The launch trailer made it look awfully fun though. I can’t really justify spending the $40 right now, but my eyes will be peeled for a steam sale.
Played through the first few levels. It is mostly more of the same, but they are trying to tell a story this time with cut scenes and such. The gun sound effects don’t seem as loud as I remember. Graphically things look nice, but with the more realistic graphics, it makes it really hard to pick out enemies sometimes when you are indoors.There is now a melee attack that seems to kill enemies in one hit, but it leaves you motionless for a second making it dangerous to use when surrounded.
Co-op looks a lot of fun and I’ll be up for running it with Qt3ers.
I really can’t tell from that trailer if they’re taking it seriously or taking the piss.
I’ve gotten through two levels so far on Normal.
I’m incredibly impressed. First off, the graphics engine is extremely good. They do tricks I haven’t seen before with lighting, specifically casting shadows through real time volumetric effects such as smoke and dust. You really need to see it to appreciate how good it looks.
This is also not your average Serious Sam game. There are definitely moments of overwhelming ridiculous waves you need to mow through, but there are also very tense corridor sequences. Some of which are mini-sandbox, such as a massive hall inside the Egyptian museum where the arachnids could be crawling on any surface.
This brings another great aspect to the game- it utilizes obscuring effects very well. If you unload a ton of pistol bullets towards an enemy, it’s going to kick up a lot of dust. This makes a natural risk-reward for unloading your weapon. Sure, you might kill whatever you were shooting at, but you’ve created so much dust debris that it could have scuttled off somewhere else. On top of this, if there is a sun beam near this dust, it creates a very bright beam through the new dust in real time, obscuring even more.
This also comes into play dealing with HDR. In the Egyptian museum hallway, there is a huge glass ceiling with sections missing off it. If you stare directly into a hole, you become temporarily blinded. It sounds gimmicky, but it actually makes for some great tactical positioning to make sure you can see your surroundings sufficiently.
There was also an extremely tense moment in the second level that reminded me of a great Doom/Aliens scenario. Flashlight, creepy noises everywhere, dark walls, and spider pods all over the place.
The new melee mechanic is great as well. Every enemy reacts differently to it - shotgun/machine gun guys get kicked back about 30 feet, but they’ll stand back up so it buys you a little time. On the larger spiders, you rip off the top of it’s carapace, killing it instantly. For the brutes, you rip out it’s eye, which is an instant kill. One of the cool design systems they introduced here is that afterwords, you’re holding the eye, so you either have to throw it or drop it before you can use your weapon again. It doesn’t seem like throwing the eye at enemies does any damage, but I’m sure some of the later archetypes will have some beneficial temporary weapon you gain. I haven’t tried meleeing the headless bomb guys… maybe you get one of their bombs.
These guys really know how to make a good shooter. They’ve taken everything that made Serious Sam fun and added some really well thought out design principles that have been introduced since it’s release.
Definitely recommend it.
They really need to disable self-shadowing on the human-sized character models. Those crawling, flickering shadow maps did not look good.
Oh god I’m the biggest grammar nazi there is, and I constantly forget that it’s isn’t possessive.
Played through 3 levels. The game feels slow at first, but by the end of the 3rd level you start getting good size waves of enemies coming at you.
Some of the one liners got me to chuckle a bit, specifically the smith and wesson one.
Difficulty is decent on normal. Its either that, or I’m getting slow in my old age.
Im enjoying it. Reminds me of how good shooters were in the good old days :-), big levels, lots of enemies, stupid dialog. This is what duke nukem forever should have been like.
The weapons feel nice and meaty, shit dies in one or two hits. The meele attacks are good fun. Everything, including your weapons, ends up covered in blood. Still feels like serious sam, only better. Engine looks fantastic.
Press the reload button to initiate a deadly pirouette. ;-)
I am hearing good things about the game, like people commenting how it feels a bit more like Doom 1/2 than Serious Sam 1/2.
I thought the only real difference was doom being dark and brooding, whereas sam is bright and cheerful?
One nice touch I just found out is that you can now shoot rockets out of mid air, makes dealing with the giant mech guys a lot easier. Just had my first 1 vs. about 70 fight. Still just as tense as it was back in the day. Would anyone be up for trying co-op at some point?
I’d be up for some coop sometime. My steam is ibdoomed.
I think you shouldn’t wear the word “doom” in your name, then.
The gameplay differences are major.
This is what a modern DNF should have been. DNF in its present condition is not worth the sale price it’s on for (under $7).
I’m pretty sure this has always been so.
Oh well, I created this name when I logged onto my first BBS in 85 and I’m not changing now.
You are correct. I’m playing First Encounter right now and blowing rockets immediately after they are shot is a great way to take these mechs down.
It never happened.