Monday, February 14, 2011

Getting "Serious" All Over Again . . .

Reading an article yesterday about the development of Serious Sam 3 (hell yeah!) & its impending release this year, brought back memories of the days spent playing the first game in the series.

Back then in 2004, I had been a 10yr old who’d just discovered computer gaming & thought Sam to be the next coolest thing after Harry Potter – Serious Sam: First Encounter was my first PC game ever (I’m not counting Mario, minesweeper or Solitaire).

I fondly remember the eagerness of my younger-self, rushing to finish homework after returning from school so I could go blow some monsters. The game-play seemed exciting and intimidating at the same time – hordes of disfigured creepies, bony skeletons (are there any other kind?), poisonous froggy critters, overgrown minigun-wielding scorpions and of course, the Headless-Suicide-Bombers(TM) rushing towards me all at once, “me” being the ultimate metal-skinned, lead-chewing, testosterone-powered killing-machine – Sam “Serious” Spade (Yeah kids, Duke Nukem is cool and all, but for me, he doesn’t hold a candle to old Sammy). Not only did it feel absolutely exhilarating, but Sam’s trademark one-liners amused me to no end.

After that I progressed to bigger things (Prince of Persia and Starcraft). I never played SS: Second Encounter, and though I did play SS2, I didn’t like it. The monsters were cartoonish, and the guns didn’t feel right. SS2 convinced me that Sam was a thing of past, the world had moved on. Then I discovered RPG and 4X strategy, and there was no looking back.

It was hence a pleasant surprise when I learnt of Serious Sam 3 and found that I actually wanted to play it. Since then, we’ve hardly had any shooter without the word ‘tactical’. They all have a full-fledged storyline now (which is mostly ludicrous, if epic), moral choices for protagonists shown in fifteen minute long cut scenes, emotion, drama, buddies dying blah, blah, blah. Don’t get me wrong, that’s all great and all, but sometimes you just wanna blow stuff up, right?
Which brings us back to Sam. I hope SS3 is great and better than the mess that was SS2. Meanwhile, I decided I couldn’t wait for the release. Hell man, I wanted it now! And I realized I had the perfect solution to that – I bought the HD versions of First and Second Encounter & now I’m happily reviving old memories.

Its amazing how much fun it still is to play this game, some things just never get outdated. I still get the same feeling of thrill to see like a million skeletons rushing at me and that satisfaction of one (or a dozen) well aimed grenades launched at them. Ah, the bliss!

I’d love to say more, but I got a dozen mutated bulls rushin’ at me, and I just got my hands on this badass ‘ROKKET LAUNCHA  . . . .


"ALWAYS OUT-MANNED, NEVER OUT-GUNNED"


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