Unfortuantly, the negatives outweight the positives in this long and awaited sequel to Serious Sam
In early 2005 I heard that Serious Sam II was coming out on the PC late 2005 so I brought it and was hoping it would live up to the hype. Unfortuantly, Serious Sam II lacked something that the first Serious Sam games had, and didn't impress me as much as the first two games.
Now, Serious Sam II follows the usual story, such as getting past all of these enemies sent by someone called "Mental" and working your way to the guy, but like every usual Serious Sam game before it, you don't actually get to fight him yet, so there's obviously going to be a few more sequels.
Now, the main reason we loved the other Serious Sam games was because of the mindless shooting. Well, that's still in Serious Sam II, but the main problem are the weapons. The weapons don't seem as good as the ones used in the original, for example. The standard shotgun in this game is like a multiple cannon gun and doesn't feel like a shotgun at all. Worst of all, it's probably the most accurate gun out of the lot, and in the first game you had to get quite close to the target to take alot of damage. On this, you could hit the target from quite a distance.
The other weapons such as the futuristic double-barrelled shotgun also has its problems as well. It's very close to being the most powerful weapon in the game. Now, the double-barrelled shotgun in the first one was powerful but you couldn't kill super large enemies in about three shots. In this (with the exception of bosses) you could easily kill a really strong enemy in less than five hits close up. You're better off using this shotgun for the whole game, because it's so damn powerful it even takes alot of health from the bosses.
There's even more powerful weapons in this game, such as the exploding parrot, which is as powerful as the Cannon gun, and can home in onto enemies. The trouble is, this makes the game really, really easy, and although you don't get much ammo, you could easily take out a boss in under 10 hits with it. The rocket launcher seems weaker in this game, but it's a fast weapon so it's not much of a problem. The laser gun isn't quite as satisfying in this one, and there's another laser gun which completly rips-off that Halo plasma pistol and it's only powerful when you charge it up.
Now, the worst guns in this game are probably the the two uzi guns (which replaced the Tommy gun, big mistake!) and the sniper rifle. These guns are so weak it's just ridiculous!. The sniper rifle, for example, can only zoom in by 4X, but in the first one, it could zoom in up to 8X the zoom. Why was it lowered, and who misses how the sniper-rifle reloads? I do!. Oh, and the two uzi guns, they're so weak and slow!. In fact, they reminded me of the Klobb guns in Goldeneye!. Ok, they're not too bad for weak enemies, but they don't seem as satisfying as the tommy gun from the first one. I would have been happy if the game had two tommy guns instead of the two uzi guns, but changes have to be made unfortuantly.
The chainsaw and the knife arn't in this game, but the two pistols are still in there and so are the serious bombs. However, the chainsaw is replaced with a mechanical saw, which isn't quite as fun as the standard chainsaw.
The only weapons that I was happy with were the grenade launcher and the cannon gun. They were the only ones that didn't feel too different from the first Serious Sam games. Oh yeah, and the flamethrower isn't in this game unfortuantly which was one of my favourite guns in the first one. However, you can launch grenades at any time by pressing the right mouse button which I thought was a very handy feature in Serious Sam II.
Now, for the main gameplay. Now, you still fight quite alot of enemies, but I hate to say this. There's just not as many enemies in this game as there were in the first one. As you can see, all of these enemies come out in small waves rather than large ones, and the maps don't seem quite as big in this one as they were in the first one. There are also more annoying enemies in this one as well, and lots of them seem to have a very childish look to them. For example, the beheaded bombers from the first one (which were one of my favourite enemies from the first game) had bombs in their hands. Well, now they have the bomb on their heads with a dodgy spring, well, for some reason, it's just not as funny or humourous this time, and they don't shout at you as well in this one either.
The other enemies, such as the Mech Walkers, are not as good in this one for some reason. They all have dinosaur heads in this one and it just seems really childish. Clowns that look really kiddy try to replace the beheaders with dynamite in their hands, and the bulls which charged at you in the first one, now have tiny wind-ups on the top of them. What were the developers thinking? Perhaps they tried to make this Serious Sam game targetted for kids (hence the 12+ rating this game got and the original got a 15+) but obviously added the blood in to please the 15+ players. Come on! This is Serious Sam! We wanted this game to be mindless but at the same time not for little kids!. They obviously made these changes to make the game more humorous, but unfortuantly, it just doesn't make anyone laugh except the little kids.
Now my next problem with this game were the invisible walls. There were placed in some of the worst places I've even seen in a game. For example, in this futuristic city, there's a spaceship you have to use to get across to the other side of this city, and this area is huge, and really, you can only go forward. If you go left or right, you're going to hit an invisible wall, even though you're no where close to a building in the city.
Now, this is disgraceful, because the level design in Serious Sam 1 was excellent. There was so much freedom in that game you could literally walk anywhere where you couldn't see a wall, but on Serious Sam II, no!. In the earlier levels such as the jungle ones where there was water you couldn't even jump into it because of the damn invisible wall which covered the edges of the entire water. Well, that's very good work you've made there developers, I can't even commit suicide!. Speaking of suicide, if your near the edge of a cliff or at the edge of a platform, chances are you won't be able to fall or jump off!. Then again, these invisible walls were probably there to make the game easier for the little kids so they don't fall off all the time and lose.
Speaking of losing, if you get killed you lose an extra life. Now this wouldn't be too bad if you started from where you got killed, but you don't!. You start off from the closest savepoint and it just seems pointless. Now, an extra life obviously means your limited on how many times you can die and once you lose all your lives you have to start the whole level again!. It's just stupid and you're better off using the quicksaves!. I mean, what kind of PC First Person Shooter would use extra lives?. It's just ridiculous!. I suppose the developers got this idea from Serious Sam 1 on the Xbox, but it wasn't too bad on the Xbox because you always started from where you died. However, the extra lives make it seem like Serious Sam II was ported from the Xbox onto the PC, and we all know Serious Sam was originally on the PC, so were the developers trying to make Serious Sam II a console First Person Shooter?.
