The game is the same, flat and semi enjoyable game since release. When enemies just randomly throw grenades infront of their feet, random tick box tasks are just lifeless NPCs, combat which never really incentivises a new playstyle or different one instead of just killing.... C77 always stays many steps behind competition. But what is the competition? Fallout NV? Deus Ex series? Signalis or Mount and Blade? It is hard to find a game to compare which ain't a PS1, PS2 or CRPG game from a long time ago. I do not count possibilities to handle a mission, content variety, when you always can use just one or two ways to deal with missions. The world still lacks a shooting range and many other interactable things incl food stands and so on. The game is not bad, but for me, a minority, I never cared about the story vs Fallout NV, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Kingpin CoL, Silent Hill, Medievil, Fatal Frame and so on. I wish the world would not be that generic, empty *random NPCs *shoot NPC *steal random item... fetch quests. Story is fine but can beat Bladerunner.
It was a childhood game. I got to 3rd - 5th mission with bridges and never farther. The game is a mess!!! It was good in the ol' mighty days of not noticing what is so bad about this game. I directly had to turn off the tutorials on PC so I am not sure how bad these are here compared to the PS2 and soon Xbox versions I currently play. Maps are empty till you do objectives. Tanks spawn in a natural way IFFFFF it would not be cutscene or strange even where a tank suddenly appears and crashes through walls. Stealth works but lacks the usable buildings and camo rating. The game is good but not really good compared to even 5th and 6th gen games, excluding the 7th for the reason too many games came out back then to just money-grab and run... YOU DRIVE NOT MOVE The game has an awful movement system. It is like RE1-3 with accleration and breaking added to it. It is off. On console it works partially but reminds me of Socom1's too fast stick curve. Here it just has no slow and fast mode but a awfully force sneak by only sligthly moving the stick to be crouched not lowered run. On PC it is mouse wheel to speed up or slow down. It is so broken you can dash over corpeses and loot in no time. TNT can apparently be thrown but I am not able to do that but place it. When a tank moves you can be killed by the tracks going over your feet. TLDR: Cutscenes, Scripted Enemy Spawning, No Cover and Great alert state compared to SE3 and 4. This is the peak or below peek SE game. SE2 is too linear but offens no one due to mostly well used spawsn. SE1 hides spawns well as it should be in any game which is why I hate modern games where enemies do not enter a fight but come dashing through empty rooms. Max Payne 3 is the worst of them all compared to the previous games. SE3 added, stealth gameplay but with forced "the sniper team found YOU" and "Tank spawned to find YOU" SE4 added worse starting maps.
I wish I could say good things but the controls are unuseable compared to tank games on console or more casual ones on PC. It is sad to see something like this with real potential.
The first entry of Serious Sam offers well built flat maps, Good Item placements and stupidly well thought out punishments. Game has the right lengh and great difficulty scalling by adding enemies and damage / health. Multiplayer offers saving and loading where all players get re-added to the lobby. Second Encounter really turns the dials to 20 and is no fun already on hard with additional 2 higher difficulties. Xbox Serious Sam collection really is great too and unaltered. HD versions simplify some parts of geometry which needed rocket jumps and made some maps shorter or better. Most of it says the same. Can not confirm whether the HD games have save and load in online play. A real treath from 480-728p depending on preference. Only bad thing is the missing directional audio.
Serious Sam the broken series made by people who lost the touch. SS4 is just broken and boring. Bigger, less detail, less functioning guns. SSTSE on the other hand is fine but playing it on hard shows they just throw enemies at you without thinking. THEN the death traps. Too many, too badly designed. Made for multiplay, maybe. I only know that big lobbies back in the day insane, full of enemies. Multiplayer Coop has the best integration. Hands down. OG Serious Engine. You can save and load and pull all players with you. Back to the game. SSTFE is just fine and great. Too flat but I love it for the great maps, soundtrack and choice of guns at the right time. SSTSE Is different. Tourist and Easy are fun, but hard throws so many enemies at you. I never noticed different spawns in this compared to 1ST-E. 1ST really differs and adds a lot of foes everywhere including tastefully placed punishments on item pickup. 2nd-E feels just stretched to be as long as possible. So many arenas with physic-games. Not enough health to save scum. Overwhelmed so that I can not even do the work between shotgun and sniper/rockets. First maps do have height. After the first biome it is all again flat. Xmas and Medievil maps are the best hands down. PS. The xbox Encounter Edition is uneditied. More cute looking game which has all maps intact. HD- is different. 1ST has a endboss bug and crashes last level. HD- 2nd Encounter has 1ST-E integration and Lan Play. Fusion is a SS3 built which just ported assets to it from 1st and 2nd which changes enemy speed due to careless gready devs. OG SS2 better than current version due to broken UZI speed and forced dual wielding game redesign and bad beta weapons being added. TLDR TLDR TLDR TLDR TLDR TLDR What I want to say. Multiplayer and compatibility is great. Guns are same, enemies just in punishing amounts between traps, physics arenas and more. The game is like a filler.
