Serious Sam, by Global
Star Software (also available at Many Computer/Consumer
Electronics Stores), $19.99
Reviewed July 2002
If you have a Palm and you miss playing Quake
or Doom, you can treat yourself to Serious Sam. Developed by InterActive
Vision and published by Global Star Software, Serious Sam is a
serious 3D FPS (First Person Shooter) game that supports both color
and grayscale on most Palm PDAs.
The dungeon environment and game play almost
mimic the classic 3D FPS games such as Quake. The environment will
look familiar to the Quake and Ultima fans. Take the dungeon walls
from those games and slap some Egyptian symbols and images carvings
on the wall, you've got the world of Serious Sam. But there are
some pleasing variations in the 15-level environments in this game.
Ranging from Hatshepsut to Sand Canyon, from Tomb of Ramses III
to Valley of Kings, from Moon Mountains, Oasis, Dunes to City of
Memphis, Sacred Yards and The Great Pyramid, each dungeon has its
distinct look and elements, not all dark gray-ish like in Ultima,
but with monsters lurking around every corner just the same.
The monsters in this game are aliens. The story
behind Serious Sam isn't all that serious: as a hero of Planet
Earth, you (Sam 'Serious' Stone) are teleported back to the ancient
times of Egypt, where you mush slay endless hordes of alien monsters
in order to prevent their future domination of the planet. You
journey through this ancient world as you advance in total of 15
levels. Before each level starts, you can see the list of monsters,
their class, metabolism, perception, size, hostility, endurance
and weapons in the level title window. Monsters all have their
own unique look and are made with different materials. Whether
is Scythian Witch-Harpy, or Bio-Mechanoid, or MarshHopper, one
thing is for sure: you will get plenty of them. And "trigger
happy" is the way of survival here.
With Sam's serious missions come some serious
weapons like 12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun, Submachine Gun, Rocket
Launcher and Lasergun. The ammos are everywhere in the dungeon
as well as other bonus goodies you can pick up. You can find out
more about the weapons in the level title window as well. You can
go back to any dungeon you've completed and play at any of three
difficulty levels. If you die in the middle of a dungeon hunt,
you have to start from the beginning of the level. It does not
run on Palm m130, but runs fine on m515.
If you feel that you didn't kill enough
monsters in Doom or Ultima, you can re-live those glorious days
in Serious Sam. But be careful, killing these alien monsters
in those creepy Egyptian tombs is very serious business!
Playing Hints and Tips
When you turn corners and open doors,
be prepared to shoot. Many levels you will see waves of monsters
swarm at you when you open a door to a new area.
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