The scale of the game is still amazing.
Sadly the co-op progress is different than your single player progress, so you'll need to start a fresh game to play with your friends. You can choose to start at any level you've completed in co-op, but for whatever reason the single player unlocks don't carry over.
As with the original game, Sam is a bit short, though re-playability is high and recommended. The last battle of the game is an epic one not to be missed, and definitely best experienced with a friend. At $20 the game might be a tough sell, as if my memory serves me correctly, that's the price the original launched at. I think fans of the series and new comers alike will enjoy what the game has to offer; which is a chaotic bloody good time that looks absolutely gorgeous.
Xbox Live Arcade Version: (added January 19th, 2010)
Serious Sam HD has finally found it's way onto Xbox Live, complete with a brand new engine showcasing the power of Croteam's renderer. Graphically it stands up quite well, with only a few issues with aliasing. Draw distance, texture quality and lighting are all on par with the the PC counterpart. It's definitely a good way to show off your HDTV thanks to all the wide color range and beautiful locales with seemingly endless views.
One thing that become immediately apparent between the console and PC version of the game is how lenient the game is with aiming on the Xbox. Perhaps in an effort to compensate for slower turn speeds without sacrificing the sheer amount and direction of enemies the targetting area is quite wide. Another thing tough to get used to for veteran console gamers is the jump button defaults to the left trigger, something of a rarity in shooter.
Sadly there's no split screen play to be had, something the original Serious Sam had for Xbox. This limits players to four player online co-op, instead of the PCs 16 player. Online play was hit or miss in terms of performance, but despite some minor lag, the lenient aiming made up for it. The drop-in and drop-out nature of the game had me consistently playing with a full room as well.
Overall the 360 version is almost identical to the PC, save for a few PC specific features. Alongside the standard matchmaking features there's even a server browser with the options to customize the game difficulty to some degree. Plus it's $5 cheaper...sometimes.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: The Classic Serious Sam game is back with updated visuals for the Xbox 360. Team up in this no holds barred shooter.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.