Serious Sam II

Serious Sam II (or Serious Sam 2) is a science fiction first-person shooter video game released for the PC and Xbox and the sequel to the 2001 computer game Serious Sam. It was designed and developed by Croteam and was released on October 11, 2005. The game was published by 2K Games, a Take-Two Interactive subsidiary. While the game was originally released only for Windows and the Xbox, a Linux version of the game client and the game's content editor, Serious Editor 2, was later released and is in beta.

In the single-player campaign, the player assumes the role of hero Sam "Serious" Stone in his adventures against the forces of the extraterrestrial overlord, "Mental", who seeks to destroy humanity. Taking place after the events of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Sam travels through various different worlds collecting parts of a medallion in an effort to defeat Mental. He is guided by the Sirian Great Council and receives sporadic aid from the natives of the worlds he visits. The multiplayer mode includes online co-op and deathmatch, the latter having been introduced in a patch. A 4.5/5.0 was awarded to Serious Sam  by Computer Gaming World, though overall the game received moderate praise from the media, earning an average of 75% on Game Rankings.

Croteam simultaneously developed Serious Engine 2, the successor to their previous game engine, Serious Engine, for use in the game, and the engine is capable of many features of other advanced game engines of the time including high dynamic range rendering and light bloom. The engine supports integration with both Xfire and GameSpy Arcade for multiplayer match finding. Serious Sam II is the only game so far to use the proprietary engine, though the Serious Engine II is available for licensing.

Gameplay
Serious Sam II's gameplay consists almost entirely of the player attempting to defeat hundreds of enemies at a time, and thus is relatively simple. More complicated gameplay mechanics that are often found in other games, such as jumping puzzles, are rare, and when encountered they are fairly simple, usually requiring the player to locate objects in order to unlock doors or advance to the next level. While Serious Sam for Xbox introduced a "lives system" to the series, the game was the first PC game in the series to implement this. The player begins with a certain number of lives that represent the number of times the player is allowed to lose all of his health and re-spawn immediately from the last saved checkpoint. While the simplistic gameplay is similar to that of the previous games in the Serious Sam series, the lives system is radically different from the original games in the series, in which the player is able to resume from checkpoints or saved games an infinite number of times.

Player-controlled vehicles and turrets were introduced to the series in Serious Sam II, and examples include rocket launcher, machine gun, and laser turrets as well as hover bikes and hover saucers. Blood and gore effects have been improved relative to the previous games, and all enemies other than bosses can be gibbed. Living foes can disintegrate into blood and bloody bits, undead entities, excluding Kleer Skeletons, can be reduced to decaying bits and pus, while magical creatures' destruction is marked with sparkle effects and purple gases.

Different chapters feature native "chapter specific" enemies; for example the Kleer World features Flying Kleers and the Oriental setting of Chi Fang features Martial Arts Zombies. Power-ups are scattered throughout the game and can be obtained by destroying certain objects. The player is able to pick up certain objects and manipulate them in a manner similar to the effects of the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2, though without the necessity of an external device.

A prominent feature in the previous Serious Sam games was cooperative gameplay, in which multiple players could play the single-player campaign together. Serious Sam II focused on this game mode even more than its predecessors, as it was the only multiplayer mode to be included when the game was released, although deathmatch was later added in a patch. The PC version allows up to sixteen people to play together, while the Xbox version allows four players, either via Xbox systemlink or Xbox Live. Unlike the previous games, Serious Sam II does not support split-screen gameplay on the PC nor the Xbox.

Weapons
Weapons in Serious Sam II were largely remodeled versions of the weapons found in the previous games in the Serious Sam series. Most of the weapons from the previous games returned, such as the rocket launcher, grenade launcher, 12-gauge double-barrel sawed-off shotgun and a sniper rifle. The minigun, a staple of the series, also makes a return, and is a weapon of particular significance as it was featured prominently on the cover of the box for many of the previous Serious Sam games. The Serious Bomb also made a return, maintaining its status as the most powerful weapon in the game by being able to eliminate every enemy on the screen. The Serious Bomb is described as a "miniature big bang" and as "Instant Death With a Smile," and the player is only able to carry a maximum of three due to their size. Protecting the player from the immense power of the Serious Bomb is a "Life-Preserving-Quantum-Field(TM)."

