I know I promised Croteam to review Serious Sam HD : The First Encounter for its 10th anniversary. The problem is that the original Serious Sam, and in turn its HD counterpart wasn’t a very well-planned game. Sure, it had large open maps that were epic for its time, it had more enemies than any game had seen when it launched but it wasn’t well designed. It had really poor level layouts and pickups positions. It was obvious the game was built by a first-time developer but that developer became a powerhouse. As a result, I want to talk about a game Croteam built when they were more adept at their job: Serious Sam 2.

Story:

A great council mistook a blond-haired hero with dark sunglasses to be the one. On the hero’s failure, they found a replacement in Sam “Serious” Stone. They tasked Sam with finding 5 pieces of a medallion that had been entrusted to various tribes throughout the galaxy. Once the medallion was whole again, Sam would be able to weaken and finally defeat his long-time foe: Mental.

The story is delivered by cutscenes along with discussions between Sam and his AI companion NETRICSA in-game. It does have its quirks, funny moments and little things that make you snicker but it gets buried by the game’s intense action.

Sound:

The sound is good enough, each world has a relaxed background track for when nothing is going on and a much heavier track for the fights. They sound similar enough while at the same time not close enough to be annoying.

The sounds’ weak point is the character dialogue. Sam and most characters are very monotone but thankfully NETRICSA does show multiple tones of voice and emotion. Even the enemies are monotone but that might be going in their favour since they don’t have long lives.

The guns, as always, steal the show. Each of them sounds nice and heavy and varied enough to never get annoying while feeling powerful at the same time. The exception is the grenade launcher which makes no sound when fired, which is strange.

Graphics:

Like I say about old games that use a cartoony art style: they have aged well. The graphics are bright and colourful, nothing is getting buried into brown backgrounds. Everything from enemies to pickups are easy to tell apart. The more important the pickup, the bigger and shinier it is so you know what to run towards.

The levels themselves are themed according to the world you are on. From jungles to cities and what looked like the inside of a volcano, everything was diverse. Most of the enemies in a level are designed according to that level to fit the theme.

The cutscenes, on the other hand, have poor animation which is strange since the animation in-game is great. Even the physics and talking animation in the cutscenes are poor. The cutscenes are really low quality as well which makes me wonder if they didn’t care about the cutscenes or preferred to spend their budget on the actual game. If the latter, they have my full support.

Before we end this section do note that I was getting forced into a windowed mode if I tried to go above 1280×720. I did a quick validation of the game files so it started in full screen again and while it did insist it was still at 1280×720 it looked like it was going the full 1920×1080. Only the cutscenes were at a lower quality from there on out.

Gameplay:

Serious Sam 2 doesn’t follow modern video game standards. None of the Serious Sam games follow modern culture. None of them have cover mechanics, none of them have regenerating health, none of them have limited weapons. All that stuff is replaced with health and armour pickups. Sam is all about the old-school first-person shooter chaos.

Massive levels that are designed according to the theme of their world make for hectic firefights in different scenarios. While some levels are just a flat plateau, don’t be surprised to find yourself fighting through caves, on cliff edges, and a dojo with bounce mats. The levels are well thought out too, and there are pickups placed at really good points that can be grabbed for that last little piece of health you need to stay alive. All of this keeps the levels varied and fun to play.

There are tons of varied enemies, some shoot, some melee, some are kamikazes and some are just dicks that you are happy to shoot by the most painful means at your disposal. While 500 kills are acceptable for the total kill count in some games, Sam takes that a step further and makes that a per level kill count. There is always a fuckton of guys who want to blow your ass to bits and, no, they aren’t of a single kind, they are varied, they are angry and they are coming for you. It’s a little annoying that some enemies get reused in different levels but they were usually dead before I had a chance to complain. It can get repetitive to keep fighting off these waves on the lower difficulties but on the higher difficulties, each of these is a fight for survival which keeps the tension up and the gameplay exhilarating.

The bosses as well have an old school style. You can’t always pump them full of lead till they fall. Each of them has a unique way to be killed that needs to be figured out on the spot. As an example: One of them can be filled with lead but gets repowered by crystals so those crystals need to go before you can land the kill shot.

To help out on the murder spree are the weapons. Sam is nowhere near lacking guns. The guns vary from the standard revolvers and UZIs to automatic shotguns, plasma rifles, cannons and a bird carrying a bomb. Don’t take the guns as upgrades from each other though, each gun serves a purpose. The newest gun is rarely the best gun for the job at hand. Most of the time you will be rapidly switching guns based on who you are trying to kill or how close they are. This results in you constantly learning which gun is the best for the job at hand while praying that you do not run out of ammo. It gives a learning curve, a tension while making every scenario a satisfying experience to be had.

Adding to the chaos are vehicles and turrets to be controlled. They provide additional firepower to Sam’s already overwhelming arsenal. They also act as an additional defence as they absorb all the damage aimed for Sam. Since these vehicles have only a single means of attack, you have to make considerations for your attack plan when using them.

Conclusion:

Wait… you’re still here expecting a conclusion? I just fanboyed over a 15-year-old game for god knows how many paragraphs, take a hint. Yes, I recommend it! It might not be as involving as S.T.A.L.K.E.R, nor have the world-building of Wolfenstein or even the pure absurdity of Def Jam: Fight for NY but it does feel like it was made with love by a team that knows how to have fun. While not a long game by any means it is worth more than a lot of games that have twice the price.

Pros	Cons
Funny Story	Poorly delivered story
Graphics are Cartoony	Cinematic graphics are poor
Music fits each level	Voice acting could be better
Chaotic combat	Can be repetitve on lower difficulties
Supports exploration	NA
A return to simple fun games	Overall game is short