Every Serious Sam game, ranked
All 4 Serious Sam games we hold, spanning 2009 to 2020: 4 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 69,473 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Serious Sam 3: BFE (GamingPickz Score 7.5), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter (2009) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: Serious Sam II gives the most score per dollar right now.
The Serious Sam games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 4 games, plotted rather than listed. The two axes below are the ones the ranking is built from, so a game sitting high and right is a game the formula placed near the top. Change either axis to see the field a different way. Where we hold a publisher wordmark, the game is drawn as its mark rather than a dot.
4 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 4 games rather than the full 0 to 100 scale, because a filtered list shares a narrow band and would otherwise sit in one corner. End values are marked. A point on the left edge is the lowest of thesegames, not a low score.
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.
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.
4 best Serious Sam games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Serious Sam 3: BFE
Best for: Playing through with a friend online
7.5GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceSerious Sam 3: BFE at a glance Released 2011 Studio Croteam Player sentiment 88% positive of 28,656 Critics 72/100 Price $29.99 Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 88% shrinks to 87.9 on 28,656 reviews, then blends with the 72 critic aggregate, giving 7.5.
What the data supports- Cloud saves and cross-platform play, so progress follows you between machines.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 88 against 72. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
Serious Sam II at a glance Released 2012 Studio Croteam Player sentiment 90% positive of 14,188 Critics 74/100 Price $9.99 Steam Deck verified Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 90% shrinks to 89.8 on 14,188 reviews, then blends with the 74 critic aggregate, giving 7.5.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 90 against 74. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- 3
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
Best for: Players who trust other players over critics
7.5GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceSerious Sam HD: The First Encounter at a glance Released 2009 Studio Croteam Player sentiment 93% positive of 8,940 Critics 68/100 Price $14.99 Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 93% shrinks to 92.6 on 8,940 reviews, then blends with the 68 critic aggregate, giving 7.5.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 93 against 68. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Serious Sam 4 at a glance Released 2020 Studio Croteam Player sentiment 83% positive of 17,689 Critics 68/100 Price $39.99 Steam Deck verified Install size 42 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 83% shrinks to 83.0 on 17,689 reviews, then blends with the 68 critic aggregate, giving 7.1.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 83 against 68. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Serious Sam game we can score is Serious Sam 3: BFE at 7.5. The lowest is Serious Sam 4 at 7.1, a 0.4-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.
How the series scored over time
GamingPickz Score against release year, 2009 to 2020. It has held roughly steady across the years.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: Serious Sam II at $9.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Serious Sam II, the most GamingPickz Score per dollar in the series at its current price.
On a Steam Deck
Valve's own Deck compatibility rating for the Serious Sam entries on Steam:
- Verified: Serious Sam II, Serious Sam 4
- Playable: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
Platforms across the series
Where the 4 Serious Sam games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 4 of 4 |
The Serious Sam series, game by game
Every Serious Sam game we hold, in release order. Each description is the game's own, from Steam where it has a listing and Wikipedia for the older entries, never ours.
- 2009
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! (Steam)
Plot
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 forces commanded by the alien overlord Mental. Humanity was pushed back from Alpha Centauri to the Solar System and eventually Earth , where it faced its eradication. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Serious Sam: The First Encounter received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic , which calculated a weighted average rating of 87/100 based on thirty-one critic reviews. Several critics described the game as a return to older first-person shooters like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D as the genre had since become more story-focused, as in Half-Life . John Bye ( Eurogamer ), Dave Woods ( PC Zone ), and… (Wikipedia)
- 2011
Serious Sam 3: BFE is a prequel to the original indie fast action FPS and Game of the Year sensation - Serious Sam: The First Encounter! (Steam)
Plot
Serious Sam 3: BFE serves as a prequel to Serious Sam: The First Encounter and depicts the events on Earth before Sam's journey into the past. Prior to AD 2060, humanity had slowly begun uncovering artifacts and ruins left behind in ancient times by the Sirians, the famous and long-thought extinct race from the planet Sirius. Unfortunately, Mental has chosen this time to turn his attention upon Earth. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Serious Sam 3: BFE received "mixed or average" reviews. Eurogamer gave the game a 7 out of 10, praising it for what Duke Nukem Forever failed to deliver, however criticizing the redundancy of the title's gameplay compared to its previous iterations in the series. Game Informer rewarded the game a score of 7. (Wikipedia)
- 2012
Serious Sam II is a shot of adrenaline to the hearts of first-person shooter fans across the world. This is serious! (Steam)
Plot
Following Serious Sam: The Second Encounter , the exiled Sirian Great Council is observing the efforts of the soldier Sam "Serious" Stone (voiced by John Dick) to track down and defeat the alien overlord Mental. Believing Sam is the only one capable of achieving this, they summon him and task him with retrieving the five pieces of the Medallion of Power, an ancient artefact that is solely able to make Mental vulnerable. The pieces, indestructible and… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Serious Sam II received "mixed or average reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic , which calculated weighted average ratings of 74/100 for the Windows version and 72/100 for the Xbox release. Jason D'Aprile said on G4 that it was an improvement over its predecessors, citing fun in the unadulterated action, despite it presenting smaller battles with higher difficulties than its predecessors. GameSpy 's Justin Leeper said… (Wikipedia)
- 2020
Serious Sam 4 reignites the classic FPS series in a high-powered prequel loaded with an explosive arsenal, intergalactic carnage, and perfectly timed one-liners. (Steam)
Plot
An unknown amount of time before the events of Serious Sam 3: BFE , a massive portal opens in Tunguska , Russia which serves as a bridgehead for Mental's forces to invade Earth. As the whole planet scrambles to repel the alien invasion, a unit from the Earth Defense Force led by "Serious" Sam Stone is sent by General Brand to Rome to meet Father Mikhail, a priest who claims to have found some clues leading to the Holy Grail , which, according to him, is a… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Serious Sam 4 received "mixed or average reviews", according to review aggregator website Metacritic . The site calculated normalised ratings of 68/100 for the Microsoft Windows version, 65/100 for the PlayStation 5 port, and 57/100 on Xbox Series X/S. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received fair approval, being recommended by 38% of critics. (Wikipedia)
Serious Sam, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Serious Sam vs other series
How Serious Sam stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Serious Sam vs Crysis, Serious Sam vs Dead Island, Serious Sam vs Dishonored, Serious Sam vs Max Payne, Serious Sam vs Red Faction, Serious Sam vs Sniper Elite, Serious Sam vs Sniper Ghost Warrior, Serious Sam vs Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Serious Sam vs America's Army, Serious Sam vs Bright Memory, Serious Sam vs Homefront, Serious Sam vs Metal Gear, Serious Sam vs POSTAL, Serious Sam vs RAGE, Serious Sam vs Red Dead Redemption, Serious Sam vs Sea of Thieves, Serious Sam vs Shadow Warrior, Serious Sam vs Slime Rancher, Serious Sam vs Sniper, Serious Sam vs Squad, Serious Sam vs Thief, Serious Sam vs Z1 Battle Royale, Serious Sam vs Zombie Army
Common questions
How many Serious Sam games are there?
We hold 4 Serious Sam games in the catalogue, released between 2009 and 2020. 4 of them carry enough Steam data to rank; the rest are listed in release order below, including console-only entries with no Steam listing.
Which Serious Sam game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Serious Sam 3: BFE rates highest at 7.5. That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, computed the same way for every game, not our opinion. The full ranking is above.
What order should I play the Serious Sam games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2009 to 2020. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.
More franchises
Browse every game franchise ranked the same way, or head to the full grid.