While The Second Encounter is still a linear affair, there’s now some light puzzle solving at points, including some platforming. The game is just filled with quality of life improvements, including proper power-ups and even wackier secrets than before, but pacing and map design shows the most steps forward.
Arachnoids still feel mostly like a chore, but the new weapons do make them less obnoxious to wipe up. These new enemy types give some much needed variety to fire fights, and also don’t rely on hit scanning cheapness, so it feels fun to dodge their assault and take them down. The most significant addition is the demon variant of the reptiloid, a nasty beast that can take a lot more rockets and sniper shots than the rest of his kind, and uses a much faster homing fireball that can’t be destroyed in the classic version without a cannon ball or some laser fire (this has been changed in the HD version, though its still pretty durable). Not huge threats, but ignoring them in more chaotic moments is generally not a great idea. Zumb’ul are a bit more substantial, taking a few more licks and firing quick rockets at you, two at a time. The zorg mercenaries and commander are new firearm using grunts that can easily be handled with the flamethrower to stun lock them until dead, basically slightly more resilient versions of projectile using beheaded. He also has that same chainsaw continuous attack, differentiating him from the kleers and their one melee hit and pause. Cucurbito the Pumpkin is a new charger alongside the kleer, rushing in with a chainsaw and taking at least two rockets to take down. It’s a screen clearing explosion that can really help in the more hectic gauntlets, though don’t expect to find too many of these.Ī few new enemy types have also been thrown into the mix. There’s also the premier of the series’ now iconic serious bomb, a weapon almost as signature to Serious Sam as the cannon. It’s particularly great against those damn hitscan arachnoids, and overall improvement to your long range options so you don’t have to rely on the rocket launcher or energy gun so much. The sniper rifle is also a brilliant addition, giving a massive damage boost when shooting scoped, making short work of a lot of large enemies who like hanging back to pelt you with projectiles. Great for mobs, but not as much against kleers, who take a few seconds to burn up. The flamethrower is an interesting mid-range alternative to the minigun and tommy gun, causing after burning damage on hit enemies, hitting multiple enemies in a stream, and the flames can’t hurt Sam by accident.
The longer its on an enemy, the more damage gets done. The chainsaw is the first weapon given to you, a new melee attack that works on a hold and slices through plenty of enemies and creates very fun gibbing in the HD version. You get three of the four new weapons within the first level. You can really see how this game would bridge from the simple First Encounter to the wacky era that reached its peak with Serious Sam 2. Sam also has more quips, and a lot of them are pretty amusing, helped by John J. Sam’s intel giver computer friend Nettie has a bit more personality here, making dorky jokes in text updates and some forth wall breaking humor, going from a dry and dull exposition dump to a proper character. There’s little changes to the writing and tone that give Second Encounter a flavor of its own. All of these time periods are populated by monsters and aliens, as you would expect. However, this will require some more time warps, sending Sam to Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, and finally medieval Europe. The goal now is to find a second ship left by the same race who had that first one hanging around, then go to Mental’s house and kick his alien butt. It’s Serious Sam, but even more, building on that foundation with gusto.Īfter Sam managed to steal an alien ship and left ancient Egypt, Croteam themselves crashed into said ship with their stupid crate bus that Sam hates (he says as much in a first level secret) and he ended up crash landing back on Earth, this time in Mayan era Central America.
SERIOUS SAM 2 LEVEL FULL
In all seriousness (ba dum tis), Sam’s second outing of alien killing is a massive step up from the previous game, feeling less like an episode two style release and more a bigger and better full sequel, with all sorts of new features and a real show of growth from a game design perspective. If you find these serious puns annoying, please never play a Serious Sam game, you will pop a blood vessel. The new weapons were more serious, the new enemies far more serious, and the bosses were the most serious of them all.
A year after The First Encounter came the creatively titled The Second Encounter, a sequel even more serious than the first.
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