Serious ‘Sam’ Stone has always been something of a black sheep in the first-person family; his decidedly ‘old school’ approach to fun, his Duke Nukem-esque comedic ironies, and his addictive, and diverse approach to design (coupled with a total disinterest in the values of realism and immersive plot), have left Sam somewhat alone in a genre full of titles claiming to be ‘the next step’, and advocating the constant progression of in-game stories. What’s more, he’s cheap too.

So once again, Mr Stone returns to grace our monitors, and you’ll be less than surprised to hear that his ethics haven’t changed one iota; still the story mocks it’s competitors with it’s outlandish B-movie influences, still the design places the in-your-face, and the bizarre, ahead of anything tangible and in-keeping with a meaningful plot, and still a whole-host of over-the-top and imaginative bad-guys are a hell bent on stopping Sam in his fight for galactic justice. Or whatever it was.

It’s a breath of fresh air, to say the least. Whilst tense, realistic and heavily-plotted games like id’s excellent Return to Castle will always have their place, a game like this is very refreshing once in a while; purely for it’s original blend of intense arcade gameplay, and diverse scenery / foes. On the whole then, as you may have already guessed, it’s business as usual in The Second Encounter. With only a few minor tweaks and improvements here and there, not to mention some diversifications, the game continues very much in the outlandish vein stipulated so loudly in the original, and believe me it’s no worse for it.

The plot, such as it is, continues from where the previous instalment concluded, though this is not, and developers appear to have put a concerted effort into ensuring the plot is stupid, and ‘out there’. The usual hokum of ‘time-locks’, the evil ‘Mental’ and something to do with taking over the universe providing Sam with more than sufficient excuse to ‘go kick some alien booty’, if you’ll pardon my expression. It’s with this light-hearted approach that the game begins too; with Sam falling from a crashed spacecraft into a picturesque lake (complete with it’s own misty waterfall). From here on the pace is as frenetic as it ever was, perhaps even more so, as you collect the chainsaw (one of the new weapons) and fast-paced battling begins as herds of lunging ghoulish aliens, and headless beasties come at you in startling fashion. You will then proceed down a nicely detailed valley to an Incan/Aztec-styled temple where your Sniper rifle (yet another new one!) will come in handy for something nasty waiting for you on the roof, and you’ll also have to make use of the chainsaw to deal with a ‘Bird’ problem. It’s all very very fast, and very very fun, the of the game progressing far too quickly to become repetitive.