Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: November 17, 2005

Back in 2001, a small East European company named Croteam shocked the computer gaming world by releasing the original Serious Sam, an irreverent and whimsical first-person shooter that broke all the existing rules. Worrying little about story and never taking itself too seriously, this old school title involved hordes of over-the-top enemies attacking you in a nonstop fashion. Received warmly by critics and consumers alike, a sequel — Serious Sam: The Second Encounter — quickly emerged around a year later. Now, after waiting over three years, we have a significantly advanced third installment in the form of Serious Sam II. Can this release succeed among today’s hyper-sophisticated gamers?

The story in Serious Sam II is as usual little more than window dressing. You again face the arch-villain Mental from the planet Sirius, and he has stronger and more multitudinous minions than ever to do his bidding. To defeat Mental, the hero Sam Stone has to find his way to several distinctive worlds, collecting five pieces of a special medallion of power in the process, and then return to Sirius for an ultimate confrontation against evil. While you are traveling, you meet local denizens in each world, many of whom look like transplanted smurfs. At no point during the frenzied fighting do you think a lot about plot development.

The worlds in Serious Sam II are both diverse and fascinating. While the architecture and design of the first world, mixing South American and Egyptian motifs, looks a lot like that in the earlier installments in the series, the later worlds do not. The swamp world Magnor is wonderful second environment. Later you visit an oriental world, a world filled with lava, and a fairyland world with my very favorite area called Floterra. Some areas have you pressing on through various passages, while others have you clearing an area of an infestation of creatures. After you finish collecting the medallion pieces, the fun is not over, as you still get to visit Kronos and ultimately Sirius itself.

One tradition the Serious Sam franchise has always maintained is the appearance of great monsters, and this latest release does not disappoint. The huge range of foes is really impressive, from giant spiders to evil clowns to headless bombers to rampaging rhinoceroses. Each has its own style of attack, although none are very sophisticated. Some, such as those that look like a tyrannosaurus rex with a Christmas cap on, are very silly in appearance; and having some be explicitly wind-up foes adds to the sense of whimsy. My favorite enemies are the football orcs who charge at you with incredible ferocity and throw lethal footballs your way. The battles against the imposing bosses begin easy but then get more challenging, frequently requiring special tactics beyond just blowing them to smithereens while dodging their shots.