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Serious Sam: The First Encounter and The Second Encounter are games collectively known as Serious Sam or Serious Sam 1. The gameplay of both is basically identical and both games run on the same engine. In my opinion, Serious Sam 1 is a classic. They might not be everyone’s cup of tea but they are fun and differentiated themselves from others in the genre at the time of release. The First Encounter introduced players to the world of Serious Sam and its brand of shooting action gameplay; blowing away hordes of baddies in large environments with awesome firepower. The Second Encounter features more of the same but with better level design that makes for more variety. I know The First Encounter was a budget title and I assume The Second Encounter was as well. They were followed up by Serious Sam 2 which apparently had a bigger budget as its outrighted stated in-game.
Developed by Croteam and published by 2K Games, Serious Sam 2 was released for PC and Xbox in October, 2005. For this review, I played the PC version. I recently learned that Serious Sam 2 is not considered canon and I’m not really sure why. I have played it before and remember enjoying it. From what I can tell, it did receive good reviews and most of the criticism is not aimed at the gameplay but at its style. I’ve actually been looking forward to revisiting it because the Steam version received a pretty big update in 2021. It introduced a new weapon, new features, some visual changes, and many fixes. It’s quite substantial, actually. I didn’t have to do any tweaking to get the game running on a modern system (the Steam version, that is) but I did encounter an issue with mouse smoothing and, luckily, a fix is provided on the game’s PCGamingWiki page.
Set after the events of The Second Encounter, Sam is continuing his quest to defeat Mental. He is provided guidance by the Sirian Great Council and they reveal to him that he needs to find five pieces of an ancient medallion that will make Mental vulnerable. The story follows Sam as he travels to different planets to retrieve the medallion pieces so he can begin the final assault on Mental. Serious Sam 2 does feature more cut scenes and voice acting than its predecessors and NETRICSA is now voiced. It also showcases a different tone and atmosphere and definitely leans more into the silly than gritty.
I’ve always enjoyed the fact that the previous Serious Sam titles differentiated themselves from others in the genre not only through their gameplay but also through their tone and atmosphere. They’re violent and bloody but also bright and colorful with a dash of humor. In my opinion, they contain a good balance of silliness and let’s call it seriousness. Serious Sam 2 retains the series brand of humor but amps it up to a thousand and the result feels like a cartoon. With more cut scenes, more voice acting, more attempts at humor, and a very vibrant and colorful presentation, Serious Sam 2 definitely feels more wacky and ridiculous than its predecessors. I can’t say the humor always landed for me, some of the attempts definitely fell flat, but I can’t say it affects the game in a negative way for me, either. I can appreciate stupid and silly humor and the gameplay still feels very much like Serious Sam.
Serious Sam 2 comes with a campaign and multiplayer and the campaign can be played cooperatively. If you’re a veteran of the previous games, much of what’s here will be familiar. It’s all about blowing away armies of foes in typical Serious Sam fashion so if you didn’t care for Serious Sam 1, I don’t think you’ll care for Serious Sam 2. Because underneath the bigger budget, all the attempts at humor, and all the pretty colors is the same core gameplay. Run, jump, strafe and shoot the mobs coming at you from multiple directions. Serious Sam 2 does come with some new stuff including the ability to pick up things in the environments and utilize turrets and vehicles although vehicles were technically introduced in the spin-off, Serious Sam: Next Encounter, which is also not canon, apparently. Serious Sam 2 does come with a whole new cast of foes and an arsenal featuring new and some returning weapons to blow them away with.
The 2021 update is significant. For one thing, it allows you to dual wield any two weapons. That’s right, any two weapons. At any time. It also adds sprinting so you can move faster. If you’re a series veteran, you should know these two things can make a big difference. You might be thinking these probably make things easier and I do believe that’s correct. I remember having a tough time in a specific level the last time I played this and this time, I got through it without too much trouble. That’s not to say the new features make the campaign a cakewalk because I feel some encounters are still pretty tough. However, the update also adds an enemy multiplier option to single player and co-op. I think this and the difficulty level you select should help balance things out. Other new features that come with the update include the new BeamGun, rocket jumping, and an enemy, NPC, and objective radar. Best of all, before jumping into the campaign, you can not only select the difficulty but can also decide to enable or disable some of the new features like dual weapons, sprinting, and rocket jumping.
According to the update log, the new BeamGun is actually a weapon from the original Serious Sam design document. As the name implies, it unleashes a beam that’s quite powerful and when paired with some of the other firepower for dual wielding, you become quite the force, able to decimate almost anything coming at you with ease. In addition to everything already mentioned, the update also fixes issues and makes some changes. Apparently, there was a profile corruption issue that’s now fixed, mappings for certain weapon meshes have been fixed, several weapons now have improved animations, some textures have been upscaled, fonts have been improved, changes were made to the uzis firing speed and damage, and new crosshair options have been added among other things.
