Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 306 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 222 out of 306
  2. Mixed: 62 out of 306
  3. Negative: 22 out of 306
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  1. nastyjes
    Jul 16, 2023
    8
    Great remaster of a great game .
  2. DorlGaming
    Jun 4, 2023
    8
    Great fun first person shooter, with some issues only because age of the game. HD remaster is good too. If you like fun fps gaming, that's for you.
  3. Nick7000
    Mar 9, 2023
    8
    Немного докучает Египтообразность игры, но в остальном это прекрасный ремастер, нареканий нет.
  4. LT_Gruber
    Jan 13, 2023
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Nice upgrade from the original game with some extra content.

    Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter was the first ever remake that I bought and was excited for, before it became a standard for a quick cash grab. At the time, I was hyped and amazed by how good the old gem of a game looked all of a sudden.

    In the core, it is still the exact same game. The earth is under attack by Mental and his alien horde and earth is overrun, lost completely in disarray. In a desperate attempt to turn the tide, you are teleported back in time to ancient Egypt to, hopefully, change the course of history in favor of humanity. You travel to different parts of Egypt, including Karnak, Luxor, the suburbs of ancient Cairo and the Valley of the Kings.

    On your journey, hordes and hordes of Mentals monsters attack you from all directions and you blast your way to the Great Pyramid, where you defeat Ugh-Zan IV, Mentals most powerful general. After that, you leave a phone message for Mental, telling him that you are coming for his ass and then fly away in your spaceship, which is put down by stupid Serious Sam fans flying in a rocket crate cart and crash into you, starting the Second Encounter.

    The graphics are nice and polished. Enemy models, the weapons and the environments are more detailed and look very good. You can new gib every enemy, including the Bio Mechanoids. The gore is the biggest improvement here. More body parts, more blood, more carnage. I almost sound like a maniac praising this kind of stuff. I really liked the new look of the Biomechanoids, they look a lot more aggressive and dangerous.

    I have to say that I did not necessarily liked the new models for Ugh-Zan IV and the Alduran Reptiloids. They looked a little cartoony and goofy in comparison to their original counterparts. Also, the mechanic in which the Scythian Witch Harpies caried Kamikazes to the field, is no more due to issues with the improved Serious Engine. A little disappointing but not the end of the world.

    The sound and music are unchanged, besides some weapon firing sounds are enemy grunts.

    Games like Diablo II: Resurrected and many more this day, offer only an upgrade on the graphics and nothing more. Serious Sam HD: The first encounter however offers a little more, something that I can respect. You now got a survival mode, in which you can earn medals, the longer you survive, you got different multiplayer modes like Beast Hunt and My Burden. Although this modes never gained much popularity, it is a nice variation for those who liked it. They did include new multiplayer Deathmatch maps however, which is always nice.

    A special note must be made for the split-screen functionality that the game still has. Back in the day, it was nothing special, but today, split screen is dying so more copies of a game can be sold (right EA?) so every game that still has it, earns my respect.

    In conclusion, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is a nice upgrade in terms of visuals, offers some new multiplayer features and made the game feel fresh. However, looking back, it was not entirely necessary and with the knowledge of today, with remakes being a business model, I am glad that I experienced this remake in a fun and positive way. I believe this is mainly because I have mad respect for Croteam and its developers and so far, they did not disappoint in their sequels and games.

