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| | Title:
Serious Sam 2
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System:
Xbox
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Genre:
First-Person Shooter
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Publisher:
2k Games
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Developer:
CroTeam
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Release:
Fall 2005
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Rating Pending
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Sometimes, you just feel like shooting the crap out of everything. Who cares if the story is shallow, the humor forced or the gameplay horribly simplistic. In the right hands, the simple idea of blasting away everything on screen becomes wonderfully entertaining. The first Serious Sam introduced this idea, but was quickly stomped by the adrenaline pumping Painkiller for the PC. Croteam--like Sam himself--will never settle for anything less than being number one. Serious Sam 2 is the result. While the gameplay mechanics are unchanged, Serious Sam 2 is everything Serious Sam was and more. It shows everyone else in the industry that Croteam is the champ of mindless slaughter.
Serious Sam 2’s story is not the strong point of the game. Players take the role of Sam “Serious” Stone as he travels to different worlds in order to retrieve the five pieces of a fabled medallion he needs to defeat his arch nemesis, Mental. The dialogue in Serious Sam 2 is amusing while at the same time forced. However, a lot of the jokes aren’t funny because they have been heard before. There are a few rare occasions where Sam takes jabs at Quake or Unreal Tournament which will make gamers grin, but don’t buy this game for the story.
Simple but Fun
The basic gameplay idea behind Serious Sam 2 is simple: place the player in huge beautiful landscapes, arm them with powerful weapons, and then proceed to toss everything at them. During Sam’s fifteen hour adventure, the game hardly deviates from this mechanism. While on paper it may sound like designer suicide to crunch fifteen hours of gameplay around a simplistic idea, Croteam does it in such a way that Serious Sam 2 never gets old. Croteam invented this type of gameplay, so they know how to build an enjoyable experience around it. There are so many enemies coming at you from so many different directions that players are not going to have the time to be bored. Factor in that some weapons work better in certain situations and against certain enemies, and you’ve got just the right amount of strategy to make the game compelling.
Croteam does break up the action with boss fights that require minimal strategy, and maximum reflexes. Each boss has a unique set of steps that lead to defeating it, whether it is shooting a specific object or removing the boss’s means of regenerating its health. If this alone was all the extra effort Croteam put into Serious Sam 2, it would probably score a low eight. But Croteam didn’t stop there. Instead, they went out with a goal: to make every aspect of Serious Sam 2 better than the last. For the most part, they succeeded.
A big level for ultimate mayhem is something which comes standard with the Serious Sam name. It should come as no surprise that Serious Sam 2 has followed in the footsteps of its older brother. The levels are still huge, but not the generic square rooms like before. Instead, the levels can now be described as giant vistas. The first step in the right direction Croteam took was the increase in different locations Sam will visit. Sam will travel everywhere from jungles, swamps, cities, lava planets, imperial capitals, and even the land of the giants (don’t ask). Secondly, Croteam completely threw out the old convention of square rooms and instead have created unique and entertaining levels.
The locations feel more realistic, and ultimately enhance the game experience. Veterans of the Serious Sam series can attest to how annoying going from one square location to the next got, and how it became boring fast. It doesn’t hurt that the overall graphical quality is this game is a step up for the Serious Sam series, either. Bump mapping doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as in the previous games, but the particle effects as well as location appearance have been substantially enhanced. One final touch which really brings the levels alive is the background graphics. Each new location has an epic background graphic and adds a powerful sense of scale to the game. A good example is during the Metropolis levels; huge buildings stretch into the sky making Sam seem awfully small. The effect is great.
It doesn’t matter though how well the levels are designed if the enemies within them aren’t fun to fight against. Croteam is one of the more creative teams when it comes to character design. The combination of humor and insanity pumped into these enemies will leave a lot of new gamers wide-eyed as they blast through the hordes of Mental’s armies. A good mix of old and new enemies populate the levels and attack in various combinations. Favorites like the Kleers, charging bulls, and even the kamikaze bomb men have returned.
Unfortunately, these enemies aren’t driven by the smartest A.I. Actually, it is downright simplistic to the point where the only way Croteam can challenge the players is by throwing waves upon waves of enemies at him. While this is fun and doesn’t lead to much boredom, it can be unrewarding after awhile. Never does the sense of accomplishment pass over the player after clearing a room. In games with top-notch A.I. like Halo, getting through a certain section felt great because the player knew he or she was up against an opponent that was smart. No smart opponents are found in Serious Sam 2. In fact, all the enemies in the entire game have one way of dealing with Sam--bull-rush him. In the future, Croteam better look into a smarter A.I.; gamers only have so much patience for mindless killing.
Boomsticks
With hundreds of enemies charging Sam, he is going to need to be armed to the teeth. Croteam redesigned every weapon from the ground up in both appearance and function. Some of the weapons available to Sam will be the dual pistols, dual uzis, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, laser gun, and the fan favorite dual-barreled shotgun. Each weapon has a high ammo count, so the risk of running out of ammunition is low. In a different design choice, the weapons are not readily available to Sam as soon as he starts the game.
Take the grenade launcher. Players will have progressed three fourths of the way through the game before they come across the explosive spewing firearm. Croteam also built in a more specialized feel for each weapon, making players have to constantly switch between firearms in order to effectively take out the opposition. Mostly this is due to how Croteam designed the levels, and where they placed the enemies. Frequently, I ran into situations where enemies were out of the effective range of my double barreled shotgun and had to switch over to the dual uzis. Croteam also addressed the problem of their clunky weapon selection system. In the past, players would literally have to scroll through the weapon list using the Y and B buttons. Now holding down either will freeze the game and bring up a graphic very similar to the Ratchet and Clank weapon selection system. Sure, it's not creative, but it works wonderfully.
Serious Sound
The sound in Serious Sam 2 was surprisingly good. Each new location had its own unique theme, some of which were very catchy to listen to. This theme would get slightly altered when enemies showed up, but then easily switched back to the original score. All the weapons and enemies sound exactly how one would expect them to. By far, the best sound in the whole game though has to be the sound effect that accompanies the Kleers (bone horses) death. It is a combination of bowling pins getting knocked over with bones shattering, and makes killing the Kleers the most satisfying experience in the whole game. You have to hear it to truly appreciate it.
Four Is Better Than One
Serious Sam 2 does include an Xbox Live component. Gone are the days of deathmatch, though, since Croteam opted to include only a Co-Op mode. The Co-Op mode is surprisingly fun thanks to the increase in enemy count. Croteam was wise to do this, because without it the Co-Op would have become too easy. The experience of running around with three other friends (up to four people are supported at any one time) and blasting away Mental’s goons adds a much needed longevity to the game.
As a whole, Serious Sam 2 is a great game and a worthy sequel. Yeah, it does have its share of problems, whether it is the forced humor, shallow story, simplistic A.I. or one trick pony gameplay, but Serious Sam 2 does have one thing going for it: it's fun. Croteam did an excellent job adding in enough new components to make the game worthy of a buy.
| The Core Score |
Overall
9.1 |
| Fun |
|
10 |
| Gameplay |
|
8 |
| Graphics |
|
9 |
| Audio |
|
8 |
| Replay |
|
8 |
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