Serious Sam: The Random Encounter

Overview

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is a role-playing game developed by Vlambeer and is the third game in the Serious Sam Indie Series. The game forgoes typical RPG conventions such as experience points; likely a homage to the lack of modern first-person shooter systems like regenerating health in the main Serious Sam games.

Gameplay

Battles take place with Sam "Serious" Stone and his party running backwards towards the right of the screen while enemies flood in from the left. At the start of the fight the enemies and Sam's party freeze in place and the player is asked to select weapons for the party and designate where to shoot. Players are also able to use items to help the party in various way such as refiling health and shields or increasing the damage of all weapons for one turn. The game then resumes the action with the party firing their weapons automatically and players have to move the party up and down to dodge incoming missiles and enemies in melee range. After five seconds the action freezes again to allow players to switch weapons and adjust their aim before resuming. This cycle repeats until either Sam's party is knocked out or all enemies are defeated.

Weapons

Many of the weapons iconic to the Serious Sam games are included in The Random Encounter. To accommodate the turn-based fighting system they have unique abilities and firing patterns.

• Revolver: Fires at the closest enemy.
• Shotgun: Players designate how close enemies must close in before the party member will fire on them.
• Minigun: Fires in a straight line. Has a slow firing speed at the start of a turn but speeds up before resetting at the start of the next turn.
• Grenade Launcher: Lobs a single grenade.
• Rocket Launcher: Fires three missiles in a spread at the start of the round.
• Laser: Continuously fires 3 parallel laser beams in a in a straight line. Enemies hit with it are slown down.
• Sniper: Fires a shot that pierces enemies in a straight line.
• Cannon: Spends one turn charging to fire a devastating cannon ball on the next turn.

Items

Many items are taken from the previous Serious Sam games. If a party member uses an item then they can not fire or swap weapons for that turn.

• Heal All: Heals all party members health
• Armor: Fills the armor meter for the party member that uses it.
• Armor All: Fills the armor meter for all party members.
• Revive: Revives all fallen party members to full health.
• Serious Speed: The party runs backwards faster allowing them to get distance from the horde.
• Serious Bomb: All enemies take continuous damage for the duration of the turn.
• Kamikaze Bait: Summons a giant swarm of Beheaded Kamikazes.

PC System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7
• Processor: 2.0Ghz or faster processor
• Memory: 1GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 100MB free space
• Video Card: 256MB Video Memory or higher, DirectX 8 or later
• DirectX®: 8.0 or later