History VideoGame / SeriousSam

* DerivativeDifferentiation: Sam looks very similar to Duke Nukem, as presented in ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', sharing Duke's sunglasses, hairstyle, and a similar shirt. Starting with ''The Second Encounter'', Sam's hair is altered to look a bit more disheveled, his shirt became a T-Shirt, as well as dropping his glasses from the ensemble, though ''III'' would bring back the sunglasses, albeit altered to have red lens.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Implied to be the case with [[BigBad Mental]]. He's the [[LastOfHisKind last of a race of]] SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, and apparently [[GoMadFromTheIsolation went insane with lonelyness]], and gives him the desire to [[OmnicidalManiac wipe out all life in the galaxy every 100000 years.]]

* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper: NETRICSA, Sam's implanted AI, with the stupid blinking mailbox icon forcing you to go out of the game just to shut it up. It takes almost every opportunity to do this, not just every time you kill an enemy and pick up a weapon for the first time, but in response to countless environments throughout the game. And the information is always [[CaptainObvious something the player either already knows or can figure out almost immediately]] or [[ExcusePlot something completely unimportant]]. It doesn't help that ''Serious Sam'' is a game DESIGNED for FirstPersonShooter veterans who don't need ANY of this help, and can easily fool someone into recommending a game to an FPS newbie --[[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime bad idea]]. And it gets even worse in ''II'' when she becomes SuddenlyVoiced.

* RiddleForTheAges: Despite the franchise existing for 20 years by this point we have [[TheGhost never acutally seen]] [[BigBad: Mental]], we know he's the [[LastOfHisKind last of a race of]] SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, but what he looks like is a total mystery (though a common fan theory is that this symbol (looking like a stylized head with horns and tentacles) seen on Sirius is a crude representation of his face.

* AdjustableCensorship: There are options in the games to have enemies bleed flowers instead of blood.

* BlatantItemPlacement: The scientists are throwing the items into the same time travel device you went into.

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%% Unsorted examples follow.
%%

* SpiderTank: There are giant spider robots of two sizes in ''II''.
* SpikesOfDoom: There are spikes here-there in both ''TFE'', ''TSE'', and ''II'' scattered around the game.

* SplashDamage: Comes from explosive weapons, as well as from the Kamikazes. Notably, playing below Normal difficulty makes the player immune to his own splash damage. Notably, the AS-24 Devastator in ''BFE'' has a large radius of negligible damage.
* SpiritualSuccessor: Sam could be considered a sort of unofficial successor for Duke Nukem, just without all the sexual and toilet humor. The fact that the first game came out the same year as 3D Realms' "''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' will be done when it's done" announcement doesn't hurt, either.

** Serious Sam 2 is arguably what would happen if ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank'' was a first person shooter. Since both games have a cartoony art style, and both involve travelling to several different planets and killing similar alien and robot enemies.
* SprintShoes: Picking up winged shoes allows Sam to move faster for a short period of time. ''NE'' changes them to roller skates. In ''BFE'', Sam can just sprint at will.
* StartToCrate: Possibly parodied in ''TSE'' right at the start when the flying saucer Sam hijacked in the first game is damaged and forced to crash land by some Croteam Heads accidentally smashing into it with a crate bus.
-->'''Sam:''' I HATE CRATES!
* StockMoneyBag: One of the things that yield points in ''Serious Sam II'' is a stock money bag.
* TheStoic: Sam takes this to ParodySue levels. Even when he meets [[{{Kaiju}} Ugh Zan III]] his response is just a cheerful "you're a big'un, aint ya?"
* StoryOverwrite: When end of level cutscenes in ''II'' show Sam walking through a battlefield, disappeared bodies have not only appeared again, but also they include enemies not fought in the said area. Also happens in the Dunes and Grand Cathedral cutscenes from the XBOX version of ''Serious Sam Classic''.
* SuddenlyVoiced: NETRICSA in ''II''.
* SugarBowl: Ellenier in ''II'', although it's more of fairy tale land.
* SuperPersistentMissile: The magic fireballs thrown by Aludran Reptiloids will ''never'' give up trying to hit the player - they simply bounce off terain and buildings as they try to home in on the player.
* SuperStrength / SuperSpeed / SuperToughness: Sam can decapitate monsters with his bare hands, carry hundreds of equipment while sprinting at 30 MPH, and take hundreds of bullets, lasers, and rockets before going down.
** The melee animations on the Beheaded Rocketeers and Cloned Soldiers in ''BFE'' show Sam's SuperStrength quite clearly. If the player presses the melee button while Sam's holding the shotgun or pistol near a Cloned Soldier, [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom he kicks the armored soldier hard enough to launch him 10 meters away and through the air.]] If Sam has any other weapon out, he instead quickly [[NeckSnap grabs the soldier and snaps his neck]] in about a second, one-handed and with no mechanical leverage. If the player presses the melee button near a Rocketeer, Sam just straight-up shoves his hand through the poor bastard's chest and out his back, [[AndShowItToYou and rips out his heart.]]
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute:
** ''NE'' has gnaars replaced with Dum Dums, teethy green balls with two arms, similar to the ones you may find in ''II'''s M'Digbo. Not only are they hardly a threat either, they also come up in two flavours: walking and flying (with the second codenamed as [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Twiddle Dum Dums]]). They can't be invisible, however...
** A lot of ''II'''s enemies are just DenserAndWackier counterparts to the classic enemies from the other games, such as the Rhino Cybertoy to the Sirian Werebull, the T-Mech to the Biomechanoid, and Marcel the Clown to the Beheaded Kamikaze (Despite the fact the Beheaded Kamikaze is one of the few returning enemies, albeit with a new design.)
* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: Lampshaded throughout. At one point, a minor health pill runs away from you with a giggle. [[TeleportingKeycardSquad Getting it spawns enemies]]. Happens a second time in ''BFE'', with a small health bottle making a mad dash towards the open desert.
* TakeThat:
** Serious Sam is brought back in ''II'' because "[[VideoGame/DukeNukemForever Some blondie guy was taking forever]]".
** Also from ''II'', after going through a cave in the second level, NETRICSA urges Sam to hurry up because the place is shaking, after which Sam replies with this:
--> ''"I may shake, but I won't VideoGame/{{Quake}}."''
** Another minor one to Duke in ''BFE'' - During one level, after defeating a wave of enemies, Sam uses one of Duke's phrases: "Damn, I'm good!". After defeating another wave, he follows up with "Damn, I'm ''better'' than good!".
** The ''BFE'' trailer ends with "No cover. All man.", one towards cover-based games. It reappears (in Arabic) as graffiti in the game proper.
** The Cloned Rifleman/Shotgunner enemies in ''BFE'' seem to be making fun of "modern military shooters".
** The "Serious Sam Help Line" series of trailers for ''BFE'' contain lots of these; at one point the operator tells someone who wants regenerating health to "stop being such a [[SoundEffectBleep f*** p***]]".
* TeleportingKeycardSquad: To the point of parody. Whenever you pick up ''anything'', expect a legion of monsters to attack you. And if it's any level after the first, another one after that. It gets kind of humiliating when you get your ass kicked six ways to Sunday over a health pill that restores ''1 HP''. And it's a secret to boot! Also happens in ''NE'', but this time, complete with the items being CrosshairAware.
* TechDemoGame: One of the reasons of making of ''The First Encounter'' was to show off the capabilities of the Serious Engine. ''The First Encounter'' and ''The Second Encounter'' even had a tech demo level!
* TemptingFate: "Are you serious?"
--> Sam: ''Why yes, as a matter of fact, I am.''

* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Well, more like "Huge guy, really huge girl" but the female Alundran Reptiloid highlanders in the Second Encounter are much bigger than the males (110 feet tall to the male's 45 feet), as well as being powerful enough (they have about 6000 hp) to count as a BossInMookClothing. Luckily you only encounter one on normal difficulty and the fight is optional.
* ThreatBackfire: A Gnaar threatens Sam that he will be [[ExactWords mooned]]. Sam isn't impressed, nor is he when [[spoiler:Mental's daughter, Judy, reiterates the threat. Cue ''[[ColonyDrop the moon]]'' [[ColonyDrop falling from orbit]], prompting Sam to leap into the Timelock]].
--> Sam: ''[[PrecisionFStrike Oh fuck!]]''

** Some of the weapons in ''3'' due to generally less ammo pickups, encouraging varying weapons more often. Goes double for the Laser gun, as ammo for it can only be acquired in secret areas.

* TranslatorMicrobes:
** NETRICSA actively translates other languages for Sam.
** ''BFE'' features both old tablets with hieroglyphs and modern Egyptian graffiti in some areas. Upon looking at them, subtitles will appear in the original language, but then slowly transition to English (or whatever set language).
** [[WildMassGuessing This is also presumably why]] Sam can talk to Gnaars, Mental, and whoever else.
* TrappedInTVLand: A variation in ''II'': [[spoiler:Sam's love for bananas gets him trapped in Sirius, and he gets placed in a series of televised challenges for the pleasure of the Sirians... And the millions watching all over the galaxies]].
* [[DualBoss Trio Boss]]: ''NE''[='=]s Hydra boss has three heads: [[RocketsMissilesAndGrenadeLaunchers one fires rockets]], [[KillItWithFire one blows fire]], and [[FrickinLaserBeams one that shoots a laser]]. They have to be fought at the same time.
* TurnsRed:
** Highlander (And Highlander's Bride) Aludran Reptiloids in ''Serious Sam 1'' fire twice as fast when heavily damaged.
** Major Biomechanoids and Scrapjacks in ''Serious Sam 3'' start to fire volley of rockets when damaged enough.
* UpdatedRerelease:
** The first two games were released in High Definition to show off the capabilities of Serious Engine 3. Parodied in many commercials.
** ''The First Encounter'' and ''The Second Encounter'' got a second re-release specifically for VirtualReality users, most notably as a free-movement alternative to ''The Last Hope''.
** ''Serious Sam Fusion 2017'' not only serves as a hub for the current and upcoming main titles, but also brings ''TFE/TSE HD'' and ''3 BFE'' to the Serious Engine 4 with a lot of updates and changes.
* UtilityWeapon: Aside from ammo-efficient crowd control, the Syrian Mutilator in ''BFE'' can make large enemies hold still for a little bit, and even be used to make pull-assisted jumps. Very useful if you ''really'' have to get away from that pursuing Khnum right this instant.