    For this personal reason, I would surely recommend it.    … Expand
  5. Miz_Gamer
    Dec 5, 2022
    7
    An ordinary shooter, suitable if you want to relax and just shoot and look at the beauty of Egypt
  6. IdleSpace
    Sep 25, 2022
    7
    Очень неплохой олдскульный шутер на пару вечеров, расслабиться на пару вечеров - самое то (особенно в компании друзей).
    Играл в версию fusion - проблем с производительностью не нашел (в отличии от ХД версии).
  7. Menaga
    Aug 14, 2022
    5
    Recommended
    11.4 hrs at review time
    Hard difficulty
    Gameplay 5/10
    Music and sound 7/10
    Screenplay 4/10
    Technical 6/10
  8. Izoeros
    Jun 11, 2022
    6
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  9. KuroZerro
    May 9, 2022
    10
    i see some people say that this remake did take the game own charm if you like the old graphics then play the classic game bro.
  10. Dco326
    Oct 10, 2021
    8
    Dobra igrica, samo postane tedious posle nekog vremena, malo nema raznovrsnosti u protivnicima. Sve u svemu osmica, dobra pricica lagana ali nista wow.
  11. eZfoRjK
    May 24, 2021
    6
    HD? Realy? Where? Why? Drive, fun, waves of monsters, that's cool. But the graphics ... It could have been done much better. It is noticeable that the game spent a minimum of time and resources for development. However, of course, I plunged into this game with interest, because exactly at that moment when the fight begins, you absolutely do not notice the defects, as if you are playingHD? Realy? Where? Why? Drive, fun, waves of monsters, that's cool. But the graphics ... It could have been done much better. It is noticeable that the game spent a minimum of time and resources for development. However, of course, I plunged into this game with interest, because exactly at that moment when the fight begins, you absolutely do not notice the defects, as if you are playing the classics, But this is not a classic. Just a remake for just a game, but definitely not HD.… Expand
  12. kndr
    May 15, 2021
    3
    There is not much variety here. Always the same locations and same enemies.

    It spawns huge monster in ridiculous places and expects you to live. It gives you health, armor and ammo and takes it away immediately.

    There are no vehicles to make traveling bearable. You run everywhere.

    After playing ss2 I can't really say I enjoyed this.
  13. ImperialYama
    Dec 22, 2020
    10
    I can replay this Game just endless. It never gets boring. Sam is a cool guy.
  14. SatAnNorris
    Aug 10, 2020
    7
    Great game and the HD version runs well on modern hardware. You can run through all maps in four hours or try to find all secrets, including two hidden levels. Works great with Steam, so you can invite a friend directly through the Steam interface.

    Instead of buying the First Encounter, I'd suggest getting Second Encounter directly, because it includes the Egyptian levels from First    Great game and the HD version runs well on modern hardware. You can run through all maps in four hours or try to find all secrets, including two hidden levels. Works great with Steam, so you can invite a friend directly through the Steam interface.

    Instead of buying the First Encounter, I'd suggest getting Second Encounter directly, because it includes the Egyptian levels from First Encounter as well as additional locations.    … Expand
  15. slider1983
    Jul 31, 2020
    9
    Croteam decided to eventually start remaking the games so an HD updated was released in 2009 called Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD. Graphics are obviously now in HD, using the same engine as was used in Serious Sam 3: BFE (2011). As expected graphics look lovely now with added detail for environments, weapons and enemies. You can now see the grimy detail on the rocket launcher.Croteam decided to eventually start remaking the games so an HD updated was released in 2009 called Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD. Graphics are obviously now in HD, using the same engine as was used in Serious Sam 3: BFE (2011). As expected graphics look lovely now with added detail for environments, weapons and enemies. You can now see the grimy detail on the rocket launcher. Lighting and bloom highlights areas of the map more. Enemies get destroyed in a more gory and exciting manner. All this detail is really useful for enemies like golems which lacked detail in the original due to the first Serious Sam Engine’s technical limitations. Some of the gameplay has also been tinkered with; for the better or worse depending on how you see it. Hit damage has been changed. Cannons now thankfully fire faster yet the double barrel shotgun does less damage to enemies further away so forget about destroying kleers from far away. Worse; the pump-action shotgun is now more or less useless. I believe Croteam added more enemies in so the lowest difficulty named Tourist is a little harder than Tourist in the original version. Either way you play multi-player is nothing special and regardless of which version you play you’ll have issues with unstable servers. I wish the developers fixed this more.… Expand
  16. KrauserFear
    May 26, 2020
    10
    The best game of the century
    Greatest remake ever
    Pure solid game
    Gfx is the best and realistic even in low settings
    Better than Assassin Creed 1
  17. Andreas444
    Mar 12, 2020
    8
    It's the same game but with better graphics,tho it takes away some of that charm the original has.
    But still a great game to play.
  18. Genek13
    Nov 19, 2019
    9
    My childhood game back in HD :) Satisfying playthrough and funny dialogues from Sam.
    Still fun to play to this day.
  19. Siralfon
    Nov 10, 2019
    8
    Un videojuego que puede que no suponga un paso adelante en la industria pero que es muy divertido y frenético
  20. FedoraMan
    May 2, 2019
    8
    Same game but way more beautiful graphics, all I can say, the rest is for you to play. (See my review on Serious Sam: TFE)
  21. JaydenPickens
    Feb 20, 2019
    9
    I like the original TFE more, but still nice graphics bois. Pickens approves!
  22. PrincessRose
    Jun 5, 2015
    6
    It's quite a fun game, got in the complete pack when it was 90% off. Couldn't stand playing the classic as it looks too ugly. Whereas the HD version is tolerable in how it looks.

