I've played a lot of shooters but Serious Sam 2nd Encounter is one of the best i've ever played. Real score: 9.8/10
Looking for a serious shooter? Then dont even think about Serious Sam (why it's actually called 'serious' I dont know) because this game is so hilariously ridiculous I just love it. First I want to talk about the enemies. Most shooters will see you fighting enemies such as Nazis, terrorists, mercenaries etc but Serious Sam is different. Ever wanted to fight headless kamikazees that scream at you, big green slime-throwing beasts, big guys with chainsaws and pumpkins for heads??? Well you'll love Serious Sam, wackiest game ever! Your first thoughts may be 'that is so stupid' but I love these crazy ideas...they've never been used in a game before and I think all the enemies are really creative. You can imagine the developers saying 'how about a giant scorpion with a chaingun?' or 'what about a dog-like skeleton that throws chains at you?'. Awesome, I love it.
Be prepared for fighting hundreds of these wacky enemies at once: Serious Sam must be the game with the biggest battles EVER. You'll be fighting literally, hundreds of monsters at once making Serious Sam a non-stop action game. The First Encounter had huge battles too but I think the battles in the Second Encounter are even bigger. So be prepared for buckets of blood too: what with all the enemies you'll be slaughtering.
What will you be taking down the foe with? Well, there's all the great weapons from the First Encounter: knife, revolvers, shotguns, tommy gun, minigun, lasergun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher and the cannon. Plus there's 3 new weapons: the chainsaw which is THE weapon of choice up close, the flamethrower which is great for burning up groups of enemies and the sniper which is pretty essential to the gameplay and the weapon that the First Encounter really needed. The weapons all work well for different situations and they are really well designed and made.
In The First Encounter you were fighting through Egypt throughout the whole game. Now, you'll be fighting in 3 different areas. There's the jungle levels which are full of massive aztec-style pyramids and temples and of course, trees, lakes etc. There's Babylon which consists of huge, gigantic ancient buildings and big open areas and there's a medieval style land which is made of castles, cathedrals etc. The levels are absolutely HUGE, there's only 12 but on average you'll be spending around 50 minutes and more for each so the game is definitely long enough.
The graphics are really good for a 2002 game: the textures have been improved but it's the draw distances that really impress. You can see things like buildings, trees and of course, enemies for absolutely miles. Even a lot of draw distances in todays games still dont compare with this. The graphics are also really colourful and different unlike all these dark shooters about. The sound is all top-notch. The music is more quiet and calm when there arent any enemies around (which is rare) and it changes to more fast-paced tunes when you are fighting.
There's also a fantastic multiplayer mode with a great fast-paced deathmatch mode which easily compares to deathmatch greats like Unreal Tournament. There's also co-op mode which means you'll be fighting EVEN more enemies than in the single-player mode. With a friend, co-op is really good fun. Along with the great multiplayer modes you get a map editor and a modeler. The replay value is basically endless.
My complaints with the game are really small. They are: Running for miles occasionly to get somewhere, maybe just a few more levels, and I sometimes have troubles with multiplayer mode. But thats it.
Overall I give this game a 9.8/10: it is superb. I recommend it to any FPS fan, it has an amazing replay value and is just so much fun. Definitely the best in the series.