* VideoGameFlameThrowersSuck: ''Very'' much on the "Flame" side. The Flamethrower in ''The Second Encounter'' deals a ton of continuous damage and passes through enemies, allowing you to easily ignite entire hordes if you get them bunched up. Very useful against a pack of Kleers, and even more so against Kamikazes since one puff will keep them still until they die.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Quinn in ''BFE''.
* ThePowerOfRock: Quite a good part of the soundtrack.
* TheWarSequence: Many, ''many'' examples. Hell, you might as well rename the series "War Sequences: The Game". Major battles are often punctuated with a voice aptly screaming '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o46Rbcej5KU&feature=related "WAAAAAAAAR!!!"]]''' right before [[AutobotsRockOut the heavy metal music starts]]. It even persists in ''BFE'', as seen [[[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5JqLwyI70w&feature=BFa&list=PLA2800B6DD0C5CD8A here]].
* WhatTheHellHero: NETRICSA chastises Sam in ''The First Encounter'' if, instead of heading straight for the Great Pyramid, he takes a detour to the Sacred Yards instead.
-->'''NETRICSA:''' I can see you're not listening to me. I told you to go straight to the Great Pyramid. But no, you had to come here. You just wanted to kill some more monsters. You think that saving the world is a joke? You're not serious at all!
%%* WildMassGuessing: Parodied at the end of ''II''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
* {{Wutai}}: Chi Fang in ''Serious Sam II''.
* YouAllLookFamiliar: Lampshaded in ''TSE'', where the Pumpkinhead enemy shows up twice in a row.
---> '''Sam:''' ''Hey, didn't I kick your ass two rooms back?''

* ZergRush: Lampshaded by Sam.

* ''VideoGame/SeriousSamTheNextEncounter'' (2004, [=PS2/GC=], developed by Climax Solent)

* HomingProjectiles: Many enemies in ''The Last Hope'' have these, being a game where almost every enemy fires a projectile of sorts. Homing projectiles are just par for the course.

Serious Sam is a series of videogames (mostly {{first person shooter}}s but later branching onto other videogame genres) originally developed by Croteam. The games that comprise the series are the following:

* ''Serious Sam: The Second Encounter'' (2002)

* ''Serious Sam II'' (2005, [=PC/Xbox=])
* ''Serious Sam 3: BFE''[[note]]Before First Encounter[[/note]] (2011, [=PC/Mac/X360/PS3=])

* ''Serious Sam: The Next Encounter'' (2004, [=PS2/GC=], developed by Climax Solent)

In days long past, the alien race known as the Sirians did battle with the alien overlord "Mental". Although many Sirians were killed, Mental was repelled.

In the 22nd century, Mental has returned, bringing with him a vast army that spacefaring Humanity fails to beat back. With Mental's forces pressing onto Earth, the decision is made to send a single elite back in time via rediscovered Sirian time-travel technology known as the "Time Lock" and defeat Mental in the past, thereby changing history in Humanity's favour. Sam "Serious" Stone is the (un)lucky man.

Armed with only a head-implanted AI and a self-replenishing revolver, Serious Sam battles through ancient Egypt in ''The First Encounter'', bringing down Mental's HUGE warlock Ugh-Zan III and finding a Sirian ship in the Great Pyramid, with which he heads for space.

Unfortunately, he collides with a "[[CreatorCameo Croteam]] Crate-Bus" and crash-lands in Mayan-era South America, which is where ''The Second Encounter'' begins. Battling across South America, Babylon and medieval Europe, Sam brings down a wind deity, a cyborg giant larva and Mental's summoner before finding a second backup ship.

In ''Serious Sam: Next Encounter'', Mental attempts to get retaliation on Sam by creating a pint-sized evil clone of him. Going through ancient Rome, feudal China and finally legendary Atlantis, Sam fights against a cyborg gladiator minotaur, a mechanically modified three headed Asian dragon and the soul of a Sirian warrior fused with the spaceship to create a terrifying giant flying robot, before he eventually defeats and captures the evil clone.

By ''Serious Sam II'', Sam has finally made it to Sirius, where he is made to collect five artifacts to weaken Mental and set up the overlord's downfall. The final battle has yet to come, though.

The game series was praised for being a well-made throwback to old-skool shooters where the emphasis is on massacring enemy hordes instead of dueling small, smart squads. [[TheWarSequence When we say hordes, we mean hordes]], especially in those nice open expanses where you truly get to appreciate how much opposition Sam's up against - and, consequently, how much of a Badass he is.

In November 2009 and April 2010 Croteam released a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of both halves of the first game called ''Serious Sam HD''. It features enhanced graphics, ragdoll physics, and various minor tweaks, but the gameplay is otherwise unchanged. Around the same time, the originals were also released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} as ''Serious Sam Classic'', given as a bonus for getting the HD remake's "Gold Edition".

In February 2011, Croteam announced a more realistic-looking {{prequel}} called ''Serious Sam 3: BFE''[[note]]Before First Encounter[[/note]]. It came out 22/23 November 2011. It is set during Earth's final days attempting to repel Mental's invading hordes. Humanity doesn't yet know how to activate the Timelock, and Sam has been sent in with a team of EDF {{redshirt}}s to find a scientist who might know. [[FromBadToWorse Things go rather sour from there.]]

In end 2014, Croteam also released a puzzle game, ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple''. It is not related to the ''Serious Sam'' games beyond a similar premise of visiting ancient civilizations (albeit via simulations rather than TimeTravel with alien technology) and, with the release of the "Serious" DLC, the [[GuestFighter ability to play as Sam]].

As of late 2016, the series has been in the process of being converted to VR, starting with the aforementioned ''Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope'' in October, and VR-converted versions of the two halves of ''Serious Sam HD'' following in March and then April 2017. ''BFE'' also got the VR treatment, and was released later that year.

!! The ''Serious Sam'' series provides examples of the following tropes:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:# to D]]
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: ''Second Encounter's'' opening CutScene was omitted from the [[UpdatedRerelease HD remake]] (reportedly because of how completely and utterly silly it was), leaving you beginning the game standing underneath a burning spaceship wreck with barely any explanation as to what happened. The cutscene was later added back in ''Serious Sam Fusion 2017''.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Sewer levels in ''TFE'' and ''II''.
* AbnormalAmmo: Klawdovic the Kamikaze Parrot from ''II''. Although that would be close enough to be called abnormal ''grenades'' rather than ammo. Klawdovic is actually a ShoutOut to Clodoveo, a parrot in the Italian comic book Alan Ford, which was very popular in Croatia where the developers are from, where the parrot was named "Klodovik", which in Croatian has the same pronounciation as Klawdovic. [[http://klub.posluh.hr/alanford/ford-5.jpg Klodovik is seen in the background.]]

** ''NE'' includes a second version of the Kamikaze. This one still has his head attached, but he wears a strait jacket, a hood with a painted-on smiley face, and lugs a giant stick of dynamite on his back.
** The original games include the Marsh Hopper: a OneHitpointWonder that jumps towards you and blows itself up on contact to coat you in toxic slime stored in its body. A good half of the occurrences of the boss health bar in ''TFE'' are merely you having to take on a tidal wave of the things all at once. Unlike the Kamikazes, they don't deal SplashDamage, so in ''TSE'' keeping the chainsaw revved up while crouched works.
** ''II'' lets Sam use some of his own in the form of the Klawdovic, a homing, exploding alien parrot.
* AdjustableCensorship: How many other M-rated games have options to have enemies bleed flowers instead of blood? We could only find [[VideoGame/AlienHominid one other]], [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 two]] if you're being generous. Point is, Sam was at it first.
* AdvancingBossOfDoom: Ugh-Zan III from ''TFE''. The first part of the fight is just Sam running from him to get inside the Great Pyramid. There's also Hugo from ''II'', who chases Sam out of the building he's in and out into the nearby yard until he can get to a helicopter and fight on more even ground, as well as the Mental Institution, which slowly advances throughout the fight and will eventually crush Sam against the wall if he takes too long to destroy its core.

* AKA47: ''BFE'' does this for the pistol and the assault rifle. The former is modeled after a Desert Eagle, and is called "Special Operations Pistol from 2038", or "[=SOP38=]" for short, and the latter looks like a pimped out [=HK416=] and is called "M29 Infantry Assault Rifle".
* AlienBlood: Green is present in the original. Monsters with purple and yellow blood variety are added in ''II''. It is possible to change the blood effects from red to green to hippie (enemies bleed fruit and flowers) to "kids" (enemies bleed candy canes and lollipops) in the settings menu. Green blood turns ''everything'''s blood bright green, even creatures that don't bleed red blood, and doesn't feature the same level of gib detail as Red.
* AlienInvasion: Mostly relegated to the backstory, where Sam is traveling more than three thousand years in the past trying to stop the invasion from ever happening. ''BFE'', however, puts you right in the middle of it.
* AlienSky:
** The final level of ''TFE''.
** The South/Central America stages of ''TSE''.
** A lot of instances in ''II'', considering the entire game consists of traversing alien planets.
* AlliterativeName: About all the player characters available to choose.
* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: ''II''.
* AnachronismStew:
** ''BFE'' has Sam flying around in Blackhawk helicopters between missions despite said helicopter design, by the time the game takes place, being more than a century old. Egypt looks pretty much like how it looks today ([[AlienInvasion but more blown up]]), and the ruined cars that dot the levels appear to be early [=1990s=] Peugots, which would be equivalent to a modern city being full of Ford Model Ts.
** In all the games, Sam's arsenal gets a heavy dose of this. On one hand, he has laser cannons and super-accurate miniguns, but on the other, in the first game he still totes around a Tommy Gun rechambered in 5.56mm, a pair of Smith & Wesson revolvers from 1875, and a giant technomagical cannon that looks straight out of the Age of Sail and fires ''huge'' explosive depleted uranium cannonballs at speeds [[ChargedAttack defined by how long the fire button is held]].
* AnAxeToGrind: Sam gets to use an axe in ''BFE: Jewel of the Nile''.

* AndShowItToYou: Ripping hearts out of Beheaded Rocketeers out is possible in ''BFE''.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Sam is noticeably missing his trademark red sneakers at the beginning of ''BFE''. If you find the "classic outfit" secret in the first level, he regains them for the rest of the game.
* AntiArmor: Apparently the intention behind the AS-24 Devastator in ''BFE''. The grenade rounds fly extremely fast and can [[OneHitPolykill pierce several small enemies in a row]], and while a direct hit hurts ''a lot'', the SplashDamage is extremely weak.
* ApocalypseHow:
** Planet Kleer suffered from this due to having seven million tons of napalm dropped over it, incinerating absolutely everything on it, but the air is still breathable.
** [[spoiler:Earth itself is destroyed by [[ColonyDrop having the moon thrown at it]] at the end of ''BFE''. All that's left behind is a cluster of asteroids.]]
* ArbitraryGunPower: Surprisingly enough for a genre that adheres to this trope, downplayed, especially in ''BFE''. The .45 ACP handgun deals slightly less damage per shot than the 5.56x45mm assault rifle, which deals half as much damage as the 7.62x51mm minigun, which deals less than 1/10 the damage of the 16mm Raptor anti-materiel rifle. These damage values are all fairly consistent with these weapons' real-world muzzle velocities (or their equivalents). As a result, several weapons are gloriously overpowered. Played straight, however, by the rocket launcher, which only deals the same damage as the 40mm Devastator grenade launcher despite firing ridiculously huge rockets.[[note]]The rockets say "155mm Inferno" on them, and are described as armor-piercing (so likely HEAT); the large single-shot [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin Javelin missile]] used by the U.S. Army is only 123mm for comparison. The dirt-common RPG-7's rocket, from 70mm to 93mm depending on the warhead.[[/note]]
* ArmCannon: Biomechanoids in ''TFE'', ''TSE'', and ''BFE''; Tank Biomechanoids in ''II''; Scrapjacks and junior Arachnoids in ''BFE''.

