I remember the first time I played Doom on a PC. I remember thinking to myself, how can computer games get any better? For a long time, Doom ruled supreme in the category of "adrenaline first person shooters." Even Quake fell to the wayside, with fewer enemies and more periods of unmolested wandering than most shooter fans cared for. Then, of course, the FPS genre took a turn away from mindless blast-a-thons and into story-driven, slowly paced, intelligent shooters like Half-Life and System Shock 2. Most recently, we’ve seen a resurgence of the fast-paced shooter, but packaged as multiplayer, team-based games like Unreal Tournament, QIIIA and Counter-Strike. Now, these games have their places and are each very good, but many PC gamers, myself included, have long wished for a return to the good old adrenaline-pumping craziness that was Doom.

Croteam, a breakout developer from Croatia, has granted that wish, in the form of Serious Sam, a game that ups the ante on even Doom when it comes to insane amounts of onscreen enemies and carnage.

Taking place across nearly 20 stages of mind-blowingly beautiful environments, Serious Sam pits you against a collection of bizarre enemies in what can only be described as vignettes of destruction. Light on puzzles (most areas simply require that you decimate all of the enemies that appear before allowing you to move on to the next section) and heavy on action, there are very few quiet moments in Serious Sam.

The standout feature of the game is its locations. Each level is a clever mix of nicely designed interiors separated by vast exterior plazas, courtyards and landscapes. It’s these large, open areas that set Serious Sam apart from the competition. Gone is the feeling of muddy claustrophobia so common in most shooters. There’s plenty of room to move, and you’ll need it, and the game throws dozens of enemies at you simultaneously in many areas.

Your arsenal is what I would call the standard Doom assortment – you’ve got your pistol (here a colt-like 6 shooter which is quickly upgraded to twin 6 shooters), shotgun, double barrel shotgun, tommy gun, chain gun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and a couple of super weapons – namely a quad laser rifle and a cannon. The former bears a striking resemblance in both looks and sound to the Millennium Falcon’s quad laser cannons, while the latter is literally a hand-held cannon that fires giant cannonballs. The weapon models are all very nicely done, and their accompanying sound effects are great.

You’ll need to squeeze every bit of firepower from your weapons to deal with the strange consortium of bad guys in Serious Sam. Ranging from the somewhat normal (headless soldiers who fire projectiles, clattering skeletal demons) to the downright bizarre (the headless kamikaze troopers who run at you screaming with bombs strapped to their hands, the reptilian, bull-like werebulls). Learning which weapons most efficiently dispatch each enemy is key to survival.

Perhaps the coolest part of this game, though, is the ability to play co-operatively through the single player campaign with up to seven other players. Croteam handles this mode very well, allowing every player to collect every item, avoiding the ugliness that would occur when one or more players turn into ammo hogs. You’re also able to toggle friendly fire on or off, which turns co-op into two different games. With the option off, it’s you and your pals against the enemy hordes. Turn friendly fire on, however, and the option to treat the game as an all-out deathmatch across the huge levels while also fending off the multitudes of enemies becomes a reality. Either way, the mode is great fun, and no PC gamer should go without the experience.

I should also mention that this game carries a retail price of $20, and unlike most bargain-priced software, it’s actually worth more than that amount. Croteam obviously wants to make a name for themselves, and they’re doing it by selling their debut game at a value price. I can guarantee you that the follow-up will rightfully sell for much more than $20, so why not get in on the ground floor and pick up a copy of Serious Sam ASAP?