Posted July 12, 2014
A few days ago, I finished Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.
What can I say... I never had so much fun with a shooter!
The basic structure is precisely the same found in the First Encounter: the game is an arcade shooter with maps mostly composed by sequences of small rooms and giant arenas, every single one of which presents a new and different challenge, hundreds of crazy enemies that relentlessly aim to your death and large number varied, always useful and powerful weapons (with a few great addtitions, like the flamethrower and the sniper rifle). No cover, all man! It might seem repetitive, but the gameplay never gets stale, and you could continue for hours and hours without feeling bored. When I saw the ending credits, I was already starving for more! Moreover, in single player the combat is surprisingly tactical, forcing the player to find an optimal solution for every problem: nobody can save-scum their way trough, and a mindless "run'n'gun" tactic will be often proven useless.
Croteam really surprised me with the variety of the environments: the game is set in three widely different areas (an unspecified part of the Aztech Empire, Babylon and medieval Poland – a nice change of pace from the beautiful but overused ancient Egypt), each divided in several enormous levels (5-5-3) full of hilarious secrets and unexpected peculiarities.
Among those, I can mention a few just to give you an idea of what you could be up to: a "bouncing alphabeth room" where ignorance is punished with death, a tube-shaped corridor where you can move like a spider, an aztech chamber full of traps like in Indiana Jones, the "Secret Rocket Festival", Santa's rescue immediaely followed by hordes of suicide bombers with cannons while THIS MUSIC plays in the background, the Lumberjack Song, the world of inverted proportions, the revenge of Binky's Brothers (the one who "oh my God you killed" in the first game), auto-phone calls from the past and dozens more!
I wholeheartedly recommend SS:TSE to everyone, especially to the FPS fans – it is probably the funniest videogame I had the pleasure to play until now, and a true shooting masterpiece. Everything it does, it does with charisma, design brilliance, humor and a kind of well-balanced challenge that respects the player. A true must-buy: you WILL be satisfied, trust me!
What can I say... I never had so much fun with a shooter!
The basic structure is precisely the same found in the First Encounter: the game is an arcade shooter with maps mostly composed by sequences of small rooms and giant arenas, every single one of which presents a new and different challenge, hundreds of crazy enemies that relentlessly aim to your death and large number varied, always useful and powerful weapons (with a few great addtitions, like the flamethrower and the sniper rifle). No cover, all man! It might seem repetitive, but the gameplay never gets stale, and you could continue for hours and hours without feeling bored. When I saw the ending credits, I was already starving for more! Moreover, in single player the combat is surprisingly tactical, forcing the player to find an optimal solution for every problem: nobody can save-scum their way trough, and a mindless "run'n'gun" tactic will be often proven useless.
Croteam really surprised me with the variety of the environments: the game is set in three widely different areas (an unspecified part of the Aztech Empire, Babylon and medieval Poland – a nice change of pace from the beautiful but overused ancient Egypt), each divided in several enormous levels (5-5-3) full of hilarious secrets and unexpected peculiarities.
Among those, I can mention a few just to give you an idea of what you could be up to: a "bouncing alphabeth room" where ignorance is punished with death, a tube-shaped corridor where you can move like a spider, an aztech chamber full of traps like in Indiana Jones, the "Secret Rocket Festival", Santa's rescue immediaely followed by hordes of suicide bombers with cannons while THIS MUSIC plays in the background, the Lumberjack Song, the world of inverted proportions, the revenge of Binky's Brothers (the one who "oh my God you killed" in the first game), auto-phone calls from the past and dozens more!
I wholeheartedly recommend SS:TSE to everyone, especially to the FPS fans – it is probably the funniest videogame I had the pleasure to play until now, and a true shooting masterpiece. Everything it does, it does with charisma, design brilliance, humor and a kind of well-balanced challenge that respects the player. A true must-buy: you WILL be satisfied, trust me!
Post edited July 12, 2014 by Enebias
