Serious Sam Collection - Review
Serious Sam as a series has never taken itself well too serious, it's always been more about running and gunning than anything else and 2020 saw the 4th mainline iteration of the series hit PC. I had the chance to speak with one of the men behind the series before that game released and I asked the question about, would they bring the older games to the modern platforms and then months later wouldn't you know it Serious Sam has come to switch. The question is, is it a collection that you need to be serious for or was it better left as memories in the past.
As a collection the game includes the first three games and the respective DLC packs, it is actually offering up a sizable chunk of gaming for your dollar and that's a really impressive thing. The first two games are very similar in overall tone and gameplay but because they spent a lot of time between the second to the third game, three feels vastly different. It doesn't matter though because each game stands on their own and while the first two games are not very heavy on story the third game makes up for it, but you also don't have to worry about it. The basic gist is that an alien menace has come to earth to conquer it and Sam Stone is a one-man army hell bent unstopping this onslaught. There's a lot of information about hieroglyphics and other earth-based cultures having records of these aliens, but in exact opposite to its name the story, is a means to an end it never takes itself too seriously.
That is perhaps the best way to describe the games, nothing it does ever takes itself seriously and that's because they knew exactly what type of game they wanted to make with the original. This isn't about weapon management; it isn't about scouring the map to ensure you've got enough ammunition you could want; it's about laying waste to hordes of alien invaders and having Sam deliver quippy one liners as he does so. When you play the first game you can see a lot of inspiration from titles like Doom and Quake perhaps more so the latter, but it still manages to make itself its own and while Sam might have a bit in common with a bubble gum chewing hero from the 90s, he never devolves into a Cro-Magnon style of hero. Of course as these games have been created for other platforms first, then coming to Switch is obviously going to require a little bit more understanding of how things are going to work and that's really where these collection comes together and slightly stutters.
The first and second games in the series have already been remastered for HD consoles and they've now just been ported over to Switch, but because these games were created in the early 2000s they run and look exceptionally well on Switch. It would have been easy for them to just port them and be done but from my vague recollection of the Xbox 360 release, this seems to be some enhancements to the lighting and sound just to make it pop a little bit more. Both games offer a more traditional style multiplayer which is becoming less and less common these days as games all try to invent their own unique mode, be it deathmatch or something else he's mowing down hordes of enemies is too bland for you multiplayer is a good alternative.
Serious Sam 3 is the one game in the collection that doesn't quite work the way it should, and that is due in part to how have different the visual design was from the first two. Even when the game first released many people were caught off guard by the new look of everything, it still looks like Serious Sam and it still plays like Serious Sam but it's been plussed up to incredible heights. Now on a platform that is able to run everything without issue, this wouldn't be a concern, this includes the very large maps, but on Switch there are some issues. There were times here when the game would slow down while trying to swap weapons, as if it were unsure what weapon I might choose to go to, so it had to load it up then. Though the easiest issue to highlight was with the presentation settings set to graphics and that is that there was significant visual pop-in on everything. This wasn't just crates and grass popping in a few blocks down the street, this was entire walls and background elements of levels only loading in if the camera could see them. Case in point, in one of the earlier stages there's a lot of archways that you can run through, strafing through the archways cause the game too essentially flicker as it loaded and unloaded assets as the camera could see or not see them. Putting things into the performance option reduced the draw distance a little bit but still kept up, that same overall popping effect and while it's not as big a problem, you will notice it and it will grate on you.
This is the first time in a long time that I've played a Serious Sam game not on a PC, to me it's like Doom, that's a series that should be played on PC and while I have given Sam a go on consoles before, I never put in significant time. This changed here for obvious reasons as I had to play through the games for review, it unfortunately highlighted a problem with the control scheme that I wasn't expecting to find and that comes down to missing a few things. First of all the fact that it doesn't offer gyro aiming here is a letdown, I honestly didn't think it would have it enabled by default but I had hoped that there was an option to turn it on in settings, there is not. The game does offer a significant auto aim assist to help you line up those shots, but when I was lining up looking down the sights of a gun or just trying to get the cursor on an enemy I really missed the precision that gyro offered. The other concern is that the controls by default are a little cumbersome, they're not bad they just don't feel right, for example X rather than being to interact with the world brings up your datapad, so you can see all the information on enemies you thought. Interacting with the world is done by clicking the right stick in, which just doesn't work, other games have done it before and it doesn't work there either, it's also used as a melee attack and there were few instances where I would attempt to melee an enemy but interact with something nearby as well, so fixing that up would be wonderful.
As I said before the presentation is a little weird when it comes to the third game in the series, but that honestly comes down to that game being far more demanding than the first two. When you have it in graphics mode you will see slow down and stuttering, some of that is mitigated when you switch to performance but not all of it. The upside is that the gameplay is mostly smooth and the presentation never tries to obscure it, as with all games in the series including the most recent entry, there's no mini map that takes up half the screen, your ammo counts and weapon information are very small and the only consistent thing you'll see on the screen is your aiming reticule. Obviously, the original games don't stand up stylistically to number 3 but they still manage to maintain a certain charm with their looks and as you start leaving earth and exploring more fanciful locations, they do look better, but in today's gaming landscape they are pretty basic.
The sound mix is a bit of a concern due to the default levels pushing the music forward over anything else and while this might not be a problem for those that love the music, the balance was a little off for me. Thankfully, the game does let you modify these settings so I was able to get a good middle ground for all the audio; that the game offers and I was really glad about that, because the music is awesome, but so is the ambiance of the world. The series is still rocking that hard rock music, which kicks in when the action starts up, so fans need not worry, those who find that music a little hard on the ears, may want to dial it down a bit, so it is not as in your face, so to speak.
The Serious Sam Collection offers up a really great deal for your gaming dollar and it helps that each of the games are wonderful on their own as well. While the first two titles are perfect ports to Switch, the third entry does suffer from a few presentation issues, but when the action kicks in, they seem to fade away, leaving just pure smooth gameplay. Considering the length of each of the single player campaigns, not to mention the full suite of multiplayer modes, there is a lot to enjoy in this collection, so it is a highly suggested addition to your Switch library.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Devolver Digital
The Pros
+Three solid and fun campaigns to enjoy
+The first two games run like a dream, no matter how many enemies are on screen
The Cons
-The third game suffers from a lot of visual pop in
-Not having gyro aiming is a big letdown
