Serious Sam is the shooter I've always heard I must play. Hearing about it for years without seeing much footage from it, I never knew what it was. People seemed to describe it as the next Crysis, so what I eventually got was quite jarring. Because Serious Sam is a shooter where nothing matters. The levels don't matter, the enemy types don't matter, the plot doesn't matter. All you do is run & gun, being attacked by dozens of enemies at once. It is repetitive, not very imaginative, hardly fair, but surprisingly very enjoyable. The only problem I could find with Serious Sam is that having played one game, the following one in the series won't be as fun. There just isn't that initial thrill & surprise of being attacked by dozens of enemies of various types, seeing them coming from a mile away, and knowing you have no chance of stopping them all before they reach you. It's quite a ride trying not to get yourself killed. But the game being so repetitive, by the time I played my second Serious Sam game, The First Encounter, I was already ready for it. I knew where to stand, where the traps were likely located, where enemies will spawn, etc. Serious Sam works best as a first experience, and that is its biggest flaw. Play one level & you instantly know if you'll like this game. But play one level & you played 50% of the levels this game has to offer. Having dozens of enemies running in your direction means the game needs large open levels to make the game survivable. So no matter where the level takes place, a large part of it will be set in large open areas, regardless of how many buildings are around. And if you are in a closed environment, more often than not the game will take it easy on you, opting for cheap deaths & surprise traps to kill you - sending a few enemies your way at just the right moment to get you frustrated enough to want to re-start the level, rather than quit. Serious Sam is simply an arcade game, with all its benefits & detriments.
Growing up in the 486 & MMX eras, I remember when computers were so expensive, tech companies inundated you with games & software just so you'll buy them. Granted, you didn't get very good games, or very useful software, but you got to see just what your computer can do. Playing Manhole, I'm reminded of those games. Because Manhole is the type of game one enjoys if he has no other options. It basically consists of you going from screen to screen, pressing on items and seeing what they do. And what they do, isn't very much. You simply get some animation & a sound bite. Visit each screen once, and you've seen all there is to see. I doubt you can get 5 minutes of enjoyment out of this game, kid or adult. I'd equate Manhole to the battery operated game you'd buy for a toddler, where you press buttons and animal sounds come out. Having played better games coming out of 5 inch floppies, I'm extremely underwhelmed. In fact, I remember creating "games" just like Manhole on a basic, for-kids software on a Win9x machine. If you still want to experience this "game", watch a walkthrough on YouTube, and save yourself some time & money.