While Serious Sam 2 does contain some pretty large environments, none felt quite as big some of the biggest seen in the previous games and I do wonder if this is due to the fact that Serious Sam 2 was also developed for the Xbox. Console limitations and what have you. I don’t know if that is indeed the reason but, still, I like environments here, the variety is excellent, and they do give you plenty of space to maneuver. As expected, you’ll often be forced to engage wave after wave of foes and they can come from anywhere, any direction so you always need to be alert. And knowing what weapons to use and when and what enemies to prioritize and when are still crucial. Needless to say, you’ll be doing a lot of running and gunning and, thankfully, the gunplay is good. I like the weapon models and the visual and gore effects that accompany the action. Weapons have good audiovisual feedback, enemies will bleed when shot or hit, they can be turned to gibs, and blowing up certain foes will often result in pretty colors. But it’s all satisfying. Watching Kleer enemies explode into bones, leaving behind smoke or dust in the air is good stuff.
The gameplay can be fast-paced and frenetic and for the most part, I would say Serious Sam 2 retains everything that made the previous games so much fun. It’s just more vibrant and tries to shove more humor in your face. From the dialogue to some of the enemy designs, a big focus was clearly placed on trying to make the experience funny. But I honestly don’t think the gameplay was compromised in a negative way as a result. Serious Sam 2 showcases a wide variety of foes, some of which are familiar like the Kleer Skeletons and Beheaded Kamikazes for example. Enemies will rush you, unleash projectiles, and attack you from the air. In fact, you’ll end up shooting down a lot of enemy aircraft in Serious Sam 2, including attack helicopters and bombers. Enemies will often spawn in around you but can also arrive by dropship and even be spawned by other enemies.
The sheer variety of foes does help keep things interesting because let’s face it, the gameplay can get repetitive. As I indicated earlier, these games may not be for everybody. Blowing away hordes of foes is what Serious Sam is all about. That hasn’t changed. It’s not uncommon for a Serious Sam game to throw waves of enemies at you and battles like this can go on for quite a while, especially if you’re struggling and have to frequently load a previous save. But I do feel that some of the battles like this in Serious Sam 2 do go on for a bit too long with the same patterns of foes pouring out repeatedly. It can feel monotonous after a while. Some of the areas where battles like this take place have vehicles or turrets and those are typically a sign that a long battle is incoming.
The environments are certainly more detailed than those in the previous games. I like them and I like the variety. Every world or you planet you visit has its own theme going on. That said, I don’t think the levels make for as much gameplay variety as those in The Second Encounter. For example, there’s no bouncy rooms or areas with breezes that blow you and enemies around or anything like that to mix up the typical run and gun action. Not as many hazardous environments, either. You will get to ride on things, participate in an arena tournament at a certain point, and there are some objectives you’ll have to complete. All of them are pretty basic – defend an area or NPC, retrieve items – things like that. You will see NPCs roaming around certain areas and sometimes they’ll assist you in battle and even give you items. There are plenty of secrets to find, treasure to find to increase your score, and every now and then you will come across power-ups including Serious Damage and Serious Score. Serious Sam 2 is another entry with a scoring system and Serious Score doubles the amount of points you earn for a limited time.
The presentation is very colorful and vibrant as mentioned before and the visual variety is excellent. From lush tropical environments to the hellish locales of planet Kleer to snow areas to the technologically advanced setting of planet Sirius, the scenery and backdrops are often beautiful. NPCs can be seen running around, you’ll often see things going on in the backgrounds and in general, the environments feel more alive than those in the previous games. The draw distance is still impressive as is the amount of enemies and action on-screen at times. Pop-in is the only real eyesore I noticed. The action is accompanied by good audio work and music. Once again several enemies come with distinct sounds making them easy to identify just by listening and listening for enemies coming is often just as important as seeing them coming. Serious Sam 2 does not contain my favorite soundtrack in the series but it does have some good tunes, many of which sound upbeat and whimsical which certainly matches the cartoony feel. It also includes one of my favorite songs heard in The Second Encounter. On the technical side, the game ran smooth in my experience but did crash on me whenever I uncovered a specific secret.
I really enjoy Serious Sam 2. I might even say it’s a bit underrated. I like that the developers tried something new. If we look at each game in the series up to this point individually, The Second Encounter feels almost exactly like The First Encounter but with some new stuff so I like that Serious Sam 2 actually feels different. The tone and atmosphere are different but, personally, I don’t think it ruins the experience. The games have always had a silly side and Serious Sam 2 just goes full bore in that direction. I won’t lie, it certainly didn’t have me laughing my ass off but I don’t think it negatively affects the game, either. The gameplay is still Serious Sam. That hasn’t been lost here as far as I can tell. I like the weapons and gunplay, the presentation, and the variety of enemies and environments. I also enjoy the new features, fixes, and changes that come with the 2021 update. Ultimately, I had a great time with Serious Sam 2. It’s a fun shooter that comes with plenty of replay value, supports mods, and it should keep you occupied for quite some time.
I absolutely recommend Serious Sam 2. Compared to the previous games, the differences are immediately noticeable but its got everything that makes a Serious Sam game a Serious Sam game. The gameplay can get repetitive but I think if you enjoyed the prior games, you will enjoy this. This is not a series for everyone but if you are fan, Serious Sam 2 is definitely worth checking out.