Has its good and bad sides.
On one hand, the gameplay is pretty arcady and played in co-op can be pretty fun.
On the other, the levels are considerably bigger than the first game and in the standard Serious Sam style, you have a lot of enemies coming straight at you and those two things combined can make things pretty crazy, fun and frustrating at the same time.
Story is mostly just there (though is amusing) and the graphics have their charm.
On one hand, the gameplay is pretty arcady and played in co-op can be pretty fun.
On the other, the levels are considerably bigger than the first game and in the standard Serious Sam style, you have a lot of enemies coming straight at you and those two things combined can make things pretty crazy, fun and frustrating at the same time.
Story is mostly just there (though is amusing) and the graphics have their charm.
This takes what worked well from the first game and expands upon it in incremental ways. Playing this game in co-op over a LAN connection was a transcendental experience back in the day.
Probably the best Serious Sam game, great gimmicks, excellent scenery, the Doom 2 of Sam in terms of mechanics, although the levels are much better than the first game.
Samming it Part 2
Croteam struck gold with this game for the series. At its best, it has the best-paced, balanced, and designed levels in the series. At its worst, there are instances where the game tries to pull some pretty bullshit encounters to overwhelm you. Those usually involve the bouncy rooms, which although they are hilarious, they get way too chaotic on anything harder than normal difficulty.
The new weapons in the game balanced out some of the general annoyances from the first encounter. For example, the sniper rifle is an amazing counter to the arachnoids that tend to spawn long distances away from you and pick you off with their hitscan chainguns, while the serious bomb is a great panic button that gives you a bit of breathing room in a pinch.
It's one of my favorite games growing up and I still enjoy playing it every now and then.
The new weapons in the game balanced out some of the general annoyances from the first encounter. For example, the sniper rifle is an amazing counter to the arachnoids that tend to spawn long distances away from you and pick you off with their hitscan chainguns, while the serious bomb is a great panic button that gives you a bit of breathing room in a pinch.
It's one of my favorite games growing up and I still enjoy playing it every now and then.
"A Worthy Expansion That Improves In Some Solid Ways"
I was pretty surprised to discover that this expansion improved on some factors of the original Serious Sam game rather than running its core gameplay loop into the ground. While this title still has segments that struggle with repetition and a lack of interesting environments, there are more interesting levels and gameplay sequences to fight through in between these chaotic level-sprawling brawls.
Serious Sam Classic: The First Encounter struggled with one very big thing - repetition when it came to large-scale, open-area fights. This game does little to improve upon that formula. However, the parts between these fight are what has improved in this expansion, alongside a few interesting enemy additions and weapon choices.
Levels are now built around special traps or gimmicks, including but not limited to - wall-running, anti-gravity, death traps, giant/miniature enemies, and loads of entertaining secrets to uncover, among many others. These all result in much better levels than the original game, at least in terms of design, which was a nice surprise since I was expecting more of the same. However, the actual environments are improves as well. Instead of one static desert environment, there are snowy villages, creepy gothic-inspired castles, ancient ruins, grassy mountaintops, and lava-filled caverns. With more things to actually look at, it becomes less of a slog to play through the game!
The new enemies and weapons are neat as well! The chainsaw-wielding pumpkin-headed lumberjacks are pretty scary to fight against, and the skinless red aliens with blasters are a nice addition to add in some more static enemies. Additionally, the new sniper rifle and flamethrower give some more options for dealing with both large and small foes, respectively.
The humor in this game is much goofier as well. There were more instances where I stared at the screen in disbelief over a really strange joke or a weird secret, and that made me want to explore each level even more!
My biggest complaint is similar to the first game, and it comes down to the giant open-level fight that occur pretty often in this game. Sometimes they are fine, and have a nice balance of interesting environments and a ridiculous amount of enemies to kill. However, it is more often than not that a fight will stretch out way too long and leave me feeling frustrated at the length and repetition of each one. This was especially true of the the final level, which essentially consisted of only these fights taking place over more than an hour of gameplay.
Despite a major flaw still not being addressed, I saw this title being a nice improvement over the original. It didn't take any real leaps in terms of innovation or spectacular changes to gameplay, but it added enough into the experience to keep things feeling fresh. I can Recommend this title pretty easily!
