Both on the PC and the Xbox, when large numbers of enemies clutter the screen, the frame rate noticeably bogs down, which hurts the experience. By comparison, the levels in Serious Sam II seem smaller, and so do the enemy counts (or at least these factors don't stand out like they used to). The original Serious Sam boasted a 3D graphics engine that could render incredibly huge levels packed with incredibly large numbers of enemies.

But mostly you'll just shoot and shoot and shoot as enemies pour in from all around you, attacking from the ground and from the sky, either hanging back and firing at you or rushing right toward you-sometimes using a combination of the two. Along the way, you'll find a variety of big guns, grab lots of health, armor, and ammo power-ups, and probably discover some amusing secret areas. And to do that, he'll need to run from point A to point B through nearly two-dozen levels, stopping frequently to gun down literally hundreds of foes. To do this, he'll need to travel to different worlds to collect medallion pieces from their oppressors. 'Serious' Sam Stone, casually dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, has been summoned to rid the universe of Mental and his nefarious forces. Sam is back in Serious Sam II, and this time he'll have to shoot his way through a whole bunch of levels filled with lots of enemies.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Serious Sam II has a lot of levels and a few good laughs, but its simple shooting action is less likely to get your adrenaline pumping as it is to make you go numb. The bad news is something's been lost in translation, perhaps due to the passing of time or due to the new 3D graphics engine, or-more likely-because of a combination of each.

The good news is that this is Serious Sam all right, packing in all the silly humor and massive shooting-gallery-style levels you'd expect from the previous games. Serious Sam has made appearances a handful of other times since then, but only now has a full-fledged sequel finally arrived. The game delivered fantastic-looking, incredibly intense first-person-shooting action without any of the genre's pretenses of grandiose storytelling, all with its own unique style and for a bargain price of $20 at that. When Serious Sam: The First Encounter quietly appeared in 2001, it was a real breath of fresh air.

Serious sam 2 wallpaper