Serious Sam II introduced new weapons to the series, including "Clawdovic Cacadoos Vulgaris," a parrot clutching a bomb in its talons that can fly to an enemy to eliminate it, and throwable hand grenades. In addition to dual revolvers, the game also includes an additional sidearm of a brand-new design. The "Hydro-Plasmatic Handgun" can fire small units of energy at a "decent rate of fire," and it can also be fired in a mode that allows the projectile to direct itself towards an enemy. Also introduced to the game are twin automatic Uzis possibly replacing the tommygun from the earlier games of the series).

Features
The game's story establishes the reasons and methods for how the player travels from chapter to chapter. This is a significant change from the previous games in the series in which the story existed merely to transport the player from place to place in order to kill as many enemies as possible in the process, with the plot consisting merely of messages that the player could disregard without consequence. Serious Sam II features the storyline more prominently, but still maintains the focus on killing as many enemies as possible. The game is also different from the original two encounters and spin-offs that it abandons time-traveling scenario and instead of ancient civilizations it features visiting different, often funny-looking planets.

The story is developed through the use of cut scenes, which are interspersed throughout the game, especially at the beginning and end of each planet.

There are seven bosses in the game, although the Xbox version has no final boss. Similar to the friendly NPCs, the bosses also correspond to different in-game settings, and vary from "Kwongo" the giant gorilla, a parody of King Kong, to "Cecil the Dragon," a massive fire breathing dragon.

Beside featuring nearly 42 types of enemies, the player will meet non-player characters (NPCs) throughout the game. There are five different groups of NPCs in the game: The Sirians, the Simbas, Zixies, Chi Che, and Elvians, each native to their respective planet. The different groups of NPCs help the player throughout the different settings of the game, with each group of NPC corresponding to a different setting in the game.

Plot
The game's story picks up shortly after the end of Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, with the hero of the series, Sam "Serious" Stone, continuing on his goal to defeat the series' nemesis, Mental. The game begins with Serious Sam being summoned before the Sirian Great Council, where the council asks Sam to defeat Mental and provides him with guidance on how to accomplish this feat. The council reveals to Sam that he must collect five pieces of an ancient medallion, each held by various groups on five different planets, and states that once Sam has the entire medallion, Mental will be vulnerable. All the planets (except Kleer) are populated by friendly, big headed humanoids. The problem is that all the planets are under Mental's control. Sam has to visit five planets in order to recreate the medallion.


 * M'Digbo (populated by Simbas) - M'Digbo is a tropical paradise that is spoiled by Mental's forces. Here, Sam recovers the first part of the medallion after he defeats his first major enemy, Kwongo.
 * Magnor (populated by Zixies) - The world of giant trees and objects makes Sam feel like a toy soldier... Here, Sam conquers the second part of the medallion after he defeats Zumzum.
 * ChiFang (populated by Chi Che) - This planet looks like a Chinese land and features many oriental stereotypes. The third part of medallion is received after Prince Chan is killed.
 * Kleer (populated by Kleers) - Kleer is a home planet of the skeletons from Kleer, the enemies heavily featured in the previous Serious Sam installments. Kleer is fiery planet filled with lava. Its inhabitants are all undead Kleerians, and thus enemies. The fourth medallion part is taken from Kleerofski, the ruler of Kleer.
 * Ellenier (populated by Elvians) - Ellenier is fairy-tale based planet which features beautiful landscapes, towns and castles. The final part of the medallion is located here. Sam acquires it by defeating Cecil.

With the medallion, Sam Stone is ready to begin the final assault against the greatest enemy of humanity, Notorious Mental, who is located on Sirius, once the planet of great civilization that visited Earth many times, now - the lair of Mental. But in order to gain access to Sirius, Sam is asked to storm Kronor, a moon orbiting Sirius that has a giant weapon which could be used to remove Sirius' protecting field. And so, Sam's journey continues.


