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Serious Sam

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"Turok?Duke?Freeman? All amateurs. I'm the only serious action hero around here!"

In days long past, the alien race known as the Sirians did battle with the alien overlord "Mental". Although many Sirians were killed, Mental was repelled.

In the 22nd century, Mental has returned, bringing with him a vast army that spacefaring Humanity fails to beat back. With Mental's forces pressing onto Earth, the decision is made to send a single elite back in time via rediscovered Siriantime-travel technology known as the "Time Lock" and defeat Mental in the past, thereby changing history in Humanity's favor. Sam "Serious" Stone is the (un)lucky man.

Armed with only a head-implanted AI and a self-replenishing revolver,Serious Sam battles through ancient Egypt inThe First Encounter, bringing down Mental's HUGE warlock Ugh-Zan III and finding a Sirian ship in the Great Pyramid, with which he heads for space.

Unfortunately, he collides with a "Croteam Crate-Bus" and crash-lands in Mayan-era South America, which is whereThe Second Encounter begins. Battling across South America, Babylon and medieval Europe, Sam brings down a wind deity, a cyborg giant larva and Mental's summoner before finding a second backup ship.

InSerious Sam: Next Encounter, Mental attempts to get retaliation on Sam by creating a pint-sized evil clone of Sam.

BySerious Sam II, Sam has finally made it to Sirius, where he is made to collect five artifacts to weaken Mental and set up the overlord's downfall. The final battle has yet to come, though.

The game series was praised for being a well-made throwback to old-skool shooters where the emphasis is on massacring enemy hordes instead of dueling small, smart squads.When we say hordes, we mean hordes, especially in those nice open expanses where you truly get to appreciate how much opposition Sam's up against - and, consequently, how much of a Badass he is.

In November 2009 and April 2010 Croteam released a remake of both halves of the first game calledSerious Sam HD. It features enhanced graphics, ragdoll physics, and various minor tweaks, but the gameplay is otherwise unchanged.

In February 2011, Croteam announced a more realistic-lookingPrequel calledSerious Sam III: BFE[1]. It came out 22/23 November 2011. It is set during Earth's final days attempting to repel Mental's invading hordes. Humanity doesn't yet know how to activate the Timelock, and Sam has been sent in with a team of EDFRedshirts to find a scientist who might know.Things go rather sour from there.

The series also spawned several spin-off games, released in 2011 to promoteBFE:

