Holy shit, this game is intense, just beat the Lava boss outside Thebes and my fingers/wrists are a bit sore... I'm playing on normal so I cannot even imagine how the game would be on the hardest difficulty. Also those damn charging bulls are just the worst.

Never had much trouble with the bulls, you can hear them charging and they just run in a stright line so it is easy to side-step. The Kleer Skeletons are the worst enemy...

XD I love watching noobs get exposed to this gem. :P

Have you found the hidden team of game designers and programmers? You get to kill them too! :D

With the Skeletons you use the double-shotgun, when they jump you strafe and then blast them from behind. That's only if you lack Laser/Minigun ammo though, in which case you just shoot them at a distance.

The bulls are bad because they can take 2 missiles EACH

Use the missiles or sniper rifle when there's just a couple of bulls, use the cannon when there's more of them .

I'm currently in a "Old FPS binge", Duke Nukem 3D, Final Doom, Doom 64 EX, Shadow Warrior (all except Doom 64 EX I've played before) and now Serious Sam. I'm also hanging out for the Powerslave source port to play it.

I think I'll be happy to get back to slow RPG's and strategy games after this. When do you get the sniper? I'm at Karnak.

Wait, that's not available in First Encounter, only in SE . My bad .

It's great. yeah. You'll learn one by one what is the good way to encounter each different enemy type... but then the game throws several of them at you at the same time, and you have to apply all that knowledge simultaneously. :)

Later there will be masses of enemies on your tails that fighting them feels like ballet with guns. Running backwards in circles, leading the enemies in a group and shooting at them at the same time... If I have to think in which FPS game I've had the most fun playing, Serious Sam could well be on the top.

At the same time though, it is also odd how you'd end up in situations which are completely the opposite of that, like shooting a big monster repeatedly in its elbow with your revolver from a safe place where it can't see you. I guess that is gameplay-scumming, but hey if it works... I think that is the way I killed most of those big green monsters throwing big green balls at you (which you could also shoot mid-air), or those big scorpions or whatever they were.

Has anyone here played the "HD" remakes? I'm playing the originals I got here on gog. Which one is best?

HD versions look even better and support widescreen etc. properly. But they also need considerably more power from your PC, I think.

There's one thing I didn't like about the SS HD remake, ie. the vast deserts have dunes. I preferred the flat deserts of the non-HD version.

EDIT: This video shows a bit of those dunes in the first level, ie. you go a bit up and down when you run on them, something that didn't happen in the original game. I recall being annoyed if my rockets hit the dunes because of that, or the dunes blocking my view to the horizon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m4B48R_R7k#t=200

I guess by that you mean that they support widescreen from the main menu? I'm editing the "PersistentSymbols" file for widescreen res and fov. Sounds like it would be harder with those kamikaze fights if you cant see them coming machine-gun them at extreme range.

The engine didn't support it.
I think the weapon balance was changed a bit for the HD versions.

Indeed. Funny that they should be first seen in a gully. They're so easy to trick, they really are gully-bulls.

I'll get my coat.