Serious Sam Is Getting the Sequel Fans Have Waited 24 Years For

After 24 years, Croteam and Devolver Digital are finally giving Serious Sam’s original story the sequel it never got.

Serious Sam is heading back to its roots, but this is no mere nostalgia trip. More than two decades after The Second Encounter, Croteam is revisiting the franchise’s original storyline, bringing back a chapter that has remained without a direct continuation since 2002.

Announced on October 21, 2026, Serious Sam: The Third Encounter will pick up after the events of the 2002 game, bringing Sam Stone back into the fight against his longtime nemesis, Mental. Developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital, the new instalment marks a return to a chapter of the franchise’s history that has gone without a direct follow-up for 24 years. In the intervening years, the series has ventured into new settings, experimented with different visual styles and explored new approaches to its established gameplay formula. Yet none of its subsequent entries has carried the original storyline forward. With The Third Encounter, Croteam is finally revisiting the events of The Second Encounter, giving Sam’s original adventure the opportunity to move beyond the point where it was left more than two decades ago.

The decision is an interesting one, especially considering how much the first-person shooter genre has changed since The Second Encounter. Serious Samhas never been particularly concerned with following the trends of its contemporaries, instead building its appeal around a formula that puts arcade action front and centre. Its battles are defined by their scale, with players regularly facing enormous enemy hordes across expansive environments, relying on an increasingly varied arsenal to survive the chaos. The series’ exaggerated creature designs, eccentric settings and irreverent humour have helped give that formula a personality all of its own.

Although later instalments have introduced new ideas and explored different visual approaches, the qualities that defined Serious Sam have remained central to its appeal. With The Third Encounter, Croteam has the opportunity to revisit those foundations while drawing on more than two decades of experience developing the series, bringing its original storyline into a new chapter without simply retracing the steps of its predecessors.

Alongside the announcement, the developers have released a first teaser, offering a short but intriguing look at the game. The footage begins inside a shuttle, where Sam appears ready to set off on another mission, with Mental once again looming over his journey. While the footage reveals very little about the gameplay, its artistic direction offers an interesting first impression.

Its vibrant colour palette and exaggerated character designs immediately evoke the cartoonish aesthetic of Serious Sam 2, a noticeable departure from the more grounded visual direction of some later instalments. The stylistic choice hints at a possible return to the series’ more playful, flamboyant roots, bringing back some of the visual exuberance that helped define its early identity.

The Unmistakable DNA of Serious Sam

For Serious Sam, returning to its roots would involve considerably more than bringing back familiar mechanics or revisiting the features most closely associated with the franchise. At its core, the idea is about reconnecting with the design principles, atmosphere and irreverent spirit that gave the original games their distinctive identity. When The First Encounter and The Second Encounter were released, the first-person shooter landscape was evolving, with many games placing increasing emphasis on cinematic storytelling, elaborate set-pieces and more structured experiences.

Croteam took a markedly different route. Rather than building its games around those conventions, the studio embraced the genre’s arcade heritage, reducing the experience to its most essential elements: fast movement, responsive gunplay and relentless waves of enemies. It was a deliberately direct approach, but one that found considerable depth in the way these elements came together.

The apparent simplicity of the formula belied the demands it placed on players. Encounters unfolded across large, open arenas, often filled with overwhelming numbers of enemies attacking from multiple directions. Standing still for too long could quickly prove fatal, while tackling each opponent individually was rarely an option. Players had to keep moving, manage their position and remain aware of everything happening around them, constantly adjusting their approach as the battlefield grew more chaotic. Combat was built around momentum and spatial awareness, turning movement itself into one of the player’s most important tools. Alongside Sam Stone’s larger-than-life personality, the series’ eccentric humour and deliberately exaggerated world, this approach helped establish an identity that extended well beyond its arcade-inspired mechanics.

With Serious Sam 2, Croteam pushed the franchise’s more eccentric qualities further still. The game adopted a markedly more colourful, cartoon-inspired aesthetic, taking players through an increasingly outlandish collection of environments and introducing a cast of equally unconventional characters. Its humour was more prominent, its presentation more flamboyant and its overall tone considerably more playful. It was a bold interpretation of the series’ identity, although one that proved divisive among fans who preferred the more restrained approach of the earlier games.

The instalments that followed explored different creative directions. Serious Sam 3: BFE moved towards a darker, more grounded aesthetic, bringing its presentation closer to the contemporary military-inspired shooters of its time. Serious Sam 4, in turn, sought to take the franchise’s trademark battles to a greater scale, with an increased emphasis on the number of enemies appearing simultaneously and the spectacle of large-scale encounters. Neither abandoned the foundations of the series: fast-paced shooting, vast enemy hordes and an arsenal designed to keep players on the offensive remained central to the experience. What changed was the way those elements were presented, with subsequent entries placing greater emphasis on scale and spectacle than on the surreal atmosphere and flamboyant visual character of the original adventures.

