Recommended
11 hrs at review time
Serious difficulty
Gameplay 5/10
Music and sound 7/10
Screenplay 4/10
Technical 5/10

I could never get into Serious Sam mainly because I didn’t have the (at that time) powerhouse of a computer to run this strange FPS. Serious Sam was in vain of other first generation FPS games like Doom, Duke Nukem, and Quake. Serious Sam infused strange humor and that’s what set it apart from the more serious shooters. The HD version is just a prettied up version of the second game, and it still stands that only fans will enjoy this.

There is no real story attached, but you pay as Sam who runs around shooting weird, yet interesting, foes with super powerful weapons. Weapons range from your standard array of FPS fair such as a flamethrower, rocket launcher, double revolvers, shotguns etc. The foes can be pretty funny with headless kamikazes that scream, skeleton horses, and just weird indescribable beings. On top of this, the levels are pretty open and the HD graphics look nice, but it’s not enough to save the ancient gameplay.


We’re so used to amazing cinematic gameplay that just runs and gun shooters seem boring. Not only this but the weapon selection is a pain because there’s no radial menu of any type or even categories. They aren’t even numbered! You can never remember which weapon is what number so you trying to find the right weapon while backing away from enemies and it leads to frustrating deaths. Also, the game is plagued with the irritating hidden secrets that are nearly impossible to find. The game is also very hard unless you play on the easiest setting and your guns never feel quite powerful enough.


While there is a nice variety of environments they seem static, stale, and lifeless. I would have liked to see more detail like animals running around, birds flying, and just extra stuff you see in modern games. I don’t want just an old game with better graphics. Why bother unless you modernize it a little more because that’s who’s going to play it. People who are used to modern shooters. I really wish Serious Sam would evolve into a modern shooter because I can guarantee it would be amazing.


There are a few neat things like being able to record your game, and unfortunately, no one’s playing online. I would have liked to see some making of videos, a history of Serious Sam or something like that. I understand fans of the original will dig this, but the people who evolved along with the genre just can’t get it.

I want to be entirely straightforward about the nature of this review; this is not a review of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, this is a review of The Second Encounters HD remake and subsequent Xbox 360 port. I will not be going over the design of The Second Encounter, instead I want to discuss my gripes with the HD remake, and then the weird oddities of its console port. With that being said, this is by far the worst way to play what is probably my least favorite Serious Sam experience. I am already not the biggest fan of The Second Encounter, and the issues that stem both from its remake and port job only serve to make it a worse experience.

I will not regale you with the copious amounts of versions, re-releases, and ports that make up the Serious Sam franchise. The only important bits to know for the sake of this review is that the original Serious Sam games, The First and Second Encounters, were released in 2001 and 2002 respectively, and then were both remade come 2009 and 2010. These remakes, appropriately, remade the first two entries in the then new and fancy Serious Engine 3, and with that process came a complete new look. Weapons and enemies had brand new models, textures were upscaled to match the standards for the time, and add some nice new gibs and animations for some of the enemies. Of course, I am probably not touching everything these remakes set out to do, but that is the gist. The problem I have with these remasters is that, in the process of making everything, quite literally, shiny, Croteam severely messed up any sense of art style and cohesion that these games had. The First Encounter gets off slightly easier because the Egypt aesthetic is consistent throughout, so while it is still very shiny and plastic look to it, like every model and texture looks like they have a cheap RTX filter on them at all times, it at least isn't a complete aesthetic shift every couple of levels. The Second Encounter has both the aforementioned Botox injection, and the drastic aesthetic shift; the latter isn’t that big of a deal in the original versions of the game, but here, with the horrible upscaled textures and really shiny everything, it is much more jarring. On top of that, The Second Encounter features levels that take place in massive outdoor areas, but because every surface looks like it was freshly polished near minutes before Sam got there, all of the plants and grass that look normal in the original, look drastically unnatural. As well, a lot of the weapon models were taken directly from the original Xbox port and then upscaled, which does not look good. These models were made for lower resolution textures, and so they also look slightly out of place. But that is all aesthetic criticism, there are some technical critiques I have.

