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Serious
Sound
To go along
with its visual style, the sound in Serious Sam II
won’t take full advantage of a 7.1 stereo setup,
but what it lacks in groundbreaking technology it
easily makes up for it in individuality. Right from
the start you can tell this game will be filled with
humor simply because Sam has the stereotypical heroic
deep man voice, and although some his catchphrases
are repeated all too often throughout his adventure
it’s still amusing to listen to him. There is
usually an upbeat instrumental song playing along
in the background, but it’s usually drowned
amongst the chaos in the battlefield. Sam’s
weapons don’t offer anything too resonant, but
they are still lively enough to make you want to fire
for no reason whatsoever. To top off, the endless
chatter of enemies constantly swarming towards you
from all directions, along with various non-interactive
environmental distractions, will never lead to a dull
moment throughout the game’s entirety.
Sam Stone – Back
in Action
Serious Sam
II is commonly recognized because of the extensive
arsenal offered. While you start off by dual wielding
pistols and having a chainsaw for melee attacks, you
will quickly gain access to some of the more powerful
weapons, such as miniguns, shotguns, and even a high
power sniper rifle. While these traditional weapons
can be found in almost any FPS game, Serious Sam II
also offers some innovative weapons as well, including
a parrot-bomb that locks on to enemies. Instead of
having to reload, you’ll only have to make sure
you obtain enough of the ammo pickups throughout the
levels in order to fuel your weaponry. Health, armor,
and ammo pickups will all help make your journey a
little easier. Instead of having a clunky, complex
menu system, Serious Sam II has a basic interface
that will easily allow you to switch through weapons
and toss grenades to your heart’s content. In
addition, Serious Sam II also comes packed with vehicles
this time around. Although some of these machines
offer nothing more than a little protection, manning
a turret or mowing down some baddies helps diversify
the gameplay to some extent. While it’s easy
to take a special liking to some guns, such as the
powerful shotgun or rapid chain gun, every weapon
manages to prove its worth sooner or later.
The combat
in Serious Sam II is extremely fast paced and invigorating,
which delivers a nonstop intense FPS experience. Unlike
most other games where you’ll spend a lot of
your time searching for cover, ducking around corners,
and saving up your ammo, Serious Sam II is all about
running into room after room and blowing the hell
out of everything. Once you enter a new section of
a level, you’ll be greeted with a seemingly
endless wave of baddies. However, instead of being
able to effortlessly destroy the opposition with a
few rockets, you’ll be faced with an assortment
of enemies with different attacking styles. Some foes
will fly around your head in a distracting manner,
while others will charge right at you in a mad rush.
Just when you think you’ve taken care of the
last of them, a whole new group of enemies will spawn
out of nowhere and immediately begin to swarm you.
The entire game is filled with breathtaking action
that will leave you jumping, running, shooting, and
blowing stuff up for a good 20 hours. There aren’t
a whole lot of special moves to learn and there aren’t
even any major gameplay changes from the first Serious
Sam in terms of gameplay, and quite frankly there
isn’t anything wrong with this. Battling it
out across different worlds as you destroy thousands
upon thousands of various enemies is a great concept,
and Serious Sam II does an excellent job in delivering
this unremitting action.
While Serious
Sam II comes across as a very strong title right from
the start, as the game progresses the lack of major
innovations can make this game feel somewhat monotonous.
Sure, each level has its own distinct feel and comes
complete with a whole set of new enemies with their
own special powers, but the nonstop usage of the fire
button can get a little dry towards the latter part
of the adventure. Random objectives and puzzles will
appear sparsely, but even when they do show up they
still won’t offer much of a change from the
endless shooting. For the most part, you’ll
be traveling from point A to point B, taking out a
few oversized bosses, then proceeding on to the next
level. The levels do offer a lot of entertainment
because of all of the mayhem you cause, but the lack
of variety might make the game dull for some of the
more demanding gamers.
The Future of Serious
Sam II
While the lengthy
single player campaign certainly makes Serious Sam
II comparable to today’s latest FPS games in
terms of replay value, one of the greatest features
about this game is that you have the ability to play
through the levels with up to 16 people online. Depending
on how many people are playing, the worlds will be
appropriately filled with enemies, allowing the predetermined
difficulty to remain intact at all times. Although
playing cooperatively won’t make up for the
monotony that the single player campaign was plagued
with, completely annihilating anything that crosses
your path with a few buddies is entertaining nonetheless.
Conclusion
In conclusion,
Serious Sam II is a breath of fresh air amongst all
of the other overly complicated FPS games that have
recently been released. Instead of bogging the gamer
down with system hogging visuals or an overly played
out storyline, Serious Sam II is the quintessential
action shooter. While exploding waves after waves
of the opposition can become a little wearisome at
times, for the most part Serious Sam II is a creatively
inspired shooter that is filled with action from start
to finish.
| Game play |
17/20 |
| Graphics |
16/20 |
| Sound |
16/20 |
| Value |
16/20 |
| Preference |
17/20 |
| Overall |
82/100 |
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