Tropes used inSerious Sam include:
  • A-Team Firing: The Sniper Rifle inTSE won't hit unless the player zooms. In the HD remake, it instead only deals half damage when unzoomed.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Sewer levels inTFE andII.
  • Action Bomb: The Headless Kamikaze, which constantly screams as it runs towards the player, despite having no head.
    • TNE includes a second version of the Kamikaze. This one still has his head attached, but he wears a strait jacket, a hood with a painted-on smiley face, and lugs a giant stick of dynamite on his back.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plothole:Second Encounter's openingCutscene was omitted from theHD remake, leaving you beginning the game standing underneath a burning spaceship wreck with barely any explanation as to what happened.
  • Alien Blood: Green is present in the original. Monsters with purple and yellow blood variety are added inII.
    • It is possible to change the blood effects from red to green to hippie (Enemies bleed fruit and flowers) in the settings menu.
  • Alien Sky:
    • The final level ofTFE
    • The South/Central America stages ofTSE
    • A lot of instances inII.
  • Alliterative Name: About all the player characters available to choose.
  • All Planets Are Earthlike:II.
  • Ancient Astronauts: The Sirians. Most evident inBFE, where you find theirhidden facilities beneath ancient landmarks, like the Great Pyramid and the ruined cities of Karnak and Luxor. The way their stuff looks would seem to imply that the Egyptians adopted their aesthetic.
  • ...And Show It to You: Ripping hearts out is possible inBFE.
  • Apocalypse How: Planet Kleer suffered from this with the severity of planetary extinction but the air is still breathable.
  • Arm Cannon: Biomechanoids inTFE,TSE, andBFE; Tank biomechanoids inII; Scrapjacks inBFE.
  • Art Evolution: Goes from looking like aDuke Nukem clone to a cartoony buff dude. InIII, he retakes the realistic path.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Every single enemy is dumb as a bag of hammers. Melee enemies will simply run at you and hit you, while projectile enemies will stand still and shoot at a very slow and inaccurate rate, not even trying to dodge your attacks, even thePainfully-Slow Projectile weapons. This is mostly done so they can throw hundreds of enemies at you at a time without straining system resources. Enemy AI is improved a bit inBFE, where enemies are more accurate, shoot their weapons faster, occasionally hide behind stuff, and can move out of the way of your projectiles.
  • Asteroids Monster: The Lava Golems.
  • Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Seen in one of theII cutscenes and the box art ofTFE HD.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Alcor-class warship and Mental Institution have weak points to shoot.
  • Author Avatar: The Croteam caricatures seen in the secret areas ofTFE andTSE. Not to mention they are brought back in3.
    • While more of a publisher than an author, Fork Parker, the financial director ofDevolver Digital, gets one as a multi-player skin in3.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Melee attacks inBFE. When in sufficient range of most enemies, pressing the melee button will cause Sam to pull off anawesomeOne-Hit Kill, like breaking a cloned soldier's neck, pulling the head off a kleer, stomping a hatchling spider, tearing a Gnnar's eye out, orripping a beheaded Rocketeer's heart right out of its chest. These moves, while awesomely gory, take a few seconds to pull off, leaving you vulnerable to the non-stopZerg Rush of enemies. Plus, all of the enemies that can be killed with melee can also be killed in one hit with the sledgehammer, which doesn't leave you vulnerable while using it.
    • The only enemy against which it's actually useful is the baby arachnoid, which instakills them, and actually has quite some range and lowexecution time.
  • Bad Santa:Ho, ho, ho, motherfucker!
  • Badass: Sam, taking down entire armies since 2001.
    • Badass Normal: He's an otherwise regular EDF trooper dragged into this mess.
  • Bag of Spilling: Sam loses all his items save for the basic pistol every time he finishes an episode. In Serious Sam, the Second Encounter, he has to gather up all the weapons no less than three times. InSerious Sam 2, Sam's health, armor, and extra lives are all reset to default at the end of each level, presumably so players won't have to worry about conserving them.
  • Beam Spam: Since the game loves to throw hundreds of enemies at you, and a lot of them shoot lasers (most prominently the minor biomechanoids), this will happen frequently.
  • BFG: The Cannon. Not aHand Cannon, a "technomagical"CannonCannon which fires uranium-filled cannonballs no less. Great for taking out bulls and bio-mechs, as well as theFinal Boss.
    • Really, almost all of Sam's guns besides the pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles / submachine guns count. There is: A grenade launcher withBottomless Magazines, a semiautomatic rocket launcher that never needs to be reloaded, a gigantic minigun, a 16mm sniper rifle, a plasma rifle, a laser gun that chews up enemies like a chainsaw through tapioca, and the aforementioned cannon.BFE also introduces the Devastator, an automatic shotgun with explosive rounds and a ridiculously oversized range of attack.
  • Big No: InTSE, after Sam discovers that Mental has already taken the Holy Grail.
  • Big Shadow, Little Creature: One of the secrets in The Pit level fromTSE.
  • Bilingual Bonus: InII, zombie stockbrokers speak Italian, zombie chaingunners speak German and finally bull soldiers and tank biomechanoids speak Croatian.
    • Also present inTFE andTNE in a stealth form. The word "Reeban" as in the Reeban fishes is pretty close in pronunciation to a Russian word "ryba", which means "fish". Ditto for the Peelah chainsaw.
  • Bittersweet Ending: InBFE,Sam ends up defeating the powerful Ugh-Zan IV and activates the Timelock, (thus traveling back in time forTFE) but Mental throws the moon at the Earth causing both to be destroyed.
  • Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The council fromII the brothers and sister appear to be from different racesand species.
  • Blackout Basement: A few rooms inTSE. One of them had the player fire at a switch to keep the room lit.
  • Blatant Item Placement: The scientists are throwing the items into the same time travel device you went into. In the GBA version, this utilized one of your weapons where when you press a trigger,a safe, bathtub or piano will be dropped on an enemy.
  • Bloodier and Gorier:HD (bothTFE andTSE) has a lot more plasma to spare. Parodied in one the trailers for the game showing off one of the alternate blood types. Put to "Sunshine and Lolipops".
  • Booby Trap:
    • Many items spawn enemies. Most notably, optional pills and small armor shards often trigger ambushes inSerious Sam I andII.
    • InTFE, in the Oasis level, there're two health pills. Grabbing one of them causes a large biomechanoid to spawn right next to you, but the other double subverts this in that it just causes a rapid-fire usage of the spawning sound.
    • Subverted in an instance inTSE, there's a pill that spawns another pill when collected. The pill trail eventually spawns a valuable item that generally causes theGenre Savvy player to open fire. InSerious difficulty, however, it double subverts this in that an enemy is spawned with that item.
  • Border Patrol:BFE hasa nasty surprise for those who want to wander off into the desert.
    • TFE andTSE make you slowly lose health and burn in the sun if you go too far out of open area levels.
  • Boss Dissonance: Mario type. Hordes of enemies (especially kleers) will mess you up, but the bosses are often easier due to the fact they are big, easy to hit, and have slow, easy to dodge attacks. Averted inBFE, where the difficulty between bosses and levels is more even.
  • Bottomless Magazines: The pistols and double shotgun have to reload, but all automatic weapons literally have bottomless magazines.
    • Averted for more weapons inBFE. The pistol, assault rifle,Devastator, and both shotguns need to be reloaded. Anything bigger does not.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall /Lampshade Hanging
    • InTFE, NETRICSA is pissed about Sam taking a shortcut to a valley, away from their main destination, just because he wanted to kill more aliens. She chastises the player for such action.
    • The entire plot ofTSE revolves around replacing the space ship you got inFirst Encounter. How did the space ship get damaged? At the beginning of the game, it crashes into a flying bus called "The Cro-Team bus" filled withcaricatures of the game's designers.
    • Sam frequently breaks the wall inNext Encounter.
    • When NETRICSA starts talking inII, Sam wonders why she didn't before, following by this reply:

"Increased game budget."

