1. Serious Sam is thoroughly ridiculous through and through. That's a good thing. It is a game that pulls you in by just being so good at being fun.
2. The setup here is pretty thin. Aliens have taken over and our titular hero is the only one who is bad enough to save the world. Also, for some reason you are in ancient Egypt. There is a self-aware humor to the whole thing that works perfectly w/ the over-the-top gameplay.
3. Serious Sam is an old school twin stick shooter but done from a first person perspective. Think of it as the Doom guy landing on a Smash TV stage. You are funneled from arena to arena where you defend yourself from progressively more ridiculous waves of enemies with progressively more ridiculous weapons. There's little cover and no scopes or iron sights to slow you down. Shoot then dodge and run so you stay not dead. Closest thing to puzzle solving in this is finding a locked door and needing to find a key or a switch. This is an admirable display of purity of form, sticking strictly to its fun-and-gun formula.
4. Note: "fun-and-gun" was a typo but I'm sticking w/ it.
5. Graphically, this remaster does what it has to and good enough is perfect in this case. It doesn't really change the feel from the original just brings in some better textures and allows for higher resolutions. I might say the newer graphics look a little awkwardly smooth and don't have quite the same gritty appeal as the original graphics but the trade off is you can see everything a bit more clearly. You also get a bunch of color scheme options that you will never, ever use.
6. The music sounds like it was recorded in a small studio in the early 2000s. I like it but I definitely noticed the budget production. When there are guitars, especially, it sounds thin and artificial. I can live w/ it but the sonic quality of the music definitely not the Serious Sam's best attribute. Really, the sound design seems a bit dated at this point. The directional sound feels noticeably less natural and helpful than it does in newer first person games. This said, I do really enjoy the artificial crunch of the compressed samples used for the guns.
7. Serious Sam pays appropriate attention to enemy design for a game that mostly revolves around being in open spaces and fighting hordes of enemies. You've got all manner of ludicrous headless humanoids, mythical beasts and laser shooting ro-bots coming at you at all times. There's a mix of hit-scan damage, dodge-able projectiles and melee attacks that means you have to build strategies on the fly depending on whats coming at you.
8. You get swarmed these little exploding, hopping toad monsters that swarm you and they are the most annoying thing I have ever come across in the entirety of my existence.You also get swarmed by these exploding, headless guys who endlessly scream "Ahhhhhhhhh!" and that for some reason is the best thing ever. Don't ask me how that works.
9. Serious Sam's biggest trick from a design perspective is having enemies spawn when you pick up ammo or power-ups. Whenever you find something really awesome like rocket launcher ammunition, you just start instinctively searching around because you know the game is about to throw some crazy shit at you. This also might force you to pick and chose if you want to get some minor health pickups but--who am I kidding--I will always opt for the item pickup and more enemies to kill.
10. There are a variety of difficulties ranging from
I-just-want-to-see-the-freaking-ending to
I-have-too-much-time-on-my-hands and it's actually fun to play at all of
them. They way difficulty is ramped up is not too interesting--more
enemies that are harder to kill and deal more damage are added--but it's
enough to keep things interesting whether you want to curb stomp
enemies or get curb stomped yourself.
12. Serious Sam is absolutely loaded w/ secret areas and finding these is the best reason to keep playing after you've finished the first time The weapons you can find range from game-breaking at lower difficulties to essential as things get harder. They also factor in when going for high scores as the time spend getting them counts against you but they do make it easier to mow through enemies faster.
13. I frequently praise games that show some sort of subtlety in using gameplay for storytelling purposes but, honestly, Serious Sam proves that none of that shit is necessary. You can set your focus 100% on frantic gameplay and come up w/ something that is every bit as absorbing as the most detailed and perfectly executed story-driven game. I'm glad we have both.
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