Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/201480
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
Developer: Vlambeer
Publisher: Devolver Digital and Croteam
Platforms: PC
Release Date: Oct 24, 2011
Genre: Action, RPG
Pros:
-Simple and to the point with a unique gameplay
-Very satisfying wiping out an entire army of enemies
-The retro feel is a nice take for the genre it's attempting
Cons:
-Broken mechanics leads to frustrating gameplay
-All battles rely heavily on chance
-It does not feel like an Action game and does not feel entirely like an RPG
Created by the minds behind Super Crate Box, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter has a unique gameplay mechanic and a charming aesthetic. The game was really fun at first, but when the actual game started, there were many mechanics that just caused the combat to be more annoying than entertaining. In combat, the character(s) can move or down to avoid on-coming enemies and projectiles which works when there's only one or two. But when the player acquires all three characters, they can only move 1-2 inches and it doesn't help very much if the enemies consists of gun toting arachnoids that shoot 50 bullets or 30 swarming Kleer, or even just 1 Gnaar (hits for 80 HP) because moving that little amount of space does little to no effect to dodging any of them. Certain weapons kill certain enemies better, but sometimes the enemies will have conflicting enemy types which places the player in the predicament of getting killed by one enemy type or the other. The main campaign lasts for about 1.5-2 hours at most and then ends the game with unlocking Endless mode which is similar to the enemy rushes on the last level = very annoying. The game was semi-enjoyable, rather short for a so-called "RPG", and it did make me laugh a few times in those 2 hours for the $1.24 I paid for it. Anyone who's interested in the game, even hardcore Serious Sam fans, should wait for another sale before purchasing it as the game doesn't really justify the $5 charge.
Aesthetics
I liked the retro style pixel sprites and its 8-bit infused music. I think it was one of the major factors that grabbed my attention of the game. The sheer amount of ridiculousness with huge mobs of enemies and explosions made it funny and exciting. The game really did feel and play like that in the beginning. The simple menu and gameplay mechanics made it easy to learn along the way without too much guidance, so it was pretty easy to get into. Unfortunately, about an hour later the player would have seen almost everything within the game and find little to no variation later on. The aesthetics is possibly the best point of the game. Aesthetics: 7/10
Buttons
Controls were straight-forward: Arrow keys to move around in the map, up and down to move the character in battle and make selections. The controls were perfectly fine, it's just that the design of the dodge mechanics in a full team is pointless and ridiculous. When you have 1-2 characters on the field, moving up and down actually had an effect dodging enemies and bullets. When you have all 3 characters, it has little to no reason to allow the player to move as enemies follow the players path while bullets are so numerous that it's literally impossible to avoid. There could've been so much more to the mechanics of dodging in the game. 5/10
Concept & Content
The game took me by surprise with its turn-based combat-mechanic. It was really fun in the beginning: players can dodge enemies and projectiles like a shoot-em-up and switch between weapons. Maps were small and so I never got lost as it is a common fault for most RPGs. The problems started when I acquired the third character and all the real enemies started to appear. Some enemies require certain weapons to take down. If there's more than 3-5 enemy types, the only possible way to survive is by using items which is highly necessary in the boss fights. So using them early could ruin the player's chances of winning the boss battle. So if one enemy type doesn't kill you, the other ones will (thus, the "random encounter" I guess). Other times, the player will be lucky and have 1-2 enemy types only and be able to take minimal damage and take out the swarm. The game auto-saves after each completed level. Luckily, a "game over" doesn't restart the whole game and only restarts the level. There are only 9 levels in the entire game (if I remember correctly) so the game is really short. I wouldn't call this game an Action or RPG as much as I would call it a strategy game. You don't have that control or maneuverability as an Action game and it doesn't have the story, leveling, equipment, statistics, attributes management, or such of an RPG. Instead, the combat relies a lot of chance and planning attacks and direction ahead of time and knowing when to use items. The game is short, and Endless mode is essentially walking left and right around the same line and getting into battles with the difficulty essentially the same as the last level of the campaign making it unpleasant most of the time. I really liked the idea they had for the game, but it wasn't thought out entirely and a LOT more could have been added. Concept & Content: 5/10
Duration
Honestly, if the game was any longer I'd probably hate it even more. The flow of the game started out great where it eased the player into the game and gradually got more difficult. At a certain point, it just suddenly got incredibly hard and sometimes impossible which broke the flow entirely and just became annoying. I was about to give up on the game entirely but I was stubborn and kept playing until I finished that one level (3-3) which turned out to be the last level in the game. The game was super short and saying that $5 justifies that duration, then there's something wrong since I've paid $5 (and one even $2.49) that lasted 20-100 hours of gameplay). I wasn't expecting the game to be super long, but it was categorized as an RPG so I was hoping at least 5 hours of gameplay for an indie game. 2 hours later, I was done with the game. I tried out Endless mode and then placed the game under my "completed games" as in "I'm not playing it anymore". Duration: 3/10
Fun
As I've said a few times, I liked it in the beginning. After my first night of playing, I was excited to play it again the next day. But then I hit that level somewhere 2/3rds of the way into the game where it was just difficult and sometimes impossible. I started separating my play time to each level (which there was only 9) and I eventually go stuck on 3-3 which also happened to be the last level. It was really irritating knowing that I "could" move away from a bullet or rampaging Gnaar, but couldn't because the player was limited to such a small move area. Having to sacrifice the use of a crowd control weapon to focus on the big threats only to get killed by the wave of smaller ones was also a common problem. In the end, I finished the last level because every enemy wave contained only 1-2 enemy types that allowed me to use the weapons to take care most of them without having to sacrifice too much health or crowd control. It was a game that relied too much on chance and felt like it could've been so much more but wasn't. I enjoyed it, but for a very short time. Fun: 5/10
Overall
In a game designer's perspective, I'm glad I played the game as I've learned a bit from it. But as a gamer, I found it sadly disappointing as it started out really fun but turned out really bad at the end which left me bitter towards the game. I guess it wasn't too bad for $1.24, but I didn't want to play it again after I finished it. It has some great ideas and a mechanic that semi-worked. If Vlambeer or any other developer decides to take up a sequel, I'd gladly give it another chance as the game has a lot of potential. It just needs a lot of additional content and refining before it can really work. Overall: 5/10
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