      • When fighting a boss calledZum Zum:

"This game is full of bugs!"

  • Breather Level: Sewers and a water-filled temple inTFE.
    • BFE has a few breather sections, if not whole levels.
  • Brick Joke:
    • A few secret ones betweenTFE andTSE involvingPinky.
    • Avery clever one inTSE involvesTime Travel. One of the phone booth conversations takes place between you in theSecond Encounter and you near the end ofII.
  • Bubblegloop Swamp: First two Magnor levels inII.
  • Bullfight Boss: Only the first bull enemy you encounter is a mini-boss. After that they becomeone of the most common enemies. Later you encounter a version withcannons mounted on their backs.
  • Cephalothorax: Gnaars.
    • Dum Dums inTNE.
  • Call Back: InBFE. Or ratherCall Forward, due toTime Travel. Echoing a sequence inTFE, a lone Beheaded Kamikaze comes running over a hill. After taking him out, Sam utters aBond One-Liner... only for a whole horde of them to come surging over that same hill.

Sam:Uh oh.

  • Catch Phrase: No particular phrase, but Sam's brand word "serious" pops up quite a bit.
    • TNE has a couple of one-liners which occur every time Sam fights the werebulls, no matter on which level he is.

Sam: Enough of the bull already.
Sam: Ole!

Oh, so you can turn things on now?

  • Difficulty Levels:TFE andTSE have one of the greatest difficulty difference in any FPS. Tourist difficulty is like disguised god mode whileSerious, especially with extra co-op enemies, may includeFPS hell elements and may leave you wondering if it can be completed without god mode or not. In Mental mode, enemies are invisible unless they're attacking. This includes melee enemies. And you will still run out of ammo long before you have killed all the mobs. Good luck with that.
  • Disco Dan: Dancing Denzell and Groovy Gregory characters.
  • Disc One Nuke:
    • The Rocket Launcher, which is found at the very start of each game if you take your time to explore the first level.
    • The Flamethrower and Sniper Rifle can also be found at the start of each chapter inTSE.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: The medallion inII.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Picking up a mere 1HP pickup might trigger an ambush withHORDES of enemies. This game is totally not friendly toMunchkins.
    • A secret rocket festival secret on aTSE level, The Pit, had aSchmuck Bait 100HP bonus which spawned not just one Major Biomechanoid, but a whole bunch of these. Good luck dodging their missiles without losing what you got as a secret.
  • The Dragon: Ugh-Zan III to Mental inThe First Encounter.
  • Drop the Hammer: Sam's melee weapon inBFE is a sledgehammer.
  • Dummied Out: The Laser Turret inII is seen during one of the cutscenes. It didn't make it to game.
    • A Gnaar Voodoo Doll graphic would be seen in the same game as well, right as soon as you explore its' .gro files.
    • In a similar fashion toDuke Nukem 3D, Croteam once planned to include pipebombs inTFE, which apparently were nothing more than the grenade launcher ammo thrown separately from the main ammo. After so many years, the weapon concept finally gets defictionalized and makes its' actual debut inBFE as the C4 explosives.
  • Earthshattering Kaboom:Earth gets destroyed at the end ofBFE, by nothing short of Mentaldropping the moon on it.Sam made it through the timelock though, and may be able toSet Right What Once Went Wrong.
  • Easier Than Easy: Tourist difficulty.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower: In Serious Sam 3, you'llget a jetpack during the final boss fight.
  • Elite Mooks: Pretty much every enemy type has an Elite Mook version. Some examples include:
    • The Beheaded Rocketeers have the Red-Shirted Rocketeers that fire out five shots at a time instead of one.
      • There's also the Zorg; while they are still disposable cannon fodder, they are basically Beheaded Rocketeers except twice as good in every way. Twice as durable, fire two projectiles at a time instead of one, said projectiles do twice as much damage, and they travel twice as fast.
    • The Gnaars have the female Gnaars, which are bigger and have more health.
    • The Arachnoid Juveniles have the Arachnoid Adults, which are also bigger and have more health.
    • The Biomechanoid Minors have the Biomechanoid Majors, which havemuch more health, are bigger, and fire missiles instead of energy beams.
    • Fiendian Demon Reptiloids inThe Second Encounter arejust like Aludran Reptiloids... except they are twice as tough, deal twice as much damage, and their projectiles travel twice as fast.
  • Emergency Weapon: Knife, P-Lah chainsaw and Schofields inTFE andTSE (except with the second being actually absent inTFE).
    • II andBFE turn the amount of emergency weapons up to three: the first offers the redesigned P-Lah, Zap Gun and Colt Anacondas, while the second has sledgehammer,Desert Eagle and, at a later time,Sirian Mutilator.
  • Empty Room Until the Trap: All over the damn place.
  • Enemy Summoner:Mordekai The Summoner; Giant spiders and Spawner enemies inII.
  • Everybody's Dead, Dave:BFE wastes no time in offing everyRed Shirt that shows up, but by the end of the game,everyone except Sam, includingQuinn andvery likelyHellfire is dead. And we do meaneverybody.
  • Every Ten Thousand Points: It's a rare example of seeing it in a first-person shooter, especially in a series made after the year 2000. Getting lots of points in XBOX version ofSerious Sam and both versions ofII will award you extra lives. They also reappear inBFE, but only during the coop sessions.
  • Everything Is Worse With Dinosaurs: T. Wrecks, a Biomech with a T-Rex head, in Serious Sam II.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: Sam remarks about this after killing the first zombie monkey to appear inTNE. Same after destroying the first wave of them during the entire game.

