Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

"A rather poor sequel"

You're probably thinking ''That Crazy Fool! He gave this game under 5 points! nobody else did!''. Well, hard cheese. I actually *played* the first one, and loved it. And here is what I found to be wrong with the second.

GRAPHICS (8/10)

Its quite nice. Cartoon style graphics - nothing wrong with that. The enemies didn't look at all like they could be real, which is probably a good thing as this game's aim is not realism. All in all, the graphics are quite good.

SOUND (6/10)

The music is frankly awful. Does anybody remember the first one, the famous Great Pyramid level? And the music to it? It was great. It was perfectly great. They could've slapped some lyrics on it and released it as a single. The second's music has no merits. It just plain sucks and it's repetitive.
The Saving Grace: Sam's voice. Some of the things he says are genuinely funny. For example, he kills a bunch of headless monsters - ''Look, Ma! No head!''.

GAMEPLAY: (1/10)

OK. You probably think I'm mad. But the gameplay is *too slow*. It should have been faster. Sam should run faster. The weapons should shoot faster. I should have to think faster. It's the same as any FPS, but slower. MUCH slower. And I don't see why that must be.

REPLAYABILITY: (-400/10)

The levels are the same. I mean FFS I don't CARE if I'm blowing a monsters head off in Montezuma's Palace or Pharoah's Tomb. It FEELS the same. And the replayability is a major issue, because the levels are the same.

STORYLINE: (You've gotta be kidding me/10)

There is no storyline. Sam teleports from Aztecland to Babylon to Medieval England and kicks some ass in all three.

FUN:

Fun is the King of All Games. The reason Operation Flashpoint did not appeal to me was the lack of fun. The reason Serious Sam 2 doesn't appeal to me is the MAJOR lack of fun.
Sam 1 was good because it was pure, unadulterated shooting that darn tootin' monster to Kingdom Come. But Sam 2 seems to have suddenly started taking itself seriously. Sam 1 was treated as a bit of a laugh and not a serious game, which was good. But Sam 2 suddenly wants to be the next Half-Life. It has overestimated itself and its own appeal.

HATEMAIL:

Yeah, send me all you like. I stand by my opinion.

BUY or RENT:

Rent. For a weekend. Any longer and you'll get bored.

OVERALL SCORE: 3

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/02, Updated 07/07/02