serious music starts this is serious sam time!
It's more Serious Sam, and that was perfectly fine with me.
Now you get to visit cool new locations and kill new baddies with a few new guns thrown into the mix.
Serious Sam was a bit like fantasy virtual tourism to me, but with mowing down hordes of enemies and large bosses getting in the way.
Now you get to visit cool new locations and kill new baddies with a few new guns thrown into the mix.
Serious Sam was a bit like fantasy virtual tourism to me, but with mowing down hordes of enemies and large bosses getting in the way.
I don't remember much about it, but I think I finished it at some point :D Basically, it was so similar to the first game that I could hardly tell them apart.
This game is so silly because I've never played a game before that feels like it hates me and wants me to stop playing
Seriously?! This guy again!? I doubt he can get more serious than last ti- spits out my squash WHAT THE WHAT!?
holy shit second encounter.
This review contains spoilers
Glorious sequel to an already perfect game.
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter impressed me even more than the first game.
In the Second encounter, you start in Sierra Chiapas, in ancient Mayan territory. Your ship is wrecked and not usable anymore. Luckily, you learn about a back-up ship, located in another world. You need to hop between two portals to reach this ancient world and fight your way through the Mayan lands and towns, Ancient Persia and eventually, ancient Poland. On your journey you are again hindered by even more hordes of Mentals soldiers and three big fat bosses that guard the portals. In the end, you fight the sorcerer Mordekai, who guards the Holy Grail itself. After you whoop his ass, you sarcastically confess your sins in the Grand Cathedral about what you are going to do to Mental when you find him and then fly away in the back-up ship.
In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, you got some new weapons, new enemies and unique bosses. You can now snipe enemies with the Raptor rifle, burn Gnaars to a crisp with the flamethrower and slice and dice rocketeers with a freaking chainsaw. The game now features big demon enemies that throw homing fireballs at you, a muscular bear of a man with a pumpkin for a head and skinless alien troopers that shoot pulse lasers at you.
Like the First Encounter, I loved all the entries in Netricsa of new weapons, encountered enemies and locations that you visited. You read how certain enemies came to pass, how they joined Mental and how they are best killed.
The graphics and animations are the same as Serious Sam: The First encounter. In the Second Encounter however, new locations and different landscapes have been implemented like volcanos, snowy mountains and temples with mirror like floors. When I compared this to the endless sand, deserts and sandstone walls from the first game, it really looked better in my opinion.
The music tracks in this game are also really improved in comparison with the first game. Although the First Encounter had some pretty solid tracks, in the Second Encounter, the music blew me away. It rocks and the boss battles where ten times more epic thanks to it.
Speaking off bosses, in the First Encounter, the only “original” boss was Ugh Zan IV. The rest were enlarged versions of existing enemies. In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, you got three unique bosses, each with completely different move sets and tactics. I especially liked the Exotech Larva.
In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, you got a lot more puzzles, platforming and traps that ends your existence in a second. Combine this with the endless hordes of enemies that charge toward you, and you got a completely different and challenging experience.
The multiplayer is still as good as the first game and features some new, cool maps.
A (maybe) funny little personal side story is that I seriously thought that the Gold Edition of Serious Sam, that I owned as a small kid, where two identical copies of the First Encounter and that this was the only game. My English was terrible back then so I could not understand the concept of a 2 in 1 gold edition yet. When my First Encounter CD was broken, I popped in the second disk and was greeted with an entirely new game. It is that kind of surprise and mind-blowing joy and happiness that I sometimes miss today as a grown as man.
In conclusion, again, I can only praise this game. It is a piece of perfection and left a lot of good memories that last forever.
Definitely recommend this awesome game.
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter impressed me even more than the first game.
In the Second encounter, you start in Sierra Chiapas, in ancient Mayan territory. Your ship is wrecked and not usable anymore. Luckily, you learn about a back-up ship, located in another world. You need to hop between two portals to reach this ancient world and fight your way through the Mayan lands and towns, Ancient Persia and eventually, ancient Poland. On your journey you are again hindered by even more hordes of Mentals soldiers and three big fat bosses that guard the portals. In the end, you fight the sorcerer Mordekai, who guards the Holy Grail itself. After you whoop his ass, you sarcastically confess your sins in the Grand Cathedral about what you are going to do to Mental when you find him and then fly away in the back-up ship.
