A non interactive tech demo of Serious Sam 2 has been running at both Microsoft"s DirectX booth and ATI"s booth at GDC today. This is the first time that anything from Croteam"s first person shooter sequel has been shown to the public and we are very impressed so far. The tech demo was rather short but does contain things that will be familiar to Serious Sam fans, including huge outdoor levels (set in a setting that looks a lot like The Second Encounter"s South American lcation) Sam himself, (looking a lot like his Xbox version) and monsters, along with new stuff like their own physics system (created by Croteam and not licenced) that showed barrels falling down a hill and colliding with one another and with boxes, and a drivable vehicle, in this case a cross between a three wheel ATV and a chopper.
The thing that stood out about the Serious Sam II tech demo was the new creature, which has to be dubbed the "football orge". It" was a huge orge like creature in a football uniform with a very big football (and yes, we were told the football itself is a weapon he uses in the game). The character model was highly detailed with huge muscles and veins clearly shown on the body.
Three Croteam members were at the Microsoft DirectX booth and we quizzed them about the game itself. They wouldn"t reveal too much to us but they did say the game will be released for the PC and Xbox at the same time later this year via publisher Gathering/Take Two. The game will be about 30 levels in length which means that the game will not be a value priced title like the first two SS games were. At the moment, the team is concentrating on single player but multiplayer is also in the works and yes there will be full co-op play just like in previous games in the series. We hope to see a demo of the Serious Engine tools later at GDC.