Serious Sam: The First Encounter

Serious Sam: The First Encounter is a first-person shooter video game developed by Croteam and originally published by Gathering of Developers, first released on Microsoft Windows on 21 March 2001. It had been in development since 1996 and had videos showing its early gameplay in 2000. The First Encounter was originally developed by Croteam as a demonstrator for their engine, which was why some countries saw its initial release priced at less than half the price of other games in the genre. This game was followed by a sequel, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, released eleven months later.

The series follows the adventures of protagonist Sam "Serious" Stone and his fight against the forces of the notorious extraterrestrial overlord Mental, who seeks to destroy humanity. Sam travels through various locations in Ancient Egypt, fighting hordes of Mental's army with a wide arsenal of weapons including shotguns, a minigun, a rocket launcher, and a high-powered portable cannon.

Both The First Encounter and The Second Encounter were combined into one game and ported to the Xbox. High-definition remakes of both episodes were released in 2009 and 2010 on Microsoft Windows, and were later ported to the Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One video game consoles.