* ArtificialStupidity: Every single enemy is dumb as a bag of hammers. Melee enemies will simply run at you and hit you, while projectile enemies will stand still and shoot at a very slow and inaccurate rate, not even trying to dodge your attacks, even the PainfullySlowProjectile weapons. This is mostly done so they can throw hundreds of enemies at you at a time without straining system resources. Enemy AI is improved a bit in ''II'', where some ranged enemies will strafe while firing, and ''BFE'', where enemies are more accurate, shoot their weapons faster, occasionally hide behind stuff, and can move out of the way of your projectiles - a few enemies (such as the Kleer Skeletons) will even occasionally try to flank the player.

* ATeamFiring: The Sniper Rifle in ''TSE'' and ''BFE'' won't hit unless the player zooms. In ''Next Encounter'' and the HD remake, it instead deals less than a fourth of its full damage without the scope - this is {{handwave}}d as the gun being able to detect if the user has it in a proper aiming position and [[VoodooShark somehow slowing down the bullet if not]] so the recoil doesn't rip his arm off.
* AtopAMountainOfCorpses:
** Seen in one of the ''II'' cutscenes and the box art of ''TFE HD''.
** Double D actually has you escape a pit this way, throwing wave after wave of Gnaars at you until you can build a mountain of corpses tall enough to climb out.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: Alcor-class Warship and the Mental Institution have weak points to shoot.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever:
** Kwongo in ''II'', being an Expy of Film/KingKong and all.
** The second chapter features a ''freaking huge'' [[BeeAfraid wasp]].
** Both Ugh-Zans (III and IV).
* AuthorAvatar:
** The secret "fanboy" monsters are Croteam caricatures seen in the secret areas of ''TFE'', ''TSE'' and ''BFE''.
** While more of a publisher than an author, Fork Parker, the financial director of Devolver Digital, gets one as a multiplayer skin in ''3''.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Melee attacks in ''BFE''. When in sufficient range of most enemies, pressing the melee button will cause Sam to pull off an awesome OneHitKill, like breaking a Cloned Soldier's neck, pulling the head off a Kleer, stomping a Hatchling Spider, tearing a Gnaar's eye out, or ''ripping a Beheaded Rocketeer's heart right out of its chest''. These moves, while awesomely gory, take a second or two to pull off; this doesn't sound like much, but being immobilized for ''any'' amount of time in a game built around circle-strafing is bad news, leaving you vulnerable to the non-stop ZergRush of all the ''other'' Cloned Soldiers, Kleers, Hatchling Spiders, Gnaars and Rocketeers attacking you at the same time. Plus, all of the enemies that can be killed with melee can also be killed in one hit with the sledgehammer, which doesn't leave you vulnerable while using it. The only enemy against which it's actually useful is the Hatchling Arachnoid Spider, since it has quite some range against them and very low [[{{Pun}} execution]] time.

* BadSanta: [[http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/15822/serious-sam-3-goes-ho-ho-ho-with-free-santa-skin Ho, ho, ho, motherfucker!]]
* BadassBoast: "It's not over until I teabag every last one of you alien motherfuckers", so says Sam.

* BagOfSpilling: Sam loses all his items save for the basic pistol every time he finishes an episode. In ''Serious Sam: The Second Encounter'', he has to gather up all the weapons no less than three times. In ''Serious Sam 2'', Sam's health, armor, and extra lives are all reset to default at the end of each level, presumably so players won't have to worry about conserving them. In ''BFE'', at the start of the Lost Temples Of Nubia level, he loses ''everything'' save for the Syrian Mutilator attached to his arm.
* BaseOnWheels: The final boss of ''II'' is Mental's headquarters, Mental Institution, a ''gigantic'' moving pyramid complete with cannons (that shoot ''depleted uranium projectiles''), rocket turrets, fireball launchers, and hangars that deploy fleets of Fatso Fighters and Seagull Bombers.

* {{BFG}}: Really, almost all of Sam's guns besides the pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles / submachine guns count. There is: A grenade launcher with BottomlessMagazines, a fully-automatic rocket launcher that never needs to be reloaded, a gigantic minigun, a 16mm sniper rifle, a plasma rifle, a laser gun that chews up enemies like a chainsaw through tapioca, and the Cannon. Not a HandCannon, a "technomagical" ''[[LiteralMetaphor Cannon]]'', that fires uranium-filled cannonballs, no less. Great for taking out hordes of Kleer Skeletons, Werebulls and Biomechs, as well as the FinalBoss. ''BFE'' also introduces the Devastator, an automatic grenade launcher that can hold twenty rounds and fires 40mm "high-piercing high-explosive" rounds.

* BigNo: In ''TSE'', after Sam discovers that Mental has already taken the Holy Grail.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: ''II'' introduces giant spiders, even ''gianter'' spiders, and the boss of the second stage: a gigantic bee named [=ZumZum=].
* BigShadowLittleCreature: One of the secrets in The Pit level from ''TSE''.
* BilingualBonus:
** In ''II'', Zombie Stockbrokers speak Italian, Zombie Chaingunners speak German and finally Bull Soldiers and Tank Biomechanoids speak Croatian.
** Also present in ''TFE'' and ''NE'' in a stealth form. The word "Reeban" as in the Reeban fishes is pretty close in pronunciation to a Russian word "ryba", which means "fish". Ditto for the Peelah chainsaw.
** The name of the enemy Zumb'ul of the planet Ras-ad-Nyk from ''TSE'' translates to "Hyacinth of the planet Plant Nursery".
** Stealthed in ''II'' again, with Yagoda the Witch (one of the many minor enemies out there), which could be roughly interpreted as "Berry the Witch". Yagoda doubles as a reference to Baba Yaga, a witch character from Russian fairytales.
* BitterSweetEnding: In ''BFE'', [[spoiler:Sam ends up defeating the powerful Ugh-Zan IV and activates the Timelock, thus traveling back in time for ''TFE'', but Mental throws the moon at the [[EarthShatteringKaboom Earth causing both to be destroyed]] immediately after]].
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: The council from ''II''. The brothers and sister appear to be from different races ''and'' species.
* BlackoutBasement:
** A few rooms in ''TSE''. One of them had the player fire at a switch to keep the room lit.
** Every single underground location in ''BFE''. There are no lights of any kind save for Sam's InfiniteFlashlight. These locations are almost always puzzle-oriented, with less intensive combat sequences.

* BlatantItemPlacement: The scientists are throwing the items into the same time travel device you went into. In the GBA version, this utilized one of your weapons where when you press a trigger, ''a safe, bathtub or piano will be dropped on an enemy''.
-->'''Sam:''' ''[[LampshadeHanging Who leaves these weapons scattered around anyway?]]''
* BloodierAndGorier:
** Starting from the ''HD'' remakes of both ''TFE'' and ''TSE'', the series has a lot more hemoglobin to spare thanks to the new engine. Parodied in one the trailers for the game showing off one of the alternate blood types, put to "Sunshine and Lollipops".
** Along with being DenserAndWackier, 2 is this, ironically enough, by default due to the lack of the fantastical gore (Kid Blood, Hippie Blood, etc.)
* BoobyTrap:
** Many items spawn enemies. Most notably, optional pills and small armor shards often trigger ambushes in ''Serious Sam I'' and ''II''.
** In ''TFE'', in the Oasis level, there are two health pills. Grabbing one of them causes a large Biomechanoid to spawn right next to you. The other plays the 'monster spawn' sound dozens of times at maximum volume to freak you out.
** Of all the secret areas in the game, maybe a ''third'' of them are traps which spawn hordes of nasties right next to you.
* BorderPatrol:
** ''BFE'' has [[SandWorm a nasty surprise]] for those who want to wander off into the desert. Challenging the Sandwhale is key to finding a few secrets.
** ''TFE'' and ''TSE'' make you slowly lose health and burn in the sun if you go too far out of open area levels (except for the Dunes in ''TFE'', where you're just tossed back into the center of the map). ''II'' also makes you start losing health if you wander too far out into the Magnor swamp past the blue lights (presumably where the swamp becomes too toxic to stand in).
* BottomlessMagazines: Every weapon other than the Revolvers, Zap Gun, and the two shotguns never require reloading in the first two games. Averted for more weapons in ''BFE'': the pistol, assault rifle, [[GrenadeLauncher Devastator]] and shotgun need to be reloaded. Despite being some of the few weapons to have actual reload animations, [[EmergencyWeapon every pistol has limitless reserve ammo]]. There's a server setting for co-op that lets every other gun get in on it, too. NETRICSA's descriptions for enemies that attack with non-magical projectiles usually give an explanation for why they can launch them forever - such as Rocketeers' weapons having the same techno-magical ammunition replenishers the player's pistols do, and Bombers having "a large supply of inflatable bombs in [their] pockets".