Sam:It's been a while since I haven't spanked a monkey.
Sam:You know, studies show that games with monkeys in them... are 30% more fun.

  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Par for the course for the genre, althoughSerious Sam II surprisingly averts this, as some of the levels are sparsely populated with friendly natives who cheer you on, give you powerups, and even sometimes act as helpful NPC allies in combat.
  • Evil Laugh:
    • InTFE, Ugh Zan III does an evil laugh after managing to stomp the player and when he first appears.
    • Kleerofski inII has an even more maniacal evil laugh.
  • Expy: New enemies Scrapjack and Khnum inBFE bear a resemblance toDoom'sMancubi and Hell Knights, both in appearance and attacks. The Cloned Soldiers also bear a resemblance in fighting style to the zombiemen, being disposable and weak humanoid enemies with hitscan weaponry.
  • Exploding Barrels:II. They don't do much damage.
  • Fireballs: Many enemies fire them, though they seem to be favored byGiant Mook types in particular, including the Aludran Reptiloid, Highlanders from theFirst Encounter, Fiendian Reptiloid Demons and Aludran Reptiloid, Highlander's Brides inThe Second Encounter, big lava Golems in both games, andBFEs new enemies, the Khnums.
  • First Person Ghost: You can't see Sam's feet if you look downward.
  • Flunky Boss:
    • TFE has Ugh-Zan III on the first half of the battle.
    • TSE has Kukulchan the Wind God and Mordekai the Summoner.
      • In a fashion similar to the above game,TNE puts the first and the last bosses into this trope, which are Diabloid andSirian Overlord.
    • Kwongo, Zumzum, Prince Chan and Mental Institution inII.
    • Ugh-Zan IV inBFE.
  • Floating Continent: These are floating above the surface of the planet Ellenier inII.
  • Futuristic Pyramid: The final boss ofII.
  • Gatling Good: The Minigun, the Chaingun and the Laser Gun. This gets turned against the player inBFE, where GatlingSentry Guns will target Sam if he enters their view. Funnily enough, he obtainshis Gatling gun from one of these sentries.
  • Genre Savvy: Sam exhibits this at times.
  • George Lucas Throwback: To the old-school first-person shooters.
  • Giant Eye of Doom: Picking up a lone pill at one point inTSE spawns a "secret watcher", a pair of giant eyeballs staring at you. Shooting them reveals that they're connected to a Giant Kamikaze.
  • Giant Mook: Many, from adult Arachnoids to the Biomechanoids toBFE's Scrapjacks and Khnums.
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Ugh-Zan the Third shows up on the last level, the only warning being Sam's AI warning him about seismic activity.
    • Ugh-Zan IV's appearance is equally random.
  • Glass Cannon: Some enemy cannons take only a few hits to kill but will do massive damage to Sam.
  • Golem: Lava Golem.
  • Guide Dang It: The sniper rifle and the lasergun make their return inBFE, although without knowing all the secret places, one might think they never ever appear in this game at all. The ammunition to these two guns is extremely rare, not to mention that at one point, it shows up as a regular, non-hidden item...
  • Gun Accessories:BFE's new assault rifle, subbing in for the Thompson seen in previous games, features a holographic sight. It's ideal for picking off small enemies at range.
  • The Goomba: Gnaars and Rocketeers inTFE andTSE. Funnily enough, there's a Gnaar inIIdressed asMario.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Pieces of medallion inII.
  • Gratuitous Latin: Subverted with Mordekai, who speaks "utter crapin Latin" due to brain damage.
  • Guns Akimbo: Shofields, Ugh-Zan III, several enemies inTSE. Desert Hawks and Uzis inTNE.
  • Harder Than Hard: Serious and Mental difficulty.
  • Hailfire Peaks: The next-to-last stage ofTSE.
  • Healing Factor: Ugh-Zan III, which leads to thePuzzle Boss part of his fight. Also Sam on Tourist mode, albeit slowly.
    • The same goes forUgh-Zan IV inBFE.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Mental himself. The only thing we've seen of him in the whole series is a boney hand. In aspinoff.
  • Homing Projectile
    • InTFE andTSE, the alduran reptiloids, fiendian reptiloids and Ugh Zan III fires these.
    • InII, the number of enemy types shooting homing projectiles is bigger.
    • BFE, thankfully, has very little of this.
    • Sam officially gets his turn to shoot lock-on stuff inTNE, Homing Bullets and Heat-Seeking Rockets in particular.
  • The Horde: Mental's army of course! They're mostly made up of things like robots, zombies, clones, biomachines, war beasts, and genetically engineered species, but Mental's not above just recruiting primitive races and using their own primitive technologies (such as the Reptiloids, Arachnoids, Orcs, Zorg, and Atlantleans) to bolster his ranks.
  • Human Aliens: Sirians.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal
  • Idiot Hero: Sam inII
  • Immune to Bullets: Kukulcan the wind god, the first boss inSecond Encounter, can only be killed with explosive ammunition or lasers. Or the chainsaw, though the prerequisites for a chainsaw kill include having titanium testicles.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Kleer skeletons and their "two metal balls chained together" weapons. They're real tools, that are supposed to be thrown so that they wrap around a person's legs and trip them up, but instead they're always used as standard projectile weapons.
