Released in 2005, Serious Sam II is an FPS, specifically of the “boomer shooter” variety. A strange and bizarre game even by Serious Sam standards, it is also my favourite in the series.
At this point, Serious Sam is now the spiritual successor of Duke Nukem 3D. Or, as others put it, Croatian Doom. But Serious Sam II is more over-the-top for either Duke Nukem or Doom – and that’s quite an accomplishment!
In this game, you have to collect medallions from different planets in order to defeat the super villain Mental. But quite honestly, the story isn’t important. This is all about the destruction!
Back in 2007, I originally encountered Serious Sam II when a roommate of mine wanted to show off his media PC (as we were calling them back then) on his new-fangled 1080P TV. My roommate always commented on how beautiful the grass and textures looked. Working for Xbox customer support at the time, I suggested that we invest in Xbox controllers for the PC – and we went nuts in multiplayer.
To understand Serious Sam II, it’s essential to know that this is an arcade shooter in the truest sense of the word. I don’t mean in the sense of video game cabinets. I mean in the sense of those shooting gallery games you played with actual physical guns at carnivals.
Except in Serious Sam II’s case, you get more guns. And what you’re shooting shoots back. And it all seems like a fever dream.
Explaining the controls seems silly. This is a typical FPS, and controls like one. The new mechanic that devs added to the series was vehicles, and that’s not all that unique. Vehicles were available in the original Halo.
What is unique are the visuals. At a time when games, especially of the FPS variety, were “gritty”, “realistic”, and (shudder) brown, Serious Sam II eschewed all that and went with shocking and bright colour.
To look at Serious Sam II is to think you’re watching a Saturday Morning cartoon while on LSD – and the hallucinations get violent!
The enemies are ridiculous. For example, zombie stockbrokers. How many games have enemies like that?
Even more bizarre are the worlds you visit. There’s an Elvis planet. That’s right, a planet that is all about Elvis – and you must help them out.
Everything is a wild technocolour swirl with fantastic and unusual stuff that I have to wonder what drugs the devs used to imagine this stuff. Seriously, which drugs?
But in all honestly, I think the visuals have held up. If you asked me which game I’d rather look at, Call of Duty or Serious Sam II, I’d pick Serious Sam II. Even now, it looks beautiful.
The sound is also incredible. Sam’s quips are always welcome, the sound effects are fun, and what a soundtrack! Composed by Damjan Mravunac, the music is lush with an emphasis on percussion.
Almost all modern PCs can run Serious Sam II. You need a 1.5Ghz single core CPU, 256MB RAM, almost any 3D accelerator, and 3GB RAM. While this was only made natively for Windows, Linux runs it fine mostly fine via Proton. There are some hiccups with the cut scenes, but the game play itself works well. On a Stream Deck this is perfectly playable though I suggest tweaking the controls.
In addition to PC, was also released for the original Xbox. No further ports were made.
Croteam, from Croatia, made Serious Sam II along with most games in the series. And while Serious Sam is considered low brow by many, they also developed the very cerebral first person puzzle game The Talos Principle – which I’ve reviewed previously.
Serious Sam has an 89% approval rating on Steam. Even though certain YouTubers seem to hate it, it seems that most people who actually own Serious Sam II love it. There are some detractors, with many decrying the lack of story and the many enemies that come at you.
But, in my opinion, complaining about Serious Sam II’s lack of heavy narrative is kind of like complaining that the game of tennis lacks a heavy narrative. It’s missing the point of what the game is fundamentally designed to deliver: fast-paced action and unrelenting challenges, not an intricate storyline.
In fact, the reason Serious Sam is generally popular is because it throws dirt at the notion that an FPS should be, well, serious. It’s a silly, frivolous game that’s really just about destruction and mayhem.
It has been quite influential, though. Dare I say it, some of Serious Sam II’s fantastical elements were later found in the 2013 reboot of Shadow Warrior. Or really, any game published by Devolver Digital.
If you enjoy FPS games, I think Serious Sam II is a must-play. It’s a classic, even if a bit of a hidden gem.