 * Kronor - Frozen moon where many of Mental's base and forces are located. Here, Sam has not only to conquer the enemy's base and remove the protection field of Sirius, but also to help various people from the planets he visited, who are being held here as prisoners. Serious Sam wins the battle for Kronor after he crushes Hugo, a massive robot dispatched by Mental.
 * Sirius (populated by Sirians, but now is Mental's main headquarters) - Sirius is the home planet of once great civilization. The traces of Sirians were seen many times by Sam in Earth's past. However, the time of Sirius' glory is over, as Mental took over the planet. Sirius is high-tech planet full of skyscrapers, energy fields and other stereotypical science fiction scenery. Here, Sam's final battle against Mental forces take place. However, when Sam makes his way to Mental's heavily protected HQ, the Mental Institution, he has to protect himself from the building itself, which is revealed to be quite powerful adversary.

In the ending, Sam ventures into the Mental Institution and enters Mental's throne room. The lights are off and while Mental tried to reveal that he is Sam's father the hero didn't listen and started to shoot. Soon, the light is back, and it's revealed that Mental is not here and it was just a speaker attached to Mental's throne. The credits starts after that, and the player hears a dialogue of two people discussing how big Mental's boss fight could be.

Bosses

 * Kwongo - Giant gorilla similar to King Kong in appearance. Kwongo is the terror of M'Digbo's people and Mental's main enforcer on the planet. Simbas, the people of the planet, helps Serious Sam to put down the beast using a catapult.
 * Zumzum - Giant bee that serves as Mental's main henchman on planet Magnor. Sam fights Zumzum near giant flowers.
 * Prince Chan - Mental's pawn dictator on planet ChiFang, Prince Chan is a giant, sharp-teethed, sumo-like, childish idiot that enjoys eating the planet's population. He hates loud sounds (like that of a gong), a weakness that Sam uses to his advantage.
 * Kleerofski - The necromancer and ruler of planet Kleer, which is populated by undead Kleerians. Kleerofski is a giant Kleerian in mage-like clothes.
 * Cecil - The most dangerous creature of Ellenier, Cecil is a fairy-tale dragon. He is of purple color and very emotional. He is the only enemy that surrenders to Sam and who is not killed by him.
 * Hugo - The giant, toy-like battle robot which is dispatched by Mental to stop Serious Sam on Kronor. His name and his status as the game's boss is a nod towards Hugo Boss.
 * Mental Institution (not featured in Xbox version) - Pyramid-like building and Mental's HQ. It is armed with powerful weapons and is actually very mobile. To crush this last bastion of enemy forces, Sam uses a vehicle. In order to stop the building's enemy potential, its Power Core, that sometimes become visible, should be destroyed.

Development
Development of Serious Sam II began in mid-2003 with the decision to create the game on a new engine. Croteam planned to release the game in the second quarter of 2004, but this was later pushed to the second half of 2004 and finally to fall 2005. For a period of time, Croteam posted weekly updates, but these became bi-monthly, then monthly, and then stopped completely after August 2004, as 2K Games, Croteam's publisher, wanted to handle the release of information from that point forward. In April 2005, the game was officially announced by 2K Games, at which point the release date was set as Fall 2005.

Shortly following the game's official announcement, Serious Sam II was featured as the cover story for the June 2005 issue of Computer Games Magazine, and was later showcased at E3 in May 2005. Shown at the E3 Expo was the official trailer for the game, and an early build of the game was playable on the show floor. A result of the E3 presentation was a 30 minute video preview of the game featuring gameplay footage while a question and answer session took place between fansite Seriously! owner and director Jason Rodzik and Fernando Melo, the game's producer. In the time following the game's official announcement, 2K Games released a steady trickle of screenshots showcasing the vibrant colors and wide-open spaces that characterized the previous games and helping to build up hype as the game neared release. A demo of the PC version was released on September 21, 2005, and a second demo was released on October 17, 2005.