* BreakingTheFourthWall
** In ''TFE'', NETRICSA is pissed about Sam taking a shortcut to a valley, away from their main destination, just because he wanted to kill more aliens. She chastises the player for such action.
*** The game had a secret in the very first level. Find the secret Rocket Launcher, use it to blow up a door, and you find caricatures of Croteam. Unfortunately, if you want to achieve OneHundredPercentCompletion, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential you have to kill them]].
** The entire plot of ''TSE'' revolves around replacing the space ship you got in ''The First Encounter''. How did the space ship get damaged? At the beginning of the game, it crashes into a "Croteam crate bus" filled with [[CreatorCameo caricatures]] of the game's designers.
** Sam frequently breaks the wall in ''Next Encounter''.
** When NETRICSA starts talking in ''II'', Sam wonders why she didn't before, following by this reply:
---> '''NETRICSA:''' Let's just say it has something to do with a bigger game budget.\\
'''Sam:''' [[LampshadeHanging What game budget?]]
** When fighting a boss called [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Zum Zum]]:
---> ''"This game is full of bugs!"''
* BrickJoke:
** A few secret ones between ''TFE'' and ''TSE'' involving [[spoiler: Pinky]].
** Two in ''TSE'' involve TimeTravel. One of the phone booth conversations takes place between yourself in two different levels, and another takes places between you in ''Second Encounter'' and you near the end of ''II''.
* BubblegloopSwamp: First two Magnor levels in ''II''.
* BullfightBoss: Only the first bull enemy you encounter is a mini-boss. After that they become [[DegradedBoss one of the most common enemies]]. Later you encounter a version with ''cannons mounted on their backs''.
* {{Butterface}}: The Witch Harpies in ''Next Encounter'' and ''BFE''.
* {{Cephalothorax}}: Gnaars.
** Dum Dums in ''NE''.
* CallForward: In ''BFE''. Echoing a sequence in ''TFE'', a lone Beheaded Kamikaze comes running over a hill. After taking him out, Sam utters a BondOneLiner... only for a whole horde of them to come surging over that same hill.
--> '''Sam:''' [[OhCrap Uh oh.]]
* CanonDiscontinuity: Croteam are, apparently, creating a much more serious remake of the second game. The original ''Serious Sam 2'' is, thus, non-canon. They also [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Croteam/comments/6pvjho/will_we_ever_seebattle_mental_what_about_the_hand/dkt1tl9/ stated]] that ''The Next Encounter'' is non-canon.

* CatchPhrase:
** No particular phrase, but Sam's brand word "serious" pops up quite a bit.
** ''NE'' has a couple of one-liners which occur every time Sam fights the werebulls, no matter on which level he is.
--->'''Sam:''' Enough of the bull already.\\
'''Sam:''' Ole!
** He tends to yell "I knew it! I KNEW IT!" a lot in ''2''.
* ChainLightning: In a sense. The Syrian Mutilator can lasso up to four enemies at a time if you snare one and hover the cursor over the others, and it'll destroy all of them at once.
* ChainsawGood:
** Against Gnaars and Marsh Hoppers and even Kleer Skeletons due to its significant length, though only available in ''TSE'', the Xbox port, and ''II''. Cucurbito the Pumpkin enemies in ''TSE'' also use chainsaws. If necessary, it can work as a shield against the Alundran Reptiloids' green fireballs while revved up.
** They count as guns in Double D, meaning there's nothing stopping you from making a stack of 6 chainsaws and running headlong into the enemy, common sense be damned.
** Also available as the only strictly-melee weapon for purchase in ''VR: The Last Hope''. However, unlike the chainsaws of the previous titles, this chainsaw requires fuel for continuous use.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In ''The First Encounter'', NETRICSA is pretty much all business for most of the game, although she occasionally has some signs of her own personality. Come ''The Second Encounter'', she's suddenly cracking a ''lot'' more jokes and acting more casual and excitable. For ''BFE'', though, she's fully in all-business mode, what with the game being a prequel.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Sam has no apparent super human powers. This doesn't stop him from tanking hundreds of bullets or multiple anti-tank rockets, ripping grown men apart, gibbing them with quick melee strikes, carrying twenty guns, dodging bullets, sprinting at 60 miles per hour, or accurately getting a headshot on a moving man-sized target, from 300 yards away, using a pistol, while strafing, ''without looking down the sights''.

* CheckPoint: Present in ''Next Encounter'' and ''Serious Sam 2''.
* ChekhovsGunman: You know those {{Sand Worm}}s that keep trying to munch Sam if he wanders out into the desert? Well, they do that to ''anything'', including the [[spoiler: FinalBoss, which gives you an opening to [[AttackItsWeakPoint attack his weak point!]]]]
* CherryTapping: Ripped out hearts or skulls in ''Serious Sam 3'' can be thrown at enemies for a minor amount of damage. In addition to small damage, the attack is delayed and rather inaccurate. Killing an enemy that way yields an achievement.
* ChickenWalker: Biomechanoids from ''TFE'', ''TSE'', and ''BFE'', Torso Mech - The Nervous Chickens in ''II''.
* ChunkySalsaRule: Enemy cannons in ''TSE'' are capable for doing that.
* ClimaxBoss: Ugh-Zan III.
* ClusterFBomb: Sam in ''BFE'', as part of the DarkerAndEdgier package. Not so in the earlier games.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: Fight on a narrow bridge above a huge lake of lava, in a confined space so there's nowhere for the heat to go but where you are? Why not?
** Hell, at one point Sam crosses over a river of lava by jumping across ''platforms made of cooled lava'', which are floating barely an inch higher than the lava itself.
** Oddly inverted with the [[spoiler:destruction of the Earth. The shattered fragments of the mantle and core are still orange-hot after the Moon shatters the planet, but they visibly cool down within ninety seconds as the credits roll. With no atmosphere in space, there's nowhere the Earth's fragments could possibly vent that heat (the same reason the Earth's mantle is still hot in real life after 4.6 billion years).]]
* ColonyDrop: [[spoiler:The ending of BFE involves [[EarthShatteringKaboom the Moon falling on Earth]] shortly after Sam enters the Timelock.]]

* CoolShades: At first; gone by ''TSE'' and ''II''. [[MemeticMutation They're back]] in ''BFE'', for this game being, as the title says, before ''The First Encounter''.
* CopyProtection: Pirated copies of ''BFE'' will spawn an invincible Adult Arachnoid. Normally those things are giant boss monsters. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e91q5BtlxK0 Here it's the size of Sam and zipping around like a bee]] while pelting you with machine guns. When, or rather ''if'', it was bypassed, the player would periodically start spinning wildly while looking upwards at level 5.
* CrateExpectations:
** The massive crate pyramid in ''TFE''.
** Croteam's brand crate bus... Which crashes into the UFO hijacked by Sam and becomes the reason why Sam has to purge the unclean away from Earth again in [=''TSE''=].
** ''II''. Almost every one of them contains an item.
---> '''Sam:''' I hate crates!
* CurbStompBattle: ''BFE'' introduces OneHitKill melee attacks to Sam's arsenal. Among other things, he can [[EyeScream rip the eye out of a Gnaar,]] [[BeatStillMyHeart rip the heart out of a Beheaded Rocketeer]] [[OffWithHisHead or twist the face off a Scrapjack.]] Most of these come with [[HighPressureBlood ludicrous amounts of blood]] sprayed all over the camera. [[UpToEleven If that wasn't enough,]] he can then toss the newly obtained gib at another enemy - [[CherryTapping potentially killing it!]] [[CosmeticAward This nets you the "Useful Trophy" achievement.]]
* CustomUniform: Sam doesn't wear the standard military uniform the redshirts do. Neither does Hellfire.
* CuteMonsterGirl: The Hellchicks in II and Harpies in TFE. BFE features the Witch Brides Of Achriman.
** The Witch Harpies from ''Next Encounter'' look this way from afar, [[ButterFace but their faces...]]
* {{Cyborg}}: Many enemies are both organic and cybernetic, including the Biomechanoids, artificially built biomechanical war machines. In addition, the Arachnoids are retconned into this in ''BFE''. In contrast to the past two games, the adult Arachnoids now have their red armor surgically attached to their skin (on the front of their torsos as well as their arms, heads, and two of their legs) and their machine guns built into their pincers.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: One ''BFE'' achievement requires you to refrain from sprinting, aiming down sights or manually reloading for an entire campaign runthrough. If you've played any recent shooter, the temptation is very hard to resist.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''BFE'', compared to the rest of the series. More gore and violence (though that was to be expected), a more serious story and {{retcon}} of the Sirians to be serious. On the other hand, Sam and the in-game jokes help keep the mood surprisingly light for the most part.
* DeadlyDodging: One of the doors in ''TFE'' requires dodging one of those werebulls at the very last second so it can collide with the door and break it.
* DeadlyGame: After getting captured on Sirius in ''II'', Sam has to survive 3 days in a ''Film/TheRunningMan''-style alien game show.
* DeadlyLunge: Kleer Skeletons in all games and Cave Daemons in ''Serious Sam 3''.

* DeathOrGloryAttack: The most ammo-efficient way to kill a Kleer is to shoot it with the Double-Barreled Shotgun as it's pouncing. If you mistime, though, it'll hurt.
* DegradedBoss:
** Alduran Reptiloid - Highlander. Even though in ''TSE'', they've gained more hitpoints and higher resistance to cannonballs, they're just {{Giant Mook}}s.
** In ''Next Encounter'', the Alduran Highlanders are actually quite common. In one very late mission, '''six''' of these guys appear at the same time.
** ''BFE'' is full of this trope. Most of the early bosses are only bosses because you lack more powerful weapons, though they at least have three times as much health as the normal mook versions and you fight them in an area that is tailor-made to teach you how the boss's weapon works. In the case of the second one, the Major Biomechanoid, it also has the unique ability to sprint. The first Khnum you fight as a boss is exactly the same as all others, however.
* DemBones: Kleer Skeletons in every game; Bone snakes and Kleerfloski in ''II''.
* DenserAndWackier: ''II'', compared to the rest of the series. The graphics are much more cartoony than the other games and the monsters Sam faces are much the same such as the Beheaded Kamikazes, who have a big [[CartoonBomb Serious Bomb]] for a head instead of headless men holding bombs. One of the weapons, the Klawdovic, is also pretty jokey as it's an alien parrot with a bomb.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The final level of ''BFE'' features a very washed out color palette even if you have the color filter set to the colorful Vivid. It's meant to indicate that the effect Mental's magical influence has on Earth has reached a boiling point.
* DestructibleProjectiles: Missiles both from Sam and from monsters can be shot down in all games. Homing attacks like the Alundran Reptiloids' fireballs can also be destroyed, but non-guided ones tend to be immune to counter-fire, with the curious exception of the Antaresian Spiders' acid spit in ''BFE''.
* DevelopersForesight: Right before obtaining the Minigun in the City of Memphis in ''The First Encounter'', you come across a drawbridge over a pit of spikes. To cross it, you have to jump on it the moment the [[spoiler:second]] incoming Werebull tries to run over it. Shortly after, you have to face a seemingly neverending stream of Kleer Skeletons. The drawbridge won't open now for your retreat, sandwiching you between the spikes and the horde. You can still rocket-jump over the pit and fire away at the hapless Kleers on the other side [[spoiler:for about 15 seconds, then the drawbridge opens again without warning]].
* DieLaughing: ''Next Encounter'' has laughing gas as ammo available for the XOP Gas Gun. One spritz of this will cause any non-boss enemy will cause them to laugh uncontrollably and, if they're not attacked afterward, will simply run out of energy from laughing too much.
* DifficultyLevels: ''TFE'' and ''TSE'' have one of the greatest difficulty difference in any FPS. Tourist difficulty is like disguised god mode while [[HarderThanHard Serious]], especially with extra co-op enemies, may include [[PlatformHell FPS hell]] elements and may leave you wondering if it can be completed without god mode or not. In Mental mode, enemies are invisible unless they're attacking. This includes melee enemies. And you will still run out of ammo long before you have killed all the mobs. Good luck with that.
* DifficultySpike: The final boss at the end of the PC version of ''Serious Sam II'''s final level, Mental Institution. First off, if the vehicle you need to destroy the boss with gets destroyed, you die instantly. Not only that, it can summon planes that either collide with you, carpet bomb you, or just shoot at you as well as launching out cannon balls and big fireballs. The carpet-bombing planes will mess you up if you don't take them out before they let their bombs loose on you.

