Game Review #4: Serious Sam-The second encounter

Sometimes when you're at home you may get angry at someone or something and just want to take your anger out on a bunch of jackasses.  Of course this would get your ass arrested really quick if you did it to real people in the street so I suggest playing Serious Sam-The Second Encounter.  The reason why I say that about the game is that it is not only fun, funny and offering many ways to explore but it chucks you into so many huge battles with enemies that outnumber you many times over that you can't help but be relaxed by the carnage you can create.

Unlike with the plots of all the games and films I've reviewed so far, I can't really say much about the plot of this game.  It's hinted at quite a few times, explained somewhat in the beginning video and hinted at some more through the enemies you face.  But the plot isn't important in this game.  What's really important is getting your weapons, walking out into rolling fields and then facing off against regiments of enemies all at once in a mad display of carnage and pure fun.  The extent of the plot that I did understand was that Serious Sam is humanity's finest soldier and he is being sent through different time periods to do something to some guy who is mentioned through out the game like 2 or 3 times.  The main bad guy has no option than to send wave after wave of demons, headless assault troops, biological walkers with fish-looking heads, chain-gun wielding giant scorpions and leaping bull-like skeleton creatures to grind Sam into meaty dust.

Overall there are only 6 settings over the course of the 4 time periods in the campaign: ancient Egypt, ancient Babylonia, medieval Poland, an underground lava cavern, abandoned ancient cities in the Amazon and snowy mountain towns. Despite there only being so few environments you always feel like you've stepped into a totally different world each time you complete a handful of levels and that's really the way the setting in a 1st person shooter should be.  One slightly annoying thing about the settings in this game however is that no matter which time period or location you are in, the enemies are always the same, "sigh".  But I am however prepared to overlook that because like  I said: the environments are nicely balanced and the enemies and bosses are as fun as a bag of drunk parrots.

The weapons in the game are somewhat similar to what you'd find in any other adventure/1st person shooting game but the variety of weaponry you get is fun nonetheless.  All in all you get; dual revolvers, a combat knife,  a pump shotgun, a double-barrelled shotgun, a sub-machine gun, a mini gun, a chainsaw, a laser chain-gun, a sniper rifle, a flame-thrower, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, a ridiculously over-powered cannon that fires rolling cannon balls and of course, a hand-bomb that if you detonate it kills EVERY enemy in the room.  These weapons don't have a massive deal of variety between them and the enemies always come at you in big waves and ambushes but the enemies are varied and the weapons fun enough so that this problem is pretty easy to overlook.

Like with the legions of grunts and such that you face in big battles, the bosses that regularly pop up are also uber-enjoyable.  They can range from 65-foot tall demons that unleash volleys of miniature suns to experimental bio-titans that dwell in dungeons and have laser beams blasting from their shoulders.  With some bosses you can only use certain weapons, for example: with the Mayan wind god that you face off against at the end of the south american time period you can only use explosives which forces you to really conserve your ammunition.

And that's all I can and will say about Serious Sam-The Second Encounter.  Partly because I want you all to see for yourselves how good it is and also because it is such a simple game. It's just you (a wise-cracking muscle-head in a white T-shirt and jeans) with a hoard of weapons facing against legions of varying enemies.  definitely get this game people because by the laws of gaming I have found that it is bad-ass.