In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, you got some new weapons, new enemies and unique bosses. You can now snipe enemies with the Raptor rifle, burn Gnaars to a crisp with the flamethrower and slice and dice rocketeers with a freaking chainsaw. The game now features big demon enemies that throw homing fireballs at you, a muscular bear of a man with a pumpkin for a head and skinless alien troopers that shoot pulse lasers at you.
Like the First Encounter, I loved all the entries in Netricsa of new weapons, encountered enemies and locations that you visited. You read how certain enemies came to pass, how they joined Mental and how they are best killed.
The graphics and animations are the same as Serious Sam: The First encounter. In the Second Encounter however, new locations and different landscapes have been implemented like volcanos, snowy mountains and temples with mirror like floors. When I compared this to the endless sand, deserts and sandstone walls from the first game, it really looked better in my opinion.
The music tracks in this game are also really improved in comparison with the first game. Although the First Encounter had some pretty solid tracks, in the Second Encounter, the music blew me away. It rocks and the boss battles where ten times more epic thanks to it.
Speaking off bosses, in the First Encounter, the only “original” boss was Ugh Zan IV. The rest were enlarged versions of existing enemies. In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, you got three unique bosses, each with completely different move sets and tactics. I especially liked the Exotech Larva.
In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, you got a lot more puzzles, platforming and traps that ends your existence in a second. Combine this with the endless hordes of enemies that charge toward you, and you got a completely different and challenging experience.
The multiplayer is still as good as the first game and features some new, cool maps.
A (maybe) funny little personal side story is that I seriously thought that the Gold Edition of Serious Sam, that I owned as a small kid, where two identical copies of the First Encounter and that this was the only game. My English was terrible back then so I could not understand the concept of a 2 in 1 gold edition yet. When my First Encounter CD was broken, I popped in the second disk and was greeted with an entirely new game. It is that kind of surprise and mind-blowing joy and happiness that I sometimes miss today as a grown as man.
In conclusion, again, I can only praise this game. It is a piece of perfection and left a lot of good memories that last forever.
Definitely recommend this awesome game.
Underrated brother of TFE. My favorite in the whole franchise. Endless corridor shooting.
Digital (Steam)
serious sam the first encounter but fun
A great sequel to the first encounter.
It's difficult for me to explain why, but somehow I've found The First Encounter to be a better game. Not that Second Encounter was all that bad, the greater variety of locales was appreciated, and I still got a kick out of slaughtering hordes of enemies.
I think my main gripe was that they went a teensy bit more overboard on the dizzyingly long linear corridors with 200 enemies charging directly at you. I mean, a good chunk of the final level was just that, but there were other examples of it. I feel like if they reigned that in and found more interesting level setpieces to fight enemies in... like that rotating tube straight out of Mario Galaxy! That was cool! But... the room where you and the enemies are constantly bouncing was far from cool. That one just made me go "who the hell thought this room was a good idea"
I think more than ever, Second Encounter made me go "man, this would be a really fun game if I had some buddies to co-op this with." As it stands, I played it alone, and the odds were overwhelming, sometimes in a cool way, and sometimes in some quite cheap and lazily designed ways. But man, to imagine blasting all these fuckers with 3 or more people, as we team up, and split up as one team handles the left side of a level, while the other handles the right... my imagination was flaring up at the idea of it, and I do hope I might be able to find a way to co-op this game sometime in the future.
Also, this comic book-ass story setup... are we ever actually going to kill Mental, or is this mysterious figure always gonna be just one step ahead of us? Come on! If I don't get to kill him in Serious Sam 2, things will get very Serious...
Anyway, did you like First Encounter? Yeah, sure, play this. Were you hoping this game would fix problems from its predecessor, like the overly spacious design? Tough luck, it doesn't. It's more of the first game, and then some.