* DiscOneNuke:
** The Rocket Launcher, which is found at the very start of the original games if you take your time to explore the first level.
** The Flamethrower and Sniper Rifle can also be found at the start of each chapter in ''TSE''.
** You can get the Single Shotgun about ten seconds into the first level of ''BFE''. The second offers a secret Laser Rifle if you know where to look, which effortlessly shreds the Major Biomechanoid boss from the third level.
* DismantledMacGuffin: The medallion in ''II''.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** Picking up a mere 1HP or 1 armor pickup might trigger an ambush with '''HORDES''' of enemies. The games are ''not'' friendly to {{Munchkin}}s.
** A secret rocket festival secret in a ''TSE'' level, The Pit, has a SchmuckBait 100HP bonus which spawns not just one Major Biomechanoid, but a whole bunch of these. Good luck dodging their missiles without losing what you got as a secret.
** The "secret nuthouse" in ''BFE'''s fifth level. Pick up a single 1HP pickup, get ambushed by ''three'' Major Biomechanoids. Keep in mind, this is in an area too cramped to effectively dodge their rockets, one of these was an end-level boss in the third level, and unless you've been grabbing secret weapons, you still don't have any decent weapons against them yet.
* DistaffCounterpart:
** The giant female Beheaded Kamikazes ("Femikazes") in ''Double D''.
** The Female Major Biomechanoid. Complete with GagBoobs and a purse.
** Sam's sister Sammy in the multiplayer mode, and Hellfire the chopper pilot in ''BFE'''s campaign mode.
* DodgeTheBullet: Sam can actually do this at medium to long range, if the player is quick enough. Most noticeable in ''BFE''. Notably, guns are hitscan when used by Sam against enemies, yet the exact same weapons used against him aren't (merely very fast), suggesting that all the projectile speeds are faster than they appear, but are slowed down from Sam's perspective on part of him being really fast.
* DoubleEntendre: On being told by Sam that he needs to reactivate the Sirian generators, [[TheOneThatGotAway Hellfire]] responds with this:
--> ''Oh, now you can turn things on?''
* TheDragon: Ugh-Zan III to Mental in ''The First Encounter''.
* DropTheHammer: Sam's melee weapon for most of ''BFE'' is a Sledgehammer. It can OneHitKill any enemy short of a Kleer Skeleton, and the horizontal and [[SpinAttack spinning]] swings can wreck multiple enemies at one time. When going against up to mid-tier monsters, it's a reasonably effective EmergencyWeapon.
* DualWielding:
** Getting a second Shofield allows Sam to dual wield them.
** Uzis are dual-wielded in ''NE''.
** The Anacondas and Uzis in ''II'' are always used two at a time.
** The Gun Stacker Connectors in ''Double D'' take this to ridiculous levels, allowing you to simultaneously wield more guns than you have arms if you get enough of them.
** ''Any and all weapons'' in ''The Last Hope'' and the VR version of ''TFE'' and ''TSE''. Yes, this includes the [[ChainsawGood Chainsaw]], [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Shotgun]], [[GatlingGood Minigun]], Rocket Launcher, and any other weapon you can think of. The cherry on top of all that? You can mix and match in every VR title, too!
* DummiedOut:
** The Laser Turret in ''II'' is seen during one of the cutscenes. It didn't make it into the game.
** A Gnaar Voodoo Doll graphic would be seen in the same game as well, right as soon as you explore its .gro files.
** In a similar fashion to ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'', Croteam once planned to include pipebombs in ''TFE'', which apparently were nothing more than the grenade launcher ammo thrown separately from the actual grenade launcher. The concept eventually made its actual debut in ''BFE'' as the C4 explosives.
** The infamous Beam Gun was cut from both ''TFE'' and ''II'', although the models still exist in each game's respective files. ''NE'' had a similar-looking weapon under the guise of "Sirian Power Gun". The Beam Gun can, however, be found in SSC: Revolutions, both in its ''TFE'' version and in the new ''Bright Island'' campaign.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:E to N]]

* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler: [[DownerEnding Earth gets destroyed]] at the end of ''BFE'', by nothing short of Mental [[ColonyDrop dropping the moon on it.]] [[BittersweetEnding Sam makes it through the timelock though,]] and may be able to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.]]

* EleventhHourSuperpower: In ''Serious Sam 3'', you'll [[spoiler: get a jetpack during the final boss fight]].

* EmergencyWeapon:
** Knife and Schofields in ''TFE'', that plus the P-Lah Chainsaw in ''TSE''; though the Knife and Chainsaw are about on par with the Coach Gun in terms of close-range power.
** ''II'' and ''BFE'' turn the amount of emergency weapons up to three: the former offers the redesigned P-Lah, the Zap Gun and the Colt Anacondas, while the second has the Sledgehammer, the [[{{AKA47}} SOP38]] and later, the [[spoiler:Sirian Mutilator]].

* EnemySummoner: [[MeaningfulName Mordekai The Summoner]]; Giant spiders and Spawner enemies in ''II''.
* EscortMission: Certain levels in ''II'' will have Sam trying to protect a key NPC from an oncoming horde of enemies. Fortunately, he usually has backup, and said NPC is also capable of protecting himself. The fight against Kwongo is an odd example of an escort ''boss fight'', since instead of attacking the boss directly, Sam has to protect a bunch of catapults and the Simbas manning them from enemies while they attack Kwongo instead. While it isn't an instant game over if they're lost, they're the only thing that deals any actual damage to the boss, as Sam's weapons only deal pitiful scratch damage even with Serious Damage power-ups, so he's in serious trouble if they're lost and Kwongo isn't down to a sliver of health.
* EverybodysDeadDave: ''BFE'' wastes no time in offing every RedShirt that shows up, but by the end of the game, [[spoiler: ''everyone'' except Sam, including [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Quinn]] and [[NeverFoundTheBody very likely]] [[LoveInterest Hellfire]] is dead. And we do mean ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom everybody'']]]].
* EveryTenThousandPoints: It's a rare example of seeing it in a first-person shooter, especially in a series made after the year 2000. Getting high scores in the XBOX version of ''Serious Sam'' and both versions of ''II'' will award you extra lives. They also reappear in ''BFE'', but only during co-op sessions. It's quite literally every 10,000 in ''II''.
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: T. Wrecks, a Biomech with a T-Rex head, in ''Serious Sam II''.
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys:
** Sam remarks about this after killing the first Zombie Monkey to appear in ''NE''. Same after destroying waves of them through the entire game.
---> '''Sam:''' You know, studies show that games with monkeys in them... are 30% more fun.
** Sam nicknames the Aurigan Cave Demons in ''BFE'' "space monkeys", and after killing the first group of them encountered remarks that "the only good space monkey is a dead space monkey".
** The first boss of ''II'' is a King Kong {{expy}} named Kwongo.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Par for the course for the genre, although ''Serious Sam II'' surprisingly averts this, as some of the levels are sparsely populated with friendly natives who cheer you on, give you powerups, and even sometimes act as helpful NPC allies in combat.
* EvilLaugh:
** In ''TFE'', Ugh Zan III does an evil laugh when he first appears and if he manages to stomp Sam.
** Kleerofski in ''II'' has an even more maniacal evil laugh.
** Scrapjacks in ''BFE'' will chuckle heartily if they manage to kill a player with their rockets.

* {{Expy}}: New enemies Scrapjack and Khnum in ''BFE'' bear a resemblance to VideoGame/{{Doom}}'s [[TheLegionsOfHell Mancubi and Hell Knights,]] both in appearance and attacks. The Cloned Soldiers also bear a resemblance to the Zombiemen, being disposable and weak human enemies with hitscan weaponry.
** The Khnums can also be considered expies of the ''Serious Sam 1'' enemy Aludran Reptiloid, Highlander. They look [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111129084856/serious/images/thumb/4/4b/Baron_3.png/250px-Baron_3.png vaguely]] [[http://images.wikia.com/serious/images/d/db/Redlizardman_hd.png similar,]] are roughly the same height, are both enemies encountered first as a boss and then as a giant mook, and they both use fireballs as their main attack. However, [[TookALevelInBadass the Khnums are stronger, faster, and do more damage than the Highlanders,]] in addition to [[ImmuneToBullets being completely bullet proof.]]
** Sam to VideoGame/DukeNukem, holding the CaptainErsatz status previously.
** Many of the concepts and enemies first introduced in ''NE'' have appeared in ''II'' and ''3'' in this form or another. For instance, ''NE'' has Dum Dums while ''II'' gets extremely similar Slimeballs. Ditto for Uzis, Martial Arts Masters and... shoot-as-you-click pistols for ''BFE''.
* ExplodingBarrels: ''II''. They don't do much damage. Also in ''BFE'', but they're much rarer and are also much more dangerous.
* ExplosiveBreeder: The Antaresian Spiders from ''Serious Sam 3''.

* FanDisservice : The Witch-Harpies in ''BFE'' are topless with detailed breasts and nipples except their face is [[http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/867215957881783431/0A9F664D7B7AEC1097388A4D9E2C5A6B5D439D80/640x359.resizedimage the stuff of nightmares]] (NSFW).
* {{Fireballs}}: Many enemies fire them, though they seem to be favored by GiantMook types in particular, including the Aludran Reptiloid, Highlanders from the ''The First Encounter'', Fiendian Reptiloid Demons and Aludran Reptiloid, Highlander's Brides in ''The Second Encounter'', big Lava Golems in the first two games, Phoenixes in ''Next Encounter'', and Khnums in ''BFE''.

* FlunkyBoss:
** ''TFE'' has Ugh-Zan III on the first half of the battle.
** ''TSE'' has Kukulkan the Wind God and Mordekai the Summoner.
*** In a fashion similar to the above game, ''NE'' puts the first and the last bosses into this trope, which are Diabloid and [[spoiler:Sirian Overlord]].
** Kwongo, Zumzum, Prince Chan and Mental Institution in ''II''.
** [[spoiler: Ugh-Zan IV]] in ''BFE''.
*** [[spoiler: Rahloom , the Giant Scrapjack]] in the ''Jewel of the Nile'' DLC, also counts as this.
* FloatingContinent: These are floating above the surface of the planet Ellenier in ''II''.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Late into ''BFE'', [[spoiler:A gnaar taunts Sam by claiming that Tah-Um is coming to "moon" him. While Sam initially takes this literally, if you look into the sky you can see the moon clearly visible for the first time in the game.]]

