colorful but not too cartoony style feels well balanced with the tone of the game, somehow. SS3 looks more realistic, almost to the point of being DNF/military shooter dull. (Edit: But with the vivid color scheme it looks pretty snazzy! I don't like what they did with the brain mech though.) SS2 was perhaps excessively cartoony.

Plus

Minus

Heroine

Heroine roughs. Grave Gail, possibly Grim Gail. I like the white suit design the best, perhaps because white suits are rare (PN03 had a sort of primarily white suit I guess). It could be an android incarnation of a Netricsa, a bit like Andromeda's incarnation "Rommie".

Netricsa

"Nuttie" was purchased cheap. It's a "male" helper AI which sounds a bit like a combination of Sam, Heavy and Strong Bad. It was cheap for a reason.

Grunt babe roughs

Duke Nukem had babes but Serious Sam didn't (harpies and demon women aside), so this is my response. I also like the idea of homogeneity by repetition (speciation, shared design elements, etc). Mental probably grows these, just like the biomechs.

Monster roughs

Trying to play a little with opposites. Land shark, land bird, land squid, etc. Gasmask skeleton. Unmagical soldier demon. Fast balloon bomber. Fast elderly zombie carrying heavy burden. Giant steel ballerina retro fembot.

And here's my take on some of the original Serious Sam enemies.

Random ideas


- by Arne Niklas Jansson, 2011