You really get the impression that Croteam is embarrassed about this one. There's never been an official HD remake, there are no Steam achievements, the bare minimum has been done for the game's Steam release, the game's considered non-canon, subsequent Serious Sams have gone out of their way to take place in alternate timelines or before the events of the first game, other experimental Serious Sam titles are clearly meant to be side-games... I suspect Croteam would just as soon pretend they never made this one, if only they hadn't made this a numbered sequel.
Which is a damn shame, because of what I've played, this is my favorite by a decent margin.
Yes, this is an idiotic, honestly kinda cringey farce of a game to look at. I have no idea what the hell's going on with all the squeaky, sing-song voices the player hears throughout the game. Some of the redesigns are really stupid, particularly the bomb guys being given singlets. Yyyyyyeah I don't like the that one planet that's populated by Chinese stereotypes and Yellow Peril-adjacent bad guys, not even gonna defend that one.
None of those matter to me (well, maybe the last one of those). What matters is this: because Serious Sam 2 is so bizarre, it actually ends up being a ton of fun with its level designs and challenges. There's an elevator level early on, which is a surprisingly great complement for Serious Sam's usual enemy-spamming. There are a lot of really fun level archetypes, including a "Honey I Shrunk The Kids"-esque giant patch of grass and an intergalactic game show. There's this one boss fight where you're bounding around in moon boots, firing ballistae at a dragon, and it's the distilled essence of this game's experience: really damn stupid, but a ton of fun all the same.
Perhaps a significant portion of my enjoyment for this game came from the fact that I ran through this in co-op. The game doesn't play cutscenes during co-op! This does make the experience of the game a lot more confusing, since there's no attempt to explain within the levels why you're going from world to world. At the same time, from what I've seen of the cutscenes, I think I would be way more irritated by this game if I did have to watch them. I'm perfectly content treating this game as a fantasia of weird set pieces, if that's what we're working with.
The game controversially features a lives system rather than infinite respawns, but if you're playing an online game, you can just set it so lives are infinite. Not something you have to worry about if you don't wanna.
Which is a damn shame, because of what I've played, this is my favorite by a decent margin.
Yes, this is an idiotic, honestly kinda cringey farce of a game to look at. I have no idea what the hell's going on with all the squeaky, sing-song voices the player hears throughout the game. Some of the redesigns are really stupid, particularly the bomb guys being given singlets. Yyyyyyeah I don't like the that one planet that's populated by Chinese stereotypes and Yellow Peril-adjacent bad guys, not even gonna defend that one.
None of those matter to me (well, maybe the last one of those). What matters is this: because Serious Sam 2 is so bizarre, it actually ends up being a ton of fun with its level designs and challenges. There's an elevator level early on, which is a surprisingly great complement for Serious Sam's usual enemy-spamming. There are a lot of really fun level archetypes, including a "Honey I Shrunk The Kids"-esque giant patch of grass and an intergalactic game show. There's this one boss fight where you're bounding around in moon boots, firing ballistae at a dragon, and it's the distilled essence of this game's experience: really damn stupid, but a ton of fun all the same.
Perhaps a significant portion of my enjoyment for this game came from the fact that I ran through this in co-op. The game doesn't play cutscenes during co-op! This does make the experience of the game a lot more confusing, since there's no attempt to explain within the levels why you're going from world to world. At the same time, from what I've seen of the cutscenes, I think I would be way more irritated by this game if I did have to watch them. I'm perfectly content treating this game as a fantasia of weird set pieces, if that's what we're working with.
The game controversially features a lives system rather than infinite respawns, but if you're playing an online game, you can just set it so lives are infinite. Not something you have to worry about if you don't wanna.
Some of the best you can find in terms of first person shooters. Great map variety, great guns, lots of enemy types and some of the best boss fights in FPS games. The only bad thing is the writing if you don't like dumb humor. Because all the humanoids in this game take turns on who gets the one braincell in the universe. But you can very easily skip all of the cutscenes.
It also has actually fun vehicle segments that aren't too prevalent, keeping them interesting when they appear. There's a lot of fun gimmicks thrown in the mix for levels generally too. Like some levels where you are forced to speedrun them and a "freezing" mechanic where you need to move in and out of shelter.
