Welcome to a decade ago: I am playing Serious Sam. The new-ish HD re-release was on sale on Steam the other week for the better part of free or some such. I had played a few minutes with a friend way back in the day, but never got the chance to really play it. I am finding it equal parts great and frustrating.
Great: Engaging gigantic enemies and massive swarms of mobs. It's an absolute rush. Upscaled, the game still manages to look very nice, if simple. Everything has a very clean, crisp look to it. All the weapons so far are immensely satisfying and useful.
Frustrating: Anytime I'm indoors. Seriously, running around the outdoor environments and open spaces is great times, but once the game throws you into narrow corridors things just get annoying. I realize the need to change things up from a design standpoint, but the linear hallway gauntlets just aren't any fun. Less enemies, more cheap shots. Part of what Serious Sam was sold on was big environments and big enemies, and these sections seem to run antithesis to that. It doesn't even mesh with the "throwback to simpler times" angle. Classics like Doom may have been nothing but corridor run 'n guns themselves, but at least the stage design felt organic, natural, and more dynamic. Going even further back, even Wolf 3D had the advantage of feeling like you were navigating a maze of some kind. Indoors, Sam offers nothing of the sort but wave after wave of enemies in boring-looking tunnels.
... It would figure I would spend three times as long whining as I did complimenting. I really am enjyoing the game though. Oh, and if anyone else has it and is every inclined to try setting up a co-op match, by all means...
EDIT: Why the hell does the word awe.some bring up a youtube video.