** The Witches in ''Serious Sam II'' were former beauty queens lured in by a contest. The winners all got turned into hideous old women, and Mental was easily able to recruit them, thanks to their destroyed self-esteem.
** One of Mental's goons, Hellchick, robbed from the poor to give to the rich. Just 'cause. Mental was so impressed, he hired her.
* FunWithAcronyms: “BFE” as an acronym stands for “Bumfuck, Egypt”, meaning “in the middle of nowhere”[[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bumfuck,_Egypt]]. The action in the prequel takes place in Egypt.
* FuturisticPyramid: The final boss of ''II''.
* GalacticConqueror: Mental. And no, being killed in his conquests will not save you from being a SlaveMook. Just ask the Kleers, Sirians, and [[spoiler: humans]]. Races conquered and/or assimilated willingly by Mental include the Repitiloids, Zumb'uls, Zorg, Arachnoids, and Antaresians.
* GangstaStyle: The Uzis in ''Next Encounter''. Nothing's stopping you from doing this in ''The Last Hope'', VR ''TFE'', and VR ''TSE'' if you feel like it.
* GatlingGood: The Minigun and the Laser Gun. This gets turned against the player in ''BFE'', where Gatling [[SentryGun Sentry Guns]] will target Sam if he enters their view. Funnily enough, he obtains ''his'' Gatling gun from one of these sentries.

* GiantEyeOfDoom: Picking up a lone pill at one point in ''TSE'' spawns a "secret watcher", a pair of giant eyeballs staring at you. Shooting them reveals that they're connected to a Giant Kamikaze.
* GiantMook: Many, from adult Arachnoids to the Biomechanoids to ''BFE'''s Scrapjacks and Khnums.

* {{Golem}}: Lava Golems.

* GuideDangIt: The Sniper Rifle and the Laser Gun make their return in ''BFE'', although without knowing all the secret places, one might think they never ever appear in this game at all. The ammunition for these two guns is extremely rare, as well. The ''Jewel of the Nile'' DLC levels make them and their ammo more accessible.
* GunAccessories: ''BFE'' has a few examples.
** The assault rifle features a vertical foregrip, a flashlight that Sam never uses, and an [=EOTech=] reflex sight that zooms in the view and negates bullet spread when used.
** The shotgun has an empty side saddle that's there just to doll up the weapon, as the gun is fed with detachable box mags.
** Getting the Deluxe edition adds a sniper scope to the Devastator.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: T. Wrecks in ''II'' chomp on cigars... even though they're just a dinosaur head on a mech body.
* TheGoomba: Gnaars and Rocketeers in ''TFE'' and ''TSE''. Funnily enough, there's a Gnaar in ''II'' [[ShoutOut dressed as]] [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]. ''BFE'' also has the Cloned Soldiers
* GottaCatchThemAll: Pieces of medallion in ''II''.
* GratuitousLatin: Parodied with Mordekai, who speaks random nonsense in Latin due to brain damage.
* GunsAkimbo:
** Sam's various handguns (except the [[AKA47 SOP38]] in ''BFE'') can be used two at a time; the Uzis in ''Next Encounter'' and ''II'' are always dual-wielded.
** Ugh-Zan III goes further with ''four'' guns.
** ''The Last Hope'' and the VirtualReality UpdatedRerelease of ''The First Encounter'' and ''The Second Encounter'' up the ante by letting the player dual-wield ''any'' gun - yes, including the [[GatlingGood Miniguns]] and Rocket Launchers! If that wasn't enough, every VR game also lets you dual-wield different guns in each hand, so you could hold a minigun ''and'' a rocket launcher at the same time! ''Have fun''.
* HailfirePeaks: The Land of the Damned stage of ''TSE''. The level starts off in a snowy village with the player eventually heading into a magma filled cavern, and ending things off with a battle on a frozen lake.
* HandsFreeHandlamp: Sam has a flashlight, installed in his belt buckle, that he turns on (regardless of player input) in basements and crypts where the sunlight doesn't reach. In an odd twist, the assault rifle has a [[GunAccessories mounted flashlight]] that Sam never uses.
--> ''"Let there be light!"''
* HardLevelsEasyBosses: Hordes of enemies (especially Kleers) will mess you up, but the bosses are often easier due to the fact they are big, easy to hit, and have slow, easy to dodge attacks. In ''BFE'', the difficulty between bosses and levels is more even (if only because [[DegradedBoss herds of bosses]] become ''parts of the levels'').
* HardModePerks: In the Classic titles, you can carry twice as much ammo in Serious mode.

* HealingFactor:
** Ugh-Zan III, which leads to the PuzzleBoss part of his fight. The same goes for [[spoiler: Ugh-Zan IV]] in ''BFE''.
** The Exotech Larva in ''TSE'' can also heal itself, though only after it loses its plasma-launching arms, and only when it's at a specific area in the room.
** Also Sam on Tourist mode, albeit slowly.

* HeroAntagonist: Kukulkán the wind god. He is actually a good god who nonetheless fights Sam because he has to guard the Sirian portal
* HomingProjectile
** In ''TFE'' and ''TSE'', the Aludran Reptiloids, Fiendian Reptiloids, and Ugh-Zan III fires these.
*** Of the two, only the green Common Aludran Reptiloids have these in ''NE''.
** In ''II'', the number of enemy types shooting homing projectiles is bigger.
** ''BFE'', thankfully, has very little of this.
** Incredibly abundant in VR ''TLH'', being a game where almost every enemy fires a projectile of sorts. Homing projectiles are just par for the course.
** Sam officially gets his turn to shoot lock-on stuff in ''NE'', Homing Bullets and Heat-Seeking Rockets in particular.

* HyperspaceArsenal: Playing the game in third-person mode in the ''First'' and ''Second Encounter'' reveals that Sam pulls all his weapons out of his back pocket. Including the "longer than Sam is tall" Minigun.
** The official explanation for how Sam is able to carry around 30 five-foot cannonballs on his person is: "his pockets".
* ICallItVera: Sam's dual Shofield .45's in ''The First Encounter'' are apparently named "Smith" and "Wesson".
** This gets a CallBack (CallForward?) in ''BFE'', where he calls his brand new [[AKA47 SOP38]] pistol "Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson"[[note]]Yes, that's two names for a single pistol[[/note]].
* IdiotHero: Sam in ''II''
* ImmuneToBullets: Kukulkan the Wind God, the first boss in ''The Second Encounter'', can only be killed with explosive ammunition or lasers. Or the Chainsaw, though the prerequisites for a chainsaw kill include having titanium testicles.
** This also applies to [[GiantMook Khnums]] and the [[PuppeteerParasite infested attack choppers]] in ''BFE'', which can only be damaged with explosive weapons.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Kleer Skeletons and their "two metal balls chained together" weapons. They're real tools, that are supposed to be thrown so that they wrap around a person's legs and trip them up, but instead they're always used as standard projectile weapons.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: In ''Serious Sam 1'' and ''II'', every weapon except the two shotguns is 100% pixel perfect accurate. Even the Schofield revolvers and the Thompson. Sam can easily nail anything he can see from any distance, never even suffering from recoil or needing to look down the sights. In ''BFE'', he ''does'' need to look down the sights for the pistol and assault rifle, which slows down his movement, but while doing so his accuracy is again 100% perfect, and the same applies for weapons (Devastator, Rocket Launcher, etc.) without sights, even with the addition of a scope to the former with the Deluxe edition of the game. It's possible to pull off really ridiculous feats of accuracy this way; see CharlesAtlasSuperpower.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Sam uses a conveniently placed pile of metal poles to turn [[spoiler: Ugh-Zan IV]] [[HighVoltageDeath into a giant walking lightning rod]].

* InexplicableTreasureChests: Present in ''II'' where they yield points.
* InfantImmortality: Averted in ''II'': some Simba children are killed on-screen.
* InfiniteFlashlight: Whenever Sam goes underground in ''BFE'', he turns on his light. It can stay lit indefinitely.
* InformedAbility: [[{{Kaiju}} Ugh-Zan III]] is described as a "vicious warlock" but doesn't seem to have many magical powers (just his HealingFactor and {{fireballs}}), and fights soley using manufactured weapons.
* InsectoidAliens: Arachnoids throughout all the games, [[{{Expy}} Scorp Soldiers]] in ''II'', and Antaresian spiders in ''III''. The former two are sentient and use weapons and armor as well as their stingers for melee attack, but don't move around much. The Antaresians are seemingly less intelligent, relying on ZergRush and their natural armor, acid spit, and jaws. They also just love to make giant egg nests everywhere, including in the middle of cities.
* InstantDeathRadius: Huge Lava Golem, Ugh Zan III, [[spoiler: Ugh-Zan IV]], the Alduran Reptiloid Highlander's Bride (with a HUGE instant death radius), and, to some extent, many medium-large enemies that attack mainly from long-range like Scrapjacks and Khnums. Major Biomechanoids are an interesting variation: at close range, you can't dodge their rockets, and they have ''tons'' of SplashDamage to shred Sam with.
* InterfaceScrew: The Witch-Brides of Achriman in ''BFE'' will use [[PsychicPowers telekinesis]] to slightly pixelate your screen, slow you down, and if you're close enough to them lift you into the air and throw you around.
* InvincibilityPowerUp: The invulnerability powerup.

** Some Gnaars in ''TFE'' and ''TSE'', especially at higher difficulties, are nearly invisible.

* InvisibleWall: ''II'' was quite a heavy offender. In ''TFE'' and ''TSE'', there were invisible teleporters or jump pads which would lead back to area or nothing at all. However, ''II'' includes some in very uncomfortable positions.
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: In ''TFE'', entering the Temple of Thutmose in Sand Canyon prompts a message from NETRISCA that "It is too quiet".
* JungleJapes: M'Digbo, the first world in ''II''.
* {{Kaiju}} both Ugh Zan III and IV are big enough to qualify. Ugh Zan III is even said to be 330 feet tall, while IV's size isn't listed.
* KillItWithFire: One puff of flame can ignite enemies (the afterburn alone will deal with anything human-sized), and a constant stream can wear down hordes of enemies in seconds. If you're good at dodging, the low rate of ammo consumption and high damage over time makes the Flamethrower one of the best weapons around. And in Mental difficulty, have fun with looking for napalm ammo ALL the damn time.
* KingMook: The Aludran Reptiloid Highlanders and the Uber Lava Golem.
* LanternJawOfJustice: ''TFE'' and ''TSE'' for the XBOX and ''II''.
* LastDitchMove: Beheaded Bombers and Biomechanoids in ''TFE'' and ''TSE''. Major Biomechanoids have quite a high chance of hitting the player with that one.

