Serious Sam First Encounter
Melvina Kryder
Serious Sam: The First Encounter is a 2001 first-person shooter game developed by Croteam and published by Gathering of Developers. It is the first in the Serious Sam series. The game follows the soldier Sam "Serious" Stone, who is sent back in time to ancient Egypt in 1378 BCE to uncover information about the technologically advanced civilisation of the Sirians that could help humanity survive the attacks of extraterrestrial forces in the 22nd century. As Sam, the player traverses linear levels, either enclosed or set on open plains, and battles increasingly large waves of enemies with an expanding arsenal. During gameplay, the player can pick up new weapons and replenishment for ammunition and health, as well as review strategic information. In multiplayer, the game has two deathmatch modes and cooperative play for the single-player campaign.
Development began in 1996, after Croteam had moved away from creating games for the since-defunct Amiga family of home computers. Unable to afford a commercial game engine, the studio developed S-Cape3D alongside In the Flesh, a story-driven first-person shooter inspired by Half-Life. This concept was abandoned as Croteam's chief executive officer, Roman Ribarić, considered it not accomplishable due to the team's size. In 1999, he and programmer Alen Ladavac devised the name "Serious Sam" and a new narrative. Having little funding and no success in finding a publisher, Croteam turned to licensing out the engine (since renamed Serious Engine) and released a vertical slice as a demo in May 2000. The latter saw the game attain much popularity, especially after Erik Wolpaw interviewed Ribarić for the website Old Man Murray, and Croteam eventually signed a publishing agreement with On Deck Interactive, the budget-price games division of Gathering of Developers. After the division was shut down, Serious Sam was moved over to Gathering of Developers and released on 21 March 2001.
The First Encounter was followed up by Serious Sam: The Second Encounter in February 2002. Both games have been combined into one in several packages, including an Xbox port released by Gotham Games in November 2002. With the publisher Devolver Digital, Croteam developed a remake, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, that was first released in November 2009 and later brought to Xbox 360, Stadia, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. A virtual reality port of that remake, Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter, was released in March 2017.
Serious Sam: The First Encounter is a first-person shooter with an optional third-person perspective.[1][2] As Sam "Serious" Stone, the player traverses fifteen mostly linear levels.[1][3] Two of them are hidden levels.[4] Some maps are set on open plains while others are enclosed.[3][5] Several props, including torches that act as light sources, are destructible.[6][7] Large numbers of enemies of varying sizes attack Sam simultaneously with increasing difficulty.[1][5][8] There are nineteen enemy variants.[9][10] Several approach Sam in a straight line and others fire projectiles, incentivising circle strafing.[3][8][11] The Beheaded Kamikaze approaches Sam quickly and blows himself up once close enough.[3] Foes may appear, in waves or individually, as the player passes triggers within each level.[1][8] Others are hidden behind large structures like walls and hills.[12] All enemies emit sounds that aid the player determine their type and direction of attack.[1][12] Some spaces are arenas that need to be cleared of enemies before the player can proceed.[1][8] Certain rooms need to be unlocked by pressing buttons, pulling levers, or collecting and using keys.[1][5] Some levels feature bosses, many have hidden items and areas.[5][8]
The game contains ten weapons.[9][10] By default, Sam is equipped with a combat knife and a revolver with unlimited ammunition.[1][13] A second revolver enables dual wielding, and other weapons include a shotgun with a double-barrelled variant, Thompson submachine gun, minigun, laser gun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and handheld cannon.[1][2] Apart from the revolvers and shotguns, none of the weapons need to be reloaded.[14] The player may replenish ammunition and health, as well as acquire new weapons, via collectibles, though some act as triggers that spawn enemies.[3][11][15] Eliminating foes increases the player's score, which is tracked by a scoreboard.[11][16] The game includes quick saves and the ability to record gameplay demos.[8][16] A specialised interface provides information about encountered enemies, weapons, and locations, as well as statistics and strategic clues.[16][17][18] The player can choose from five difficulty settings, which affect the enemies' damage and count, as well as Sam's movement speed and fire rate.[6][19]
The First Encounter supports multiplayer via the internet and local area networks, as well as split screen for up to four players.[11][20] Deathmatch modes can be played on five dedicated maps, with the "Scorematch" mode valuing player performances by obtained score and the "Fragmatch" mode considering only the number of kills.[8][21] All single-player levels can be played in a cooperative mode that scales up the number of enemies alongside the number of players.[8][9]
Serious Sam: The First Encounter begins with recounting how humans in the early 21st century found buried artefacts of the Sirians, an ancient but technologically advanced alien civilisation, which enabled them to explore the universe at large. However, in 2104, they were attacked by alien forces commanded by Mental. Humanity was pushed back from Alpha Centauri to the Solar System and eventually Earth, where it faced its eradication. As their last hope, world leaders agreed to send the undefeated soldier Sam "Serious" Stone (voiced by John Dick) back in time using the Time-Lock, a Sirian device able to transport only one person.
