Serious Sam brings the FPS genre back to its roots - shoot a monster, find a key, push a button. It sill works though, even after all this time. You wont find a Half-Life caliber story here, instead just monster after monster to kill. This is also Serious Sam's one downside though, as wave after wave of monsters gets a bit tedious after a while (like all arcade games). However, 20-minute sessions should prove fun for quite a while.

Like all good shooters, Serious Sam offers a large, if not a little plain, selection of weaponry. The standard chain gun and shotguns are complimented by such weapons as a hilarious cannon (which looks like its been stolen from a 16th century battleship), and a quad laser gun that sounds suspiciously like a TIE Fighter. There's quite a vast array of enemies to frag, including some of the largest monsters I have ever seen. However most are just variants, and as you progress through you end up primarily fighting just a select few of the more unique and original baddies. And like Doom and few others before it, Serious Sam is balanced tremendously. A skilled player is just as deadly with a dinky shotgun as the rocket launcher, and that's how it should be.

You would never think a game these days would have as many people playing cooperative online as deathmatch, but that surprisingly is the case with Serious Sam. Packed will three times the monsters supporting up to 16 players at once can quantify for an enormous degree of fun and excitement. Throw in the regular deathmatch, grab 4 buddies for split-screen play, then establish an online match and prepare to indulge in endless replay value. As an added bonus, a robust level editor is included which should ensure a healthy mod community, as already an extensive degree of mods have been announced.

Graphically, there's a lot to like in Serious Sam. This is bolstered by the games lush Egyptian setting, which looks great. Unfortunately it is also the only setting in the game, which is disappointing, as I hoped for a bit more varied environments. Monsters are well detailed also, which is surprising considering their large numbers. Serious Sam lets you do some major graphical customization, supporting nearly any and every feature you could imagine. Needless to say, Serious Sam could bring any rig you throw at it to its knees.

You have probably read this a million times already, but once more wont hurt - Serious Sam is the best game $20 could buy. Its positive similarities to Doom are striking, and that's always a good thing. Its one fault is simply the obscurity of both the developer and franchise, which wont be a problem for latter titles in the series. Do yourself a favor and pick up Serious Sam. A better time simply could not be gained at such an attractive price.

· · · piku