Mindblowing fun, especially Survival, Co-op and versus games.

I doubt there is much to be said about Serious sam The First Encounter and Second Encounters. Much has been said. This is a HD remake. It retains 98% of the classics game core but I find a couple of changes disappointing. More secrets were added from original encounter.

The new models, textures, effects are brilliant and mnake game look more real. The originals looked real enough back then but here adding proper grass, bright sky, dark dungeon torch effects looked better. More secrets were added to original. Some secrets were changed. The rotating room in The PIT is now kept static with irritating 3 rotating platforms throwing your aim and balance off. I hate it. Then exiting that room the slight anti-gravity curving passage that Kleers jump at you from is also gone, replacing the anti gravity fun joyride of going round. The exit curving pessage where kleers attacked became flat. The opening intro scene in classic version of Serious Sam's Sirian spaceship crashing into Developer Crates is sadly cut.
The flipping room and moving platforms timing with spiked roof secret in Ziggurat is replaced with a bland room where you need do a series of irritating luck based platforming to reach the roof. I have no idea why Devs could not retain the original mechanics. I liked the clear water in classics better than the murky feeling water in HD, a bit of realism I could do without. This is Serious Sam not CoD! Rest is fine. More better texture quality makes it better overall. Fusion lets you play Both Encounters as a whole campaign as it was originally conceptualized.

Campaign is still fun in single and coop mode. Some maps in Survival are fun like Bear City and some downright nightmare like Bend in Sand! Overall better experience except for those small issues I listed. Apart from these minor deviations here are some more aspects:
Campaign mode some maps do get bugged enemy spawns not giving full kills needed. But its still fun enough. There are deathmatch maps, you can play The First Encounter also in a go as one game in added fusion if you hve both games. [To unlock achievements you must play first encounter separately but]. The survival maps are fun. Some are really hard like Bend in Sand needding lot of skill and luck. I wish HD added couple levels more but its OK. The DLC 3 level campaign is more TFE extension not fitting in here technically. A short trip through what appears to be discarded first encounter earlier levels. It has one more survival map Triple Trouble. I suggest you finish getting all survibal maps gold medals before playing the DLC to get related achievements else the lone DLC map will add to grind of achieving. The detahmatch community was very active till 2017-18 is now quite dead sadly. Maybe versus mdoe and demo should be made free as a demo again. if you own 2 encounters and Serious Sam 3 you can play it in btter light and tetures less bugged together as one campaign in Serious sam Fusiuon you should get it free. It however has separate set of achievements.

My only complaint is Devs think this game is Unreal Tournament they added like 30 achievements for Vs modes - Deathmatch, Beast Hunt, CTF, My Burden, Last Man Standing etc all with team based versions needing minimum 3-4 players with expectations one will win 100s of such games for achievements. Its too much and achievements should be realistic and based on core game. Any game having more than 25 Achievements becomes tedious forced labour. Here there are like 70 and half of them from a game mode that has no active community left sadly since older owners have moved on in 10 years since. The achievements were possible when vs games were F2P in demo mode. Thank God they kept this requirements minimum in BFE. My other complaint is Coin Coop and need to get coins and lifesavers in one sitting that is demanding given Sam maps are huge and forced battles take lot of time. Such missions should be based on when you play a map solo not as a whole campaign. Finding coop players ready to play such modes that long is hard. One should be able to handle it solo on own time map by map. This issue thankfully does not limit BFE.


Overall great blasting fun play it for survival and campaign. Still a must play for old school old classics fans. Must on and play.

Mindblowing fun, especially Survival, Co-op and versus games. I doubt there is much to be said about Serious sam The First Encounter and Second Encounters. Much has been said. This is a HD remake. It retains 98% of the classics game core but I find a couple of changes disappointing. More secrets were added from original encounter. The new models, textures, effects are brilliant and mnake game look more real. The originals looked real enough back then but here adding proper grass, bright sky, dark dungeon torch effects looked better. More secrets were added to original. Some secrets were changed. The rotating room in The PIT is now kept static with irritating 3 rotating platforms throwing your aim and balance off. I hate it. Then exiting that room the slight anti-gravity curving passage that Kleers jump at you from is also gone, replacing the anti gravity fun joyride of going round. The exit curving pessage where kleers attacked became flat. The opening intro scene in classic version of Serious Sam's Sirian spaceship crashing into Developer Crates is sadly cut. The flipping room and moving platforms timing with spiked roof secret in Ziggurat is replaced with a bland room where you need do a series of irritating luck based platforming to reach the roof. I have no idea why Devs could not retain the original mechanics. I liked the clear water in classics better than the murky feeling water in HD, a bit of realism I could do without. This is Serious Sam not CoD! Rest is fine. More better texture quality makes it better overall. Fusion lets you play Both Encounters as a whole campaign as it was originally conceptualized. Campaign is still fun in single and coop mode. Some maps in Survival are fun like Bear City and some downright nightmare like Bend in Sand! Overall better experience except for those small issues I listed. Apart from these minor deviations here are some more aspects: Campaign mode some maps do get bugged enemy spawns not giving full kills needed. But its still fun enough. There are deathmatch maps, you can play The First Encounter also in a go as one game in added fusion if you hve both games. [To unlock achievements you must play first encounter separately but]. The survival maps are fun. Some are really hard like Bend in Sand needding lot of skill and luck. I wish HD added couple levels more but its OK. The DLC 3 level campaign is more TFE extension not fitting in here technically. A short trip through what appears to be discarded first encounter earlier levels. It has one more survival map Triple Trouble. I suggest you finish getting all survibal maps gold medals before playing the DLC to get related achievements else the lone DLC map will add to grind of achieving. The detahmatch community was very active till 2017-18 is now quite dead sadly. Maybe versus mdoe and demo should be made free as a demo again. if you own 2 encounters and Serious Sam 3 you can play it in btter light and tetures less bugged together as one campaign in Serious sam Fusiuon you should get it free. It however has separate set of achievements. My only complaint is Devs think this game is Unreal Tournament they added like 30 achievements for Vs modes - Deathmatch, Beast Hunt, CTF, My Burden, Last Man Standing etc all with team based versions needing minimum 3-4 players with expectations one will win 100s of such games for achievements. Its too much and achievements should be realistic and based on core game. Any game having more than 25 Achievements becomes tedious forced labour. Here there are like 70 and half of them from a game mode that has no active community left sadly since older owners have moved on in 10 years since. The achievements were possible when vs games were F2P in demo mode. Thank God they kept this requirements minimum in BFE. My other complaint is Coin Coop and need to get coins and lifesavers in one sitting that is demanding given Sam maps are huge and forced battles take lot of time. Such missions should be based on when you play a map solo not as a whole campaign. Finding coop players ready to play such modes that long is hard. One should be able to handle it solo on own time map by map. This issue thankfully does not limit BFE. Overall great blasting fun play it for survival and campaign. Still a must play for old school old classics fans. Must on and play.