Serious Sam: Second Encounter

by 2K Games

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005ULW9
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 7, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,353 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Sam Stone is back in an all-new adventure. Serious Sam: The Second Encounter features improved multiplayer, lush new South American locales, three new weapons, and seven new enemies, but the first-person shooter gameplay is exactly the same: madcap and intense. Once again, it's time to get serious.

Product Description

Sam is forced to battle his way towards Mental's fortress and put a stop once and for all to his plans of world domination. Included FREE with Serious Sam The Second Encounter, is the Seriously Warped Deathmatch 3.0.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A second helping of some serious fun, February 11, 2002

By 

Scott C. Smith (Happy Valley, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Serious Sam: Second Encounter (CD-ROM)

"Serious Sam: The First Encounter" was released less than a year ago, and was an immediate hit with critics and fans. Developed by an unknown team from Croatia, Croteam, "Serious Sam" offered fast-paced, Doomesque action, along with great visuals, all for under $20 bucks. Powered by the "Serious" game engine, "Serious Sam" was able to throw out huge numbers of enemies at the player, onscreen at the same time, without a decrease in system performance.

Sam "Serious" Stone is back in the sequel, "Serious Sam: The Second Encounter," and is better than the original. It looks great, too, using an enhanced version of the "Serious" engine. This time around, environments are varied and colorful; the original Sam featured desert environments that all looked essentially the same.

Gameplay remains the same: proceed through a level and destroy everything that moves. Various power-ups are provided, such as invulnerability and super-speed, which prove to be invaluable in some levels. There's not much thinking here, just blasting monsters into oblivion.

Sam ships with the standard multiplay deathmatch, but also features cooperative multiplayer, which allows you to join in with other players online to battle through each level. It's great fun, and at under $20, a great bargin.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cool shooter, December 28, 2001

By 

kirill lagountchik (palm coast, florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Serious Sam: Second Encounter (CD-ROM)

I played the Serious Sam: Second Encounter Demo. It includes Single Player, Multiplayer, and Co-op play. Single player seemed groundbreaking, same as the first Serious Sam, but with even bigger environments, more variety in enemies (the old ones make a return but look a lot netter - nicer textures, geometry, etc.), A LOT better graphics, and more weapons (but I was disappointed that they did not include the flamethrower, Sniper Rifle was a "serious addition" though).
The demo also featured a new array of power-ups, such as Serious Speed, Invincibility, and Serious Damage.

I was really amazed when I noticed the improvements in the Serious Engine. The game looks simply fantastic!! It is still as fast and furious as its predecessor, and still offers huge environments swarming with tons of enemies, but the graphics sure make one hell of a difference. Grass, trees, water, and buildings, and the sky look more realistic than ever, and the video options menu allows you to adjust everything, from raising the anisotropic filtering to 128 to adjusting your refresh rate of the monitor, you will find every graphic option there without even leaving the game. And did I mention that the models improved much? That's right, those low-polygon enemies had some major makeover. Sam also looks way better than he did before.

The soundtrack is pretty sweet too, suites the FPS genre and the particular setting in the game perfectly, the music changes into a faster tempo when Sam faces any baddies and gradually gets softer when they are gone. The music is a mix of techno and the Aztec drumbeat, just like the first one was the mix of techno and the Egyptian music.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the singleplayer, especially the part where you get to the Jaguar Valley - an open ended valley, probably the biggest environment in any FPS on the market, it's area seems even bigger than any level in Halo. There you will really get a feel of the freedom that Serious Sam 2 offers. I did not see any slow-downs or lag throughout the whole demo in single player while it was set to quality; my average framerate was 60fps - very nice. I have a P4 1.4 GHz, 512 Megs of RAM, and a Geforce 3.

I highly recommend downloading the demo of SS: SE... It will justify buying it, believe me. The gameplay is same as the first Serious Sam or as any old-school shooter (Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein 3D, etc.) Any FPS fans gotta love it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The original....WAY IMPROVED!, April 13, 2002

By 

"ms_maul" (Walnut Creek, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Serious Sam: Second Encounter (CD-ROM)

I'm gonna say right off I have only one flaw with this game, and that's that the weapon sounds are a bit undesirable. They could just have a bit more..umph?

The reason why is that this game is WAAAAAY over-the-top. IT's supposed to be. That's what makes it so much fun. And really really funny in places. Of course, what's a really-way-over-the-top game without some really-way-over-exaggerated weapon sounds?!

I'll also tell you straight off there's a secret with a reference to Duke Nukem Forever, and I almost DIED when I finally got the joke.

People have been reviewing this game saying that it's nothing but mindless shooting. I say that's not true. While there is TONS of shooting involved, sucessfully defeating the 'waves' takes some strategy. For instance, there are these bone-horse things that gallop at you in a line. The only way to defeat them is to stand back and fire something at them (I reccommend the flamethrower on these things), so you have to choose a spot making sure you can back up without running into a wall (because you are totally [out of it] if this happens. It happened to me, and EVERYTHING just corners you).

Then there's also decisions about what to shoot first. Sometimes the game is gonna be throwing HUGE waves at you. You're gonna have to decide who's gonna come down first. If you take out the horsey thingies and the bigger, tougher monsters are too close, you're gonna die. If you take out the bigger, tougher monsters and the horsey thingies are too close, if you don't have space to start backing up, you're gonna die. Personally I think playing this game more easily and not dying is all in having a good shooting strategy.

And then, this game isn't all shooting. There are a few interesting puzzles. And when one of those pills appear, you already start snickering and save before picking it up, cause you know something extremely bizarre is about to happen.

And then: This game is FUNNY. Get that in your mind. FUNNY, FUNNY, FUNNY. IF you don't think it's funny, go stand in a field while the headless dudes with bombs on their hands run towards you yelling "Aaaaaarrgghhh!!!" without laughing. Then, even fighting the waves is pretty funny for a while. It's like, "Oh my god! What the [heck] were these game developers thinking??!!? AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRGGHGHHHH!!!1"

This game also has plenty of secrets. For example, one of them spawns a *BLEEEP! Censored! Otherwise the secret will [stink] and you will scream "I WANT REFUND".* which is really funny.

Then, the levels are truly amazing. They're huge. You don't think huge? THINK BIG. Like, really big. Without fog. Buildings all over. Like, so big it takes you 20 minutes to walk around one area. Just ONE. Weapons and monsters all over the place!

And not once does it lag.

If you think this game is mindless shooting, think again. Get Serious Sam for the serious fun and lose some sleep.