  • Improvised Weapon: Sam uses a conveniently placed pile of metal poles to turnUgh-Zan IV into a giant walking lightning rod.
  • Inescapable Ambush: Arena-type fights.
  • Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Present inII where they yield points.
  • Instant Death Radius: Huge Lava Golem, Ugh Zan III,Ugh-Zan IV, Alduran Reptiloid Highlander's Bride (with a HUGE instant death radius) and to some extent many medium-large enemies which have long-range main attack.
  • Interface Screw: The Witch-Brides of Achriman inBFE will usetelekinesis to slightly pixelate your screen, slow you down and then after a couple seconds, lift you into the air and throw you around.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: The invulnerability powerup.
  • Invisible Monsters:
    • Some Gnaars inTFE andTSE, especially at higher difficulties, are nearly invisible.
    • Mental difficulty makes every monster to constantly flash between invisible and visible.
  • Invisible Wall:II was quite a heavy offender. InTFE andTSE, there were invisible teleporters or jump pads which would lead back to area or nothing at all. However,II includes some in very uncomfortable positions.
  • Jungle Japes: M'Digbo.
  • Kill It with Fire: One puff of flame can ignite and kill human-sized troops, a constant stream can wear down hordes of enemies in seconds. If you're good at dodging, the low rate of ammo consumption and high damage over time makes the flamethrower one of the best weapons around. And in Mental difficulty, have fun with looking for flamethrower ammo ALL the damn time.
  • King Mook: The Aludran Reptiloid Highlanders and the Uber Lava Golem.
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice:TFE andTSE for the XBOX andII.
  • Last Ditch Move: Beheaded bombers and biomechanoids inTFE andTSE. Major biomechanoids have quite a high chance of hitting the player with that one.
  • Leap of Faith:
    • The black wall in one of the Egyptian tombs inTFE.
    • InTSE, palace of Courtyards of Gilgamesh level had a Leap Of Faith room.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Half of the penultimate stage inTSE and the entire planet Kleer inII.
  • Lighter and Softer:II was much more brightly colored and cartoonish than its' prequels.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Alduran Reptiloid Highlander, especially Alduran Reptiloid Highlander's Bride who is the fastest enemy inTSE. And one of the biggest.
    • Also, Sam himself, who can run at sixty miles per hour while carting around a minigun that's bigger than he is.BFE is not even afraid of showing him running with agoddamn cannon in his hands.
  • Losing Your Head: Beheaded zombies. Especially kamikazes.
  • Ludicrous Gibs:HD has this, plus you can carve up bodies with your knife if you want.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: The rockets fired by theBFE enemy Scrapjack are weak, but they firea lot of them. In one memorable instance in the final level, aroundeight Scrapjacks appear at the same time in an open canyon, and cover the entire area with rockets.
  • Macro Zone: Planet Magnor inII. Most notable in Giant Junkyard level.
  • Magma Man: Lava Golems.
  • Marathon Level:
    • "The Great Pyramid", "Karnak" and "Metropolis" inTFE
    • "Grand Cathedral", "The City of the Gods", "Ziggurat", "Courtyards of Gilgamesh" and "Tower of Babel" inTSE
    • "Mental Institution" inII.
    • Several later levels ofBFE can feel like this... but "The Guardian of Time" takes the cake.
      • Seventeen hundred enemies, followed by the final boss fight. This isn't a marathon, it's anIronman triathlon.
  • Mayincatec: South American levels inTSE.
  • Mighty Glacier: Ugh Zan III inTFE andhis father, Ugh Zan IV inBFE.
  • Missing Secret:
    • The demo level forTFE has a broken secret, but this was fixed or removed in the full game. However, if you play the same level in co-op, there is a secret that becomes unreachable because it closes before the first player can act.
    • Due to a few broken triggers, some secrets in Serious Sam - The Second Encounter don't exist but the secret counter still shows like they're there.
  • Monster Clown: The unicycling suicide clowns fromII.
  • Monster of the Week: Taken to the form of "Monster Of The Stage" inTNE. In a nutshell, some non-boss mooks will be exclusive not only on a certain episode, but on a certain level as well, unless they make theironly reappearance in The Lost Levels section. Several of these include Elephant Gunner, Wicker Man, Dib Dib Dum Dum and Phoenix Bomber.
  • More Dakka: Thompson/Uzis, Laser, the Chaingun and the Minigun.
  • Mooks: Oh boy are there mooks. There are literally thousands of mooks in any given game. They range from aliens, to wild alien animals, to alien mercenaries, to zombies, to robots, to clones, to biological war machines. Mental's got a lot of resources, apparently.
  • Mook Maker: Mordekai the Summoner inTSE. The Alcor Warship inBFE. It also shootslasers.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous
    • All 3 sizes of Alduran reptiloids who have 4 arms.
    • Ugh Zan III has four arms too.As does Ugh-Zan IV, though two of his arecybernetic.
  • My Greatest Failure: According to theoriginal backstory, Sam was the captain of the starship that drew Mental's attention to humanity and he threw himself headlong, even suicidally, into the fighting to try and atone.
