Serious Sam 2 - A Serious Review

[madmaxplay]

Warning: this is a serious review. No dirty jokes, no drifting around from the games’ S letter, no smiles or giggles. Only Sam’s grin, a shotgun and an opinion from yours truly.


The Chosen One always wears red sneakers

The Universe is long, no, it’s wide, it’s round, no, it’s square. Two weird goblin-like creatures were having this conversation while a third one fiddled with a teleporting portal. Zuuuum! And say hi to Sam.

- - Sam, we need you. You are The Chosen One. You’ll destroy Mental, the ugly and hated Mental. But first, you’ll take out any shred of enemy (and look out, there are plenty of shreds) on 5 different planets. You’ll kill each level boss and retrieve, from within their still warm corpses, one piece of medallion that, if put together, could annihilate the evil powers placed in Mental’s source code by a frustrated programmer (and if possible, go kick that programmer’s “behind” as well). K, bye then, see ya after each planet in a little movie that made Jack laugh so bad that he took a dive with his chair.

That’s how Serious Sam 2 starts. Simple, short, with a touch of irony against all the so-called realistic shooters. You’re the hero, that’s the enemy, and before you can reach him you have to fill the screen with blood and gore and eliminate entire hordes of monsters. And, as a bonus, you can laugh yourself to death.

The full review os over at:PlayFuls.com (http://www.playfuls.com/gamespace_122_reviews_3665_Serious_Sam_2_A_serious _review.html)

[Qoz]

I really wanted to like SS2 and they added some fun stuff.
Like the rolling ball coming towards you etc.

I don't like the style - Sam is not a hero I can relate to in any way. He is just stupid and his voice is stupid too. The enemies are all crappy cliche models and you feel like you are playing a Cartoon Network FPS. This is for kids with no brain - age 15 and below.

They made no attempt to introduce true awe when facing large enemies. The game is a slideshow of poorly made models. Its always wave after wave of the same stupid cartoon models in the same crappy cliche-locations that has been done 1000 times already. Don't get me wrong - I actually like an over-the-top setting. Duke3D did it right - SS2 is just a poor wannabe duke.

F.E.A.R. introduced FPS strategic combat.
SS2 is just "strafe left and right and shoot alot" all the way through.
*sigh*

[Suicidal ShiZuru]

Wow Qoz you must not know what Serious Sam is... mentioning FEAR when talking about it is just ignorant. As for the game I hated the demos, I might pick it up and try to force myself to like it but I dont know for sure yet, it just felt too easy/repetetive unlike the old games.

And wow I just noticed you said FEAR introduced strategic FPS combat... HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Qoz]

I know precisely what SS2 is.
Why is it stupid to mention F.E.A.R.? Please grow a smarter brain and write arguments to follow those insults.
F.E.A.R. is the opposite of SS2 when speaking of the FPS combat.
SS2 has almost no strategic depth when shooting at enemies.
Its the same thing over and over and over again.

F.E.A.R. did not introduce strategic combat I know. Wrong statement.
They did raise the bar alot though.
SS2 has "left and right strafing with a million enemies" gameplay.
It was a breath of fresh air when they made SS1.
After HL2 and especially F.E.A.R. that gameplay is outdated for me. As I said young kids will probably like the repetitive style and cartoon network enemies.

[swiftdraw]

I did agree with the review that to many shooters now-a-days are always dark. Its getting boring... SS2 wasn't bad for what it is (a mindless shooter), but it does get repitive in a hurry. That is unless you're playing co-op mode with 4 or 5 friends at 3 in the morning, strung out on a half dozen bottles Bawls at a LAN party. That is when this game is at its best and its fun as hell!

[drakkarim]

SS2 is such drivel (to me) that i couldn't force myself to even finish the demo.

[Rommel]

Hey guys, our review is Seriously short. What do we do? I know! Let's break it up into pages!

[Exodus]

I'm sorry but SS2 sucks on so many levels, personally I feel sorry for every person whose name is credited to help in its creation. Forever are their names blighted by this VERY shoddy piece of workmanship.

The npcs in this game are sooooooooooooooooooo ungodly annoying. My xbox experienced slow down, and to be perfectly honest with you, the level design at the beginning of the game, very boring. Where's the serious sam I remember playing where I just had to stop and just say.. holy crap at the sheer size while I snipe out a harpy that's hiding in the suns glare a 100m up.