Sam arrives in 1378 BCE, at the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari. His Neurotronically Implanted Combat Situation Analyzer (NETRICSA) seeks him to uncover knowledge about the life of the Sirians in ancient Egypt in the two centres of power: Memphis and Thebes. However, Thebes has been magically locked down since a riot instigated by Memphis rulers, wherein these rulers had stolen the sign of Amun-Ra, an item of great value but unclear purpose. NETRICSA guides Sam to retrieve four magical elements that would enable his entry into Thebes. He finds the first to have been removed from the temple of Thutmose I and instead obtains it at the entry of the tomb of Ramesses III, as well as the second at its exit. Sam continues through the Valley of the Kings, acquiring the third element in the Chambers of Horus and the fourth in a shrine at a nearby oasis.
Sam heads into Memphis and recovers the sign of Amun-Ra at the Temple of Ptah. In possession of the sign and four elements, he proceeds towards Thebes. The walk takes multiple days and he is forced to abandon most of his ammunition due to its weight. At the Avenue of Sphinxes, Sam enters Thebes through Karnak using the four elements and sets out to determine the purpose of the sign of Amun-Ra. In Luxor, NETRICSA uncovers that the sign had frequently been used in a Theban ritual to invite their deities, which no longer occurred after it had been stolen. NETRICSA leads Sam to the ritual place, where its rising obelisk activates and reveals itself to be a transmitter steering a spaceship to the Great Pyramid. Sam hurries there but is chased by Ugh-Zan III, the last warlock giant. Unable to defeat him, Sam quickly enters the pyramid and uses the sign of Amun-Ra to reach its top. He faces Ugh-Zan III again and kills him by activating the spaceship's tractor beam, which only allows entry to particular species. Finally, Sam boards the spaceship and takes off.
During the engine's development, they incorporated vertical camera movement akin to Duke Nukem 3D and later fully modelled 3D environments like in Quake. They paired these changes with hardware-based rendering due to the rise of 3D-accelerated graphics processing units (GPUs). The engine was optimised for low-end hardware with a proprietary physics implementation while aiming for large outdoor areas and for many enemies to be visible at a time. They implemented large quantities of projectiles using a "caching ahead system" that would calculate all possible collisions for a moving projectile a few seconds in advance. Collisions were approximated using spheres, which were easier to calculate and allowed for additional gameplay elements like multi-directional gravity.[27] Having a proprietary engine allowed Croteam to incorporate unique features, especially large numbers of simultaneously displayed enemies, which Croteam's chief executive officer, Roman Ribarić, said had been missing from other games of the time due to limiting technology, leading to less action-oriented games.[28][30] Dean Sekulić worked on the engine's optimisation and GPU compatibility, often being in contact with the technicians at GPU manufacturers like Matrox, Nvidia, and 3dfx to sort out issues.[22]
Croteam announced Flesh, a multiplayer first-person shooter, in September 1996, planning to release it in February 1997.[31] The name was later changed to In the Flesh, with the engine called S-Cape3D.[32] Ribarić and Davor Hunski designed all enemies, with the Beheaded Kamikaze and Sirian Werebull, which remained in the finished game, among the first elements to be created in 1996.[30][33] Dinko Pavičić joined Croteam during the development and created all characters' textures. Ribarić also worked on the game's sound design, initially having the Beheaded Kamikaze shout "banzai" while approaching the player, though this was later changed to a generic scream in case Croteam would be working with Japanese partners.[33] That scream is voiced by Ribarić, who recreated it from a stock sound effect.[34]
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