Serious Sam 2

Lore & Background

The game follows Sam 'Serious' Stone as he seeks to assemble the five-piece Medallion of Power, the only tool able to weaken his nemesis, the alien overlord Mental, who has each piece guarded by his forces. The plot begins with the exiled Sirian Great Council summoning Sam and tasking him with retrieving the pieces from five planets: M'Digbo, Magnor, Chi-Fang, Kleer, and Ellenier. After obtaining all five pieces, Sam heads to Kronos and then to Sirius, where he confronts Mental but only shoots a speaker before departing.

In Their Own Story

The dust of the Egyptian desert swirls around Sam's boots as he raises his dual-shotguns, the metallic click echoing in the silence before the roar begins. From the shadows of a crumbling temple, a swarm of Skorchers scuttles forth, their glowing eyes fixing on him with singular intent. There is no time to think, only to act; he fires into the mass of chitinous limbs and spewing acid. The air fills with the stench of burning flesh and ozone as the horde presses forward, an endless tide of alien malice. Sam reloads, his breathing steady amidst the chaos, knowing that today, like every day since Mental's return, is about standing ground against the impossible.

Reader's Guide

Serious Sam II is a first-person shooter with an optional third-person perspective. The player traverses forty-two levels across seven thematic worlds, starting on M'Digbo. The player starts with a circular saw, a laser pistol, and two revolvers, later expanding their arsenal with shotguns, submachine guns, a sniper rifle, and a rocket launcher, among others. The revolvers and Uzis support dual wield. The game features five difficulty levels, peaking at 'Serious' difficulty. In multiplayer, up to sixteen players can play the campaign cooperatively or engage in deathmatch on Windows; the Xbox version supports up to four players cooperatively.

Did You Know?

• Serious Sam II was one of the first releases of 2K Games, which had succeeded the original games' publisher, Gathering of Developers.
• The game's proprietary engine, Serious Engine 2, incorporated a bespoke physics engine and support for higher-quality graphics.
• The Xbox version includes an aim assist.
• Following the shutdown of Xbox Live, the online service was unofficially succeeded by the third-party Insignia service.