You really need more than the first impression.
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Despite my undying love for fast-paced arena shooters, can you believe I've never played a Serious Sam game before now? I want to say Next Encounter won me over, because it did--with the five minute demo I played on a demo disc. It was smooth, the controls were really easy to come to grips with, and the piles of enemies gave ample opportunities for "super combos", which just turbocharges your ability to kick ass. I was ready to strap in and fall in love with the bizarre amount of readable lore and kooky character designs for a rooty-tooty game, but not so fast. Next Encounter has some issues that lost me as quick as it found me.
Your titular wisecracking musclehead has to crawl through history cleaning up waves of demons under the control of an entity called Mental, etc etc. Run fast, shoot everything, get combos for killing fast. There's plenty of secrets in the quite huge levels (which aren't super hot to look at but hardly offensive), and the gun variety is cracking, especially when you can make smores off your enemies with a flamethrower. The super combo system is satisfying, though it takes too long to start up and there's bizarrely no way to extend it. There are a few vehicle segments, but these are wonky to control and only good for the faster travel.
The biggest issue with Next Encounter is how cheap it can be. These levels sprawl way too much, and getting sniped by mobs from behind or hundreds of yards away and getting hand cramps as you circlestrafe the shittiest gladiator boss on the planet five attempts in hardly makes me feel like a badass. Those screaming kamikaze bombers are a lot less funny after the 50,000th one too. Like too much caffeine, Next Encounter is fun at first, but whether it's chest pains or some guy one-shotting you in the face with his huge cannonballs, the side effects really aren't.
Recommended for... if you want it fast and your standards aren't too high.
| Reviewed | My favorite part |
|---|---|
| August 22, 2026 | The extremely fluid controls |
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