  • Nerf: Inverted inTNE, where most of the guns have been boosted up significantly. For instance, the Shofield pistols have a 12-bullet clip compared to the Colts' 6-bullet drum and can shoot as fast as their3 counterpart. Rocket launcher, grenade launcher, flamethrower and Uzi pistols support at least two types of ammo, with one being the "original" mode and the rest being gimmicky. But what really takes the cake here isthe sniper rifle that takes down an Adult Reptiloid in two shots while zoomed. Needless to say, neither the original sniper rifle nor evenTNE's cannon had such power.
  • Neural Implanting: An AI, NETRICSA, is surgically implanted into Sam's brain.
  • No Fair Cheating: You can't get points at the end of the level when using cheats inII.
  • No-Gear Level:
    • InTFE, the player loses most of the ammo at the beginning of "Alley of the Sphinxes", save shotgun shells and cannonballs which is handwaved by having Sam being forced to drop the weapons and ammo due to weight in the desert in the level's introduction message. The XBOX port even disallows Sam to ride on a magic surfboard should only he arrive on the Alley.
    • After completing each chapter inTSE orII, you'll have only basic weapons remaining.
    • Happens inBFE at the beginning of "The Lost Temples of Nubia".
    • Partially occurs inTNE, which has predefined weapon sets at the beginning of each level, which means that whenever you find a secret place with a new weapon, you have to exploit itnow because you'll lose it by the end anyway. It gets more ridiculous betweenThe Three Halls of Harmony andThe Beast Beneath The Temple stages: on the first, you officially possess the cannon (it's not hidden anywhere), then it disappers heck knows where until the boss battle.
  • Noodle Incident: Mordekai apparently died after an incident involving "the Necronomicon, 20.000 pounds of ectoplasm and a mispronounced Latin proverb".
    • Ugh-Zan IV is actually the biological father ofUgh-Zan III thanks to an accident with an experimental time machine.
  • Non-Mammal Mammaries:3 actually provides a plausible explanation for these, regarding the Scythian Witch-Harpies, who have breasts despite being a bird-like species. The harpy's datafile indicates the breasts are non-functional, and are merely an evolved form of predatory mimicry for attracting primate prey.
  • Notice This: InSerious Sam III, ammo glows yellow, health red, armor blue, weapons green and key items purple. This was done to compensate the lack of spinning around mid air and sparkling in the previous installments.
    • Also available inTNE, even though they still float.
  • Oh Crap: Sam has a couple of these moments.
  • Ominous Pipe Organ: Theentire medieval episode is this.
  • One Bullet Clips: Present in3.
  • One-Hit Polykill: A zoomed-in sniper rifle shot inNext Encounter.
  • One-Man Army:Sam.
  • 1-Up: One of the pickups inII and in the XBOX version ofSerious Sam.
  • Our Orcs Are Different: Sci-fi orcs in this case inII. They have green skin and are in space suits.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: The Beheaded units deployed by Mental's hordes are reanimated Sirian soldiers, revived with a combination of magic and cybernetics (inBFE especially, where they have a robotic eye in the place of their head). They are extremely weak when compared to the average human, but unlike most zombies they still retain rudimentary intelligence (being able to use weak, basic weapons and obey orders) as well as move at a pace faster than a walk.
  • Oxygen Meter: Appears when starting to run out of air.
  • Painfully-Slow Projectile: The main reason rockets are not as effective at a range anymore inBFE is because most enemies have actually learned to move out of the way of them, which is easy since they're very slow. In addition, ninety percent of enemy projectiles count.
  • Pinball Projectile: The ammo from the cannon and grenade launcher qualify for this.
    • Next Encounter adds ricochet ammo for the Uzis.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Some mooks can be seen scaled down quite a bit while retaining their combat strength. One of the most memorable is a stampede of rat-sized bulls in TSE.
  • Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Expected, since the eponymous character is thought as a parody ofDuke Nukem.
  • Plot Coupon: The medallion inII.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Mental may count as this, since he makes mooks based off horror movies, like Curcubito the Pumpkin, lives in a building with Dark Vader and Lex Luthor, anddestroys entire planets by throwing their own moons at them. Also, when ordering helicopters for his army, he simply told his staff to make a fleet of "big mofos of helicopters".
  • Punch Clock Villain:The Beheaded Kamikazes, believe it or not.
  • Puppeteer Parasite: An odd case inBFE's "Technopolyps", which infest machines rather than people -- in this case,attack helicopters. The first time you face one,you lack weapons that can damage it and must use buildings to avoid it until you find aRocket Launcher.
  • Puzzle Boss
    • Ugh-Zan III inTFE, more so on the highest difficulty.
    • To some extent, Exotech Larvan inTSE.
    • Zum Zum, and Kleerovski inII.
    • Ugh-Zan IV inBFE.
  • Quad Damage: The Serious Damage powerup.