I think my main gripe was that they went a teensy bit more overboard on the dizzyingly long linear corridors with 200 enemies charging directly at you. I mean, a good chunk of the final level was just that, but there were other examples of it. I feel like if they reigned that in and found more interesting level setpieces to fight enemies in... like that rotating tube straight out of Mario Galaxy! That was cool! But... the room where you and the enemies are constantly bouncing was far from cool. That one just made me go "who the hell thought this room was a good idea"
I think more than ever, Second Encounter made me go "man, this would be a really fun game if I had some buddies to co-op this with." As it stands, I played it alone, and the odds were overwhelming, sometimes in a cool way, and sometimes in some quite cheap and lazily designed ways. But man, to imagine blasting all these fuckers with 3 or more people, as we team up, and split up as one team handles the left side of a level, while the other handles the right... my imagination was flaring up at the idea of it, and I do hope I might be able to find a way to co-op this game sometime in the future.
Also, this comic book-ass story setup... are we ever actually going to kill Mental, or is this mysterious figure always gonna be just one step ahead of us? Come on! If I don't get to kill him in Serious Sam 2, things will get very Serious...
Anyway, did you like First Encounter? Yeah, sure, play this. Were you hoping this game would fix problems from its predecessor, like the overly spacious design? Tough luck, it doesn't. It's more of the first game, and then some.
Better than the previous but not by a whole lot, realistically almost the same. Balls hard difficulty, amazing weapons, great enemies, great locales in fact I'll start off there. The locations in this game are all so mesmerizing to be in and look at. Both games have this eerie feeling when you're walking all alone with no enemies around and this game has that effect turned up to like 100, the atmosphere is very suffocating-ly abrasive when you're walking from one area to the next. I really do love the Serious Sam series cause it's gameplay is so identifiable with how hectic and difficult it is, while also being rewarding as shit. This game has better enemy placements and level designs that give you a fairer chance dealing with hordes of enemies, it's a very noticeable improvement that doesn't make the game "easier" rather just more manageable compared to the hectic nature of the first. It's funny as hell too, the First Encounter is kinda funny but this game got some laughs out of me which is kind of surprising. Overall, I still remember everything about this game which is crazy cause I've been playing this game for 7 years or so. Love it.
Sniper rifle makes such a difference.
I want Corridor of Death at my funeral.
" To be or not to be, that is the serious question " - Sam, the Serious
Less fun, but it is still enjoyable.
IF ADVENTURE HAS A NAME… IT MUST BE INDIANA JONES SERIOUS SAM!
One of the best action-adventure games I have played. Drawing very clear inspiration from movies like Indiana Jones, and probably The Mummy too, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter doesn’t just imitate their aesthetics while greatly misunderstanding them the same way games like Uncharted do, because it turns out you can actually do an Indiana Jones-inspired game where you travel back in time and annihilate entire battalions of alien creatures to find and kill an extraterrestrial warlord that invades planets for fun. And not only does it understand the material it is inspired by, but also finds its own identity.
One thing this one has that puts it over the first game is that it has less obnoxious enemy placement and more good level design. While the The First Encounter had mostly bland environments that were serviceable at best, reminiscent of other First Person Shooters that came before, The Second Encounter commits itself to making the world feel as ancient and liveable as possible. The first act in particular has all these temples full of mechanisms and traps in the way that turn otherwise anodyne and tasteless levels with a cool coat of paint over them into actual temples that meant something to the people of the past. This adds a lot of meaning to the journey believe it or not. When falling into lots of wacky traps you're warned that this is hostile territory, even if those traps were not set up by the aliens. This way, the places you visit start feeling more like actual places instead of corridors with nothing important to them. And the many, many secrets these places hide help to intensify the idea that you’re walking on unexplored territory. A pretty good detail is that along the first act, there are some wind traps you need to get through, and Netricsa tells you that “a mysterious breeze pushes you around”, and later, when you get to the boss battle, you fight against the Wind God the Mayans worshiped. It is details like this that bring a mystical and almost spiritual connection to the journey, making it a much more memorable archeological adventure, even if it drops the ball towards the next chapters of the game with less inspired boss battles and some perfectly-fine-but-not-great level design.
