Serious Sam has a warm place in the hearts of PC gamers as something of a bastard child of Duke Nukem. He's a character with all the attitude of Duke with none of the hopes of doing anything other than blowing the holy hell out of everything he sees. Serious Sam was something of an anachronism when it was released back in 2001, but now the gameplay mechanics feel positively ancient. Don't worry though, that's a very, very good thing. Serious Sam HD may seem like a lazy port on paper, but it's everything you remember, with a brand new layer of polish.

Title Serious Sam HD Developer Devolver Digital Publisher CroTeam Price $19.99 (Steam Only) Platform PC, Xbox 360 upcoming for $15

The game now runs on the Serious Engine 3, and all the weapons and monsters have impressive new texture work. There are multitudes of options for tweaking your visual experience, so gamers who like to dig deep into the graphical settings of their games are going to be in heaven. That being said, the levels are still rather spartan; don't expect to see the level of detail and verisimilitude you get with a modern game, built from the ground up on a current-generation engine. This is clearly an older title with refreshed textures and models.

It's also important to note that there is nothing new here. No new game modes, missions, or secrets... just a straight port of Serious Sam: The First Encounter with updated graphics and a new engine. The price tag on Steam is only $20, but that was also the price of the original game at retail. Depending on your feelings concerning inflation, that's either a rip-off or a great deal.

So what are you paying for?

Anarchy. Sheer, unadulterated anarchy.

The game throws hundreds—if not thousands—of enemies at you, level after level. You'll often go long periods of time without taking your finger off the trigger. The enemies explode into bloody chunks, you collect any health or ammo you find, and then you move on to the next area. There is a story, if you can call it that, but you don't need to bother with it. The only point of the game is to kill everything you see.

Your health won't regenerate, the enemies have very basic AI, and the game is almost completely linear. What it lacks in features it makes up for in insanity. Why would CroTeam need to code in thinking enemies when they all just run at you in overwhelming numbers? You'll be attacked by hordes of shrieking harpies, you'll have to pump hundreds of minigun rounds into charging bulls, and of course the galloping skeleton... everything is there to make sure you'll rarely have the opportunity to take a breath.

These days we're trained to figure out where the cover is, kill a few enemies, and then fall back while our shields or health recharge. Here those skills are worthless, as you'll need to continually move, pay attention to where the next wave is coming from, and keep track of the somewhat limited ammo for your more effective weapons. That's it. It never changes until the game is over. It never gets more complex. If you're looking for a game that will make you think... well, you're out of luck here. If you want something that jams a steel spike into your fight or flight center, you've come to the right place.

Bring some friends

At $20 it won't be hard to convince some friends to pick this up as well, and the co-op is where the game begins to really shine. You can play with up to 16 people at once through the campaign, and you don't need to do much strategizing outside of, again, killing everything you see.

The enemies will scale depending on how many friends you bring into the fight, and you can set up any number of options to make the experience harder or easier. If you want a real challenge, toggle friendly fire to ON. This is a tough game to play with a roomful of people when you suddenly have to watch where your bullets are going.

It would be easier for fans of the game to get excited if we were offered some new game modes or levels or... well, anything, but if you're new to the game there's a ton to love here. And again, the $20 price tag make this an almost impulse buy if you're in the mood for some brainless fun. Sometimes you just need to kill scores of hellish enemies with a handheld cannon, and the fun's never over until the guns go *click.*

Verdict: Buy