Reviewed: November 17, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
2K Games
Developer
Croteam
Released: October 11, 2005
Genre: FPS
Players: 1-2, Online
ESRB: Mature
8
9
8
9
8.8
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Back in 2001 a new upstart company called Croteam invented a new hero for the stale FPS genre. Serious Sam offered insane gameplay that hearkened back to the original DOOM games. It was this style of non-stop, against-overwhelming-odds, shooting action that most FPS games (and gamers) had forsaken in favor of story and substance, but Croteam proved that you could have mindless reflexive shooting fun and look damn good doing it.
The original Serious Sam offered some blistering graphics that made the game look more like an nVidia tech demo than anything else. They even had a temple demo that did nothing but showcase their graphics technology. I am still amazed that more developers didn’t license this powerful engine. In many ways it still rivals the technology of the Doom/Quake and Unreal engines, or at best it keeps up.
So after four long years we finally get to team up with Sam in his latest action romp, Serious Sam II, and everything you loved about the original is back, bigger and better than ever. The enemies are larger, the one-liners are funnier, and the story is now a much more integral part of the game (not really but they tried), but not at the expense of all that mindless shooting, which actually isn’t so mindless anymore. There is even a bit of…gasp…strategy involved in the gameplay.
As always, when you have a few million monsters to slay you need big inventive levels and Croteam delivers some of the more interesting level designs in the genre’s history. They are big but they are also linear, usually offering multiple “arenas” of combat. You’ll be wandering along the obvious path and all of the sudden something will happen to trap you in a specific zone until you defeat a few hundred enemies that stream in wave after wave.
Sometimes you have to backpedal as you unload from any of your futuristic weapons, and other times you can climb onboard mounted turrets and blast away with the big guns or fight from vehicles. Whatever you end up doing, it is always visually impressive and a total adrenaline rush. Once you get past the more mundane shotgun, pistols, and chainsaw, nothing is too sacred to become a weapon including a colorful parrot that will target enemies and drop a cannonball-shaped bomb on them.
The only thing more impressive and diverse than the weapons selection is the eclectic cast of monsters you will encounter. Everything from Hitman Zombies to giant robot spiders and football-playing Orcs will stand between you and your quest to retrieve the various pieces of the medallion. And yes, the screaming headless suicide bombers are back with bigger and more powerful “heads”. Sometimes you have to simply kill all the enemies but there are those annoying “protect” missions that will likely take a few attempts before you master the necessary patterns of incoming enemy waves.
For this adventure Sam gets to use some vehicles, which can be as advanced as a hover-saucer to as primitive as a giant “hamster ball of death” that you can use to roll through waves of enemies. Vehicles are more about quick transport and providing extra firepower and armor for Sam, and most are destroyed almost immediately after you find one, so the game never gets too off-balance.
It's all about action and reflexes. Sam seldom has to think beyond where to get the next weapons, ammo, or power-up, and when a puzzle does sneak into the combat, its solution is usually obvious with or without the help of Nettie. Just keep the fire button mashed and never stop moving.
The improved game engine continues to impress by displaying dozens of assorted rampaging enemies at a time. The level of detail scales with the view distance to keep things running smoothly and game has plenty of graphics options allowing you to scale your experience to match your machine. Serious Sam II will devour as much power as you throw at it and reward you with stunning visuals.
Serious Sam II is much brighter and colorful than your typical FPS. You seldom got to see or appreciate the environments or monsters in games like Quake or Doom. Those games were all about atmosphere and lighting, but Sam gives you the best visual seat in the house for non-stop action and smooth framerates.
Textures are excellent, both on the environment and the monsters, and special effects like water, particles, fire, smoke, and all sorts of weapon special effects will dazzle you consistently. The draw distance is impressive on high-end systems with little or no pop-up. The level of detail like trees, grass, flowers, and other landscape objects is second only to Far Cry, which only makes me wonder why more people aren’t using this engine.
Animation is really good and quite inventive in some situations. Physics is exaggerated and not nearly as realistic as games that use the more traditional Havok engine, but with a game like Sam II you really aren’t looking for accuracy. Besides, most of the enemies in this game aren’t subject to ragdoll physics – I seriously double most even have a skeletal system.
Level designs are varied and you will explore exotic beaches, forests, snowcapped mountains, futuristic cities, and creepy bone yards just to name a few. Each of these levels are filled with an assortment of themed monsters to assault your hero and your reflexes.
The cutscenes are hilarious and make great use of the game engine graphics. The opening movie is highly entertaining and there is a great segment early on when Sam saves a village and they throw him a big celebration followed by a series of snapshots of our drunk hero doing the limbo and passing out in a hut.
The dialogue is outstanding and hysterical as expected. Sam continues to deliver the best one-liners this side of a Bruce Willis movie and even your Netricsa computer – remember that cool PDA from the first game – speaks to you in a pleasant female voice thanks to “an increased game budget”. Yes, the game even breaks character to poke fun at itself. And she is always the first to nag or poke fun at our hero, but Nettie is also useful in navigating the levels and offering hints for the various puzzles.
The music is your typical action-themed stuff that gets your adrenaline flowing during the seemingly endless battles. There is also some nice environmental themes during the infrequent lulls in combat.
Sound effects are off the hook with futuristic sounds from weapons that are beyond imagination, at least until you see them in action. Explosions are powerful and the game makes good use of 3D positional audio for a totally immersive experience.
The solo mode in Serious Sam II is good for 15-20 hours of challenging gameplay, more if you up the difficulty level. And then you have all the fantastic multiplayer modes you can access through GameSpy including a very fun cooperative mode that actually tailors the difficulty of the monsters to the current number of active players. Some levels are brutally hard and will require a sizable party of seasoned Sam’s, but it’s a great way to replay the main campaign.
I had almost forgotten how much fun I had playing the original Serious Sam, but it only took one level full of laughter and insane action to quickly remember why Sam is still the best FPS game in its class since the original Doom.
Sure it’s shallow on story and it might not create all those spine-tingly environments and scare moments, but Serious Sam II does deliver a richly entertaining and wildly inventive shooter experience full of charm, color, and humor that any fan of the genre would be a fool to miss out on.