Serious Sam - Next Encounter

Sam on consoles? And the consoles are shaped like a cube or something? Hm... yeah... Serious enough!

This game is 20 bucks worth of pure carnage and gun-play. You are "Serious" Sam Stone, a government agent that travels through time to whoop alien / zombie ass, and I love every second of it. With little story or explanation for all of the death, this game (forgive the pun) sticks to it's guns. Now, let's get started.

STORY: What story? Aliens traveled back in time to ancient Rome to take over the world or something? Seriously? Oh well, it's a mindless shooter with a crappy story. Who cares. Killing time!

CONTROLS: I hate it when people don't list the controls in the review for a game, so here they are: R - Fire, L- Jump, A - Action, X/Y - Switch Weapons, B - Secondary Fire, Z - Information. That's bassically it, all of the controls are responsive, and I found them plotted out very well. Thats for the GC, for the rest, list them yourself. The only problem I have is that there is almost no rumble at all, I know this sounds dumb but in a game where all you do is kill, I'd like more than just a faint rumble after you jump. That's just me though. I should also mention that this game is duel anolog, meaning you walk and strafe with the control stick, but aim with the C-Stick.

SOUND: The sound in this game is superb, and you can actually use it to your advantage. For example; when a kamikazi suicide is running at you, you can tell how close he is to you judging by how loud his screams are. This is a very nice touch, and it's very helpful. I have no complaint with the guns, they sound pretty much authentic to me (of course I'd have no idea what I'm talking about considering I've never touched a real gun, nonetheless fired a Minigun) Sam's bad-ass, tough-guy, almost Solid Snake-like voice is done very well. You'll like him if you like Bruce Cambell's character Ash in Evil Dead (which I do). He also spouts out hilarious one-liners from time to time like the one in the title. The one thing I don't like is the stupid little kid sound effect it makes when your in the menu, that just annoys me. 

GAMEPLAY: This game gave me exactly what I wanted in terms of gameplay, few puzzles and all killing. This game even mocks other games by Sam saying things like, "Sure beats collecting key cards!" when you blow a wall up get into a building or, "Oh boy, a jumping puzzle! I love jumping puzzles!" when you have to jump over lava. This is one game that really knows itself. The guns were very good, giving you Dessert Eagles, Uzis, Shotguns, Flamethrowers, Miniguns, and even a pirate cannon just to name a few. 

Alot of the guns also have different ammo types like Ricoche Bullets, which is sweet. Something that I found cool was that every enemy has a kinda weakness to one of your guns, like some will go down in one Shotgun blast or others with a quick pistol blast. This adds up to quick weapon switching, which makes the responsive controls a blessing. You bassically walk through Rome and temple, killing things. But it's tough at points you'll be walking up a hill, then an almost army of zombies will come pouring over the top, causing you to pull out your Minigun and lay down some hell. 

There also some vehicles, including a Hummer that Sam hooked up with some Roket Launchers to go blastin' through the country with. This game is good at giving you health at the right time, at giving you armor at the right time so you don't die also. They will sometimes do this very cleverly. For instance, sometimes they'll be armor and health sitting out and when you get it, you find out that is was a trap to lure you out and then enimies will start rushing you. 

MULTILAYER:  Very nice, letting you do the whole game in co-op, or giving you the classic split-screen battle. The battle arenas are nice, as are the weapon sets and characters. One of my favorite levels is just two empty towers where your character stick to any surface their feet touch, making for some awesome battles. my only complaint is that there are no stages with vehicles.

OVERALL: So, get this game NOW! It's $20, and it's more than worth that. It's one of the best console games I've ever played. Very seldom is a PC game recreated on the consoles with such success. Heck, if this game were $60 I'd pick it up as soon as I could.

i haven't found the trailer, but seriously, this cut-scene is for the oscar!

NAME: SERIOUS SAM - NEXT ENCOUNTER

SYSTEM: GAME CUBE, PLAY STATION 2