Serious Sam
It's strange really, how long you can keep the same simple concept fresh. Serious Sam is something of a throwback to the days of Doom, only with better graphics.
And more enemies.
Seriously, I really mean that.
More.
And bigger.
Much bigger.
So big, in fact, that I wonder if the final boss might be Biggest (intentional capitalization), all categories.
Anyway, Serious Sam is all about enemies, hordes of them, from all directions and all the time. Compared to any other game, movie or other kind of story, the pacing of Serious Sam is just off. The fights are incredibly intense, and whenever there's a chance to catch your breath you start worry about everything being so quiet and that you're going to trip the next attack wave any second. And you will, there's no sneaking around the edges avoiding ambushes here. Adding to the tension is the fact that you usually don't seem to find ammo and health after a big battle, but rather right before. So when you come upon a room chock-full of ammo it's you tend to hit the save buttons a few extra times before moving on. Add to this the fact that picking stuff up often triggers additional attacks, and you start to feel like you're being actively punished for grabbing stuff. They'll come for you, and in droves. No running, no hiding (especially not since doors to previous areas normally lock behind you) There's only one way to go: straight through.
And that's where Serious Sam shines anyway, in the middle of a wide open area, whith enemies of all sizes coming at you from all directions, when your health is sinking and your ammo rapidly running out. The lulls in combat, when you move through passages and one or two enemies at a time go at you, really aren't as much fun anyway, they're not what you play for. Puzzle solving, story and variety in setting are virtually out of the game as well, making this a game with an extreme focus on what it does well. It might seem a little thin to build a whole game on arena-like combat, but it works. Keeping you well supplied with ammo is a key reason, you're never rewarded or forced to save up in this game, if you would the fun factor would drop dead right away. No fun being locked into a room with 20 beheaded suicide bombers and not enough ammo to get rid of them, good thing we don't have to. Whip out the shotgun and blow them to bits!
Weapons, yes. Big ones they are, and mighty fun to use too. From the double barrel coach gun that kills a Kleer skeleton with one shot close up, to the XL2 laser gun just mows through anything that dare peek over the horizon and on to the SBC cannon that goes straight through lesser targets and explodes upon hitting a major one, they all pack enough punch to blow other games out of the sky. They'd be vastly overpowered in any other setting, but here every ounce of power is needed to keep the hordes back.
In all, Serious Sam is the most intense shooter I've ever played, and you really get a huge sense of accomplishment when you finish it.
Now, what's really scary is that The Second Encounter has just arrived, and you can't really imagine that having a smaller or easier final boss ...
Damn, that'll be something ...
