• Platform elements in the thrilling action shooter -- ammo and enemies are everywhere, so hold down that fire button and keep moving

• Incredible new weapons with new powers and unlimited ammo

• Jump into a Hummer and run over the alien zombies, or blow them away with missiles

• Power up with killing combos - Get 20 kills in a row and you'll go into Super Combo Mode, becoming more Serious than ever!

Some classic characters return, like the headless kamikaze bombers, but they are animated differently, which wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing, but that's just it, the animation is poor too. There are new multi-player characters, like Suzi Darko, and Silicon Sam.

Gameplay wise this game just doesn't "feel" like a Serious Sam game, control issues, like no crouch, and a very odd controller setup don't give it that arcade feel that made Serious Sam so fun in the first place. Since I have not played it online, I can't comment on the multiplayer, but the single player game will not inspire anybody to go buy a modem and try.

Unless you're collecting Serious Sam stuff, or you don't own a PC, or XBOX, then you might want to try it out, but otherwise don't bother, it's just not "Serious Sam".

15 of 17 found the following review helpful:


VERY POOR GAME  Apr 16, 2004
Serious Sam: Next Encounter really is the weakest of all the Serious Sam games released to date.

If I were to rate the graphics, then I would give them about 2/10 on a good day. The graphics are too rough to look at for extended sessions, the game features simple textures that you'd expect to see on a PS One game, and not on a next gen console like the PS2 or Game cube. You would think that the lack of impressive graphics might be made up for by good game play, but no, the game is dull and repetitive. It really is quite shocking to see such a poor release as this one.

I would not wish this game on anybody. Take note!

11 of 12 found the following review helpful:


Dreadful Game  May 01, 2004 By kirt
I cannot believe someone gave Serious Sam Next Encounter 5 stars - it is a dreadful game. The levels maybe huge, they are huge and bland with it and where are all the enemies to shoot - hiding somewhere? - On the PC version there appears to be at times 30 to 40 creatures charging at you all at once, on this the PS2 version there appears to about 8 creatures charging at you at any one time, it really is a very poor interpretation of the PC version. There is no excitement to be had.

What with the lack of excitement and the low level poor graphics - steer clear of this one

17 of 20 found the following review helpful:


Try before you buy  Apr 16, 2004
My first impressions of Serious Sam: Next Encounter were that the game is
At best average. The graphics don't help much, they look really very dated.
The graphics, they use few polygons and are covered with very simple looking
Textures.

Character design too is ok`ish, some of the original characters from the
Original Serious Sam games are present. In fact, the characters from the
Original PC version, are still the best looking creatures of the bunch,
Particularly the people who run around screaming holding a bomb in
Each hand. Other than that, there are few laughs left in this rather
Repetitive run a round and shoot things game.

In every level there is the same old thing to do. Shoot die, shoot die.
Serious Sam: Next Encounter is a bit of a yawn feast really.

At best, Serious Sam is, all said and done, average.

Co-op mode provides some multiplayer and one-on-one action. `Speed-
Ups' are one of more pointless power up`s to feature in Serious Sam, they're
No use what so ever. The game doesn't get any faster at all???
To sum it up, Serious Sam is a definite try before you buy title!

13 of 15 found the following review helpful:


Discus Fun  Apr 27, 2004
The most fun me and my brother got out of serious Sam next encounter was when we used the cd a discus, that was huge fun i can tell you. Although we've stopped playing that game now, ever since mom wedged the cd under one of the legs of our coffee table to stop the damn thing wobbling.

Serious Sam Next Encounter = One expensive table stabilizer

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