I never understood why this game is considered the worst in the series. If I were to guess, it's how much gameplay variety it has and the fact it's long. That and how stylistically different it is from every other Sam game.
It also has actually fun vehicle segments that aren't too prevalent, keeping them interesting when they appear. There's a lot of fun gimmicks thrown in the mix for levels generally too. Like some levels where you are forced to speedrun them and a "freezing" mechanic where you need to move in and out of shelter.
I never understood why this game is considered the worst in the series. If I were to guess, it's how much gameplay variety it has and the fact it's long. That and how stylistically different it is from every other Sam game.
Не заслуживает хейта в свою сторону
Последняя часть основной серии, пройденная мной. Первый раз запустил в далёком 2017-ом и вышел спустя минут 5. Всё казалось каким-то мультяшным и скучным. Да и отношение к серии на тот момент у меня было крайне негативное. Сейчас же считаю её крутой и заслуживающей внимания.
Serious Sam в первую очередь фановая игра. К тому же, кооперативная. Не нужно искать в ней чего-то глубинного и шедеврального. Сами разработчики иронизируют над собой и игрой в катсценах. Так зачем же нам быть такими строгими к игре? Выносите полчища негодяев и кайфуйте.
Как-то раз в 2022-ом решил ни с того ни с сего запустить от нечего делать второго Сэма на полчаса. И это были незабываемые полчаса. Зашёл в сеанс к двум ребятам, проходившим сюжет. Меня удивило разнообразие пушек, врагов, визуал, который спустя почти два десятилетия радует глаз. И тогда окончательно понял: игра стоит свеч. Да, многие фанаты не любят её за тот же несколько иной стиль, не похожий на остальные части. Но это куда лучше той же серой тройки. И разнообразию позавидует любой иной Сэм.
9 часов кампании, которая, к слову, до сих пор работает в онлайн-кооперативе, хоть и с редкими вылетами, были крайне увлекательными. Настройки совместной игры тут, как и в любой другой части Сэма, крайне подробные. Разработчики явно добавляли кооператив не для галочки, а серьёзно (seriously) отнеслись к данной опции, что заслуживает отдельных похвал.
Я считаю, что вторая часть — суперский сиквел, который даёт взглянуть на серию под новым углом и знатно угарнуть в компании с друзьями. Однозначно советую! Жаль лишь, что нет локального кооператива
Последняя часть основной серии, пройденная мной. Первый раз запустил в далёком 2017-ом и вышел спустя минут 5. Всё казалось каким-то мультяшным и скучным. Да и отношение к серии на тот момент у меня было крайне негативное. Сейчас же считаю её крутой и заслуживающей внимания.
Serious Sam в первую очередь фановая игра. К тому же, кооперативная. Не нужно искать в ней чего-то глубинного и шедеврального. Сами разработчики иронизируют над собой и игрой в катсценах. Так зачем же нам быть такими строгими к игре? Выносите полчища негодяев и кайфуйте.
Как-то раз в 2022-ом решил ни с того ни с сего запустить от нечего делать второго Сэма на полчаса. И это были незабываемые полчаса. Зашёл в сеанс к двум ребятам, проходившим сюжет. Меня удивило разнообразие пушек, врагов, визуал, который спустя почти два десятилетия радует глаз. И тогда окончательно понял: игра стоит свеч. Да, многие фанаты не любят её за тот же несколько иной стиль, не похожий на остальные части. Но это куда лучше той же серой тройки. И разнообразию позавидует любой иной Сэм.
9 часов кампании, которая, к слову, до сих пор работает в онлайн-кооперативе, хоть и с редкими вылетами, были крайне увлекательными. Настройки совместной игры тут, как и в любой другой части Сэма, крайне подробные. Разработчики явно добавляли кооператив не для галочки, а серьёзно (seriously) отнеслись к данной опции, что заслуживает отдельных похвал.
Я считаю, что вторая часть — суперский сиквел, который даёт взглянуть на серию под новым углом и знатно угарнуть в компании с друзьями. Однозначно советую! Жаль лишь, что нет локального кооператива
you can feel the 2005 in this game.