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Serious Sam: The Random Encounter

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Serious Sam: The Random Encounter
Cover artwork by Roy Nathan de Groot, depicting Sam "Serious" Stone (foreground), his accomplices, and some enemies
Developer(s)Vlambeer
Publisher(s)Devolver Digital
Designer(s)
Artist(s)
  • Roy Nathan de Groot
  • Paul Veer
Composer(s)Alex Mauer
SeriesSerious Sam
Engine
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release24 October 2011
Genre(s)Role-playing, bullet hell
Mode(s)Single-player

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is a 2011 role-playing and bullet hell game developed by Vlambeer and published by Devolver Digital. The game follows Sam "Serious" Stone travelling to the future in search of his nemesis, Mental, progressing through a desert and a temple, teaming up with mercenaries Bim and Bam on the way, to enter the Great Pyramid and defeat the boss therein. The player controls Sam and his accomplices though confined levels, engaging in battles through random encounters. In these battles, the player characters face large waves of enemies. The player controls the weapons and items each player character uses, with weapons being adjustable in regards to their range or trajectory of fire. The assigned actions are performed for five seconds, after which gameplay pauses and the player can assign new actions to the characters.

Announced in March 2011, The Random Encounter was created as part of the Serious Sam Indie Series to promote the release of Serious Sam 3: BFE. When requesting Vlambeer to develop the game, Devolver Digital envisioned a clone of Vlambeer's Super Crate Box. Vlambeer disliked this idea, quickly drafting a pitch for a turn-based role-playing game instead. The Random Encounter suffered a delay when Vlambeer's Radical Fishing was cloned. The Random Encounter was released for Microsoft Windows in October 2011 to a mixed reception. Critics both lauded and disliked the game's combat system, with some labelling it innovative. The game's tone in connection with the Serious Sam series, its visuals and its sound were well received. Mixed opinions were raised regarding the game's arsenal. Criticism was directed at the game's short length.

Gameplay

The player characters (right) wielding a shotgun, a minigun and a grenade launcher, respectively, and shooting at a horde of enemies approaching from the left. The active turn has three seconds remaining.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter plays as a hybrid between a role-playing video game with turn-based gameplay and a bullet hell game.[1][2] The gameplay is split into two parts: world exploration and battle sequences.[3] In the former, the player sequentially traverses nine confined levels, distributed across three thematic worlds.[1][4] Every few steps made in these levels, a random encounter occurs, initiating a battle against a large wave of enemies.[3][5] In such a battle, the player characters—Sam, Bim, and Bam—appear to the right of screen, persistently running backwards and facing to the left, while a horde of enemies spawns on the left.[2][6][4] The player chooses for each character to either fire their equipped weapon at the enemies, swap that weapon for another, or use an item.[7][8]

When firing a weapon, the player also chooses how this weapon is used: revolvers aim automatically; shotguns have an adjustable radius in which they automatically aim, although enemies shot at closer range receive more damage; several weapons can have their trajectory angled; and grenade launchers can shoot at a specific point on the screen.[1][6][7] Of those with a trajectory, most fire in a straight line; some fire continuously, while others only have limited shots per turn.[1][6][7] When a character switches weapons, they lose some time before also firing the newly equipped weapon.[7] Items that can be used include additional health or armour for the characters, revivals of characters that have died, a "Serious Bomb" that defeats the majority of enemies on-screen, and a "Kamikaze Bait" that spawns 100 (or more) Beheaded Kamikaze enemies.[1][7][9]

In each turn, the player characters perform their selected actions, while enemies also attack.[2] Turns last five seconds, after which the player can assign new actions to the characters.[8][2][4] During a turn, the player may also move the entire party up or down to shift their weapons' aim or dodge enemies and their projectiles.[4][10][5] Individual enemies have different attack styles.[7][6] The characters take damage if hit by an enemy or projectile; once a character's armour and health are depleted, they die.[10] Should all party members be dead at once, the battle ends, with the player losing a life and being reset to their position prior to the lost battle.[10][2] Should the player lose all of of their three lives, gameplay stops and the active level is reset.[1][10][3]

Battles end normally once all enemies are defeated, although additional enemies may spawn during a battle.[2][3] Battles become progressively more difficult by pitting the player against more enemies.[4] The game also includes five boss fights.[1] Through victories, the player gains some experience points that can add up to unlocking a new weapon or item.[1][3] Further items can be found in chests during the world exploration.[4] Levels further include some puzzle elements, such as collecting a key, activating a switch or defeating large amounts of enemies, that the player has to solve to progress.[1][4] Upon completion of the main game, an endless mode is unlocked, in which the player can play for an undetermined time to achieve the highest-possible score.[1][9][4]