Same as the other Bethesda games, the Devs do not think you have any reason to choose how to play their games except go one out of two paths. Guns are meh. Story got worse. Gameplay is worse than Wolfenstein 2009 and RTC W. You do not fear any enemies like older games do like Blood or even Ion Fury released a few years ago and Dusk. The meaning of the world is stronger in The Saboteur by EA. Choise is bigger in PS1, PS2 games and any Gamecube and previous gen Nintendo system, when the genre allows for that. Nowadays Arrows lead you to your goals same in Ubisoft games but might give the player more freedom. Story in form of letters, memos, dialogue, journals all got removed im most games which means 100%ing a game with hidden areas and loading sections which unload previous areas can be questionablely hard. Do not defend games which offer less than most early 2000s games and many 7th gen games (9th should be PS5 right?). Just get a HDMI dongle or an upscaller like RetroTink or OSSC and you are fine when most games in US-pawnshops are dirt cheap and EU about 20€ except for rarer ones and ENJOY the full game than just a press W simulator. Think! Valheim, Dusk, Ion Fury all are better than many games. No season pass. Make games which offer true level design with every area counting but still look realistic. This game ain't it same as Doom4 and 5 (2016 and Ethernal). Metro sadly ain't got it too.
I really want to love it but here is the catch "it was never an oldschool shooter". The game always assumes to use the map to find secrets. The game unloads areas constantly. The guns feel fine but are far from good especially ADS and enemies just do a herd-alert-state with not reaction time to silence any enemy and poor map design for a "so called oldschool shooter". The game is good but average compared to RTC Wolfenstein, The Punisher, Max Payne, Fear, Doom 3 non BFG, The Saboteur, GTA games, Deus Ex 1-3, XIII, BLOOD1 for map design and intention in every area of the maps and Dishonored. Dishonored already ditched the story telling through conversations partially and no true journal entries and other readable which lead you to your goals without any NEED OF ARROWS. This series is the Uncharted of WW2 with hordes of useless Foes with 2 way hallways with worse areas than Half Life. Bethesda always needs to point your goal with a marker, map design is not strong at all when you need handholding. 100%ing is impossible without a map or you need to know where the door closes in the map. Constant scripted encounters, awkward spawns after pressing a door when you already cleared the past rooms where no door leads to the outside. The game just throws you tons of uninspiring enemies. Play Ion Fury or Dusk. Blood is the best from the retro pile. IF YOU PLAY IT RIGHT YOU GET SCARED FROM EVERY CORNER by enemies because the weight of their design and damage makes you fear every foe. Same in Stalker but most games can not do it. Stealth is so badly implemented, RTCW had better stealth. One guard is alarmed and will run to the base-alarm to push it or start shooting, then the rest will come. In TNO a door opens with more foes. If a game calls me stupid or do not trust me with playing the game the way it makes sense then the game is not worth it. TOB is nicer but man it is repetitive. The get out of jail section is dead. The start is dead. The village is the best.
I really want to love it but here is the catch "it was never an oldschool shooter". The game always assumes to use the map to find secrets. The game unloads areas constantly. The guns feel fine but are far from good especially ADS and enemies just do a herd-alert-state with not reaction time to silence any enemy and poor map design for a "so called oldschool shooter". The game is good but average compared to RTC Wolfenstein, The Punisher, Max Payne, Fear, Doom 3 non BFG, The Saboteur, GTA games, Deus Ex 1-3, XIII, BLOOD1 for map design and intention in every area of the maps and Dishonored. Dishonored already ditched the story telling through conversations partially and no true journal entries and other readable which lead you to your goals without any NEED OF ARROWS. Bethesda always needs to point your goal with a marker, map design is not strong at all when you need handholding. 100%ing is impossible without a map or you need to know where the door closes in the map. Constant scripted encounters, awkward spawns after pressing a door when you already cleared the past rooms where no door leads to the outside. The game just throws you tons of uninspiring enemies. Play Ion Fury or Dusk. Blood is the best from the retro pile. IF YOU PLAY IT RIGHT YOU GET SCARED FROM EVERY CORNER by enemies because the weight of their design and damage makes you fear every foe. Same in Stalker but most games can not do it. Stealth is so badly implemented, RTCW had better stealth. One guard is alarmed and will run to the base-alarm to push it or start shooting, then the rest will come. In TNO a door opens with more foes. If a game calls me stupid or do not trust me with playing the game the way it makes sense then the game is not worth it. Doom 2016 and Ethernal is the same. You even can fall from the edge of most surfaces because the meshes on which you stand are smaller than the texture. TLDR Bethesda dont trust you to play it like old games: PS1, PS2, NES, SNES. Todd likes Arrows
I just can not get used to the 7 1/2 minutes day cycles. Nothing, NOTHING! is explained. No quest-list on the side; EVERYTHING is hidden. I play it because it gives me the " CIV 5 an other day " rush but man it is a mess.
I really like the game but dosbox kills it so that is why I play the Redux and 85Hz refresh rate is needed.
