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.