They'll give you health, ammunition, and sometimes even weapons. However, there's a whole new generation of bizarre creatures, and the list is as diverse as it is surreal: hulking idiot barbarians with battle-axes, massive orcs in football gear, half-track devils with rocket launchers for arms, witches on broomsticks and hovering cauldrons, giant mechanical spiders, cigar-chewing tyrannosaur mecha, attack helicopters, kung-fu zombies and even undead stockbrokers.Įach planet consists of several levels capped off with an end-boss encounter, and at least four of these planets have natives that will help you if you protect them. Some of the old classics have returned with a few tweaks, like the Kleer skeleton beings (they can fly now!), the screaming suicide-bombers (they have big bombs for heads now!), and the charging bulls (they're clockwork wind-up automatons now!). Like before, the opposition consists of oppressed races that Mental has forced into militaristic servitude. All that remains is body parts, pulp, and the echo of your laughter. These come in all manner of shapes, from fire-breathing dinosaurs to hover-saucers (straight out of '50s pulp UFO novellas), right down to my personal favorite, the armor-piercing hamster-ball! There's just something intensely satisfying about hopping inside a massive glass globe with big metal pikes sticking out of it and bowling over all who don't get out of the way in time. The turrets are fun, but not nearly as flashy as the vehicles. So far, I've only discovered a twin-barreled Vulcan gun and a plasma cannon that looks almost identical to the Vulcan. The turrets are stationary platforms of annihilation, and hopping into one is just a slight break in the action as you get your "shooting gallery" on. There's more than just guns this time through you get vehicles and weapon turrets, too. There is a much stronger sense of science fiction to Serious Sam 2, and as a big cyberpunk nerd, I'm okay with that. Well, perhaps not the explosive bird - that's just green and feathery. Polly wanna H-bomb? Each weapon has been lovingly imagined/re-imagined in a gleaming, futuristic new form. A total of 15 different munitions will be placed at your disposal, everything from classic stand-bys like the shotgun and the mini-gun all the way through to oddly exotic destruction-delivery systems like the homing parrot. There are more weapons by far in Serious Sam 2 than the first game and its expansion combined. Of course, you won't be just punching your way through the galaxy. Congratulations to Croteam for including this basic fact of life in their FPS! As it is in real life, behind every tough guy is the brains of a powerful woman. All this time, who knew? "Nettie" will give you hints as to where to go and what to do. It's been given an upgrade, can speak to you now, and happens to be a blue-skinned female. See new and interesting places, kill new and interesting enemies! What more could a macho guy in blue jeans and a t-shirt ask for? How about an upgrade to his neural interface? If you played the first game, you'll recall Netrisca, the artificial intelligence implant chip that helped Sam along his travels. The stage is set: go and wade through an astonishing number of mobs intent on stopping you from collecting these medallion shards. Each piece is on a different planet, either on the hands of the natives or in the hands of powerful acolytes of Mental (read as: end bosses). The council lisps their way through a plan for Sam to follow: collect five pieces of a medallion that can disrupt the invulnerability of Mental. Wouldn't you know it, but that just happens to be Mental, the same antagonist Sam was pursuing the first time around. They think Sam is "the One," prophesized to defeat the supreme naughtiness in the universe. They teleport Sam into their little slice of empty space and introduce themselves as the Sirian Council. The beginning of Serious Sam 2 sees three diminutive aliens dressed in Star Trek ensign uniforms (Trekkies, please don't kill me if I have that designation wrong) in a nebulous void standing on front of a massive viewscreen, observing our hero kicking gluteus maximus. With that in mind, my expectations have been extremely high for the sequel to 2001's sleeper hit. The over-the-top absurdity was just too funny not to enjoy, and those hours of ridiculous cartoon violence stand as my personal high-water mark for multiplayer fun. When I think of the good times I've had at LAN parties, the most intense experience I can recall was playing an eight-man (eight person - there was a woman amongst the combatants) run-through of Serious Sam and its expansion, The Second Encounter. "We can do this the hard way, or my way… They're basically the same thing." -Sam "Serious" Stone
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