    I like that it's full on fps with plenty of hordes of enemies to kill. I dislike enemy placement way too many are put in a small space or coridor making it hard to avoid attacks at times. Game is way too    It's quite a fun game, got in the complete pack when it was 90% off. Couldn't stand playing the classic as it looks too ugly. Whereas the HD version is tolerable in how it looks.

    I like that it's full on fps with plenty of hordes of enemies to kill.

    I dislike enemy placement way too many are put in a small space or coridor making it hard to avoid attacks at times.

    Game is way too short, my first play through only took 8 hours to get through all the levels and then kill the final boss.

    Would not recommend buying this game as it's too short. 8 hours of one playthrough is just a day, to complete, not even a weekend. Don't bother with this game if you want a good single player game, I can see you'd get more playability out of this if you do multiplayer.    … Expand
  23. UserSubmitted
    Nov 1, 2014
    8
    This game is a blast to the past, co- op is fun when you can find a game, and fighting massive hordes of enemy's is fun, secrets are also fun to find, it is a great game. however i find it to be lacking some traits.
  24. fartheststar
    Apr 25, 2014
    5
    I'm just rating this as a 5 because it's a pretty average game. Not terrible, but not much to recommend it over anything else in your backlog either. I didn't finish the game, but got much of the way through before I just decided I wanted to move on to something else. The good: I thought it had some humorous moments - like when Sam yells at the yelling bombhead guys. Some of the monstersI'm just rating this as a 5 because it's a pretty average game. Not terrible, but not much to recommend it over anything else in your backlog either. I didn't finish the game, but got much of the way through before I just decided I wanted to move on to something else. The good: I thought it had some humorous moments - like when Sam yells at the yelling bombhead guys. Some of the monsters are Huge and it's pretty cool too. The bad: This is a game whose core concept is tripwires that trigger monsters to teleport in around you, often directly behind you. The end result is there's not much point in how you strategically approach an area because even if you clear an area behind you, 3 seconds later you're going to trigger more baddies to teleport in behind you. This is the repeated dynamic of the game. Almost to the point that when you shoot something in front of you your best move is to spin 180 degrees and shoot because something probably coming from your 6 that was clear a moment before. I found this tiresome and not particularly fun.