What makes this one such a great adventure game, is how everything needed to progress is strictly diegetic and natural to the world you’re in. Even Netricsa, an AI that helps you with important information, is a diegetic element and even has a personality of its own. The path is always clear due to the linear nature of the game, which is a bit of shame since I believe it would benefit from having more open-ended levels that reward exploration, similar to the likes of Doom, especially in the interior sections, an important portion of the game, but for what it's worth, it works. Everything I've said up this point helps at making the world feel like a real and habitable place instead of transitory spaces that lack any meaning while also emphasizing the feeling of adventure it wants to evoke. I completely forgot what historically important artifacts/places I was going after in any of the three Uncharted games, but the epic search through time for the Crystal Skull - yeah, Serious Sam predicted The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, no poor CGI aliens this time, take that Spielberg - and the Holy Grail is one I’m sure to remember and one I could find myself coming back to at some point. Looking at the Grand Cathedral, in the big flat field before the final boss battle, feels magical thanks to the god rays that shine over it, turning a fairly average boss battle into a much more meaningful and important moment than it would have been otherwise.
This game suffers from being effectively Serious Sam: Part Two, in that it plays and looks exactly like The First Encounter. The excuse you’re given as to why you’re back on Earth again is rather stupid and nonsensical - the literal dev team crashes with the UFO Sam was driving after it took off after the final battle from the previous game - which might be a huge let down due to how tough everything was in that game, but this is the worst thing I can say about it really. The tone of this game is one that perfectly fits for what it wants to be, equal times clumsy and epic. Sam ‘Serious’ Stone is one tough badass, dropping one-liners at every chance, even more one-liners than in the previous game, where he was silent most of the time. He’s just one of the funniest guys ever. Plus, some levels have some funny easter eggs like the secret hall of fame room on the first level and the bit with the red phone booths where Sam calls himself from the future. The epic tone is reinforced thanks to the massive battles you partake in, full of enemies coming from all places and very big arenas. The enemy design, in regards to their behaviour and how they encourage horizontal movement in different ways, make for a much more complex and elaborate combat system. Plus the arsenal, which is much more interesting, helpful and creative; The flamethrower and sniper are two awesome additions to the arsenal, one for clearing close enemies en masse and the other one for long range and powerful enemies. If we mix the different types of enemies, the updated arsenal and the open arenas, we get one of the most epic, badass and satisfactory combat experiences in the medium. There is truly no other game like Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, the best Indiana Jones-like.
One of the best action-adventure games I have played. Drawing very clear inspiration from movies like Indiana Jones, and probably The Mummy too, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter doesn’t just imitate their aesthetics while greatly misunderstanding them the same way games like Uncharted do, because it turns out you can actually do an Indiana Jones-inspired game where you travel back in time and annihilate entire battalions of alien creatures to find and kill an extraterrestrial warlord that invades planets for fun. And not only does it understand the material it is inspired by, but also finds its own identity.
One thing this one has that puts it over the first game is that it has less obnoxious enemy placement and more good level design. While the The First Encounter had mostly bland environments that were serviceable at best, reminiscent of other First Person Shooters that came before, The Second Encounter commits itself to making the world feel as ancient and liveable as possible. The first act in particular has all these temples full of mechanisms and traps in the way that turn otherwise anodyne and tasteless levels with a cool coat of paint over them into actual temples that meant something to the people of the past. This adds a lot of meaning to the journey believe it or not. When falling into lots of wacky traps you're warned that this is hostile territory, even if those traps were not set up by the aliens. This way, the places you visit start feeling more like actual places instead of corridors with nothing important to them. And the many, many secrets these places hide help to intensify the idea that you’re walking on unexplored territory. A pretty good detail is that along the first act, there are some wind traps you need to get through, and Netricsa tells you that “a mysterious breeze pushes you around”, and later, when you get to the boss battle, you fight against the Wind God the Mayans worshiped. It is details like this that bring a mystical and almost spiritual connection to the journey, making it a much more memorable archeological adventure, even if it drops the ball towards the next chapters of the game with less inspired boss battles and some perfectly-fine-but-not-great level design.