This port does carry over a lot of the bugs that are present in the original PC release, such as enemies getting stuck on walls and terrain, but the port does have some of its own dedicated bugs. Firstly, and the one that was most baffling, is that the AI pathfinding is absurdly broken. It's not that noticeable at first, but as soon as the player reaches the alleyway fight in City of the Gods, it makes itself apparent. In the larger, more open combat arenas, such as the before mentioned encounter, almost all of Ziggurat, and especially in The Grand Cathedral, enemies just start bolting off the complete opposite direction of the player, or worse, the strafe around them. I can not tell you how much ammo was wasted due to these bugs, it is almost impossible to hit enemies that fall victim to these bugs, and it completely destroys the combat structure the game is so dependent on. I am unaware if this bug is present in the PC version, but I never hear it brought up when this game is in discussion, so I can only assume it is a problem in this port. As well, being a PC to console port during the 7th generation of consoles, there are some slight performance issues, and some sluggish controls. There is some slight texture pop in with some of the bigger maps, and some frame drops when a big amount of enemies are on screen, and the load times are just painstakingly long. They make dying so much more of a pain because you are just sitting there on the loading screen scorned by whatever got a cheap shot at you from around a corner. The controls aren't that bad, I have definitely played worse, but they fail in comparison to the smoothness of the original Xbox port. They are very choppy and feel like it's trying to emulate mouse movement. Additionally, the two methods of swapping weapons are not the best; the player can either use the shoulder bumpers to linearly cycle throw weapons, or use the D-pad to open up a weapon wheel to specifically select one. These aren't bad options, but they really should be swapped, like how they are in the 2017 Fusion release of the game, because the Xbox 360 D-pad is probably the worst D-pad out there, and using the bumpers takes way too long during high octane combat encounters.

And that's really it. I would not recommend playing either the original 2010 release of The Second Encounter HD, or its Xbox 360 port. If you are interested in this series in any way, I would highly suggest you either check out the classic release of the game, the original Xbox port, or the modern 2017 Fusion build that is available on PC and all modern consoles, there is no reason to go back and play this version, if only to say that you have like me.

In several ways, this one is superior to the First Encounter. It has less troll-inspired design choices, and generally better combat encounter design. The one exception is the final boss. It's not as badly designed as the final boss of the First Encounter, but it's way too easy for some reason, and this makes it more forgettable.

The level and map design is noticeably worse. Every level is a series of a wide open area with a smaller area on either side. You have to clear those side areas, collect a key item from each, then return to the central area to progress. The game does this so many times that one of the log entries makes a self-aware reference to it with "You should know how this works by now!"

It's not life ruining but it's pretty frustrating when the core gameplay is still as satisfying as it is. I found myself continuing to fall into a flow state many times. Still, I can't really justify a higher rating than this.

Sorry repeating myself but just swap out the setting and you have exactly everything you had in the direct predecessor. If you want more of the same then the Second Encounter is for you. So here is the same review from First Encounter again. :D

Serious Sam, even today, radiates its charm, albeit likely through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. In terms of gameplay, it mostly boils down to "keep your finger on the trigger," spend most of your time running backwards, and occasionally strafe. While the weapons are wonderfully diverse, there's little reason to switch between them other than "Weapon A deals more damage than Weapon B." The levels are beautifully designed, and the time-travel setting takes you to impressive locations that felt incredibly vast for their time.

Where the game truly shines is in its multiplayer co-op mode, especially when played with a group of silly friends. That's when beautiful chaos unfolds, and together you hack and slash your way through hordes of hundreds and hundreds of enemies. All of this is underscored by a banging soundtrack. Nowadays, Serious Sam may not appeal to everyone, but it certainly holds a special place in my heart.

Serious Sam TFE and TSE have joined the list of games that i truly believe are perfect masterpieces

this game specifically has some of the best level design i've ever seen in a shooter with the gimmick arenas being challenging yet fair

The Grand Cathedral is the best fucking final level of all time and is THE ultimate test of your skills

all the weapons are amazingly fun to use with the sniper being my personal favorite

if you like shooters at all you owe it to yourself to play Serious Sam The First Encounter and Serious Sam The Second Encounter

No tengo mucho para añadir respecto a mi reseña a First Encounter (no en balde se supone que ambos iban a ser el mismo juego) pero he de decir que acá los jefes me gustaron muchisimo más y los escenarios son mucho más variados ahora, y la comedia "lúdica" está bastante mejor lograda, eso sin contar de que las nuevas armas mostradas son interesantes de usar y arreglaron un problema de first encounter y acá sí hay mejoras de velocidad e incluso power ups de fuerza e invulnerabilidad.

Ahora, el hecho de le ponga la misma nota que TFE se debe a que acá odié bastante que las oleadas no solo duren el triple, sino que sean muy abiertas, y que no existan shortcuts creativos como lo habían en el anterior juego, haciendo que te comas a huevo la mayoría de las oleadas aburridas. También que la IA se sentía muy estúpida, el juego lo sentí mas fácil por esto nomás, y es que hasta habían ocasiones en las que un grupo me tenían al frente y se iban a la dirección contraria o empezaban a correr hasta el infinito.

Ahora, ya terminado el primer juego, iré directamente a terminar Next Encounter.