On this day exactly 21 years ago, the first Serious Sam was launched – a successful shooter of the Zagreb Croteam.
Today, Serious Sam is a well-known series by the Croatian studio Croteam. But before we got serious Sam Stone on this day 21 years ago, Croteam was developing a dark shooter called In the Flesh. Over time, the idea behind that game turned into the less scary and much brighter Serious Sam.
One of the reasons behind that change was himself Serious Engine, which the team independently developed as a cheaper solution than renting someone else ‘s tools. The Serious Engine was seriously advanced at the time, and one of its main advantages was the ability to render large exteriors with a bunch of enemies.
It’s original Sam Stone he looked the way we know him — he wore a white T-shirt, jeans, and red sneakers. But interestingly, he kept that design thanks to an audience that liked Sam’s look, so the developers eventually gave up on the idea of making it more realistic. It was only later that Sam’s sunglasses were removed to avoid similarities with Duke Nukem, but they returned in later sequels when Duke fell into oblivion.
In Serious Sam: The First Encounter, we tamed alien forces of the hated enemy Mental. The game was set in ancient Egypt, and gave us a killer arsenal, including a minigun, rocket launcher, laser cannon, etc. For the first time here we met with iconic enemies such as headless kamikaze, who accompanied Sam in later games. .
Serious Sam was originally launched for the PC platform. He received good reviews from reviewers and audiences, and for more than 14 years he was the best rated Croatian game on Metacritic (average score 87). He was later surpassed by Croteam’s second title – The Talos Principle for PS4 with an average rating of 88. The GameSpot portal was named Serious Sam the best PC game of 2001.
This was soon followed by the sequel to Serious Sam: The Second Encounter which comes bundled with the first game also appeared on the Xbox console, with significant changes in gameplay. Since 2009, we also have an original HD remaster that is available for all current platforms. Since 2017, the game has become playable in virtual reality as well.