* [[spoiler:LastOfHisKind]]: [[spoiler:Sam is apparently this [[ApocalypseHow for humanity]] by the end of ''BFE''.]]
* LeapOfFaith:
** The black wall in one of the Egyptian tombs in ''TFE''.
** In ''TSE'', palace of Courtyards of Gilgamesh level had a Leap Of Faith room.
-->'''Sam:''' Those Babylonians were totally crazy!
* LegionOfDoom: Mental likes to recruit some of the galaxy's most notable villains into his army, like Ugh Zan III (an ancient deity and one of the most feared beings around), Mordekai the Summoner (one of the galaxy's most infamous sorcerers), Prince Chan, Count Kleerofski (both local alien dictators), and the Uber Lava Golem (ancient guardian of the Ally of Sphinxes). His headquarters is also the home of SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker, ComicBook/LexLuthor, and [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]].
* LethalLavaLand: Half of the penultimate stage in ''TSE'' and the entire planet Kleer in ''II''.
* LighterAndSofter: ''II'' was much more brightly colored and cartoonish than the first two games, and upped the gags (while ''TFE'' had quite a few jokes, and ''TSE'' began introducing Mental's goons as horror show rejects, sun burn victims, and all around weirdos, ''II'' really upped the jokes).
** SameContentDifferentRating: ''II'' included [[SarcasmMode absolutely serious]] sceneries and lacked any kind of swearing [[spoiler:(discounting one "damn" said by Sam in the ending)]], ERSB rose the rating to M thanks to the explicit amount of blood and gore, in contrast to Australian (15+) and European releases (12+). And that's with [[ExecutiveMeddling 2K Games requesting Croteam making the game lighter and softer]] so it would appeal to younger audiences.
* LightningBruiser: Alduran Reptiloid, Highlander. Especially the Highlander's Bride variant, who is the fastest enemy in ''TSE''. And one of the biggest.

* LookMaIAmOnTV: ''Look ma, I'm a lumberjack!''

* LudicrousGibs: ''HD'' has this. Plus, you can carve up bodies with your Knife if you want. Taken UpToEleven in ''BFE'', where you can split Werebulls in half with the cannon and blow Scrapjacks apart with a well-placed hunk of C4. Not to mention all the nasty bits [[spoiler: the Sirian Mutilator]] leaves behind...
** Of course, even the earliest installments in this series have plenty of red goo and bodily carnage to go around...
* MacrossMissileMassacre: The rockets fired by the ''BFE'' enemy Scrapjack are weak, but they fire ''a lot'' of them. In one memorable instance in the final level, around ''eight'' Scrapjacks appear at the same time in an open canyon, and cover the entire area with rockets.
* MacroZone: Planet Magnor in ''II''. Most notable in Giant Junkyard level.
* {{Magitek}}: The Shofields that Sam wields are "technomagically" enhanced to have unlimited ammo. The Cannon is also a "technomagical" weapon.
* MagmaMan: Lava Golems.
* MascotMook: The Headless Kamikaze, who's even the focus of the first trailer for ''BFE''.
* MarathonLevel:
** "The Great Pyramid", "Karnak" and "Metropolis" in ''TFE''
** "Grand Cathedral", "The City of the Gods", "Ziggurat", "Courtyards of Gilgamesh" and "Tower of Babel" in ''TSE''
** "Mental Institution" in ''II''.
** Several later levels of ''BFE'' can feel like this... but "The Guardian of Time" takes the cake.
--> Sam: ''[[LampshadeHanging Would you consider attacking one at a time?]]''
*** 1,700 enemies, followed by the final boss fight. This isn't a marathon, it's an ''Ironman triathlon''.
* {{Mayincatec}}: South American levels in ''TSE''.
%%* MightyGlacier: Ugh Zan III in ''TFE'' and [[spoiler:his father, Ugh Zan IV]] in ''BFE''.
* MeaninglessLives: ''NE'' doesn't have a lives system. Instead, dying at any point sets Sam back to the most recently activated checkpoint, less 5,000 points.
** In ''II'', losing all lives during a level give the player two options: Start the mission from the beginning, or continue with the added penalty of a frozen score.
* MediumAwareness:
** Sam frequently shows this in ''Next Encounter'', as demonstrated above with EverythingIsBetterWithMonkeys.
** NETRICSA joins in on her self-awareness on being in a video game in ''II''.
* MissingSecret:
** The demo level for ''TFE'' has a broken secret, but this was fixed or removed in the full game. However, if you play the same level in co-op, there is a secret that becomes unreachable because it closes before the first player can act.
** Tourist and Easy difficulties disabling weapon self-damage and self-knockback results in one secret in ''TFE'' becoming inaccessible due to requiring rocket-jumping to reach.
** Due to a few broken triggers, some secrets in ''TSE'' don't exist, but the secret counter still indicates like they're there.
** In some of the games, due to bad counting, it's impossible to get all of the kills in a level. Basically, when the game calculates how many enemies are in a level, it counts all of the pre-placed enemies and all of the spawners. The problem here is that some spawners only spawn their enemies on certain difficulties, meaning that the game counts enemies that you can't kill due to playing on a difficulty where they never appear. In addition, some spawners [[EpicFail aren't even connected to anything that activates them]], but these spawners are also counted. More info can be found in-depth [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT87YkCjBOw here]].
** The level "Dunes" in the PC version of ''Serious Sam Classics: Revolution'' has a spawner that takes [[http://twitter.com/Omgarrett/status/701438125235634177?lang=en 27 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds]] to spawn an enemy. Or at least it used to. After Omgarrett [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ6jEV2aeWQ uploaded a video that proved it]], one of the developers said in the comments that it would be fixed.
* MixAndMatchWeapon: Sam brings one out in the Xbox version's introductory scene.
%%* MonsterCloset: ''Serious Sam'' does it occasionally. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
* MonsterClown: The unicycling suicide clowns from ''II''.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: Taken to the form of "Monster of the Stage" in ''NE''. In a nutshell, some non-boss mooks will be exclusive not only on a certain episode, but on a certain level as well, unless they make their ''only'' reappearance in The Lost Levels section. Several of these include Elephant Gunner, Wicker Man, Dib Dib Dum Dum, and Phoenix Bomber.
* MoreDakka: Thompson/Uzis, Laser Gun, and the Minigun.
** Taken UpToEleven in ''The Last Hope'', which now lets you go GunsAkimbo with those miniguns!
** And then the VR version of ''TFE'' and ''TSE'' takes it up to potentially game-breaking levels by letting you go GunsAkimbo with ''any'' pair of weapons, automatically getting two of each weapon, and the reload animations are completely removed, raising the fire rate considerably for your starting Revolvers and Shotguns.
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale:
** Female Gnaars are bigger and have more hitpoints than their male counterparts. They're still cannon fodder, though.
** The Aludran Highlander's Bride. She's taller, angrier, and, if you get within slapping distance, can score a OneHitKill on you even with full health and ammo.
* {{Mook}}s: Oh boy are there mooks. There are literally tens of thousands of mooks of dozens of different types in any given game. They include alien soldiers, wild alien animals, alien mercenaries, zombies, robots, witches, harpies, clones, demons, ogres, and biological war machines. Mental's got a lot of resources, apparently.
* MookMaker: Mordekai the Summoner in ''TSE''. The Alcor Warship in ''BFE''. It also shoots [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]].
* MultiArmedAndDangerous
** All three variants of the Aludran Reptiloids have four arms each.
** Ugh Zan III has four arms, too. [[spoiler: As does Ugh-Zan IV, though two of his are [[ArtificialLimbs cybernetic.]]]]
** Diablotaur from ''NE'' only has two biological arms (carrying a sword and a shield), but has four cybernetic arms the fire off different weapons.

* {{Nerf}}: Inverted in ''NE'', where most of the guns have been boosted up significantly. For instance, the Shofield Pistols have a 12-bullet clip compared to the Colts' 6-bullet drum and can shoot as fast as their ''BFE'' counterpart. Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher, Flamethrower and Uzi Pistols support at least two types of ammo, with one being the "original" mode and the rest being gimmicky. But what really takes the cake here is [[GameBreaker the Sniper Rifle]] that takes down an Adult Reptiloid in two shots while zoomed. Needless to say, neither the original Sniper Rifle nor even ''NE'''s cannon had such power.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Some of the graffiti in ''BFE'' blames Sam for bringing Mental's hordes to Earth.
* NoFairCheating: You can't get points at the end of the level when using cheats in ''II''. Downplayed in the PC version of ''BFE'', where installing mods has no effect on your score but disables the online leaderboards (the game even asks you on launch if you want to turn your mods on for this session).
* NoGearLevel:
** In ''TFE'', Sam loses most of the ammo at the beginning of "Alley of the Sphinxes", save shotgun shells and cannonballs. Handwaved by having Sam being forced to drop the ammo due to weight in the desert in the level's introduction message. The XBOX port even disallows Sam to ride on a magic surfboard should only he arrive on the Alley.
** After completing each chapter in ''TSE'' or ''II'', you'll have only basic weapons remaining.
** Happens in ''BFE'' at the beginning of "The Lost Temples of Nubia".
** Partially occurs in ''NE'', which has predefined weapon sets at the beginning of each level, which means that whenever you find a secret place with a new weapon, you have to exploit it '''now''' because you'll lose it by the end anyway. It gets more ridiculous between ''The Three Halls of Harmony'' and ''The Beast Beneath The Temple'' stages: on the first, you officially possess the cannon (it's not hidden anywhere), then it disappears heck knows where until the boss battle.
* NoScope: Disencouraged with the RAPTOR SniperRifle. Firing it while unscoped has a number of drawbacks: in classic ''TSE'', its power-per-shot is greatly reduced; in ''BFE'', the shot will be subjected to a lot of spread; in the ''HD'' release of ''TSE'', both things happen. NETRICSA explains that [[JustifiedTrope it's a failsafe engaged when the rifle is fired outside an optimal shooting position, to prevent the recoil of the 16mm round from breaking the shooter's wrist]].
* NoodleIncident:
** Mordekai apparently died after an incident involving "[[Franchise/EvilDead the Necronomicon, 20,000 pounds of ectoplasm and a mispronounced Latin proverb]]".
** [[spoiler: Ugh-Zan IV]] is actually the biological father of [[spoiler: Ugh-Zan III]] thanks to an accident with an experimental time machine.
** In ''Jewel of the Nile'', we learn that Sam was nicknamed "Hairy" in high school. The story apparently involves goats, and that's all we know.

