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 Remember the birth of the first person shooter genre with Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM, when no one cared that the plot was clichéd from start to finish, and all that mattered was surviving from room to room with enough health and ammunition to reach the next stage? Nowadays, gamers expect high-resolution, high-polygon, multiplayer-enabled adventures that are filled with an intriguing plot and features that make them want to play the game twelve times over. Sometimes, though, removing all that and moving back to the earlier days of the genre can be nearly as fulfilling - when taken in short spurts, at least - as the latest No One Lives Forever. Coming from Croatia-based developer Croteam, Serious Sam is prepared to fill that gap nicely.
What? There's a story embedded in the depths of Serious Sam? Actually, there is; it revolves around Sam being sent back in time through the use of an ancient Egyptian artifact to put a stop to an alien threat that is slowly defeating the entire human race far in the future. But that doesn't matter much, since there are few moments where the story makes an appearance during the romp through Egypt. And it won't matter, either, because Serious Sam has so much in-your-face action that you'll groan when a menu screen comes up at the end of an area explaining the next "objective"; blowing up the next set of 100 enemies with your dual pistols, rocket launcher and double shotgun is all that mattersthat's on your mind. It's blatantly obvious that Croteam developed the Serious Sam engine to handle huge, open areas that can encompass masses of enemies without experiencing a hint of slowdown, not to compete with the powerhouses of id Software and Epic Games' high-tech engines. This might be a problem to some, but it shouldn't for most; most of the time the environments will be of no concern, except for spots where more health could be hiding. When playing Serious Sam, the bigger the area, the more dangerous it is. As soon as you step into a spot with any sort of lengthly view distance, the first thing that happens is the patter of footsteps and running from what seems like every direction. Not long after, kamikaze screams start spilling in as the human bombers are speeding toward you, without a single care except to see you blown to pieces. Soon enemies are charging from near and far, and comes down to holding down the fire button and shooting like a madman. And just when it seems like all is at peace, a brand-new creature pops on the screen that fills the entire screen and pours down the fire of hell upon Sam. Some have complained that all the hype surrounding Serious Sam is rather hypocritical considering that a similar DOOM-style FPS, KISS Psycho Circus (also from Gathering of Developers, oddly enough), was panned by most, mostly because it was so shallow. The difference between Third Law Interactive and Croteam's titles, however, is that Serious Sam has that special ingredient of fun. It's hard to pinpoint why exactly Serious Sam's simplistic gameplay is so addicting that it sucked this editor in while an unopened, unplayed copy of No One Lives Forever sat less than a foot away. There are certain aspects of a game that can't be described, and that's the case with Serious Sam - it just clicks. By no means is Serious Sam a revolution for the genre, but it's nice to have a fast and furious first person shooter that's ultimately brought back some of the nostalgia of DOOM and other classics. We'll find out how the final version turns out when Gathering of Developers and Croteam release Serious Sam in March.
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