This is what makes The Third Encounter such an intriguing prospect. Its connection to the original storyline offers Croteam an opportunity to revisit the foundations of the franchise at a point when the series has accumulated more than two decades of creative and technical experience.

The question is not simply whether the studio can recapture the gameplay of its earliest releases, but whether it can bring back the sensibility that made those games so distinctive. That means understanding what worked about their uncompromising approach without treating the past as a blueprint that cannot be changed.

There is no reason why a new chapter should have to choose between the immediacy of the original games and the possibilities opened up by everything Croteam has developed since. On the contrary, the most interesting direction may lie in bringing those two perspectives together: preserving the speed, clarity and unrestrained energy that defined the early encounters, while using the studio’s accumulated experience to take the formula somewhere new. Rather than simply recreating what came before, The Third Encounter has the chance to show how the spirit of those original games can evolve without losing what made them special.

A Different Kind of Action Hero, a Different Kind of Shooter

Any discussion of what sets Serious Sam apart from other first-person shooters inevitably begins with its protagonist. Sam “Serious” Stone is an affectionate send-up of the larger-than-life action heroes who became icons of 1980s and 1990s cinema. Muscle-bound, armed to the teeth and rarely willing to pass up an opportunity for a wisecrack, even in the face of overwhelming danger, he embodies an exaggerated take on a familiar action-movie archetype.

The series makes little attempt to give Sam the introspection traditionally associated with more conventional protagonists. His appeal instead lies in his unapologetic bravado, irreverent humour and unwavering confidence, qualities that make him perfectly at home in a universe where the absurd is simply part of everyday life. Yet, for all the humour and larger-than-life antics surrounding its leading man, Serious Sam is much more than a straightforward parody of the action genre.

What truly defines the series is its approach to combat, built around a deceptively straightforward premise: overwhelm the player with enemies and leave them to find a way out. The enormous hordes that have become synonymous with Serious Sam are not simply there to provide visual spectacle or inflate the scale of its encounters. They are fundamental to the way the games are designed, turning each arena into a constantly shifting battlefield where awareness, positioning and quick decision-making are essential to survival. Rather than approaching combat as a succession of isolated confrontations, players must contend with multiple threats simultaneously, often coming at them from every conceivable direction.

Which enemies pose the greatest immediate threat? Where is the next opening to move through? How much room is left before the surrounding forces close in? And which weapon is best suited to the situation? These calculations are part of almost every encounter, unfolding alongside the need to keep moving, maintain a steady offensive and avoid being cornered. The result is a combat system that demands an almost constant balance between aggression and awareness.

Movement is not simply a way of navigating the environment; it is one of the player’s most important means of staying alive. Remaining in one place for too long can quickly prove disastrous, while a poorly judged manoeuvre may leave an apparently manageable situation beyond recovery.

This is ultimately what gives Serious Sam its distinctive approach to large-scale combat. The enemy hordes are not an end in themselves, but the foundation of an experience in which players must constantly adapt, manage space and make the most of their arsenal. The spectacle comes from the sheer number of threats on screen, but the challenge lies in understanding how to deal with them. It is this combination of unrestrained action and moment-to-moment tactical decision-making that has helped the series retain its identity across successive generations of first-person shooters.

Recognisable, Ridiculous and Deadly: The Enemies of Serious Sam

Another defining element of Serious Sam is its unmistakable bestiary. Across the series, Croteam has introduced a wide variety of creatures, many of which have become instantly recognisable to fans. Their importance, however, extends well beyond their appearance.

Each enemy is designed to fulfil a particular role in combat,influencing how players approach encounters and forcing them to constantly adapt their tactics. Fast-moving attackers put pressure on players by rapidly closing the distance, while ranged enemies threaten from afar, restricting movement and making it harder to find a safe opening. Larger creatures, meanwhile, can fundamentally change the dynamics of a battle, demanding more firepower and careful positioning to bring them down. This variety ensures that even encounters involving enormous numbers of opponents are not simply a matter of pointing a weapon at the nearest target.

Perhaps no enemy embodies the series’ eccentric identity quite like the Headless Kamikazes. Armed with explosives and accompanied by their distinctive, bloodcurdling screams, these creatures have become one of Serious Sam‘s most enduring trademarks. Their arrival can turn an otherwise manageable firefight into an immediate scramble for survival, forcing players to locate them and react before they get close enough to detonate. Their screams are particularly effective, functioning as an unmistakable audio warning that something dangerous is approaching, even when the enemy itself remains outside the player’s field of view.

It is a simple idea, but one that perfectly captures the ingenuity behind the series’ enemy design. An inherently ridiculous concept becomes a memorable gameplay threat through the combination of exaggerated character design, distinctive sound and a clearly defined combat role. The humour is an essential part of the experience, but it never comes at the expense of gameplay purpose. Instead, the two work together, giving even the most absurd creatures a meaningful place within the battlefield. That same principle extends throughout the franchise’s bestiary.

