Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter reimagines the original Serious Sam: The First Encounter. The whole game, from the story to the stages with their secrets, monsters, weapons, and power-ups, is identical to the original game. Still, everything has been aesthetically upgraded using Serious Engine 3.
In a classic first-person shooter style, the player assumes the character of Serious “Sam” Stone. An alien known as Mental sends Sam back in time to prevent the destruction of humanity in the twenty-first century. But, contrary to popular belief, ancient Egypt did not exist. Instead, hundreds of Mental’s minions, including the now-famous Beheaded Bomber, as well as various Bio-Mechanoids and Lava Golems, lurk about the pyramids and ancient towns or are sent there when Sam approaches a specific region or triggers a script in the linear levels. Sam has ten weapons to cope with these opponents, ranging from his trusty revolvers with endless ammo to a chain gun and the all-powerful “SeriousBomb?”-Cannon.
In contrast to the original game, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter’s released initial version only has a coop mode for up to 16 players across LAN and WAN and no deathmatch options, which were later implemented via a significant Steam update. Offline multiplayer game modes are not supported on the Xbox 360 version.
