Will Rock
Gameplay 6
Graphics 6
Sound 6

Even if you were a big fan of the Serious Sam games Will Rock just tries too hard to imitate the master. It’s still very playable but soon becomes tedious. Play it if you like your shooter games brainless.

Gameplay: Very average compared to what’s available.
Graphics: Nice in places but not really up to scratch.
Sound: Average

Summary 6.0 Above Average
Gameplay 0
Graphics 0
Sound 0
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Summary 0.0 Terrible

Will Rock

Developer: Saber Interactive| Publisher: Ubisoft |Release Date: 2003 | Genre: First Person Shooter | Website: n/a | Format: CD

Will Rock is just your average archeology student who, along with his professor and the professor’s beautiful daughter, agree to help uncover the entrance to a long lost city in the mountains near Olympus. When they crack the code to the entrance, it turns out that the people they were helping are actually a group of fanatics who want to restore the ancient Greek civilization.

As they hold the professor’s daughter as hostage, Will is forced to open the gates to the city. In the ensuing chaos, the professor is killed and the fanatics flee into the city with the girl. Will accidentally hits a large stone statue, which frees the guardian of the city. After receiving great powers from the guardian, Will must venture into the city to rescue the girl and stop the imprisoned Greek gods from wreaking havoc on the world. Not the most plausible of scenarios but it does give you a valid reason for blowing apart ancient Greece.

Right from the start I have to mention that Will Rock really wants to be Serious Sam. The whole look and feel of the game mimics Croteam’s classic, but unfortunately they don’t quite manage to pull it off. The graphics are pretty good with huge levels and plenty of enemies, but compared to the Serious Sam games they are not that impressive.

Enemies
There are some huge bosses and the occasional neat looking level, but overall the stages are pretty boring and the graphics far from cutting edge. Every foe you encounter in this game also seems to be based on one found in Serious Sam, only with a Greek mythological twist. Some of the enemies like the huge stone statues look pretty cool but there’s nothing that you won’t be sick of seeing after a few levels. Almost all the enemies have something that makes them really annoying and although they attack in swarms the effect is just never as awe inspiring as in Serious Sam.

 

Gameplay

If you’ve played any of the Serous Sam games then you’ll know exactly what to expect from Will Rock. Between you and the level exit are hundreds of enemies that attack in droves. Your job is to kill enough of them until a gate opens somewhere, upon which you run to the next area and repeat the process.

 

Some levels see you pulling a few levers, or having to collect some treasure to proceed. Overall, the game is very repetitive and the idea not just as novel as it was when Serious Sam first came out. The game does contain some interesting weapons like the Medusa gun, which turn foes into stone or acid guns, which cause them to inflate and explode but none of the weapons have a secondary fire (apart from the sniper crossbow which allow you to zoom in) and some of them are a real hassle to use.

 

The way blood clings to them looks cool, but since it disappears after a while its pretty pointless. Collecting treasure allows you to buy power-ups at certain points, but there are only three available and you can only have one of each at a time. These are best saved for the boss battles and will for a limited time period make you do more damage, invulnerable or slow down time.

 

Sound
Considering the name of the game it should come as no surprise that most of the tunes are rock inspired. The intro tune is kind a cool in a cheesy way but none of the songs really stand out as good apart from “Into the hall of the mountain king” which plays when you enter the underworld. Unfortunately most of the tunes are rather short and loops the whole time which can become a bit annoying. Will also utters a one-liner every now and then but these comments aren’t in the least bit funny.

 

Conclusion
I’ve compared this game more than enough times with Serious Sam, but anyone who plays this will instantly notice the similarities. The single player game becomes a bit of a chore to play after a while, but at least there’s a few multi-player modes if you have some like-minded friends. If you want a no-brains shooter where you can just run around killing things to relieve your frustrations, then I guess Will Rock will provide some entertainment but my money is still on Sam Stone and his game.

System Requirements

Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium® III 500 MHz or equivalent
128MB
32 MB video card or higher, such as GeForce 2 or ATI® Radeon or better
Direct X 9.0c compliant
9.0c (latest)
CD
700MB
Keyboard, Mouse

Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium® III 500 MHz or equivalent
128MB
32 MB video card or higher, such as GeForce 2 or ATI® Radeon or better
Direct X 9.0c compliant
9.0c (latest)
CD
700MB
Keyboard, Mouse

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