When I think of a frantic and massively chaotic FPS game I immediately think of Serious Sam. The game won accolades from the quick twitch gamers who wanted immediate action and didn\'t really want to wade through a storyline to get it. With the upcoming Serious Sam 2 release date fast approaching (October 10th), I can hear the twitchiest of gamers cracking their mouse-working hands and getting ready for the blood fest.
I\'ve had a chance to play through the demo on every difficulty level, and there are some negatives and positives and a few quirks that I found. The demo starts off with a crash landing into a statue of the Siriusopolis Uptown Mayor, Mr. Mental. From here on out the game play is really straightforward: kill everyone trying to kill you, and send the occasional flying parrot on a sneak/suicide run. This game really shines in the enemy department. As you progress up the difficulty ladder, the enemies become more intense and come at you in waves. There can be literally hundreds of demented killers gunning for you at once. Other than the increasing number of enemies as you advance into the harder difficulty levels, there is little noticeable increase in the enemy\'s strategic planning. They just keep rushing you in bigger and more overwhelming numbers.
The setting of the demo is in the futuristic ? and beautiful - city of Siriusopolis Uptown. There\'s giant vistas, domed skyscrapers, intricate forested rooftops, etc. I actually have a screenshot of the city as my desktop picture. Just about everything in this game is rendered and processed extremely well; however, with everything maxed and fine tuned at 1600x1200 resolution, the game really didn\'t give me the incredible wow effect that I\'ve had on some recent games, namely the F.E.A.R. demos. The game still looks incredible, but I kept noticing the sharp edges on characters and environments that I didn\'t expect to be there.
The demo is extremely fun to play, but it\'s not without quirks. For example, the lasers on the dual revolver pistols actually don\'t project a red dot on the target or surrounding environments. On the other hand, there are some incentives to replay: I was able to get all the available weapons right from the start by continuing a saved game profile that was already beaten. This is a cool spiff, and it was fun to play through the demo again by laying down a constant spray with the multi-barreled Gatling gun and snipe the living daylights out of the little grunts.
When Serious Sam 2 comes out there will be many features and advancements over the older version: better graphics, support for hundreds of enemies in expansive levels, an advanced editing tool, 16 player co-op mode, ability to ride in vehicles and on animals ? like the Velociraptor Vulgaris - and an expanded arsenal. The multiplayer was also tremendously fun when I was able to get it working. This game might not be getting the hype that it really deserves with the upcoming releases of Quake 4, F.E.A.R, Call of Duty 2, and a new Far Cry, all clouding the media pathways. However, it\'s a good-looking game with a more engaging plot than the first Serious Sam title, and still has tons of enemies.
Serious Sam II Download Sites:1UP:
http://www.1up.com/do/download?cId=20133813D Gamers:
http://www.3dgamers.com/games/serioussam2/downloads/FileCloud:
http://www.filecloud.com/files/file.php?file_id=2104FilePlanet:
http://www.fileplanet.com/download.aspx?f=157037FileShack:
http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7691GameSpot:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/serioussam2/downloads.htmlGameZone:
http://downloads.gamezone.com/demos/d13658.htmWorthPlaying:
http://www.worthdownloading.com/game.php?gid=645nZone:
http://nzone.com/object/nzone_sam2_home.html