Beneath the apparent disorder of its largest encounters lies a carefully constructed interplay between enemy behaviours, attack patterns and positioning. Each new threat changes the way players must approach the fight, while the presence of multiple enemy types forces them to constantly reassess their priorities. The challenge is not simply to survive an overwhelming number of opponents, but to understand how they work together and use that knowledge to turn the odds in your favour. It is this combination of enemy variety, tactical awareness and unrestrained action that gives Serious Sam‘s trademark battles much of their lasting appeal.

A Serious Arsenal for an Unreasonable Amount of Enemies

If enemy hordes are at the heart of Serious Sam‘s combat, its arsenal is what gives players the means to fight back. Few elements are as closely tied to the series’ identity as its extensive and varied selection of weapons, which has always played a fundamental role in shaping the flow of its encounters. From the familiar dual revolvers and close-range devastation of the shotgun to automatic firearms and heavy-hitting rocket launchers, each weapon brings a different set of strengths to the battlefield. Their effectiveness, however, depends largely on the situation, the enemies standing in Sam’s way and the space available to deal with them.

The depth of the arsenal comes not simply from the number of weapons on offer, but from the different ways in which they can be used. A firearm that excels at clearing groups of weaker enemies may be considerably less effective against a heavily armoured opponent.

Likewise, reaching for a powerful weapon to eliminate an isolated target might be a poor use of ammunition when a much larger threat could appear moments later. Choosing the right weapon is therefore an important part of managing each encounter, requiring players to weigh immediate needs against the possibility of facing even greater opposition further down the line.

This constant interplay between firepower and decision-making gives the arsenal a role that extends well beyond its destructive potential. Players must learn to recognise which weapons are best suited to particular threats, switch between them as the situation changes and make effective use of their available resources. The relentless pace of Serious Sam leaves little room for hesitation, but that does not mean combat is devoid of tactical considerations. On the contrary, the ability to make the right choice under pressure is one of the elements that gives the series’ otherwise explosive encounters their depth.

For The Third Encounter, the arsenal represents another important part of the franchise’s legacy to build upon. Bringing back some of its most recognisable firearms, while potentially introducing new additions, would give Croteam an opportunity to preserve the familiarity of its classic combat while exploring further possibilities. The challenge will be to ensure that any new weapons complement rather than disrupt the established balance between enemy variety, encounter design and player choice.

The Beauty and Brutality of Serious Sam’s Worlds

The world surrounding Sam Stone has always been an important part of what makes Serious Sam recognisable. The series’ identity was shaped not only by its relentless combat, but also by the distinctive environments through which each adventure unfolded. The original games took players across ancient Egyptian ruins, monumental temples and vast landscapes, drawing on a setting whose architecture and scale gave the journey a character of its own. These locations provided a striking backdrop for the series’ trademark battles, setting the grandeur of ancient civilisations against the absurdity and sheer intensity of the hordes Sam was forced to confront.

Their contribution, however, went beyond visual identity. The changing environments helped give each adventure a sense of progression, while the contrast between expansive battlefields, enclosed spaces and quieter stretches influenced the pace at which players experienced the journey. Open areas offered room for the large-scale encounters that became a hallmark of the franchise, whereas transitions between locations could provide a brief change of pace before another confrontation began. This variation helped prevent the action from becoming monotonous, giving the battles a broader context and making the journey itself an integral part of the experience.

This is another part of the series’ identity that The Third Encounter will need to carry forward. The announcement points to new worlds and alien environments, suggesting that Sam’s next adventure will take him beyond the landscapes that featured so prominently in the original games. This opens the door to fresh visual ideas and a broader range of settings, but novelty alone will not be enough. Much of the appeal of the earlier instalments came from the way their environments combined distinctive architecture, a strong sense of scale and an atmosphere that made each stage feel like part of a larger adventure. The new settings will need to offer more than a change of scenery, giving each stage its own character while shaping the encounters that unfold within it.

When Will Sam Return?

Serious Sam: The Third Encounter is currently in development, with Croteam and Devolver Digital yet to announce a release date or provide a launch window. The game has so far been confirmed for PC via Steam, where players can already add it to their wishlist. No console versions have been announced,making PC the only confirmed platform for now.

The Steam listing also confirms single-player and co-operative play, with support for both online and local multiplayer. The latter is a natural fit for a series built around hectic encounters and overwhelming enemy numbers, potentially giving players the chance to take on Mental’s forces together. Exactly how these modes will be implemented, however, remains to be seen, as Croteam has yet to share further details about the game’s multiplayer features or broader offering.

For now, the developers are keeping most of the details under wraps, with more information expected in future updates as development progresses.

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