I interviewed John Romero, one of the co-creators of Doom and Quake, a few months ago. I asked him what games he was playing, and he didn’t include a modern shooter in his answer. I asked why and he replied, “[Modern shooters,] they’re really slow. Like Gears is crazy slow ’cause you’re just a bullet sponge. They’ve altered the FPS paradigm to something I’m not even interested in playing. I don’t ‘want to be a bullet shield; I want to be skillful, nimble, and fast.” The school of shooter design that Romero helped create with Doom and Quake is all but gone from the gaming scene. Its passing seems to have gone unnoticed by the world at large. After all, we’re all having a blast with our Call of Duty-clones and RPG-hybrid moral choice simulators.
Serious Sam 3: Before First Encounter is a game that requires you to be skillful, nimble, and fast. It’s a revival and a natural extension of a Doom-style breed of shooter that was left in the dust bin by most designers over a decade ago. You won’t find an overwrought story, regenerating health, or RPG-lite skill progression here. Serious Sam 3 is the anti-Deus Ex, the anti-Modern Warfare, and it’s damn fun.