    Overall, it's not terrible, but not anything special either. My rec: Consider playing something else in your backlog instead. If you really want some frantic running and shooting with no rhyme or reason to where the monsters are coming from - you might like this more.    … Expand
  25. Azerniss
    Nov 25, 2013
    8
    A quite fun game, if you like shooting down weird enemies with your friend a story can't really be found though. If it's on sale, you should get it for the ful price probably not.
  26. markwhitton
    Nov 20, 2013
    10
    Now this is a hard-core FPS, I have never played a game so challenging in all my days, seriously… Serious Sam is my second favourite First Person Shooter, falling only to the genius (forgotten gem of a) series known as No One Lives Forever. What I love about this game is the fact its old school it’s not about the adventure as such, or the spooky atmosphere or anything like that it’s justNow this is a hard-core FPS, I have never played a game so challenging in all my days, seriously… Serious Sam is my second favourite First Person Shooter, falling only to the genius (forgotten gem of a) series known as No One Lives Forever. What I love about this game is the fact its old school it’s not about the adventure as such, or the spooky atmosphere or anything like that it’s just shooting everything in sight… And it’s fun as hell! In terms of the new HD Graphics, well they’re just stunning the game is the exact same as the original just with major texture upgrades, this is the way a remake of classic should be…… Expand
  27. hansen1981
    Sep 21, 2013
    6
    Standart Seiou Sam with HD resolution and bigger textures. I complete this game at 4 hours. All other components (levels, music, effects) full completely identical with original game. For nostalgia ok. For searching new gameplay features (or something new) no.
  28. ritardedartkid
    Jul 20, 2013
    6
    Not really a whole lot to do except shoot things for 4 hours. There's no real plot and it's basically just hordes of enemies over and over and over again. Mildly entertaining, at best.
  29. suneater
    Jan 3, 2013
    2
    An "HD" remake of the original Serious Sam but without any real improvements. The graphics might be higher rez but the models & environments are chunky and texture work is unimpressive. Gameplay is way too finicky and reminds me Duke Nukem where each level has to be played perfectly just to survive. The main reasons I liked Quake & DOOM was because of the great sense of speed and freedomAn "HD" remake of the original Serious Sam but without any real improvements. The graphics might be higher rez but the models & environments are chunky and texture work is unimpressive. Gameplay is way too finicky and reminds me Duke Nukem where each level has to be played perfectly just to survive. The main reasons I liked Quake & DOOM was because of the great sense of speed and freedom of movement. Meanwhile, SS takes the complete opposite approach with you crawling through levels and spending the majority of the game backpedaling while holding down M1. Tedious gameplay, bland graphics and sound, and boring map & game design round out this unnecessary "remake". Nothing new or noteworthy here and not worth picking up for anyone.… Expand
  30. Hudson633
    Aug 15, 2012
    8
    It makes me happy to see great originals re-made for the high quality that gaming has now settled in, so I don't mind supporting such things if they aren't free patches. Playing Serious Sam in HD is engaging and fun, without being even slightly mentally exhaustive as many games are after a couple of hours. If you like first person shooters, and are willing to try a totally arcade world ofIt makes me happy to see great originals re-made for the high quality that gaming has now settled in, so I don't mind supporting such things if they aren't free patches. Playing Serious Sam in HD is engaging and fun, without being even slightly mentally exhaustive as many games are after a couple of hours. If you like first person shooters, and are willing to try a totally arcade world of amusing gameplay, then pick this up in a sale. If you played the original, this does it justice, and will make for a fantastic replay.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

39
#39 Most Discussed PC Game of 2009
88
#88 Most Shared PC Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 22 out of 35
  3. Negative: 1 out of 35
  1. 3DJuegos
    63
    As long as you aren’t expecting anything revolutionary, Serious Sam HD will deliver its classic action gameplay with a graphic boost. Just for fans of brainless shooters.
    Read full review
  2. Eurogamer
    70
    As it is, for all the added beauty and inherited class, I don't think there's enough freshness or sophistication here for that to happen.
    Read full review
  3. VideoGamer
    70
    What needs to be remembered is that this isn't a brand new Serious Sam game, but the original in new clothes. As such it feels a little dated compared with modern releases. It's undoubtedly fun and relentless in its strive for all-out action, but with a recommended retail price of £18, it feels a bit light.
    Read full review
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