Plot

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter follows Sam "Serious" Stone, the protagonist of the Serious Sam series, who returns from the past after his unsuccessful search for Mental, the series' antagonist.[3][11] Consequently, he is sent to the future to continue his search.[3][11] Arriving in a desert area in the future, Sam meets the mercenary Bim, who offers to join Sam, and they together defeat a Highlander, a Lava Golem, as well as hordes of other enemies, to progress into a temple.[12][13] Once in the temple, Sam and Bim encounter and team up with Bam, another mercenary.[3][14] Having surmounted the temple's dungeons and sewers, the group defeats the monster Tentaculus that blocks the way to the Great Pyramid.[15] Nearing the Great Pyramid, the group is ambushed by a giant enemy but manages to escape, arriving at the Great Pyramid and entering the spaceship therein.[16][17] In the spaceship, the giant enemy re-appears and is now defeated by the group.[17]

Development and release

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter was developed by Vlambeer, an indie game developer composed of Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman.[18] Their previous games included Super Crate Box and Radical Fishing.[18] After Devolver Digital, the publisher of the Serious Sam series, had come across Super Crate Box, the company contacted Vlambeer, asking them to develop a game for the Serious Sam Indie Series, a set of games to be created by small video game studios to promote the release of the then-upcoming Serious Sam 3: BFE.[18][19] Both Ismail and Nijman had been fans of the series, wherefore they accepted the request.[19][20] However, they understood that Devolver Digital envisioned a copy of Super Crate Box with a Serious Sam theme, which they disliked.[18]

Ismail and Nijman, during a thorough brainstorming session, drafted a turn-based role-playing video game.[18][21] As such, they tried to place the game in a genre as far away from a first-person shooter (the genre of the main Serious Sam series entries) as possible, while not sacrificing other core elements of the series.[19][20] From this idea, they created a crude drawing, which they scanned and emailed to Devolver Digital.[18] Expecting that Devolver Digital would turn down the pitch, the team was surprised when the publisher quickly approved of the concept.[18] The game concept did not change significantly from the pitch thereafter.[21] Ismail stated that Vlambeer had full creative freedom over the project, saying that, otherwise, the studio would have not done it.[19]

The visuals for The Random Encounter was created by Roy Nathan de Groot and Paul Veer.[22] De Groot created all static assets, starting with designing the first world and the sprite for Sam.[23] Creating Sam's accomplices, the team intended to use Sam's sister, however, she was already dead in the Serious Sam series' lore.[23] Instead, they went through the characters of the series' multiplayer modes and chose the two most "visually attractive" among them: Groovy Gregory and Wild Wyatt.[23] Working on the visuals for the battle sequences, de Groot found that they felt "flat" and thus added a background with parallax scrolling.[23] De Groot also created the cover artwork; when the files to it were lost in a crash shortly prior to the associated deadline, he quickly recreated the artwork from a low-resolution version that he upscaled and recoloured.[23]

Veer created the animations, including those for the characters and enemies, and visual effects.[22] Because Groovy Gregory and Wild Wyatt (now named Bim and Bam) had a shape similar to that of Sam, Veer was able to repurpose some of Sam's animations for the other two characters by applying different colours.[22] For greater diversity between the individual characters, Veer added minor cosmetic details and altered a few animations.[22] To fit the action theme of Serious Sam, the characters were fully animated, as opposed to the more static style of other role-playing video games of the time[22] The Random Encounter's soundtrack was composed by Alex Mauer.[24]

The Serious Sam Indie Series was announced in March 2011.[25][26] To prepare The Random Encounter in time for its announcement, Ismail and Nijman worked from their hotel rooms in San Francisco while attending the 2011 Game Developers Conference, in the plane back to the Netherlands thereafter, as well as at home under jetlag.[20] They immediately took several days off after the announcement.[20] The game was playable for the first time at the May 2011 "Indigo Connected by Ziggo" event in the Netherlands, as well as shown at Fantastic Arcade in September 2011.[27][28]

During the development of The Random Encounter, a clone of Vlambeer's Radical Fishing was released by another company for iOS and quickly became successful.[29] Because Vlambeer had itself been working on an iOS version of Radical Fishing (titled Ridiculous Fishing) that had not yet been released, this case of plagiarism lead to demotivation within the studio, resulting in the delay of The Random Encounter and other projects.[30] Ismail had been fully engaged in working on The Random Encounter but shifted to handling the fallout of the controversy, with Nijman taking over the development of The Random Encounter.[29]