It just sucks. Plain and simple, I'd rather play second encounter, you know you didn't do a very good job when people can say they would rather play their previous version than their newest sequel.

as for Qoz. This game is NOT in the same vein as duke3d. It's good you know that you chose the WRONG words for f.e.a.r., it's probably stupid to mention f.e.a.r. from his point of view because in the world of fps's, you're comparing oranges to apples, k thanks.
Don't you get it? here we have serious sam, a game type that is known to be MINDLESS SHOOTING, and then you bring out F.E.A.R... now do you get it? what the hell does F.E.A.R. have to do with serious sam 2 other than they came out in the same year and are fps's?

Don't worry, when you get older, you'll figure out how to isolate which things you SHOULD compare without appearing stupid. :)

good talk.

[Qoz]

"This game is NOT in the same vein as duke3d."
Thats your opinion. Alot would disagree.
They both have a tongue-in-cheek humor, pop-culture references etc. etc.
I say it is in the same vein, just not as good.

"now do you get it? what the hell does F.E.A.R. have to do with serious sam 2 other than they came out in the same year and are fps's?"

I'll try and explain it to you. You see the whole package and say - "what the hell! F.E.A.R. is indoors, dark and with horror. SS2 is bright, colourful and outside!"

The FPS genre is pretty defining for a game. The core gameplay is fundamentally the same - move your mouse, shoot stuff and move around in a first person setting. F.E.A.R. and SS2 both need you to go from A to B and shoot bad guys in between. The style, setting, graphics, sounds are completely different, but the core gameplay is STILL to move around and shoot stuff. Now this is where F.E.A.R. is mentioned because this game was a paradigm shift in the FPS combat experience. It gave you options to shoot bad guys in different ways and the AI was great.
SS2 is a dinosaur in this regard. Even SS1 had more options than SS2.

I know you would probably say "but this is excatly what the SS games do! They have zero combat complexity! It all mindless fun!" and you are right to some degree. My point is, that the SS gameplay was fun when the first was made but the world has moved on (due to HL2 and F.E.A.R.) and we need more. What was mindless fun in SS1 is just mindless in SS2.
But thats just my opinion.

[Exodus]

Okay, you're trying to compare the spongebob squarepants movie to
saw 2. Move on moron.

[Qoz]

*sigh*
You just don't get it do you? You have no ability to look past your pseudo-knowledge of gaming. Perhaps when you get older your brain will realize (see .. I can insult people too. It's easy).

A lot of people liked SS1 and do not like SS2. Why is that? Has the game changed alot? Not really. Why do people think differently? Because they get older? Perhaps.
We have a common fluid norm of what works and do not work in intertainment. What we think is cool and worth our time. This keeps changing when we get used to the same old stuff. We need new things. New visual effects to immerse ourselves. Some games and movies create a paradigm shift and everything before is quickly outdated. HL1, HL2, Diablo, Starcraft and F.E.A.R. all did this.

Many disliked Doom3 because the fundamental gameplay was severely lacking. If it had come out 10 years ago the game would have been up to the standards gameplay-wise. After HL1 and HL2 it is not.

SS2 isn't so different from SS1. People just think it sucks now (me included) because so many games have raised the bar since then. I made a comment about the fundamental gameplay of SS2 being outdated. It wasn't before HL2 and F.E.A.R. but now it just isn't enough.
Thats my point of view. You cannot even write a decent argument as to why I'm wrong. You could perhaps have made me reconsider. Now you just look like a fast-replying-MTV-kid.

[Xaerin]

SS2 isn't so different from SS1. People just think it sucks now (me included) because so many games have raised the bar since then.

Serious Sam 1 sucked. As does the sequel. You claim FPS games have "raised the bar" since Serious Sam 2 yet there have been a million and one better FPS games before Serious Sam 1 and there have continued to be long after. Ironic since you think it is exodus who has the "pseudo-knowledge of gaming".

It seems to me you, Qoz, are the 15 year old with no brain, the one has gotten older and changed opinions as a result, and with the most replies to this thread, it is you who is the "fast-replying-MTV-kid".

And for the record Duke Nukem 3D is NOTHING like Serious Sam. omg they both have ppl and munsterzzz!?! lolomfgkthxplz!!1111

[Exodus]

pseudo knowledge?
you're comparing oranges to apples where the only thing they have in common is, is that they are a consumeable and are round.

Believe me kid I know where you are, and once you realize your place in the world and how things work you'll look back at this and laugh. I'm glad I'm here to burn you so you can adjust your way of thinking. I understand your point but I can point out to you that if you were looking for f.e.a.r. gameplay why the fuck are you even bothering with serious sam 2?

nuff said.

enjoy your life.