Serious Sam HD: Double Pack

I have a soft spot for games that know exactly what they are and refuse to apologize for it. Serious Sam HD: Double Pack - bundling The First Encounter and The Second Encounter under one Steam key - is precisely that kind of game, and spending time with both back-to-back makes the design philosophy click in a way neither title quite achieves alone. The First Encounter is the quieter of the two, even if "quiet" is a relative term when galloping Kleer Skeletons and headless suicide bombers are the ambient noise. Set almost entirely across ancient Egyptian monuments and open desert sprawl, it eases you into the formula: massive open arenas fill with enemies the moment you pick up a relic or cross a threshold, and your only real job is to strafe backwards while unloading into the chaos. The minigun and laser gun do most of the heavy lifting here, and the front half could almost pass for a conventional corridor shooter before the back half drops the pretense entirely and throws hundreds of enemies at you in one breath. The HD makeover holds up well - better texture fidelity, lighting that makes torch-lit dungeons actually look dark, a cleaner framerate - though a handful of the original's gravity-room sequences were quietly cut in the remake, which longtime fans still grumble about. The Second Encounter is where the Double Pack starts to earn its keep in a serious way. It picks up Sam's story mid-crash in ancient South America, then hauls him through Persia and into medieval Europe, each biome distinctly staged and noticeably more generous with enemy volume and spectacle. The arsenal gets a meaningful upgrade too: a sniper rifle finally lets you peel off distant threats before they join the swarm, the flamethrower handles dense hordes where the minigun would just waste ammo, and the Serious Bomb functions as a get-out-of-jail-last-resort when an arena spirals out of control. Croteam also leans harder into the game's absurdist humour here - Santa Claus appears in a snowy level with Christmas music playing during battle, and the AI companion Netrisca's mission briefings contain jokes about game design itself. It's genuinely funny in a way that makes the carnage feel intentional rather than gratuitous. Most reviewers and the Steam community broadly agree that The Second Encounter represents the sharper, more confident version of this formula. A few honest caveats. The co-op modes - up to 16 players across campaign, Survival, Coin-Op, and Beast Hunt - are where these games historically shone brightest, but the online deathmatch scene went quiet years ago, so competitive multiplayer is functionally dead. The single-player campaign in The First Encounter runs roughly six hours including secrets; The Second Encounter pushes that further with three distinct world environments and over 130 secrets to find. Neither game will challenge you narratively, and if you need a cover system, a reload animation, or any acknowledgment that tactical restraint exists, these are genuinely the wrong games. The AI is simple by design, and that simplicity is the point - enemy behaviour is less about intelligence and more about volume, formation, and timing. Burnout is real if you binge both campaigns in one sitting. The Double Pack makes most sense as the definitive way to experience these two chapters in order, on PC, with the Serious Engine 3 visuals that still read clearly on modern hardware. Owners of both games also gain access to Serious Sam Fusion, a hub that lets you play the two encounters as a unified campaign with further engine improvements. That is a meaningful bonus for anyone who falls for the loop and wants more.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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