Serious Sam Collection

It was during the mid to late '90s that the first-person shooter (FPS) genre hit its peak and really cemented itself as a staple of gaming. The Serious Sam series might have been a little late to the party, but it still struck a chord with fans as something unique with its mature, tongue-in-cheek humor and distinct gameplay, and now, twenty years later, the Serious Sam Collection has made its way to Stadia. The collection includes the HD remake of both episodes from the original Serious Sam, as well as Serious Sam 3 and the games' expansion packs. While there's a lot of Sam to for gamers to digest here, the collection isn't complete. Serious Sam 2 is clearly absent, but unfortunately, that's not the only problem facing the collection.

The biggest problem facing the Serious Sam Collection is simply that the franchise has not aged well over the past two decades or so. Although the textures have been bumped up to HD status, it's similar to painting an older house in neon yellow to distract from the fact that the foundation could use some work. From the opening crawl of Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter to the end credits of Serious Sam 3: BFE, everything just feels outdated. The controls and gameplay feel like they're missing something. And by bumping up the resolution, some parts of the user interface and game text winds up being smaller and harder to read. On the upside, there's still a good bit of fun to be had in the multiplayer component of the games. This is especially true for the local split-screen, which offers a great opportunity for friends to get together in the same room, on the same TV, and just have a nostalgic blast.