Serious Sam is the first video game (released in two episodes) in the Serious Sam series. It is a first-person shooter (withthird-person shooter options) created by the Croatian development house Croteam. Originally released for the PC market only, Serious Sam's rising popularity resulted in the porting of the series to a number of different platforms, including theXbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox Live Arcade, among others.
The series follows the adventures of protagonist Sam "Serious" Stone and his fight against the forces of the notoriousextraterrestrial overlord Mental who seeks to destroy humanity.
Serious Sam consists of three episodes: Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, and the fan-made level-pack Dark Island. A release, entitled Serious Sam: Gold Edition featured all the contents of The First Encounter, The Second Encounter and Dark Island. The games are on separate CDs (in the UK version) and are identical to their individual releases, except that the Sam character model for The First Encounter was modified to match the one used in The Second Encounter.
The First Encounter was the first game in the series; it had been in the making since 1996 and had a video showing its early game play in 2000. The First Encounter was originally developed by Croteam as a demonstrator for their engine and this is the reason why some countries saw its initial release priced at less than half the value of other games in the genre.
The game takes place after the events of Serious Sam 3: BFE and the introduction reveals what happened before the actual story took place. In ancient times, Earth was involved in a massive conflict between Mental, an evil extraterrestrial being who wants to rule the universe, and the Sirians, a sentient alien race that left many of its artifacts to be discovered by humanity. In the 22nd century, Mental and his army of grotesquely, twisted monsters return to Earth intending to destroy humanity. The humans are quickly overwhelmed and driven back to Earth. As a last resort, humanity uses the "Time-Lock". This mysterious Sirian artifact contains the power to transport a single person back through a chosen point of time. Because of his bravery in fighting these monsters, Sam "Serious" Stone was chosen to use the "Time Lock" in hopes that he will defeat Mental and alter the course of history. As the game opens, Sam appears in Egypt. He travels from one Egyptian monument to the next, fighting against the monsters Mental sent after him along the way. During Sam's journey, Sam is able to find and activate a hidden Sirian communicator in the shape of an obelisk located in Luxor, which summons a Sirian starship to Earth from deep space. Sam rushes to the Great Pyramids of Giza in order to rendezvous with the starship, only to be cornered by Mental's general, Ugh Zan III. After defeating this giant, Sam then teleports himself onto the starship. While Sam is aboard the "SSS Centerpiece", he leaves a phone message to Mental telling him that "he has a special delivery package for him" and sets a course to Sirius, the Sirian homeworld.
The Second Encounter starts where the previous game left off, with Sam traveling to Sirius on the "SSS Centerpiece". Unfortunately, the starship is accidentally hit by the "Croteam crate-bus" and plummets down to Earth's surface. As the starship falls, Sam reads the coordinates and frets about crash-landing into Egypt again, but instead he crashes into Central America in the Mayan age, with the starship now heavily damaged upon impact. However, not all hope is lost, since the Sirians left a "back-up starship" on Earth, which was a fail-safe in case if anything ever happens to the "SSS Centerpiece". However, since this "back-up starship" is located in a different time and age than where and when Sam is currently in, he will have to uncover the locations of the other Sirian Time-Locks that will help him reach his destination. With this new objective, Sam storms through Mesoamerica, then travels to Mesopotamia and finally to Medieval Europe where the "back-up starship" is located. During his journey, Sam battles two of Mental's Time-Lock guardians: a powerful spirit named Kukulkan the Wind God and a biomechanical creature called the Exotech Larva. Finally, in front of the Cathedral of Sacred Blood, Sam confronts the last obstacle to overcome on his path to the Holy Grail, Mordekai the Summoner. After a glorious battle with Mordekai and his spawning minions, The Summoner is finally silenced forever. In the Cathedral, Sam lifts the Holy Grail in the palms of his hands, followed by his confessions of his sins in a booth...to Mental, during which he reassures Mental that "he's coming to get him." During the end credits, Sam activates the "back-up starship" and travels back into space toward his next adventure. The story then continues on toSerious Sam II.
Other than the more varied locations, The Second Encounter features some additional weapons—a chainsaw, a flamethrower, a sniper rifle, and the powerful Serious Bomb—and a number of new monsters that Sam has to face. This game has also seen the release of a level-pack titled Dark Island, featuring fan-made levels for single and multiplayer mode.
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