Home / Games / Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is a visually upgraded and fully Steam supported remake version of the original high-adrenaline single-play and 16-player co-operative arcade-action FPS which was Gamespot's Game of the Year 2001 and which scored overall of 87% on Metacritic!
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “Fast horde combat with weapon variety” (39 of 87 reviews) and “Great remaster with vibrant levels” (11); the most common complaint is “Repetitive gameplay with limited enemy variety” (6). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-10-22 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
39 of the 87 reviews raise this.
“I have been playing FPS games ever since Wolfenstein first game out. Have loved them all. Doom, Quake, Duke, Half-Life, and the list goes on and on. At the ripe old age of 65, I thought I had pretty much played every…”
11 of the 87 reviews raise this.
“+ Looks great for a remastered cheap antique; + Too short to get completely down the neck with its repetitiveness (~6 hours); + Has a greatly customizable coop mode; + Some fun and borderline cute enemies like the gnaar…”
“I don't know why Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is still available on Steam, but Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter isn't. Yeah, you can buy the "non-HD" version of both, but the HD versions are vastly superior,…”
“It's a good rmaster of the good game.”
6 of the 87 reviews raise this.
“+ Looks great for a remastered cheap antique; + Too short to get completely down the neck with its repetitiveness (~6 hours); + Has a greatly customizable coop mode; + Some fun and borderline cute enemies like the gnaar…”
“This game is made for a very particular niche. But I played this game knowing EXACTLY what I wanted, and I got it. Big, open arenas with waves of monsters to gib. I've been begging my friends to pick this up so I can…”
5 of the 87 reviews raise this.
“Good shooter with an outlandish protagonist. Love the voicelines and gameplay! 8/10.”
“Umc umc umc umc THIS GAME HAS BEST EGYPTIAN BANGERS!”
“i mean i never played the originals growing up i mean the first encounter n the second encounter i did play serious sam 2 on the original xbox if i was aware of the first encounter 1n2 we're released on original xbox i…”
3 of the 87 reviews raise this.
“+ Looks great for a remastered cheap antique; + Too short to get completely down the neck with its repetitiveness (~6 hours); + Has a greatly customizable coop mode; + Some fun and borderline cute enemies like the gnaar…”
6 of the 87 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“This game is pure suffering and I would never play it ever again. Thank you Neko”
“+ Looks great for a remastered cheap antique; + Too short to get completely down the neck with its repetitiveness (~6 hours); + Has a greatly customizable coop mode; + Some fun and borderline cute enemies like the gnaar…”
“Fans of this game will tell you that it's not just pressing S and M1 and then you play the game and it's mostly pressing S and M1”
Counted across 87 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 93.0% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“Samuel always took his fragging very seriously as this first volume in his saga can well attest to. Relive the old glory days eradicating those who'd eradicate you and presumably the rest of us if you didn't eradicate them first.”
— a player, Steam review · 20 hrs played“I can still hear the voices of those suicide bombers coming towards me. Peak experience. 10/10 would recommend”
— a player, Steam review · 3 hrs played“It's time to get Serious. Serious Sam that is. One of the great shooter classics from the early 2000s, it's still a blast all these years later. We held a New Years LAN party last year, and everyone installed SSHD and we played all the way through in co-op. What a blast.”
— a player, Steam review · 3 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-10-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-10-23). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Serious Sam: The Third Encounter - Official Teaser
24 years after The Second Encounter, the story finally moves forward. Serious Sam: The Third Encounter picks up where The Second Encounter left off, bringing classic arcade FPS action to bold new worl
Serious Sam is Back, Baby! Enter the Shatterverse
Hey folks, It's a massive day for everyone at Croteam and Devolver Digital because we get to announce a brand new partnership with Behaviour Interactive, who are working on the next installment of the
SERIOUS SAM COLLECTION goes physical for Nintendo Switch!
Special Reserve Games has teamed up with Devolver Digital and Croteam to create outstanding physicals! This is a PREORDER for a physical product. Estimated shipping date is NOVEMBER 2022. At the heart
SSHD TFE Hotfix is available now
Hey guys and girls! The unfortunate certificate issue has been fixed and a small update is available now. If your game hasn't updated automatically, please go ahead and restart Steam and enjoy Serious
Serious Sam 4 is launching August 2020, pre-orders are open now
Hey everyone! I'm pretty sure many of you have already seen what's up by today, but here's a breakdown. Serious Sam 4 is launching this August, and pre-orders are open now. You can get your hands on a
Games like Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Serious Sam Classics: Revolution
87.5% · 1,411 reviews
shares Remake, Classic, Gore, Old School
Serious Sam 3: BFE
86.1% · 8,431 reviews
shares Aliens, Online Co Op, Gore, Old School
Serious Sam II
87.7% · 4,066 reviews
shares Classic, Online Co Op, Gore, FPS
Serious Sam Classic: The First Encounter
94.8% · 1,343 reviews
shares Classic, Gore, Old School, FPS
Serious Sam Classic: The Second Encounter
94.4% · 655 reviews
shares Classic, Gore, Old School, FPS
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
79.6% · 3,847 reviews
shares Remake, Classic, Aliens, Gore
Shadow Warrior Classic Redux
88.5% · 2,328 reviews
shares Remake, Classic, Gore, Old School
Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (beta)
91.9% · 2,113 reviews
shares Classic, Online Co Op, Gore, FPS
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Action, Indie |
| Player tags | FPS · Action · Shooter · Co-op · Gore · Multiplayer · Comedy · Online Co-Op · Classic · First-Person · Old School · Indie (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · Shared/Split Screen PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op · Shared/Split Screen Co-op |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish - Spain, Russian |
| Achievements | 35 |
| Official site | http://www.croteam.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
OS *: Windows XP w/SP1 or newer Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3+ Ghz or AMD Athlon64 3500+ Memory: 1 GB Graphics: nVidia GeForce 7600, ATI Radeon X1600 (Shader Model 3.0 Highly Recommended) DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2009 Edition or newer