Story
Sometime in the future, humanity has discovered alien technology below the ruins of Ancient Egypt that allows them to travel through space with ease...deep space to be more specific. This advances human civilization, but at the same time attracts the attention of Mental, an alien entity of god-like power. He sends his forces to Earth in an effort to wipe everything off the map, and practically succeeds. However, there is one human that manages to avoid his apocalyptic attack. A human, who's battle prowess is the stuff of legend. A man known only by one name...Serious Sam!
Using a time machine (Time-Lock, to be specific), Sam travels back to Ancient Egypt to find clues as to how he can save Earth's future, and mows down hordes of aliens & other horrid entities in the process.
In the Second Encounter, Sam has discovered a way to defeat Mental, and leaves Earth to travel to Mental's homeworld to deliver an "Important Package" to his opponent. However, an unexpected accident cause him to crash back into Earth, into the area that became known as Mesoamerica. He wanders through the various ruins of the Mayans, the stately palaces & towers of Babylon, and the dark & snowy landscape of Eastern Europe to kill more of Mental minions, and to discover more clues about how to kill Mental & the aliens that left the space tech behind.
One thing I should note is that while the story is interesting & provides a fair background, it isn't really touched upon much in the gameplay (see below in the Gameplay section). What's worse is that there are practically no characters to tell you what has happened (more on that in the Characters section), save for some info the player finds along the way.
Setting
This is one of Serious Sam's strengths. Within the first game, Sam travels through some impressive Egyptian deserts, tombs, temples, and even a sewer level (as Sam states in the second game: "I Knew it! There ain't no games without sewer levels!"). When first released, the levels looked incredible. However, time has not been kind to the game, and the original graphics look horrible by today's standard. With the HD upgrade released in 2009, new life was put back in, and the levels look incredibly realistic (even the alien portions seem somewhat believable).
This also applies to The Second Encounter, as the levels looked great when they came out in 2002, but were infused with a new graphics engine in it's 2010 re-release.
Characters
Much like Duke Nukem 3d, there is only one main character in the game, and that's Sam. Much like Duke Nukem, Sam is a wisecracking badass that kills anything in front of him. Unlike Duke, Sam is much more clean, and seems to have a little more personality to him. The one thing that the two heros have in common is that both hero take crack at pop culture (There's even a joke or two in The Second Encounter about how Duke Nukem Forever hasn't come out yet).
Given the scope & nature of the game's story, it would have been nice to have at least one, maybe two extra characters to provide the background as the player advanced through the ever-increasing pies of bodies. This is someone done by the computer A.I. that follows you around (insert Halo joke), but the A.I. doesn't speak, and barely has any character at all.
Gameplay
This is an area where Serious Sam both succeeds & fails at the same time. To sum things up:
1) Arrive in a level
2) Find weapons & ammo to kill stuff with
3) Kill stuff
4) Replenish ammo & health
5) Walk around & complete a small puzzle and/or uncover some aspect of the story
Bonus) Stumble across secrets
What separates this game from others that follow a similar pattern is the amount of enemies that are thrown at you. Sometime it's just a small group, but the rest of the time seemingly limitless hordes are thrown at you, ramping up the tension. You also have a somewhat standard selection of weapons: pistols, shotguns, as well as a minigun, rocket & grenade launcher. I said somewhat, because the weapons I didn't mention were a Tommygun (my personal favorite), a four-barrel lasergun, a giant cannon that fires uranium-filled cannonballs, and a portable nuke that kills everything on screen.
While I'm at it, the variety of enemies is equally impressive. From suicidal zombies that run towards you screaming (don't ask), to living piles of lava that throw explosive fireballs, you're given a good selection of foes to splatter, crush, & explode.
Graphics & Sound
As I stated above, the original graphics engine used in 2001 & 2002 were pretty impressive, but they've aged horribly over the decade. Creatures & items seems jagged, and the environments don't quite have as much detail now as they did back then. With the HD upgrades released back in 2009 & 2010, things look much better than their predecessors, as the games look on par with most games released in that time, and afterwards as well.
The sound in both games is perhaps the only real strange part of both games. When the HD versions were released, they used the exact same sound files that were used in the original releases, only cleared & filtered. The sound effects...sound crisper than they were originally used. The original versions, at least now, sound like they're projected through a radio that occasionally crackles with static.
Overall & Rating
Serious Sam: The First & Second Encounter does one thing, and one thing only...present itself as a balls to the wall action game. There are only a few calm moments in both games where you're wandering around, then all hell breaks loose when a swarm of monsters comes running your way. At the same time, the few things it does well also get stale quickly, and (at least in The First Encounter) wandering through the same environment gets monotonous almost as quickly. It's a big shame, since the action is fast, furious, and fun!
Serious Sam: The First & Second Encounter gets a 7.5 out of 10.
See you all later this week, when we'll tap into our violent side. Until then, stay Otaku!
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