"Serious Damage!"

  • Rated "M" for Manly: Within the first five minutes of playingTSE, you'll be doingbullfighting with a pump-action shotgun. This only serves toset the bar for the rest of the game.
  • Recurring Riff:
    • InSerious Sam II a certain riff plays during battle music of Ursul Gardens, most of Planet Kleer levels and when getting a medal piece.
    • InThe First Encounter a similar melody plays in Oasis and Metropolis peace theme.
  • Red Shirt: Sam's squadmates are given just enough dialogue in the opening cutscene to make you think they'll at least play a minor role in the story, then are promptly killed off in the first level. Other than Tripwire, all other human allies that appear later in the game suffer similar "killed-as-soon-as-they're-introduced" deaths.
  • Remilitarized Zone: Planet Kronor inII.
  • Retcon:BFE performs one on theBackstory of the previous games. Sam was notchosen to go back in time.He was theonly guy left aliveand close enough to get to the Timelock,and took it upon himself to jump through.
  • Rewarding Vandalism: Most breakable objects inII contain a useful item.
    • Taken literally inTNE, Under the name of "Prohibition Bonus".
  • Ribcage Ridge: Lots of giant skeletons found in planet Kleer inII.
  • Roar Before Beating: Some of the bosses in3.
  • Rocket Jump: Though itnever worked in the original, it can result in excessiveSequence Breaking.
  • Rope Bridge: There's one in a level inTFE.It breaks if you try to cross it, conducing you to the next level.
  • Ruins of the Modern Age: Seen in some ofBFE's early levels, set in Cairo.
  • Sand Worm: These won't let Sam go into the open desert inSerious Sam III.
  • Save Scumming: In Hard,Serious and Mental difficulty, be prepared to use quicksave and quickload VERY frequently.
  • Schizophrenic Difficulty:TFE. In the harder difficulty settings, "Dunes", "Metropolis", "Alley of the Sphinxes" and "Karnak" are more challenging than rest of the levels.
  • Schizo-Tech: Kleer skeletons use old ball-and chain projectiles, inII, some enemies like centaurs use classic weapons, other enemies use weapons ranging from modern to futuristic. There is also magic involved.
  • Scoring Points
  • Screaming Warrior: The headless kamikazes.
  • Sentry Gun:
    • Cannon turrets inI andII.
    • Rocket and plasma turrets inII.
    • Minigun turrets in3.
  • Serial Escalation: This is done with the amount of bad guys onscreen at once. It's the most apparent inThe First Encounter and3.
  • Shifting Sand Land:TFE, most notably the "Dunes" level.
  • Short-Range Shotgun: Averted with the multi-barreled shotgun inII which has a decent range. The single shotgun inI and3 has slightly poorer range. Played straight however, with the double shotgun, which is basically a melee weapon, similar to itsDoom counterpart.
  • Shout-Out:
    • ToDuke Nukem. In fact, Sam's incarnation inTFE, at least on the package, looks like a black-haired Duke Nukem.
    • Another one is at the start ofTSE, in the form of a red phone booth (gold in the XBOX version), and its conversation.
    • One boss inII is called "Boss Hugo".
    • In the second level ofTFE and the XBOXSerious Sam, at one point a boulder drops down and starts rolling toward you. Sam begins whistling theIndiana Jones theme.
    • In the first level ofTSE, while crossing a rope bridge he whistles the Peruvian songEl Condor Pasa.
    • ToMonty Python upon picking up the chainsaw in Poland

"Oh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK!"

