Serious Sam: The Third Encounter Announced as Croteam Returns to Its Classic Shooter Roots

Devolver Digital and Croteam announce Serious Sam: The Third Encounter, continuing the storyline of the original 2001 and 2002 shooters on PC.

One of PC gaming's loudest heroes is preparing another comeback. Devolver Digital and Croteam have revealed Serious Sam: The Third Encounter, a new first-person shooter designed as a continuation of the original Serious Sam adventures. Rather than following the increasingly complicated chronology established by later releases, the project returns to the storyline of Serious Sam: The First Encounter from 2001 and The Second Encounter from 2002. Those games became cult favourites by rejecting the increasingly cinematic approach adopted by many contemporary shooters. Instead, they concentrated on enormous environments, ridiculous enemy numbers and weapons capable of turning entire armies into inconvenient piles of debris. The new game promises to preserve that philosophy while taking Sam into unfamiliar alien territory. According to the announcement, players will confront the forces of Mental on their own worlds, using returning weapons alongside new additions to the arsenal. Croteam is developing the project for PC, and a Steam page is available for wishlisting. However, development remains at an early stage, with no release window or confirmed system requirements. The teaser establishes the intended direction rather than demonstrating the complete game's quality or performance. The announcement is particularly interesting because Serious Sam occupies an unusual position in shooter history. Its original releases were deliberately old-fashioned even when they first appeared, favouring arcade-style combat over complicated storytelling. Returning to that formula could provide a welcome alternative to modern shooters built around progression systems and elaborate online infrastructure. Apparently Sam Stone has decided that the best way forward is to travel twenty-five years backwards and bring several thousand bullets along for the journey.