On October 11, 2005, Serious Sam II was released for PC and Xbox, and a patch for the game was released the day before, bringing it up to version 2.064b. Croteam stated that a substantial list of features were cut due to time constraints.

Serious Engine 2, the game engine for Serious Sam II was developed alongside the development of the game itself, and was a brand new revision of Croteam's prior Serious Engine that was used for their previous games, such as Serious Sam: The First Encounter. The more advanced features of the engine include detailed refraction effects, high-resolution textures, high-dynamic range lighting, and light bloom effects.

Release patches
On December 16, 2005, two months after the game's release, Croteam released a patch to bring the game up to version 2.066. The most significant change to the game with the patch was the addition of a dedicated server for the game, although the patch included various bug fixes. On March 6, 2006, Croteam released their second patch, adding deathmatch support to the game. The most recent patch for the game was version 2.070 which was released on April 24, 2006. The patch fixed minor bugs and included Serious Editor 2, the content editor for Serious Engine 2, the game engine used in Serious Sam II. A beta version of the linux client for the game was released on October 26, 2006, and an updated version was released on November 6, 2006. loki installers for linux gamers provides several Linux installers for Serious Sam II based on the beta code.

Level editor
Croteam developed their own level editor, Serious Editor 2, and used it for the development of Serious Sam II. The editor has significantly more features than the original Serious Editor that was used for the previous Serious Sam games. Serious Editor 2 allows geometry to be imported and exported to and from third-party 3D programs, such as 3D Studio Max, via an intermediate file format, thus allowing for plugins to be easily created for any 3D modeling program. Two methods of creating particle systems exist in the editor, and they can be created either as procedural particle systems or emitter systems. The editor also features its own interpreted language, similar to C++, which allows for relatively simple mod programming, and a script editor and debugger, enabling the level designer to control gameplay events more directly.

In addition to the standard level editor, there is also a mechanism editor for physics and collision setup, an animation editor for modifying camera paths and animation of objects, a skeleton editor for configuring the skeletal structures of characters, a destruction editor, mesh editor, model editor, and font editor.

One of the most significant and more distinctive features of Serious Editor 2's level editor is that it allows for real-time editing. The level design process for most games often requires the level to be modified in the editor, compiled, saved, and then loaded separately in the game where it can be tested. However, Serious Editor 2 allows for levels to be played and tested within the editor without requiring compilation. While playing the level within the editor, the level designer can directly switch to editing mode, make the desired modifications, and then continue playing, greatly simplifying the final stages of level editing.

Reception
Unlike its predecessors, Serious Sam: The First Encounter and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, the first of which was awarded GameSpot's PC Game of the Year in 2001, Serious Sam II received less praising reviews. The game's average review is a 75% according to Game Rankings. Its highest mark by mainstream media was a 4.5/5.0 from Computer Gaming World, though most reviews were in the 70% or 80% range. Other notable reviews include GamePro rating it 4/5 and GameSpy giving it a 3.5/5 (Good). IGN awarded Serious Sam II an 8.2/10, summing up the sentiments of many of other publications' reviews:

Like its predecessor Serious Sam II caters to a very specific taste. Fans of old school action games that focus exclusively on shooting down wave after wave of enemies will definitely find that this game delivers. Still, the endless fragfest that is Serious Sam II occasionally runs the risk of becoming monotonous. What saves the title is the endless variety of enemies that come your way and the intense challenge that they offer. Throw in an engine that can handle it all with ease and a unique, colorful visual style and it's the perfect game for twitch-happy action junkies.

One of the main criticisms of the game was that it was a lot less "serious" and a lot more "cartoony" than The First Encounter and The Second Encounter. An over-emphasis on reflective surfaces and oddly out of place pixel shading were perceived as being more about showing off the capabilities of the engine than about defining the atmosphere of the game. Lighter colors and a more upbeat soundtrack made the game feel less grounded in reality, contrary to the realistic Egyptian tombs and Mayan pyramids of the earlier games, and players complained that while the weapons of the previous games seemed to be massive and powerful, those in Serious Sam II were less so.