GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Alien Rage - Unlimited vs Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

Alien Rage - Unlimited is an FPS game from CI Games (2013) while Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is an FPS game from Croteam (2009).

Alien Rage - Unlimited

2013 · CI Games

5.8GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Mixed

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

2009 · Croteam

7.5GamingPickz Score

$14.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Steam files Alien Rage - Unlimited under FPS. In contrast, it files Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter under FPS.

Alien Rage - Unlimited

Unleash a fury of powerful weapons as you blast your way through armies of Alien forces hell-bent on taking you down! Battle through 14 intense levels and prepare to face a barrage of beastly-sized bosses that will test your every skill. Each of your 10 weapons comes with two firing modes and you’ll need all of them!

Description from its Steam store page

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!

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Alien Rage - UnlimitedSerious Sam HD: The First Encounter
GamingPickz Score5.8/107.5/10
Steam ratingMixed (68%, 3,581)Very Positive (93%, 8,940)
Critic aggregate52/10068/100
Price$19.99$14.99
Install size
Steam Deckplayableplayable
Released20132009
DeveloperCI GamesCroteam

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Alien Rage - Unlimited vs Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Alien Rage - UnlimitedFPS game
    Serious Sam HD: The First EncounterFPS game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Alien Rage - UnlimitedAction, Shooter, FPS
    Serious Sam HD: The First EncounterFPS, Action, Shooter

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Alien Rage - UnlimitedScore 5.8 · 68% on Steam · 52 critic
    Serious Sam HD: The First EncounterScore 7.5 · 93% on Steam · 68 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Alien Rage - Unlimited3,581 reviews
    Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter8,940 reviews

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Alien Rage - Unlimited$19.99
    Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter$14.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Alien Rage - UnlimitedPlayable
    Serious Sam HD: The First EncounterPlayable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter takes 2 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Alien Rage - Unlimited and Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter (GamingPickz Score 7.5)
  • The cheaper right now: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter ($14.99)
  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter (8,940 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

ActionShooterFPSFirst-PersonSci-fiMultiplayerSingleplayerAliens

Where they differ

Alien Rage - Unlimited is also

ViolentArcade

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is also

Co-opGoreComedyOnline Co-OpClassicOld School

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Alien Rage - Unlimited is demanding, for players who want a challenge. Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is demanding, for players who want a challenge.

System requirements, side by side

Alien Rage - UnlimitedSerious Sam HD: The First Encounter
Minimum GPUnVidia GeForce 7600
Minimum CPUIntel Pentium 4 3+ Ghz
Minimum RAM1 GB
Install size

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Alien Rage - Unlimited · Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Alien Rage - Unlimited and 1 for Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Close to Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

Common questions

How different are Alien Rage - Unlimited and Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter in scope?

Alien Rage - Unlimited has drawn 3,581 Steam reviews. Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter has drawn 8,940 Steam reviews.

Is Alien Rage - Unlimited or Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter rates higher (7.5 to 5.8). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Alien Rage - Unlimited or Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter?

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is cheaper right now at $14.99, against $19.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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