Final Verdict: 7/10 (Good)
I was pretty surprised to discover that this expansion improved on some factors of the original Serious Sam game rather than running its core gameplay loop into the ground. While this title still has segments that struggle with repetition and a lack of interesting environments, there are more interesting levels and gameplay sequences to fight through in between these chaotic level-sprawling brawls.
Serious Sam Classic: The First Encounter struggled with one very big thing - repetition when it came to large-scale, open-area fights. This game does little to improve upon that formula. However, the parts between these fight are what has improved in this expansion, alongside a few interesting enemy additions and weapon choices.
Levels are now built around special traps or gimmicks, including but not limited to - wall-running, anti-gravity, death traps, giant/miniature enemies, and loads of entertaining secrets to uncover, among many others. These all result in much better levels than the original game, at least in terms of design, which was a nice surprise since I was expecting more of the same. However, the actual environments are improves as well. Instead of one static desert environment, there are snowy villages, creepy gothic-inspired castles, ancient ruins, grassy mountaintops, and lava-filled caverns. With more things to actually look at, it becomes less of a slog to play through the game!
The new enemies and weapons are neat as well! The chainsaw-wielding pumpkin-headed lumberjacks are pretty scary to fight against, and the skinless red aliens with blasters are a nice addition to add in some more static enemies. Additionally, the new sniper rifle and flamethrower give some more options for dealing with both large and small foes, respectively.
The humor in this game is much goofier as well. There were more instances where I stared at the screen in disbelief over a really strange joke or a weird secret, and that made me want to explore each level even more!
My biggest complaint is similar to the first game, and it comes down to the giant open-level fight that occur pretty often in this game. Sometimes they are fine, and have a nice balance of interesting environments and a ridiculous amount of enemies to kill. However, it is more often than not that a fight will stretch out way too long and leave me feeling frustrated at the length and repetition of each one. This was especially true of the the final level, which essentially consisted of only these fights taking place over more than an hour of gameplay.
Despite a major flaw still not being addressed, I saw this title being a nice improvement over the original. It didn't take any real leaps in terms of innovation or spectacular changes to gameplay, but it added enough into the experience to keep things feeling fresh. I can Recommend this title pretty easily!
Final Verdict: 7/10 (Good)
Bigger and more variety than The First Encounter. More annoying too...
The definition of a sequel that does nothing but improve on the original in every way. This game doesn't feel like a chore.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Em relação ao primeiro, ele não tem praticamente nenhuma mudança significativa, mas continua pika.
A great game if you like arena shooters, and I mean ARENA SHOOTERS - I.e. big open areas with little vertical movement where you have waves of enemies to mow down. Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (and it's amazing I have to say THE SECOND ENCOUNTER and not 2 when Serious Sam 2 already exists and is completely separate from this) has its ups and downs - it irons out kinks from TFE like the addition of a sniper rifle for picking off long-range enemies, but random pickups like tiny 1-health biscuits are no less punishing. A difficult game, but I'd say it verges on the balance between fair difficulty and unfair difficulty.
It's essentially an expansion pack to the first game. More weapons, enemies, biomes, etc. It's a lot of fun, but some of the odd gimmicks like bounce rooms or slippery surfaces really outstay their welcome in the mid game.
I felt the second act was a real slog. It was potentially too close to the first game in aesthetics so quickly felt fatiguing and the aforementioned encounter gimmicks resulted in a try/die/repeat loop. That being said, the final biome was a real delight, and not something I was expecting from the game. It was nice to end on that high after such a low mid point.
Would recommend to people that enjoyed the first game a lot, perhaps try one of the sequels if you aren't just looking for more of the same.
I felt the second act was a real slog. It was potentially too close to the first game in aesthetics so quickly felt fatiguing and the aforementioned encounter gimmicks resulted in a try/die/repeat loop. That being said, the final biome was a real delight, and not something I was expecting from the game. It was nice to end on that high after such a low mid point.
Would recommend to people that enjoyed the first game a lot, perhaps try one of the sequels if you aren't just looking for more of the same.
7,2/10
Better than the first episode, beautiful new locations, more weapons, but the same thing.
Better than the first episode, beautiful new locations, more weapons, but the same thing.
Hands down the best SS entry and one of the best shooters of all time
Should've stopped here, Croteam
I remember playing on LAN with friends co-op through the story running around with a rocket launcher blowing up baddies. This game is a lot of fun, and Sam's one-liners are still good.