This is a long review so if you just want a brief summary of why I recommend Serious Sam 2 then skip to Results and read from there. Serious Sam 2 is a fun game that offers more ridiculous combat, but drifts a little too far from the Serious Model to be called “Great”. After the success of the original Croteam had a higher budget to put towards Serious Sam 2; sadly, Serious Sam 2 takes a path similar to the Martix 2 where an increased budget leads to a worse product. The game albeit fun has some additions which take away from the hilarity and well-crafted elements that made the series great.
Story:Serious Sam finally meets the Sirians, the race that in the future Mental destroyed before his attack on humanity. The Sirians noticed Sam’s serious combat skills from the First and Second encounter so they portal him to their ship. It is there that they tell him of his prophecy, to defeat Mental and free the universe. To do this Sam must venture to five planets and acquire the five pieces of the medallion. Only then will he be able to weaken mental and eliminate him once and for all. His quest will take him to five planets in order to retrieve the pieces of the medallion from four tribes: the Simbas, Zixies, Chi Che, and Elvians. It is up to Sam to either save each of these groups from Mentals oppression and retrieve their medallion pieces.
Campaign:Serious Sam 2 is divided into seven planets: M’digbo, Magnor, ChiFang, Kleer, Ellenier, Kronor, and Serius. The campaign consists of a whopping forty-two levels (including boss fight levels). Unlike the First and Second Encounter some of the levels are not nearly as long or engrossing.
Gameplay:Similar to the previous titles of Serious series the difficulty curve is well managed, where you can make it ridiculously hard or meticulously difficult. Serious Sam 2 introduces new weapons, and battle concepts. You can now get 200 health/armor by picking up any health packs (unlike the original where you could only go over 100 if you found special health/armor packs). By allowing you to get 200 health/armor Serious Sam 2 really builds upon the originals gameplay by giving you more control in how you will fight, but this is short lived as the weapon choices and ammo limitations dampen the combat. You will rarely find ammo throughout the campaign, and when you do you will burn through it without being able to find more. I found myself using the Auto Shotgun and Double Shotgun almost the entire campaign as I never had enough ammo for the other weapons.
Upon venturing to new planets you lose all your items, meaning you have to start collecting weapons all over again. This would be fine, but I noticed in M’digbo I only acquired nine of the fourteen weapons. Every time you start a new level you revert back to 100 health and lose your armor. This means if you performed well on the previous level all is in vain because you losing all your work anyway. You also have lives in this game, so you may think you are reloading a past save but actually its putting you back at a checkpoint with one less life.
Hints:
>Save between each area, then if you die load your save (this way you don’t lose lives).
>Save your ammunition in the first and second planets (after the first two planets, ammunition is plentiful).
>Forget about ending the level with full health/armor (you lose your health/armor between levels).
>Make sure you load your campaign from the save files (as you lose any lives you acquired earlier otherwise).
>Make sure when you die to reload from the save file (if you just click continue it will revert you back to the last checkpoint and you will not have the armor/ammo/health you had when you actually got to the checkpoint).
>If your level glitches, try saving and reloading the level right where you saved. (This can cause the enemies to spawn allowing you to get past enemy kill-count triggers related issues)
>On the second planet level “Forsaken Compound” is known to glitch on Hard or Serious Difficulty. If the rocket launcher does not spawn after you get right across the bridge your level has glitched and you need to restart. Results:Serious Sam is an epic first person shooter series that pushes the limit and then takes it further. The action is amazing, the bosses are intense, and the enemies are plentiful. You won’t be solving any puzzles in this one, but instead you will be gunning down the masses. There are five planets; each planet has its own unique design and unit models. The campaign offers loads of different elements that make you want to push on, making each level more epic than the last. If you want a realistic game this is not for you, but if you don’t mind going crazy having a good time Serious Sam 2 is the game for you. I would get this with the Serious complete back (only if you can grab it on sale). Honestly if you just want to try out a new game $9.99 is a little high for this game.
Pros:
+Interesting new enemies, some which play off the originals and some that are completely unique.
+Introduction of vehicles (makes some of the levels a little more serious).
+Secrets are more amusing
+Six separate planets to visit all with their quirks.
+Enemies have themes to match their locations.
+Levels offer much more variation in play-style and ambience.
+More bosses which require various tactics to defeat.
+Fun, explosive, and fast paced gameplay that keeps you wanting more.
+Netrisca can talk (you still have to read some things, but she will just tell you major clues).
+Ability to have multiple profiles, so if you are sharing a computer you can easily switch between other individuals campaigns.
+Blasting thousands of enemies to bits as you run around like a true action hero.
+Lots of nostalgia!!!!
Cons:
-Poor cinematic quality (it’s as if the cinematics are actually lower quality than the gameplay).
-Introduction of allies (you never needed them before – why now?)
-You lose your weapons upon starting up at a new planet (although this occurs also between campaign transitions in TSE the campaign for Serious Sam 2 connects each planet into a single campaign).
-You have lives (you never had lives before this)
-You always start each level with 100 health (regardless of whether you had more or less at the end).
-Some of the levels have bugs, which force you to restart the level.
-You lose Serious Bombs between levels.
-There is not one point in the campaign where you have every single weapon at one time. (Except for on the final level)
-Levels are nowhere near as large as TFE or TSE.
-Awful dialogue (attempts to be funny, but falls short atleast for me)
-Too childish (the game has cartoonish unit models that take away from the Serious in Serious Sam)
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