Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Preview
Read our impressions of the alpha build of this second game in the addictive Serious Sam series.
Fans of the action genre will undoubtedly look back on 2001 with fond memories. This year has seen the release of some of the greatest shooters we've played in a long while--Max Payne, Operation Flashpoint, Undying, and, of course, Serious Sam: The First Encounter. Who can ever forget Serious Sam? While the whole industry was busy trying to create the next Half-Life, a relatively unknown developer out of Croatia released a game--straight out of left field--that many people heralded as the next Doom. Serious Sam had no AI to speak of, nor did it have a memorable plot, scripted sequences, character interaction, or any of the features that have become more prevalent in recent first-person shooters. Instead, it focused strictly on all-out action by throwing waves and waves of onrushing enemies--that ranged in size from frogs to mountains--at you. The formula worked well, particularly because of the game's inclusion of an addictive cooperative multiplayer mode and the fact that it was priced at about 20 bucks. Upon Serious Sam's release, Croteam, the developer, went right back to work to create even more insane levels, and the result, cleverly called The Second Encounter, will be released in a matter of weeks. We recently had the chance to play through the first of the three new environments in The Second Encounter, giving us ample opportunity to wreak havoc with all of the game's new weapons, explore many of the new areas, and run away from a lot of the new enemies.
As Croteam CEO Roman Ribaric made clear in yesterday's interview, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter is a completely stand-alone product that doesn't require the original game to run--but please don't call it a sequel. The Second Encounter is merely more of the same style of levels, more of the same interaction with the NETRICSA interface, more of the same weapons, and more of the same enemies for fans of The First Encounter--but in Serious Sam's case, more of the same is something that leaves little room for complaint.
The game takes place immediately after the end of The First Encounter. For those who don't know, you play the role of Sam "Serious" Stone, a soldier sent back in time to stop an alien horde from ever leaving planet Earth. Sound confusing? Apparently, the aliens in the game originated from the many ancient civilizations that were previously thought to have been human. The First Encounter saw Sam purging ancient Egypt of its alien inhabitants before jumping aboard a massive UFO that seemed straight out of Independence Day. That same UFO drops off Sam amid a mountainous jungle environment that's littered with Mayan and Aztec ruins at the beginning of The Second Encounter, and from there, you'll proceed to cleanse the area of hundreds of crazed alien attackers, from old favorites such as the gnaar and beheaded kamikaze to several new arrivals that include cucurbito the pumpkin, a pumpkin-headed scarecrow that rushes at you with a chainsaw; the fiendian reptiloid demo, a 20-foot creature that resembles the original game's aludran reptiloid and throws indestructible balls of lava at you; and the zorg mercenaries, aliens which wield massive laser rifles. This Aztec environment will start in the fairly open areas of Sierra de Chiapas and then move on to the crowded and ancient city levels of Serpent Yards and City of the Gods.
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Quick Links
Summary | Reviews | News | Previews & Features | Images | Videos | Downloads | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum | Check Prices
- GameSpot Score9.1Editors' Choice
Check Prices: $5.99 – 9.79
| Amazon.com Marketplace | $9.79 | SHOP › |
| eBay | $5.99 | SHOP › |
Content you might like…
-
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter Review
You'll find virtually everything there is to like about action gaming in the stunning sequel to Serious Sam.
- Feb 5, 2002
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
Related Content
Matches based on text similarity.
Images
- Gathering
- Croteam
- Sci-Fi First-Person...
- Release: Feb 4, 2002 »
- ESRB: Mature
Games you may like…
-
Serious Sam
(PC) -
Serious Sam II
(PC) -
Serious Sam Gold
(PC) -
Serious Sam: Next Encounter
(PS2) -
Serious Sam Advance
(GBA)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
1 Comments