Análisis from Serious Sam Collection on Xbox One X

The classics of the saga return in high definition and with all the dlc

Digital feedback brings us the classic 2001 and its other deliveries with this Serious Sam Collection. In this compilation, you will find Fisrt Encounter, Second Encounter, their DLC and the third installment of the franchise remastered in high definition and at peak performance.

Croteam is again in charge of bringing this definitive compilation of the saga to the current generation, with graphic improvements and 60 frames per second very stable. The story that puts us in the shoes of Serious Sam, the hero of the Earth sent to the past to stop an ancient civilization that is ravaging the entire galaxy.

We are sent to the past during the first delivery to Egypt and here we will begin the frenzy of bullets, bites and attacks of all kinds of the most diverse beasts. Headless men, hybrids of giant scorpions with humans armed with machine guns and magical lizards will appear alongside monsters of all kinds trying to slow us down.

So we will go through all the scenarios of this mythical land without having to explore too much and face endless waves with each step. Every room, every garden and every part of the desert will be a pitched battle of Sam stone against everyone. A game for those who love above all a shooting game with no other pretension than to give us a hard time, dodging bullets and attacks with a wide variety of arsenal.

From an initial revolver with infinite ammo, shotguns, machine guns, cannons and laser weapons, our weapons inventory will be our greatest treasure and finding health as well as ammunition will be part of the strategy in combat. . Serious Sam is not easy, they are the dark souls of shooters in the most difficult levels (even in normal it is difficult) and it is not for everyone. So, if you are looking for realism in war, hide to shoot or jump between platforms to find a way out, this is not your game.

Most of the time you will have to run backwards choosing targets and using the most appropriate weapon for each enemy. This will be done at an evil speed and with ridiculously high hordes of enemies, so it will be necessary to aim well to avoid wasting ammunition and eliminate the monsters that try to kill us every second.

In the second part, more of the same at different times and places, similar weapons, and a strange new guest. While in Serious Sam 3 we will be returning to Egypt, but earlier even than in First Encounter. The 2 DLC included will give players looking for hours and hours of shooting, blood and weird demons more hours.

It’s clear that Croteam takes a lot Condemn or Duke Nukem, adapting it to his own style of dancing with high speed hits (at least in the first two installments). What these franchises do not have is not to fall into the most absolute repetition, because we will have the feeling of never ending as we try to move forward and we have to retreat from the avalanche of enemies. on the screen. Perhaps an artificial way to lengthen a game that could be really short and uninteresting in the development of its “story” (to call it that).

A character with a particular humor, sometimes with nods to classic and appreciated films like Indiana Jones or Singing in the Rain, perfectly define the objective of the study during its creation. Nor do they take the locations seriously to undertake the adventures, only the orgy of bullets and destruction will be needed to hook up veteran and uninitiated players who seek beauty in the simplicity of their mechanics.

A game from 20 years ago that only received a facelift in high definition, but it didn’t work on textures, mapping and worst of all, sound. It’s practically the same game from 2001 with a higher resolution, with some texture loading errors, to burst 2/3 seconds of elements that we have next to us, landscapes that take time to form and crash possible closure of the game.

Neither the animations weapons, or enemies, and yes this is a Remaster that combines all deliveries and 2 DLC for 30 dollars, but at this point we might require minimal work on some aspects. Sure, the game is enjoyable as it is, but maybe a little more work is needed to adapt it to the times and maybe this is another example of the need to remade and not from Remasters.

As for the sound, it has also been remastered, but it’s the same FX files, same ambient noises, unwanted gun sounds when recalling and firing that get pretty annoying (keep in mind we’re going to shoot a lot) . There is hardly a variety of sounds in each shot, the same tonality that happens to pierce our ears with so many repetitions.

In addition, it is not suitable for the possibilities of the consoles of the current generation (Xbox One), because we cannot place the enemies on the map by means of sound, because due to the tone or volume it seems that they are at a distance which later turns out to be false. Hearing one of the creatures to your right as if they are above you, but they are really quite far away is very disconcerting.

And the soundtrack doesn’t help, well, we already know it’s from 2001, but when enemies appear, the beat and the melody change, and being so frequent because of the way the title is raised, it is the heaviest. Yes, this is a Remaster, and I can repeat myself, but there should be a little more work behind these types of revisions which are nothing more than almost 1: 1 adaptations of the original version of the game.

In conclusionSerious Sam Collection is aimed at a particular audience, who are simply looking for a shooter that will test them regardless of storytelling, exploration, and a meaning other than unleashing evil from Earth with a hit. shotgun. Both veterans of the genre and newcomers alike may find a hardcore challenge that isn’t suitable for all audiences and can give the most skilled in these styles a really bad time.

But in 2020, we can’t find a job so unpolished in terms of loading large textures, animations from 20 years ago and little willingness to include new technologies that adapt to the times. It’s a reflection on the lips of many players, that we prefer a good remake than a simple resolution download of such low graphics quality.

Even so, it is very nice to be one of those masochistic-looking users who want to get away from “shooting walks“Among the current typical shooters and prefer the retro 3D look that challenges whoever comes in at the controls. By the way, for less demanding users, there is a tourist difficulty mode which would be equivalent to the God mode which was activated in the tips of various too demanding video games for some.