Serious Sam II

I originally skipped "Serious Sam 2" because its cartoonish visual style completely put me off. After the more appealing look of the first game, this direction felt like a step away from what I wanted from the series. Later I played "Serious Sam 3", and that one disappointed me for a different reason: it felt less arcade-like. Now that I have finally played the second game, I can say pretty clearly what I think about it. Visually, I do not like this game at all. The art style just does not work for me, and I am glad the later entries moved away from it. The weapon and enemy design also feels weaker than in the first game. Some enemies seem unnecessary altogether. For example, I still do not understand why the headless kamikazes needed exploding clown variants that serve basically the same purpose. There is also more story here, but to me that is more of a drawback than a benefit. It is not good enough to be genuinely interesting, and not ridiculous enough to become entertaining in a so-bad-it-is-good way. That said, "Serious Sam 2" still has some major strengths. Most importantly, it keeps the same fast, arcade-style energy that made the first game so enjoyable. It is still a lot of fun to charge forward and cause absolute chaos. The ability to wield two different weapons at once is a great addition and easily one of the highlights. The arenas are also more varied, since Sam travels across different planets. There are vehicles too, including some wonderfully weird ones like the spiked rolling ball you can use to ram enemies. I also liked that the campaign occasionally introduces extra mechanics to shake things up. On the winter planet, for example, you have to look for heat sources or Sam starts freezing and losing health. There are also sections with timed arena runs and other small twists that add variety to the usual formula. For such a straightforward series, this works surprisingly well. Another nice touch is the physics system. It is simple, but it gives you room to mess around and entertain yourself, and sometimes the game even rewards that with secrets. Unfortunately, not every idea tied to this system works well. Some secrets require you to stack boxes into a makeshift staircase to reach higher places, and that quickly becomes annoying. The boxes refuse to stay in place, slide around, and fly off in different directions, turning what should have been a fun little puzzle into a clumsy chore. In the end, I still think the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. Yes, I really dislike the visual style, and I find the enemy and weapon design weaker than in the first game. But in terms of pure gameplay, this is still a lively, varied, and properly arcade-style "Serious Sam". If it had the visual style of the first game, it might have ended up being my favorite entry in the whole series.