    • InII, near the beginning of the first level is adomesticated green velociraptor that can be ridden around like a horse.
    • InII in the penultimate level of the first chapter he can't get past a door and at one point screamsWILMAAA!.
    • Later on, before facing Prince Chan, the cutscene is highly reminiscent of an old Asian movie, including voice-dubbing not matching lip movements.
    • In the intro cutscene to the second level of the Kleer planet chapter inII, the famous"Warriors, come out to playyy!" scene from the film is recreated.
    • In the end of the penultimate chapter, Sam calls out to the alliance fleet about to attack planet Sirius "Are you with me?" Among the responses are "Acknowledged!", "Ready!", "Affirmative!","Roger!", "Rabbit!"
    • Shout-Out/To Shakespeare: InTSE after grabbing a crystal skull:

"To be or not to be - that is a serious question."

    • InBFE Sam can use Duke's Mighty Boot.
    • InBFE, after "scaring off" one of Mental's warships:
    • InBFE, after Sam meets the Arachnids for the first time, he whistles theSpiderman theme.
  • Silliness Switch
  • Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: Kamikazes, chainsaw pumpkins and pretty much any other enemy. Lampshaded inSecond Encounter, where the player's AI comments that she can "hear those familiar hooves coming" right before a fight with a bunch of hoofed Kleer skeletons.
  • Spider Tank: There are giant spider robots in 2 sizes inII.
  • Spikes of Doom: There are spikes here-there in bothTFE,TSE andII scattered around the game.

Sam:Spikes? I hate spikes!

  • Splash Damage: Comes from explosive weapons, as well as from the Kamikazes.
  • Sprint Shoes: Literally. Picking up special shoes allow Sam to move faster for a short period of time.
  • Story Overwrite: When end of level cutscenes inII show Sam walking through a battlefield, disappeared bodies have not only appeared again, but also they include enemies not fought in the said area. Also happens in the Dunes and Grand Cathedral cutscenes from the XBOX version.
  • Suddenly Voiced: NETRICSA inII.
  • Sugar Bowl: Ellenier inII. Although it's more of fairytale land.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:TNE has gnaars replaced with dum dums, the teethy green balls with two arms, similar to the ones you may find inII's M'Digbo. Not only they're not a big threat either, they also come up in two flavours: walking and flying (with the second codenamed asTwiddle Dum Dums). They can't be invisible, however...
  • Suspicious Videogame Generosity: Lampshaded throughout. At one point, a minor health pill runs away from you.Getting itspawns enemies.
  • Take That:
    • Serious Sam is brought back inII because "Some blondie guy was taking forever." This was back in2002, so it's not completely unwarranted.
    • TheBFE trailer ends with "No cover. All man.", one towards cover-based games.
    • The "Serious Sam Help Line" series of trailers forBFE contain lots of these; at one point the operator tells someone who wants regenerating health to "stop being such af****** p****".
  • Teleporting Keycard Squad: To the point of parody. Whenever you pick upanything, expect a legion of monsters to attack you. And if it's any level after the first, another one after that.
    • Also happens inTNE, but this time, complete with the items beingCrosshair Aware.
  • Tech Demo Game: One of the reasons of making ofThe First Encounter was to show off the capabilities of Serious Engine.The First andSecond Encounter even had a tech demo level.
  • Tempting Fate: "Are you serious?"

Sam:Why yes, as a matter of fact, I am.

  • Too Awesome to Use:
    • Averted by providing enough ammo for all of them except the chaingun. The chaingun's small, for its fire rate, supply is lampshaded in its description, where they warn you that it eats through all 1000 rounds in seconds.
    • Subverted inII, the ammo wasting rate is lowered considerably.
    • Played more straight with some of the weapons in3 due to less generous ammo.
  • Translator Microbes: NETRICSA actively translates other languages for Sam.BFE features both old tablets with hieroglyphs and modern Egyptian graffiti in some areas. Upon looking at them, subtitles will appear in the original language, but then slowly transition to English (or whatever set language).This is also presumably why Sam can talk to Gnaars, Mental and whoever else.
  • Turns Red:
    • Highlander (And highlander's bride) alduran reptiloids inSerious Sam 1 fire twice as fast when heavily damaged.
    • Major biomechanoids inSerious Sam 3 start to fire volley of rockets when damaged enough.
  • Updated Rerelease: The first two games were released in High Definition. Parodied in many commercials.
  • Variable Mix: Music becomes more intense when there are many enemies nearby.
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: Quinn inBFE.
  • The War Sequence:Many, many examples. Hell, you might as well rename the series "War Sequences: The Game". Major battles are often punctuated with a voice aptly screaming"WAAAAAAAAR!!!" right before the heavy metal music starts.
  • Wild Mass Guessing: Parodied at the end ofII.
  • Wutai: Chi Fang inSerious Sam II.
  • You All Look Familiar

Sam:Hey, didn't I kick your ass two rooms back?

  1. ↑Before First Encounter
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