Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Serious Sam 2

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Review:

31st October 2005:
Serious Sam 2
Can shooting things non-stop really work for a second time? Read our review to find out how vehicles are the new rocket guns...
Posted by Chris Barnett - Xbox,PC - UK and Europe

If this review were to mirror the concept of Serious Sam 2 it would go something like this: SHOOT ENEMY, DODGE, SHOOT ENEMY, DODGE and occasionally GET IN VEHICLE AND SHOOT ENEMY and DODGE, of course. But since we are slightly more sophisticated than that, we will give it a review that it deserves.

For all its brainless shooting, Serious Sam 2 is a great deal of fun if you like FPS games, that is. For those people who don't enjoy shooting things without the need for thought, this is not the game for you, nor will any person on this good earth convince you otherwise. But to the rest of the gaming world, who grew up shooting and killing various game enemies for no apparent reason, this is great fun.

Continuing the concept of the first game in that a simple trek from point A to point B must involve killing an undefined number of bad things (we were tempted to write 'bad guys' but most of the things that you shoot are quite difficult to describe in terms of gender), this sequel offers little new to the formula. But what it does offer is enough to take the tried and tested ideas that we enjoyed and improve on them to give a more rounded version of an action game.

The first difference is the story. Sam must travel through different worlds (around 22 we counted, but we may have slipped on our tally due to broken trigger finger!) in order to gain medallion pieces that are needed to save an alien race. This allows an easy set up for levels as they can differ greatly with little reason other than 'you must travel there'. This also sets up a little bit of a relationship with alien races. As you travel to the different worlds you must save or fight alongside little aliens that are as good or as bad as you are. If you start shooting well and protecting them, they'll help you and often give the impression of 'backup'. Fail to do well and they will quickly get killed and leave you alone to fend off swarms of bad things. This adds the only real strategy required in the game; the choice to protect or ignore. But this is a choice and so it alters the game more than you would imagine.

With the new story comes the ability to board vehicles. As it has become common in most FPS games these days, vehicles are an expectation. The ones on offer here fit perfectly into the game world. You can move around the environments with a much greater speed and even kill entire armies of enemies with minimum health if you are skilful enough. The vehicle combat is so skilful that you can literally take no damage at all during a major battle if you are good enough. This is an experience that really adds to the 'one man against everything' concept of the game, and perhaps gives it the one of the greatest feelings of heroic stature seen in a game.

In addition to the moving vehicles, there are also gun turrets that must be manned on occasions. These are particularly linear as you must use them in order to destroy the insane amounts of bad things that are thrown at you (that are not so much thrown as 'spawned'). This often involves a flying collection of enemies that swoop around and attempt to kill you in any way possible. This is the ultimate in 'shoot everything' dynamics and requires absolutely no release of the trigger for up to ten minutes at a time. Whilst this may sound limited, it is really quite fun. Those ten minutes flyby in what seems like seconds and hours in this game can involve as little as a few minutes of 'not shooting'.

With the first game establishing a firm idea that lots of enemies on screen is exciting, this is pretty much taken directly and downgraded a little. With better graphics all round (the water and particle effects are very well done); the sheer size of environments is often perfect to accommodate the enemies that are spawned within them. Strangely, they never feel overcrowded if you shoot the enemies quickly enough as dead bodies quickly 'evaporate' to allow greater rendering of new ones. When the enemies do spawn, they do so in logical locations that can be tackled with a little gun changing. For example, there are dog like creatures that can only attack by running into you and there are 'snipers' that will stand their ground. So a common situation is the spawning of dogs followed by the snipers. If you are too slow, you will find yourself getting plastered with distant fire without the ability to retaliate properly. You really will need a trigger finger that can change between targets quickly.

Another new addition is a proper physics system, so objects now get knocked about in a semi-realistic manner. But this is never really noticeable due to the sheer abundance of action on screen at any one time. The one thing that does make a difference to the game is a cooperative mode that can be implemented using split screen of Xbox Live. This is basically the single player game but with up to four human players working together. On Xbox Live it's not that smooth on the whole, but in times of good connection or in split screen mode, it is quite enjoyable. The ability to play with real people gives the game a more balanced feel; though very far from the Battlefield's and Counter Strike's of this world.

Overall, this is a good attempt at updating the Sam series and the introduction of a variety of vehicles makes it a worthy purchase for anyone with a remote interest in FPS games. There is little in terms of variation, other than the regular boss battle (which are really well done, we must add) and there is occasional slowdown on some large areas, but only if you are watching rather than shooting! Just don't attempt to play the game with anyone who stereotypes games as 'nothing more than killing everything', as you will give them an entire lifetime of examples of why they think themselves right.

Chris Barnett

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Review Summary:

A definition of the term First Person Shooter, with extra vehicles to sweeten the shooting. If you like FPS games then you should certainly check this out. You will not be disappointed. Those who don't like shooting games will not find anything here to inspire them, but they will probably be playing an RPG anyway.

Related Games:

Serious Sam 2
for Xbox

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