Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

Basically the second half of where the First Encounter stopped and actually manages to step up the action. The Leveldesign in particular got a massive overhaul with wonderfully designed huge valleys and make the levels feel even bigger and vast than in the First encounter. And just like the first encounter, you can play The Second Encounter either alone or finish it with a friend via co-op mode. Both Encounters basically belong together and should be seen as one single game in two episodes. A tribute to the 90s shareware 3D action titles with masses of enemies to mow down. This time also with a chainsaw. The nods and tributes to Doom are very obvious and just like the original Doom, it is still fun to play today if you want something lighthearted and colorful and just stupid fun. Fully recommended!

Serious Sam is the shooter I've always heard I must play. Hearing about it for years without seeing much footage from it, I never knew what it was. People seemed to describe it as the next Crysis, so what I eventually got was quite jarring. Because Serious Sam is a shooter where nothing matters. The levels don't matter, the enemy types don't matter, the plot doesn't matter. All you do is run & gun, being attacked by dozens of enemies at once. It is repetitive, not very imaginative, hardly fair, but surprisingly very enjoyable. The only problem I could find with Serious Sam is that having played one game, the following one in the series won't be as fun. There just isn't that initial thrill & surprise of being attacked by dozens of enemies of various types, seeing them coming from a mile away, and knowing you have no chance of stopping them all before they reach you. It's quite a ride trying not to get yourself killed. But the game being so repetitive, by the time I played my second Serious Sam game, The First Encounter, I was already ready for it. I knew where to stand, where the traps were likely located, where enemies will spawn, etc. Serious Sam works best as a first experience, and that is its biggest flaw. Play one level & you instantly know if you'll like this game. But play one level & you played 50% of the levels this game has to offer. Having dozens of enemies running in your direction means the game needs large open levels to make the game survivable. So no matter where the level takes place, a large part of it will be set in large open areas, regardless of how many buildings are around. And if you are in a closed environment, more often than not the game will take it easy on you, opting for cheap deaths & surprise traps to kill you - sending a few enemies your way at just the right moment to get you frustrated enough to want to re-start the level, rather than quit. Serious Sam is simply an arcade game, with all its benefits & detriments.

A good way to release stress.

Seriously, this game is one of the best games I've ever played! It's fast-paced, gory, violent, intense, and most importantly fun. Sam "Serious" Stone is a great protagonist. Similar to Duke Nukem but less vulgar but just as funny. Serious Sam has some of the most bizarre enemies too. The most iconic being the Beheaded Kamikazis. They are headless enemies that wield one explosive in each hand and scream the now iconic "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The game takes place in Ancient Egypt, but the levels don't get repetitive since they can take place in tombs, dunes, oasis, etc. it never feels too similar. The weapons are really fun to use (my favorite being the portable cannon ball launcher). Overall, this game is amazing, seriously.

... aaaaaaaand that's it. If you played and liked the first one, you'll love its sequel: more monsters, bigger levels (a little too big), more secrets, more ''serious'' humour (actually, this is where the saga will start adopting the funny easter eggs and its ''mental'' plot :)) and... more Sam! A little too ''more'', actually: there are imbalances with enemies number and way too death traps... but you can simply lower the difficulty and should be fine. That said, as one of the luckiest ( Croteam started from nothing, basically) and a true masterpiece among the arena shooter PVE, this is an easy yes! So, time to get ''serious'' >:)