Now, with that out of the way, here's my review for Serious Sam 2.
Story
Taking place just after Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, we find 3 Sirians (the alien race mentioned in SS1) watching Sam's past exploits. After summoning them to their chamber, and calming him down, the Sirians inform our hero that they know that he's hunting down Mental (the villain mentioned in SS1), and they know the way to defeat him. They tell Sam about a medallion that's has been split into 5 pieces, and when they are combined, they give the bearer the power to destroy Mental's evil once & for all. After their story, Sam jumps from world to world, finding medallion pieces, killing swarms of aliens, and interacting with the worlds...weirder inhabitants.
When I talked about the story in my Serious Sam: The First Encounter review, I basically said that "while the story is interesting & provides a fair background, it isn't really touched upon much in the gameplay". This time around, we're given the background through the cutscenes at the beginning & end of each of the levels, as well as some tiny cutscenes provided in some of the levels. Even the 3 Sirians provide commentary, as well as the A.I. that follows you around, which has now been given a British voice. Points to Croteam for improving upon the story structure.
Setting
Taking a page from Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, SS2 incorporates a variety of worlds. This time though, SS2 has a bigger variety of places to travel to. These worlds are:
- M'Digbo (African/Tropical)
- Magnor (Swamp/Treetops/"Giant" Junkyard...I'll leave that last one to you)
- ChiFang (Oriental)
- Planet Kleer (Post Apocalyptic/Fire/Undead)
- Ellenier (High Fantasy)
- Kronor (Military/Industrial/Frozen)
- Sirius (Modern/High Tech)
The amount of settings beats SS1 & SS: TSE combined, and has a much larger selection of levels. What's even more improved over the original is that the various worlds seem more believable than the last game (more on this in a bit), and the worlds also seem to be more alive than last time.
Characters
Much like Serious Sam 1, Sam pretty much takes center stage in this game. With SS2, we're given a few more characters to observe. We have the 3 Sirians, which act somewhat like Sam's mentors during his quest. I liked these 3, as they provide a fair amount of the comedy material (more on that in a moment). Sam himself seems more lively in this game than the last game, as he talks a lot more, is a bit more snarky, and has more goofy & funny comments. There's also numerous NPCs in each world (except for Planet Kleer/Kronor/Sirius), but there's little to no personality within them, apart from when they say high to you, or when they yell out help as they run away from danger. Interestingly, there are certain times when the natives come to your aid, providing health, ammo, weapons, and/or armed assistance. Some more points for Croteam!
Gameplay
Here's an aspect of SS2 that's essentially the same as Serious Sam 1 and it's mission pack. I say essentially, because there's some changes in the mix. Not necessarily big changes, but changes regardless. To sum up, here's the list of how the game works from my last Serious Sam review:
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
Serious Sam 2 pretty much follows this formula. However, what has changed is surprising. Such as...
Cutscenes: A relatively minor change. At the beginning of a level, and at it's end, there's a small cutscene that plays. Most of them are funny, but there's a small few that aren't, and actually don't quite make much sense.
Interactivity: Unlike the first game, Serious Sam 2 has more in it that the player can interact with, thanks to the game's new physics. Some of the secrets require that the player pick up barrels or crates to reach a ledge, and there's certain moments in some of the levels that require you to pick up an object, and do something with it (Example: In the Giant Junkyard level in episode 2, there's a massive bundle of TNT blocking your path. To remove said bundle of TNT, you walk around looking for a lit match, bring it back to the TNT, and throw the match at the fuse). This kind of interactivity is what advances gaming, but the physics engine leaves something to be desired (see below for greater details).
Gunfights: Just like SS2, Serious Sam 2's bread & butter is the over-the-top battles you have with the enemy. The only problem is that the battles don't seem as over the top as they were in the first game. That's not to say that the fights aren't challenging: some of the later levels (especially on the hardest difficulty) are pretty damn tough. It's just that there's more ammo, armor, and health provided during these fights than there were in the last game, making the fights in this game seem easier. To make things a little stranger, SS2 has adopted the multiple lives/checkpoint system. Basically, when you reach a checkpoint and die sometime after, you restart at that spot, as long as you have a life available (you get them either from secrets, or from getting 10,000 points). The version I'm reviewing is the PC version, where the whole multiple lives/checkpoint system is useless, considering that you can save, quicksave, load, and quickload.
Monsters: Just like the last game, Serious Sam 2 has a bevy of monsters for the player to maim, dismember, and explode. Weird thing is, some of the monsters are a bit more cartooney than they were the last time. For example: in the original Serious Sam, the suicide soldiers would run at you screaming (despite not having a head), carrying 2 bombs in each of their hands. In this game, the suicide soldiers are wearing blue overalls, and the two bombs have become a single bomb that has taken the place of his head. Luckily, this version still screams.
Graphics & Sounds
Perhaps the biggest change between SS1 & SS2 are the graphics. Running the Serious Engine 2, the game looks much better than the now primitive graphics of the first game, which is ironic considering the two games are only 4 years apart. New & more textures were used, a greater variety of buildings & scenery were added, and even some water effects were added in, but not to great effect.
All of this leads to perhaps the most recognizable of Serious Sam 2's quirks. With the first game, things were definitely out there, but they weren't wild. With SS2, became more cartooney in appearance. Some of the settings were very cartooney (M'Digbo, the last part of Magnor, Chifang, and Ellenier especially), the NPCs were cartooney, and some of monsters were cartooney (see above). This was one of the chief complaints from those who played the game (see below).
Another of the complaints, although not quite as major as the cartooney graphics, is the physics. As I stated above, the new physics engine added a new level of interactivity to the game, but ultimately it's just window dressing (ala Painkiller). It does feel realistic at first, but it fades away rather quickly. On top of that, much of the time it acts wildly (Case in point: in the fourth level of episode 1, there's a secret bag of gold on top of ledge, and there's plenty of boxes & crates below the ledge. Stacking the boxes/crates is easy, but it took me a bunch of tries to jump onto the ledge, thanks to having the boxes/crates be very sensitive to the player's movement).
Luckily, the sounds in this game aren't quite so cartooney. John J Dick (yes that's the man's name) continues to provide his voice for the game's main character, and it sounds just as awesome in this game as it does in the previous 2 games, as well as in Serious Sam 3 (more on that when I get to that review). There's plenty of other voice actors that provide some work, but they don't really matter. The other sounds are alright: explosions sound like explosions, monster grunts sound like monster grunts, etc.
Overall & Rating
Tragically, Serious Sam 2 was not as popular as Serious Sam 1. Most of the people that played SS2 said that it wasn't quite as good as the first game, citing the less intense battles, cartooney look & feel, and the increase in humor as the main detriments. While I don't agree with these people, I do understand why gamers didn't like it as much. The battles are indeed not as intense, everything does look & feel more cartooney than it's predecessor, and there is a lot more humor in this game than in the last one. However, I kinda liked these changes, and I honestly thought that this is how the game was naturally going to change into. When I saw & played the third game, I was incredibly surprised by how it actually changed, but that's for another time.
Serious Sam 2 gets a 7.7 out of 10.
See you all later this week, when we'll be taking a trip to the Borderlands. Until then, stay Otaku!
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