Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

"Even better than the first one"

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter is an FPS developed by Croteam and released by GOD Games. Although it's an expansion it actually is the same game as before with some more things added. So I won't go much into detail about it and I'll just write about the major differences between those two games.

Story: N/A

The story is the same as before and follows the events of the first game. You've just boarded a huge spaceship and you are heading towards the arch-villain Mental! You're spaceship, mysteriously stops and you fall in a place, again full of enemies, but this time instead of roaming in ancient Egypt you'll have the opportunity of killing monsters in a Aztec, Persian and medieval Europe setting which is a very good change.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphic quality of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter is still high like before. Special effects look even better, everything brightly colored as usual and textures simple but better than the simpler ones of the first game. In the first Serious Sam all action took place in ancient Egypt thus making all levels look the same. Here we have ancient Aztec, ancient Persian and medieval Europe stages.

Sound: 5.7/10

Again this game has good sound quality and now without boring music tracks. Sam still has great upbeat action music but not just 1-2 tracks like the first game.

Gameplay: 7.8/10

Once again your mission is to kill lots and lots of enemies. You enter a room, find large amounts of ammo and take part in an endless parade of killing stuff that move. Enemy numbers and difficulty increases, (along with ammo), after moving on to the next level. Levels are now more complex and look better. Don't expect any mazes though, the game is still going from point A to point B and kill monsters in between. Something missing from the first game was extra items. Here we have speed boost, increased damage etc. Something that disappointed me was an increase in levels that required more searching in order to find a key or a switch. Multiplayer is still very simple and doesn't offer anything extraordinary.

Positives:
-Once again great brainless shooting of thousands of monsters
-Good-looking levels

Negatives:
-Repetitive gameplay
-Still simple Multiplayer options
-Unneeded key finding missions

Also Play:
Doom (PC)
Doom 2 (PC)
Serious Sam: The First Encounter (PC)
Serious Sam 2 (PC)

Overall: 7.2/10

I'll finish the same way I did in the review of the first game since my opinion remains the same. This game is all about mindless shooting. It has more enemies than any other game. It is fast, it is sometimes funny and looks good. If you love fast FPS games that don't require too much thinking and searching this game for you. If you want a game like Half-Life or Thief forget it and don't even try this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/07, Updated 03/03/08

Game Release: Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (EU, 01/18/02)