"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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.