What makes this one such a great adventure game, is how everything needed to progress is strictly diegetic and natural to the world you’re in. Even Netricsa, an AI that helps you with important information, is a diegetic element and even has a personality of its own. The path is always clear due to the linear nature of the game, which is a bit of shame since I believe it would benefit from having more open-ended levels that reward exploration, similar to the likes of Doom, especially in the interior sections, an important portion of the game, but for what it's worth, it works. Everything I've said up this point helps at making the world feel like a real and habitable place instead of transitory spaces that lack any meaning while also emphasizing the feeling of adventure it wants to evoke. I completely forgot what historically important artifacts/places I was going after in any of the three Uncharted games, but the epic search through time for the Crystal Skull - yeah, Serious Sam predicted The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, no poor CGI aliens this time, take that Spielberg - and the Holy Grail is one I’m sure to remember and one I could find myself coming back to at some point. Looking at the Grand Cathedral, in the big flat field before the final boss battle, feels magical thanks to the god rays that shine over it, turning a fairly average boss battle into a much more meaningful and important moment than it would have been otherwise.
This game suffers from being effectively Serious Sam: Part Two, in that it plays and looks exactly like The First Encounter. The excuse you’re given as to why you’re back on Earth again is rather stupid and nonsensical - the literal dev team crashes with the UFO Sam was driving after it took off after the final battle from the previous game - which might be a huge let down due to how tough everything was in that game, but this is the worst thing I can say about it really. The tone of this game is one that perfectly fits for what it wants to be, equal times clumsy and epic. Sam ‘Serious’ Stone is one tough badass, dropping one-liners at every chance, even more one-liners than in the previous game, where he was silent most of the time. He’s just one of the funniest guys ever. Plus, some levels have some funny easter eggs like the secret hall of fame room on the first level and the bit with the red phone booths where Sam calls himself from the future. The epic tone is reinforced thanks to the massive battles you partake in, full of enemies coming from all places and very big arenas. The enemy design, in regards to their behaviour and how they encourage horizontal movement in different ways, make for a much more complex and elaborate combat system. Plus the arsenal, which is much more interesting, helpful and creative; The flamethrower and sniper are two awesome additions to the arsenal, one for clearing close enemies en masse and the other one for long range and powerful enemies. If we mix the different types of enemies, the updated arsenal and the open arenas, we get one of the most epic, badass and satisfactory combat experiences in the medium. There is truly no other game like Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, the best Indiana Jones-like.
Is this game like... a sequel? An expansion pack? It's hard to tell honestly, but it's certainly a great improvement over the first one!
Levels are more fun to explore and visually varied (a great compliment with how the first encounter's levels were), the weapons feel amazing (especially the addition of a sniper rifle!), and its visuals genuinely still hold up to this day!
This game's also a ton of fun with friends, I enjoyed my time with it playing co-op even more than the first!
Levels are more fun to explore and visually varied (a great compliment with how the first encounter's levels were), the weapons feel amazing (especially the addition of a sniper rifle!), and its visuals genuinely still hold up to this day!
This game's also a ton of fun with friends, I enjoyed my time with it playing co-op even more than the first!
Amazing shooter game!
Nice sequel.
Nice sequel.
Notable improvement over the previous game, but with level design that is far worse in some places
Serious Sam: 2nd Encounter (2002): Más una expansión larga que una secuela (Apenas añade un arma nueva, y un par de enemigos), me parece un paso atrás. Sam sigue siendo insufrible, la historia nula y tiene bugs muy molestos. Al menos los tiroteos no están mal (4,90)
They just keep coming!
While the First Encounter had a whole lot of inventive arenas and memorable incounters, it also had some bland hallways filled with monsters. In the second, just take that flaw, and multiply by ten. Seriously (😏), there was an endless hallway for what felt like every level. Don't get me wrong, this game did have some inventive set pieces, but they were so few and far between. It started to get a little repetitive. I hope Serious Sam 2 doesn't have the same problem.
better than the first encounter but not by far, still very janky and some of the enemies are just the worst. But playing it on the 360 with 60 fps was cool at least
ingual o primeiro sam serio, so menos interessante
Запомнился хорошим
serious sam fans when i show them what enemy placement, level design and AI is:
It is fun, but not as fun as the first.
filtered by walking