Despite its many small flaws, Serious Sam still provides fun arcade like gaming with good replay and multiplayer value.
User Rating: 8 | Serious Sam: Next Encounter PS2
WARNING: If some one wants a true first person shooter game with a great storyline, look else where. Serious Sam: Next Encounter is pretty unique in two areas; 1) its very strong arcade like gaming design combined with non traditional monster enemies that for the most part don't even have guns, and 2) its very weird, somewhat confusing, and unbelievable story line. These two things help the game, and also hurt it, but with every thing else considered (along with its cheap bargain price of less than twenty dollars), Serious Sam is ultimately a good, solid game. Graphic wise, the game has its good and bad moments. Now, looking at the back of the box, or at the screenshots, one would probably get a bad false impression of the graphics. The player models look slightly above average and the weapons look very nice, however the environments are rather bland, they look decent, but there usually isn't much going on and the levels usually consist of a little too much open space. Also, the water reflection effects look nice, but they are done WAY too much. I can tell you with assurance that the graphics are better than they appear on the box and such, but still, they could have been better. Sound wise, the game is very good. All the weapons sound extremely great, in fact, the weapons are probably the best sounding weapons I have ever heard in a PS2 game. The weapon sound effects are not overdone as with many games today, and are pretty realistic. On top of that, the character voices sound very good, and they say some pretty funny things too. For instance, on one level you must collect two pearls and put them in a statue's eyes. After collecting the second pearl, your main character says "If I get another twenty of these things I can have a necklace." Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound that great now, but it's a lot better when you hear it in the game; it made me laugh. You won't really notice the music in the game because your mind will be too busy killing off the monsters quickly, but when you do notice the music, it's good. The monster sounds are so-so, which is to say average, so that helps bring down the sound score to a nine, but what hurts the sound most of all are the pause menu sound effects. They are really bad; seriously, they sound like a Scooby Doo or other children's game menu sound effects. The menu sound effects are just really ridiculous and bring the sound score from a ten to a nine. But, even with this said, the sound in Serious Sam is still very good, and well deserving of its nine. Gameplay wise, Serious Sam is very unique. It's one of the most arcade like playing console games I have ever played. Basically, you get points for what kind of monster you kill, how many you kill, how fast you kill them, get combos, and you'll go into killing spree and other timed spree like modes after racking up a certain number of points. These points will give you medals at the end of the game, and if you collect a certain amount of medals, you will unlock new things. To put it simply, the arcade nature of the game will be a fun new thing to try, and will give you a much deserved break if you're like me and tired of all these clone like first person shooters. Another unique thing about Serious Sam's gameplay is its inclusion of vehicles. Sure, it only has three vehicles (a humvee, a combine harvester, and a sub), but they can be quite fun the few times you get to use them, and provide a nice break from the usual 'shoot everything that moves' gameplay. The game also features online play, but seeing as how there is no one ever on the servers, the online feature is worthless; however, I will give Climax credit for actually putting online play in the game. It's not their fault no one's on any of the servers. Now, onto the best part of Serious Sam, its multiplayer. Serious Sam offers its best performance with its two player co op, death match, hot bomb, and capture the flag modes. I still haven't played the last three multiplayer modes, but I have been playing the co op modes in depth, and it is extremely fun. The only problem I have with this game gameplay wise is that the endless attacks by the monsters rarely change much, and can be somewhat of a pain some time. Other than that, Serious Sam is a great game gameplay wise. To sum it up, Serious Sam has its faults, mostly that it can get repetitive after a while, but the great multiplayer and fun new features help to make up for Serious Sam's weak points. If you have an extra eighteen dollars to spend and happen to see this game for sale at your local video game store, I'd suggest that you pick it up if you want a fun, fast paced arcade like first person shooter game that will keep you busy for hours. 