Oh, and the power-ups. What happened to the Serious Speed powerup? That was one of the most useful powerups in the original. Instead, they've replaced it with this crap powerup which only doubles the scores you receive from your enemies. Big deal!. I wanted something useful like the Serious Strength powerup they originally had in the game. Luckly, the Serious Damage powerup is still intact.
I don't know why this game needed these really new physics. To be honest, it was one of the biggest letdowns in this game. You pick up objects the same way as Half-Life 2 but there's not really any reason for it. Do you really need to throw objects around in a Serious Sam game? No, but the only reason they are needed is because you needed to move objects in certain places. But, other than that it's completly useless, and you can't chuck your enemies around or anything like that. Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that there's no modifying gravity areas and bouncy ramps on Serious Sam II so that's a big letdown as well.
A new feature in Serious Sam II were the vehicles, but to be honest. You'd only use most of them for the better weapons. The only vehicle I really liked was the rolling spiked ball because I thought it was hilarious running over the bad guys with it. However, it's not really used alot, and doesn't get shown that much in the game. The other vehicles, such as a Dinosaur, a Hovercraft, and a Spaceship are used a couple of times in this game, but to be honest. It doesn't really feel like Serious Sam at all, and it really kills the main reason of Serious Sam: To survive on your own by just using your own weapons. However, I really thought the spiked ball was a great addition, and maybe their could be more vehicles like this just to make the game more fun.
The things I really hated about this was the overuse of humour and the new Netricsa that was used in this game. I found Netricsa the most annoying thing about this game. Her voice just got onto my nerves and she wasn't funny at all. Worst of all, Sam always comments after what she says and it's never funny. I preferred when she used to be a mailbox system and all I had to do was press a button to find out the objectives and information I needed to know. She also says things that are so obvious that you don't need to hear them. Luckly, I can turn her speaking thing off but it's still annoying because the subtitles always appear, and so does her big head which gets in my way of playing.
Now, another thing that really super annoyed me was the cutscenes that were used in this game. Now, in Serious Sam I they were always real-time cutscenes. However, in this one they're always low quality videos and the humour that's used in them always fail about 9 out of 10 times. It seems the developers were focusing on the humour too much here. I didn't laugh as much compared to the original.
Now, the main menu. Oh my god!. It's just so obvious they were making this like a console game!. The low quality videos obviously gave that away, but another thing that gave it away was how you used the cheats on this game. So, you have to get the cheat menu by typing in a code in the console screen and then afterwards you accessed the cheats by going to the menu and press F1 and then the cheats would come up like they did in the Xbox Serious Sam 1. Now, on most proper PC games (Like Serious Sam 1) you'd have to access the cheats by typing them on the console, but not this one!. Not only that, but when you access the different menus there were labels that told you the shortcut keys on the sides of the screen. Now, I'm guessing what the developers did for the Xbox console was to replace them keyboard keys with the Xbox buttons. That's kind of lame, and a lazy move for the developers.
The sound in Serious Sam II at the moment is kind of disappointing. I was kind of expecting to hear more screams from the beheaded enemies but to be honest, the enemies don't seem to make that much noise anymore. The only noise I hear when I'm playing is my gunfire and the background music, which sucks because I always liked hearing the enemies since they always helped me track them down, and there's no more chainsaw guy. WHY? WHY?!?!?!. However, this problem might only be for me, so I'm only judging this by what I've encountered in the game.
It's a shame for me to say all these bad points about Serious Sam II, but that's what's in the game at the moment. However, there are some positive things about Serious Sam II, for example, the graphics are great in this game!. All of the textures are bright and sharp and all of the character models are detailed. The reflections are great in this game as well. If you went to the futuristic city and saw the reflections on that level, it's just amazing and jaw-dropping.
The only downfall for the graphics are you're going to need quite a recent graphics card in order to play this game at a reasonable framerate. You can have quite a few enemies on screen still, but the main thing that's going to slow your computer down are the details in the environment. To be honest, this game on medium settings still look great, but I'm sure it's even better at the top graphics settings. It still has a cartoonish look but some may complain it's very childish. I, however think the graphics are fine and what I expect for the sequel.
However, there are still more positives. Serious Sam II seems to be getting quite a few patch updates and new tools recently. This will make Serious Sam II last longer, and hopefully fix many problems I am facing with the game at this very moment. Maybe these patches can help me like Serious Sam II even more, and there's always a good chance that there will be mods made from this game. So, there's always going to be replay value here, and always some new levels to try out.
There's always the multiplayer mode as well, but at the moment there's still a few glitches that need to be fixed to make it worthwhile. There's the co-operative mode and the deathmatch mode. So, if you have some friends which have this game then it can be pretty fun beating them online and playing with them in the co-operative mode, so it's all not a loss. There will always be some patches to improve the multiplayer anyway, and maybe some new character skins as well.
So, overall Serious Sam II hasn't quite lived up to the potential at the moment. However, at a budget price, you may as well give this game a go and see if you like it. But remember, just because this game might not be as good as the original it doesn't mean it can't be improved. As time goes by the developers will learn from their mistakes they've made from their sequel, and they're always making some bug fixes and improvements in the game. So who knows? Maybe Serious Sam II will be rid of the many negatives it has at the moment, but only time can tell, and we all know that Serious Sam II could reach on par with its original