Serious Sam 2 - is it any good after the (less than good) demo? 56k warning!

Zardon

Ok most of you will probably feel the way I did after playing the Serious Sam 2 demo. A little unhappy with how it looked and the performance we were getting. Now most of you will also know SS2 isnt a groundbreakingly creative game, its just a fun FPS in Duke Nukem style... that being "wipe everything out and move on".

Well after firing up the full game today on the following system (my shuttle).

P4 @ 4ghz
Asus 7800GTX @ 500/1300 (81.84)
2 gig OCZ 4000
Dell 2405


I have to honestly say ive been very impressed with not only performance but just how fun the game actually is. It also makes me wonder how on earth the demo was released in the state it was. not only was it sluggish it was a level hardly showing the game in its true colours. I can run the game at 1920x1200 (no AA but native resolution supported) everything at full and get around 40-70fps depending on the state of the firefights.

ill post a few pictures of the first level, ive been impressed with the lighting and the bump mapping, use of textures, especially on the dinosaur here. Im only on level 2 right now but there are some amazingly well detailed level designs to this point.

Necrosis

The game worked great for me at first. However, I'm a little further then you. It started doing this "twitching" thing. It's not stuttering really just in certain area's it will twitch almost like skip a frame or two. It appears this game may have problems /w dual core processors. One work around is the run the game in Win98 compat. mode. However, for me it likes to crash when I try to use that. Over all game is okay, but still fun. It actually reminds me more of Will Rock than it does the old Serious Sam.

swimtech

Saving my pennies...

Thanks for the gorgeous pix Zardon!

Zardon

funny you mentioned that my friend is having problems with this and another game with a dual core X2. (cant remember the name of the other game, ill ask him this week.). ill connect my 4400+ up tomorrow and run the game on that system and see how it handles.

Drakon

I like it. Maynot be the best looking game out there, but it's fun. I'm currently running mine at 1600 x 1200, no aa, no af (might switch to 2x af) and everything else at max. Runs realively smooth, although certain parts it does hitch and drop. I'm currently working on getting the 2nd piece of the medallion. I will post some pics too

Necrosis

Very weird.

I started playing not too long after I posted this. No problems, and game play has been smooth. Oh well, the audio in cut scenes is a little off but other than that fine for right now.

It's pretty funny how the game cracks jokes at other games. Especially Duke Nukem Forever! You'll have to play to know what I'm talking about.

Drakon

Here are some screenies. Granted they're not as great as Z's, but I'm content

Necrosis

Did you find the hanging skeleton of the "Duke"?

SFOSOK

I'll pick it up when it drops to 15$

Drakon

LOL, yeah! It was pretty weird looking

Sandok

Looks amazing true but apparently, the critics didn't like it as much. I find the levels are too small...

Zardon

Are there any games you do like?

bstef9950

It sure look's like Serious Sam2 was better looking i was kind of dissapointed in the demo.I liked the first two.

Sandok

I dunno... I seem to have become very demanding recently Well I did like area 51 and that was far from perfect... I dunno why I ain't liking the major hits anymore

Tipstaff

One hyphenated word: co-op. If you think playing the single player game can be insane then try co-op. It's just too much fun.

Sandok

Ya I remeber SS 1.5 with coop

Blackboost

Here's a funny one. I went to EB on Friday and bought it and I also paid fully for FEAR even when I had to pick that one up next week. The thing is that I have yet to install/play SS2 because of this FU^*$)(RE test I have on Tuesday. Anyway I got it simply because I fell in love with the 1st one and I liked the DEMO. So maybe I can get a chance to play it non-stop after Tuesday. As for FEAR, I called EB yesterday and asked if they had released the game in advance (because I was told they did)? The guy on the phone told me: "Well we're going to release it on Monday, but you can pick it up today if you want to because you already paid for it.: So FEAR is also next to me, unistalled of course.

pr0digal jenius

....was that a blue teddy bear/ewok with a rocket launcher is aw?

Drakon

What are you talking about, PJ?

Drakon

Just finished a co-op game. It was intense! Although we had infinite ammo, it was still loads of fun, especially the later stages Those members that have the game should organise a nite when we could play

Pluvious

My only question about SS2 is whether I can manually adjust the fov? (Field of View) Either in console or editing a .cfg file. If I can .. I'll pick this baby up.

Randomletters

Id be interested in a co-op game, let me know the time and day

Drakon

How about tomorrow nite? Around 11 pm EST? I could use a heavy dose of Sam after those 2 exams tomorrow

Randomletters

sounds good im still waiting on an E-mail letting me know of a possible job interview on wendsday but so far I havent gotten a reply so see you then.

thomasabarnes

I just finished SS2 on tourist level.

I really like this one. The characters are better looking than those in the 2nd Encounter, IMO.

There are some funny parts in the game, too. Like when Serious Sam from the 2nd Encounter calls up on the phone Serious Sam in this game. Man that was simple dialog, but funny!

The ending leaves a bit to be desired, though. I think the graphics are very nice, especially the Zixes land and Sirius Land.

Lots of shooting and blowing up enemies as expected. I actually think this one is better than the 2nd Encounter. Lots to kill and lots of weopons to do it with.

Some very fun parts of the game for me were the fight with Hugo (a giant robot), and I loved just about all the gaming that took place after the part that the Demo ended with. My nephew and his friends (10-13 year old kids) love this game. I am impressed with it.

Thanks to ATI and the performance improvements made in the Catalyst 5.7 drivers! I was able to play this game at 1024 X 768 resolution, Medium quality, and high texture settings in game, and I have a Radeon 8500. I had smooth game play, except some cut scenes stuttered a lot. At the end of the game, it was insinuated that there may be a different ending, if the game is played at Serious difficulty level, so I'm starting to do that today.

Great game, and in my opinion, it is well worthy of being named Serious Sam II!!!!!!!

The game developers have done a great job on