Serious Sam: The Second Encounter first playthrough / first region
0The Second Encounter pretty clearly tries to set out to improve upon some of TFE's shortcomings, pretty much immediately. Even the tech demo, which is quite similar to TFE's, features textures that are more visually interesting, offering a bit of a preview into the first area of the game proper.
The game itself seems to ramp up Sam's arsenal much more quickly than TFE, and even introduces a couple of extremely useful new weapons in a hurry. The environments in general are far more interesting than TFE's: the aesthetic is much more colorful and vibrant, and the map design is more engaging than just a bunch of wide-open rectangular areas.
There's still some signature Croteam bullcrap though, especially under the category of hitscanner-hunting. This is made even worse in the second game by the expectation of longer-range sniping, given the addition of the sniper rifle. Trying to find the hitscanner that's scoring free hits on you is like playing Where's Waldo, given that the audio cues for them still lack any directionality whatsoever.
Another thing this game addresses in addition to visual variety is pacing; not only does Sam amass weapons faster, but there's also multiple bosses throughout the game, the first of which we find at the end of this section. While it's not quite Ugh-Zan-sized, it's still imposing, and can be quite the nuisance when paired with the additional enemies in the arena and the attacks it throws at you.