Serious Sam

Serious Sam is a Croatian video game available for PC and the Xbox console from Microsoft. Developed by the Croteam company and distributed by 2K Games, it has been rated for people over 18 years of age.

List of games

Main Games

• Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2001)
• Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (2002)
• Serious Sam 2 (2005)
• Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter (2009)
• Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter (2010)
• Serious Sam 3: BFE (2011)
• Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass (2020)

Spinoffs

• Serious Sam: Next Encounter (2004)
• Serious Sam Advance (2004)
• Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter (2017)
• Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter (2017)
• Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope (2017)
• Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE (2017)

Indie series

• Serious Sam Double D (2011)
• Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! (2011)
• Serious Sam: The Random Encounter (2011)
• Serious Sam: The Greek Encounter (2012)
• Serious Sam Double D XXL (2013)
• Serious Sam Classics: Revolution (2014, Steam Early Access)
• Serious Sam's Bogus Detour (2017)
• I Hate Running Backwards (2018)
• Tormental (2018)

Serious Sam: The First Encounter

In his first adventure, Serious Sam: The First Encounter, the player plays the character Serious Sam:, brave warrior who is entrusted with the mission of saving planet Earth by going back in time to change the past and thus save humanity. The whole game takes place in the ancient Egyptian civilization. The start of the game is in the Hatshepsut temple, where the first weapons and some secrets are found. At the end of this mission, the next level is the Arena Canyon where the first higher level enemies appear. The objective of the first four missions is to gather some magical elements that will allow Sam to enter two cities: Thebes and Memphis, from which he must reach the Great Pyramid and fight against Admiral Ugh-Zan III, whom Mental sends to oversee the cleanup of planet Earth. The neutralization of this adversary is for study, since he regenerates and is difficult to defeat, even in the simplest mode (Tourist). However, defeating him in the same game tells us that this is not the end, since he puts "To Be Continued..." ("Continue"). In the most difficult mode, Serious, the number of enemies is 5,961, and in some missions Sam has to face more than 1,000, which indicates that action and entertainment are guaranteed. In a period in which FPS became more and more sophisticated and less linear, where the player constantly ran into cinematic sequences, this game appears as a return to the roots of the genre. Closer to Doom than its contemporaries, the emphasis is once again on destroying thousands (literally) of enemies per level, leaving aside all the trappings that the genre has acquired in recent years. The extremely powerful weapons, an absurd and very special sense of humor, tons of secrets per level and, mainly, the possibility of playing in cooperative multiplayer mode, be it split screen, online, or over the internet, turned this game into an instant classic.

It is necessary to highlight the cooperative multiplayer mode of this game, since a large number of participants can participate at the same time (the number is limited by the server), reaching the possibility of more than 16 simultaneous players. On PC it was not common to find an FPS game that allowed the player to play in split screen mode, as is usual on consoles.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

Due to its success, the following year (2002) Croteam released Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, which continues the adventures of our hero, again trapped in the past., but this time trying to finish off his enemies in three different historical periods (the only reasonable criticism that the first game received is that all its levels were quite similar because they took place in Egypt).

Serious Sam 2

In this new installment, released in October 2005, the plot remains "almost" identical. Our hero is summoned by a group of magicians, called "The Great Serious Council" who discovered what Mental was up to from the planet where he resides. To stop him once and for all, Sam must collect 5 parts of a large medallion along the way, which, once rebuilt, will serve to destroy Mental's forces.

But these pieces are spread over 5 planets. The first is M'digbo, where we will meet inhabitants who also fight against the domain of Mental, characteristic for their blue skin. The second is Magnor, whose inhabitants are the Zixies, characteristic for their Indian-style clothing. The third is Chi-Fang, where all the residents have East Asian features. The fourth is Kleer, where the residents are called Kleers, introduced in previous installments of the same video game saga. And the last one, Ellenier, where all the residents have facets reminiscent of goblins and mythological characters taken from Norse mythology.

Weapons vary in design (but not all), and depending on the planet the player is on, one or the other can be used.

Listing of said weapons: Chainsaw (slot 1), 6-barrel revolvers (unlimited ammo) (slot 2), plasma pistol (slot 2), auto-shotgun (shotgun shaped like a revolver) (slot 3), sawed-off double-barreled pellet shotgun (slot 3), Uzis (slot 4), Minigun (slot 4), rocket launcher (slot 5), plasma cannon (slot 6), sniper rifle (slot 7), suicide parrots (slot 7), Dark Matter Cannon (Slot 8), Serious Bomb (Slot 9).

As usual in this type of game, there are also final bosses. These appear at the end of each planet's journey, and none have characteristics common to the others:

Kwongo: A gorilla of astronomical proportions who appears in M'digbo, in the last mission. To defeat this colossus, conventional weapons are almost ineffective (including the rocket launcher, dark matter cannon, and suicide parrots, as well as the serious bomb, which only affects conventional enemies), so it must be protected with the use of the turrets to the natives, while they mount the catapults.

Zumzum: a bee the size of a giant. Appears on the second planet, last mission. Here the strategy to follow is somewhat elaborate. In order to win quickly, you must destroy all the flowers so that Zumzum does not regenerate, while you must avoid both her projectiles (which are stingers that Zumzum launches), her attacks, and her kamikaze daughter bees (keep a safe distance). Relatively any weapon is effective against this boss.

Prince Chan: a "human" hulk, whose strong point is the taste of sacrifices. She appears on the third planet, last mission. This boss is tough to beat, but his weak point is high frequency sound. To speed up his fall, the player must endure the waves at the beginning until Chan decides to go down, and the moment the gong is displayed, shoot it with any weapon.

Count Kleerofski: A Kleer dedicated to Voodoo and other large black magic. He appears on the fourth planet, last mission. His attacks can be deadly, since his attacks can be done at high speed, or harass the player with avalanches of projectiles. Also, like Zumzum, he regenerates health, but through a beam of light, which the player has to destroy. But, unlike the previous one, Kleerofksi is a lone wolf and will prevent you from destroying his regeneration source. The most effective weapons against him are heavy ones. In case you can't destroy his regeneration source, the game will drop an item that allows you to kill him instantly.

Cecil the Dragon: A pink dragon. He appears on the fifth planet, last mission. Resistant to most of the player's weaponry, the most effective against him are the large arrows that appear scattered throughout the level, which are used via fixed turret-crossbows. The player must tread carefully, as he is on a floating level.

Hugo: Robot designed by the fictional company from the game "Bosses 'R Us " (clear parody of Toys 'R Us). He appears on the sixth planet, last mission. The fight consists of two phases. The first, the player must reach the air base avoiding the assaults of the robot, which can be physical (instant death) or weapons (laser shots, dark matter balls and rockets). The second phase begins when the player reaches the airbase, at which point the enemy becomes vulnerable. The player must get on the combat helicopter, and collect ammunition throughout the stage in order to defeat the robot, avoiding its attacks.

Mental Institution: The last boss, shaped like a mobile pyramid. Here the player must forget about foot weapons, and use the ship at all times. Appears on the seventh planet, last mission. The only weak point is shown when the pyramid summons many suicide ships on the ground.

Copied by Softnyx

In 2007, the Korean company Softnyx used the base of this game to make WolfTeam.