Two promotional trailers for The Random Encounter were created by Kert Gartner.[31] The first, released in early October 2011, focused on its gameplay, while the other was released later that October to coincide with the game's release.[32][33] The Random Encounter was released on 24 October 2011.[34][35] It was made available for purchase through the Get Games and Steam services.[36] This marked Vlambeer's first commercial release, with its previous games having been published as freeware.[37][38] The studio intended to use the revenue generated from the game's sales to purchase a Macintosh computer and create a Mac OS X version of the game.[37]

In January 2012, The Random Encounter was offered as part of the "Serious Sam Lightning Pack", a collection of games sold at a reduced price on the website Indie Royale, and delivered as a download with no digital rights management, a download through Steam, and a download through the Desura service.[39][40] Indie Royale further included the game in its "Xmas Bundle 2.0" in December 2012.[41] The Random Encounter was further included a collection titled the "Serious Sam Humble Weekly Sale" on the website Humble Bundle in June 2013 to help fund the development of Serious Sam 4.[42][43] The website IndieGameStand offered The Random Encounter at a low price in November 2012.[44] On Steam, the game formed part of the "Serious Sam Complete Pack".[45]

Reception

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter received "mixed or average reviews", according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[46] Based on eleven critic reviews, Metacritic calculated an average score of 64/100.[46] Several critics, including Allistair Pinsof (Destructoid), Eric Neigher (IGN) and Lana Polansky (Kill Screen), considered the game's combat system innovative.[1][3][6] Eurogamer editor Christian Donlan described it as "ingenious", while David Sanchez of GameZone labelled it as an "excellent amalgamation of genres".[7] Polansky specifically lauded the battles' design, which she found was akin to a strategic puzzle requiring planning.[3] Conversely, Ryan Hodge, in his review for GamesRadar+, stated that battles in The Random Encounter were "boring", "repetetive", and "monotonous".[9] Others positively regarded the challenge posed by individual battles.[4][5][8][10]

Donlan and GamePro's Nathan Meunier liked the variety between the available weapons, with Donlan calling the individual weapons "endlessly satisfying".[7][8] However, Pinsof and Hodge found that some weapons, especially the grenade launcher, only had limited use.[1][9] They also considered the arsenal alone to be insufficient to complete the game, finding themselves losing later battles due to having wasted their items in prior battles.[1][8] Polansky and Hodge disregarded the puzzles found in the overworld as "peripheral" and "unchallenging".[3][9]

Some critics felt that The Random Encounter's concept was a good fit for the Serious Sam series.[1][5][9] Others pointed out that game's humour was well aligned to that of the rest of the series.[2][5] Polansky and Alex Fuller (RPGamer) disliked the game's lack of a coherent plot.[3] Pinsof and Hodge noted an overall lack of polish, of whom Pinsof also encountered several bugs.[1][9] The game's visuals and sound were considered by Sanchez as apt for the series, with the visuals described as "pleasing to look at" by Fuller.[4]

