Game: Serious Sam 2 (2005)

Genre: First Person Shooter

Developer: CroTeam

Publisher: 2K Games

Country of Origin: Croatia

Price: Steam Sale, Unknown, but affordable

 

Background: When I first played this game unfortunately I was not in the mood for it. That was five years ago. Now I’m a fan of Serious Sam, especially after playing the predecessor to this game: Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. This game is not as good as the earlier game, however it is nevertheless entertaining. I had a great time playing this and I would recommend it to any fan of first person shooters.

This is a comedy first-person shooter with an emphasis on fighting squads and platoon sized groups of enemies whether they be annoying Kleer skeletons, militaristic Orcs or demonic tanks. This game has humor, fast-paced combat, and a cartoonish art style to convey its incredible single-player experience to the player.

Comedy: Sam will have some ridiculous one-liners that he’ll say on a regular basis throughout ever level. One of the more commonplace ones is (paraphrasing) “That’s some serious firepower.” Or “that’s a serious gun.” Of course you’ll see some cooked chickens after shooting them and some Elvis-inspired parody work that will have you thinking of Fallout: New Vegas 

Fast-Paced Combat: Like in the prior installment of the series, Sam Stone will have to engage multiple enemies at once ranging from squads of Orcs or Kleer or rampaging wind-up rhinos. Now helicopters alongside harpies are a threat to Sam. Demonic-looking tanks plus scorpion warriors wage war against Sam. The cannon, rocket launcher, minigun, and other weapons make short work of these foes. Apparently, Mental, Sam’s nemesis doesn’t think Sam’s serious enough to take his forces down.

 

Cartoonish Art Style: This game has highly different aesthetics compared to the prior games in the series. Frankly, I found it endearing in some places. It is a comedy game after all!! However, I also found it detracting at some points, but those moments were mainly in the beginning of the game which was rather monotonous compared to the later levels which were far more entertaining.

The Bad/Monotony: The early levels in this game are dull as the doldrums. I found the world of Ursul to be boring, and I found Branchester to be even more boring. All of the aliens make the same noises, and furthermore the firefights are a tad too long in some places. There are some things in this game that were a little too drawn out and some things that were too similar in the beginning. At times it felt like the development team was holding out on the player.

Final Analysis: Serious Sam 2 is definitely not the best chapter in this series of excellent first-person shooters. It is still worth your time and I’m glad Serious Sam 3 inspired me to revisit this series a second time.