Many critics voiced their disappointment about the game's length of roughly one to two hours (or three to four hours at most), considering it insufficient.[2][4][5][8][2] This shortness consequently led to what Sanchez and Fuller felt was a sudden spike in difficulty after the first level.[2][4] Polansky observed that later battles had "unpredictable" difficulties.[3] Conversely, Shacknews' Ozzie Mejia noted that the game had a good learning curve.[5] Mejia also found that the game had little replay value.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Pinsof, Allistair (24 October 2011). "Review: Serious Sam: The Random Encounter". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sanchez, David (4 November 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on 17 November 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Polansky, Lana (16 December 2011). "Review: Serious Sam: The Random Encounter". Kill Screen. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Fuller, Alex (25 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter Review". RPGamer. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Mejia, Ozzie (3 November 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter review". Shacknews. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Neigher, Eric (3 November 2011). "Serious Sam:The Random Encounter Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Donlan, Christian (17 November 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter Review". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Meunier, Nathan (2 November 2011). "Review: Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (PC)". GamePro. Archived from the original on 5 November 2011.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Hodge, Ryan (28 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter review". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on 26 March 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  10. ^ a b c d e Walker, John (25 October 2011). "WIT: Serious Sam – The Random Encounter". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  11. ^ a b Vlambeer (24 October 2011). Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Microsoft Windows). Devolver Digital. Scene: Introduction.
  12. ^ Vlambeer (24 October 2011). Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Microsoft Windows). Devolver Digital. Level/area: 1-1 Arrival.
  13. ^ Vlambeer (24 October 2011). Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Microsoft Windows). Devolver Digital. Level/area: 1-3 Temple Gardens.
  14. ^ Vlambeer (24 October 2011). Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Microsoft Windows). Devolver Digital. Level/area: 2-1 Temple Entrance.
  15. ^ Vlambeer (24 October 2011). Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Microsoft Windows). Devolver Digital. Level/area: 2-3 Sewers.
  16. ^ Vlambeer (24 October 2011). Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Microsoft Windows). Devolver Digital. Level/area: 3-1 Unpleasant Surprise.
  17. ^ a b Vlambeer (24 October 2011). Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (Microsoft Windows). Devolver Digital. Level/area: 3-3 Spaceship.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Cameron, Phill (5 November 2012). "Two years with Vlambeer: the inside story on gaming's greatest new studio". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 7 February 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  19. ^ a b c d Garcia, Louis (28 April 2011). "Interview Roundup: Croteam and indie developers discuss new titles in the Serious Sam universe". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  20. ^ a b c d Ismail, Rami (10 March 2011). "Serious news". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 13 March 2011.
  21. ^ a b Nijman, Jan Willem (8 July 2011). "Serious Design". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 10 September 2011.
  22. ^ a b c d e Ismail, Rami; Veer, Paul (6 June 2011). "Paul Veer on Serious Sam: The Random Encounter". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 24 October 2011.
  23. ^ a b c d e de Groot, Roy Nathan. "Serious Sam: the Random Encounter". Pixel-icious. Archived from the original on 15 April 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  24. ^ Rad, Chloi (20 January 2015). "Starr Mazer Fuses Point-and-Click Adventure and Retro Shmups". IGN. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  25. ^ Fahey, Mike (9 March 2011). "Serious Sam Delivers Three New Games With An Indie Twist". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  26. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (9 March 2011). "Serious Sam goes indie". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  27. ^ Ismail, Rami (16 May 2011). "Indigo '11". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011.
  28. ^ Ismail, Rami (25 September 2011). "Fantastic Arcade & Serious Sam release info". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 18 October 2011.
  29. ^ a b Rose, Mike (8 March 2013). "Ridiculous Fishing: The Game that Nearly Ended Vlambeer, Page 1 of 3". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  30. ^ Ismail, Rami; Nijman, Jan Willem (9 May 2012). "Postmortem: Vlambeer's Gun Godz, Page 3 of 3". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  31. ^ Ismail, Rami (9 September 2011). "Supermassive Blog Post". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 27 October 2011.
  32. ^ Ismail, Rami (7 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter – Gameplay Trailer!". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 22 October 2011.
  33. ^ Ismail, Rami (24 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter". Vlambeer. Archived from the original on 1 November 2011.
  34. ^ Gallegos, Anthony (11 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter Release Date Announced". IGN. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  35. ^ Zacny, Rob (24 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter launches on Steam with a live-action trailer (of sorts)". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  36. ^ Hinkle, David (25 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter launches (a billion missiles)". Engadget. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  37. ^ a b Cowan, Danny (26 October 2011). "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter Is Vlambeer's First Game You Can Buy". GameSetWatch. Archived from the original on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  38. ^ Caoili, Eric (13 January 2012). "Best of Indie Games: From coins to Super Crate Box". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  39. ^ Staff (24 January 2012). "Indie Royale debuts 'Lightning Packs' with Serious Sam indies". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  40. ^ Conditt, Jessica (24 January 2012). "Indie Royale presents the Serious Sam lightning deal". Engadget. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  41. ^ Staff (18 December 2012). "Indie Royale debuts seven-game Xmas Bundle 2.0". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  42. ^ Hillier, Brenna (7 June 2013). "Serious Sam 4 inbound, to be funded by Humble Bundle proceeds". VG247. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  43. ^ Brown, Fraser (3 November 2014). "Serious Sam Humble Weekly Sale: Croteam's funding Serious Sam 4 by selling you more Sam than you can handle". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  44. ^ Sanchez, David (14 November 2012). "IndieGameStand and Serious Sam: The Random Encounter give you shmup and RPG action for $1". GameZone. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  45. ^ Chalk, Andy (18 March 2016). "Croteam marks 15 years of Serious Sam with Steam trading cards". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  46. ^ a b c "Serious Sam: The Random Encounter for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.

Official website

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