* NonMammalMammaries: ''3'' actually provides a plausible explanation for the Scythian Witch-Harpies having breasts despite being a bird-like species. The Harpy's datafile indicates the breasts are non-functional, and are merely an evolved form of predatory mimicry for attracting primate prey (i.e. horny men).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:O to Z]]

** The most iconic one being Sam killing a lone Kamikaze and snarking at it, only to hear a horde of them coming just over a nearby hill in ''TFE''. It's revisited in ''BFE''.
---> '''Sam:''' Uh oh.
** Early in ''BFE'', when Sam meets the Major Biomechanoid...
--->'''Sam:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Aw, aren't you adorable!]]\\
''The mech starts [[TurnsRed spraying missiles at him]]''\\
'''Sam:''' ''Holy crap!''
* OminousMessageFromTheFuture: Sam serves as this, having been sent back into the past to prevent the BadFuture.
%%* OminousPipeOrgan: The ''entire'' medieval episode is this. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
%%* OmnicidalManiac: Mental. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
* OneBulletClips: The pistol, shotgun, assault rifle and Devastator in ''BFE''. The revolvers in older titles as well, though they can't be manually reloaded.
* OneHitPolykill:
** A zoomed-in Sniper Rifle shot in ''Next Encounter''.
** A properly-aimed cannonball against weaker enemies can murder them with contemptuous ease.
** The Devastator's grenades can pierce through small fry enemies if they're close enough. There's an achievement for skewering five with one shot.
* OneManArmy: Sam himself, as you could expect from a classic FPS hero. [[ZergRush Massive hordes]], [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever massive enemies]], [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs massive hordes of massive enemies]], doesn't matter, he'll just wreck them all with a witty one-liner on the tip of his tongue. Hell, the final level of ''BFE'' has ''over 2400 enemies'', and Sam is perfectly capable of killing '''all''' of them should the player be skilled and patient.
** [[https://imgur.com/AcMmoiW This]] lists the total number of monsters in all the games at 45723, more than all the other listed FirstPersonShooter protagonists ''combined.''
* OneSceneWonder: From ''NE'':
** The Serious Combine and Serious Submarine, both of which are only used in levels that have to be unlocked by collecting gold medals.
** There is exactly one red backpack to be found.
* OneUp: One of the pickups in ''II'' and in the XBOX version of ''Serious Sam''.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Sci-fi orcs in this case in ''II''. They have green skin and are in space suits. They return in ''Serious Sam's Bogus Detour'', where they are explained as being mutated Zorg, having taken on orc-like features as a side effect of a substance they created to regrow their skin.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent:
** The Beheaded units deployed by Mental's hordes are reanimated Sirian soldiers, revived with a combination of magic and cybernetics (in ''BFE'' especially, where they have a robotic eye in the place of their head). They are extremely weak when compared to the average human, but unlike most zombies they still retain rudimentary intelligence (being able to use weak, basic weapons and obey orders) as well as move at a pace faster than a walk.
** In ''II'', all Beheaded other than the Kamikazes are absent, but it does have a range of more traditional undead in the form of shotgun-wielding zombie stockbrokers, German soldier zombies armed with miniguns, and zombie martial artists.
* OxygenMeter: Appears when starting to run out of air.
* PainfullySlowProjectile: The main reason rockets are not as effective at a range anymore in ''BFE'' is because most enemies have actually learned to move out of the way of them, which is easy since they're very slow. In addition, 90% of enemy projectiles count. ''Brutally'' averted with the Khnums' fireballs, though – those babies fly hundreds of meters in ''a fraction of a second''.

** ''Next Encounter'' adds ricochet ammo for the Uzis.

* PintsizedPowerhouse: Some mooks can be seen scaled down quite a bit while retaining their combat strength. One of the most memorable is a stampede of rat-sized Werebulls in ''TSE''.

* PlotCoupon: The medallion in ''II''.

* PsychicPowers: Witch-Brides in the third game have powerful telekinesis, in addition to the standard psychic powers of [[PowerFloats levitation]], [[BarrierWarrior force fields]], and [[MadeOfIron enhanced durability.]] Notably, the first one you meet has a short cutscene where it picks up a piece of rubble the size of a small car and uses its telekinesis to crush it into pebbles. As soon as the gameplay begins, she tries the same thing on Sam, but it only does about ten points of damage to him.
* PunchClockVillain: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVKYWVxom8U The Beheaded Kamikazes, believe it or not.]]
* PuppeteerParasite: An odd case in ''BFE'''s "Technopolyps", which infest machines rather than people -- in this case, [[OhCrap attack helicopters.]] The first time you face one, [[ImmuneToBullets you lack weapons that can damage it]] and must use buildings to avoid it until you find a [[StuffBlowingUp Rocket Launcher.]]
** PowersViaPossession: The parasite also appears to enhance the Apache's durability significantly, as its immunity to bullets now extends to anti-materiel rifles, and it can take multiple rockets before going down.

** Ugh-Zan III in ''TFE'' is of ''both'' varieties, more so on the highest difficulty.
** To some extent, Exotech Larva in ''TSE''.
** Zum Zum, and Kleerovski in ''II''.
** [[spoiler:Ugh-Zan IV]] in ''BFE''. [[spoiler:Rahloom]] in the ''Jewel of the Nile'' DLC.
* QuadDamage: The Serious Damage powerup.
--> ''"Serious Damage!"''
* RageAgainstTheAuthor: OneHundredPercentCompletion of at least one stage of one of the games requires you to murder caricatures of the Croteam staff.
* RangedEmergencyWeapon: The pistol in ''BFE''. Ammo for it is infinite and it fires ''and'' reloads decently fast, but it has very low firepower. Not much use against Major Biomechanoids or above save for [[DestructibleProjectiles shooting down missiles]].
* RatedMForManly:
** Within the first five minutes of playing ''TSE'', you'll be doing ''bullfighting with a pump-action shotgun''. This only serves to [[UpToEleven set the bar]] for the rest of the game.
** Just ''one'' minute into ''BFE'', you end up facing a Gnaar unarmed. How to deal with it? ''[[EyeScream Rip its eye out barehanded]].''
* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler: Serious Sam 3: BFE ended with Mental successfully destroying Earth, but not before Sam successfully sending himself to the past to stop Mental during his weakest. The "Hero" theme played in the end credits signify this.]]
* RecurringRiff:
** In ''Serious Sam II'' a certain riff plays during battle music of Ursul Gardens, most of Planet Kleer levels, and when getting a medal piece.
** In ''The First Encounter'', a similar melody plays in the Oasis and Metropolis peace themes.
* RedShirt:
** Sam's squadmates in ''BFE'' are given just enough dialogue in the opening cutscene to make you think they'll at least play a minor role in the story, then are promptly killed off in the first level. Other than Hellfire, all other human allies that appear later in the game suffer similar "killed-as-soon-as-they're-introduced" deaths.
** Some of the headless gunmen wear shirts in a variety of colors, with one class of them wearing red.
* RegeneratingHealth: A feature of the games' Tourist difficulty. Inverted in the Xbox ''Serious Sam'', ''Next Encounter'', and ''II'' where Sam's health and/or armor would drop if it exceed 100.
* RemilitarizedZone: Planet Kronor in ''II''.
* {{Retcon}}: ''BFE'' performs one on the BackStory of the previous games. Sam was not [[TheChosenOne chosen]] to go back in time. He was [[spoiler:''[[EverybodysDeadDave the only guy left alive]]'' [[RightManInTheWrongPlace and close enough to get to the Timelock]], [[JumpedAtTheCall and took it upon himself to jump through]]]]. Creates some FridgeLogic in doing so, however: [[spoiler:if Sam was the only person to get through the Timelock, then who sent all the weapons and ammo back in time? [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, why did his pistol transform into a revolver]]]]?

** The [=M1928=] Tommy Gun got one in both ''Encounter'' games, as it's stated they were yanked out of mothballs and refitted to the more modern 5.56 to fight against Mental's hordes.
* RewardingVandalism: Most breakable objects in ''II'' contain a useful item.
** Taken literally in one early mission in ''NE'', under the name of "Prohibition Bonus".
* RibcageRidge: Lots of giant skeletons found in planet Kleer in ''II''.
* RoarBeforeBeating: Some of the bosses in ''BFE''.
* RocketJump: Though it ''never'' worked in the original, it can result in excessive SequenceBreaking.
* RopeBridge: There's one in a level in ''TFE''. [[spoiler:If you complete a specific task in this level, you'll be able to cross it and access a hidden level. Otherwise, it will snap and take you to the next regular level]].
* RuinsOfTheModernAge: Seen in some of ''BFE'''s early levels, set in Cairo.
* RunningGag: In ''BFE'', helicopters getting shot down.
* SandWorm: These won't let Sam go into the open desert in ''Serious Sam 3''.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: ''TFE''. In the harder difficulty settings, "Dunes", "Metropolis", "Alley of the Sphinxes", and "Karnak" are more challenging than rest of the levels.
* SchizoTech: Kleer skeletons use old ball-and chain projectiles, in ''II'', some enemies like Centaurs use classic weapons, other enemies use weapons ranging from modern to futuristic. There is also magic involved.
* SchmuckBait: In ''TSE'', Sam can walk into a hallway with a little alcove at the end. It contains a boxing glove with a lever below it. NETRICSA suggests that Mental put it there in case Sam gets too curious. Go on, [[OneHitKill give that lever a tug]]...
** After reaching the shield generator in ''II'', Sam encounters an obvious snare trap with a bunch of [[TrademarkFavoriteFood bananas]] in the middle. [[WhatAnIdiot He immediately falls for it.]]

* SentryGun:
** Cannon turrets in ''I'' and ''II''.
** Rocket and plasma turrets in ''II''.
** EDF's Minigun turrets in ''BFE''. They eschew friend-or-foe technology in favor of sheer durability, so they'll shoot Sam down just as readily as they will Mental's monster hordes; fortunately, [[CrosshairAware their effective range is shown by a laser aiming array]], and there's a small grace distance where the turret will aim at Sam in warning but not shoot.
* SerialEscalation: This is done with the amount of bad guys onscreen at once. It's the most apparent in ''The First Encounter'' and ''3''.
* SeriesFauxnale: ''II'' is built up as if it's the final game in the series, with Sam collecting parts of a DismantledMacGuffin to defeat Mental with before finally storming Sirius, Mental's homebase, and even getting into a massive battle with ''[[LivingStructureMonster Mental's house]]''. When it comes time for the final showdown, however, [[spoiler:Mental distracts Sam with a voice recording of himself in a dark room while he escapes in a flying saucer]].
* SetAMookToKillAMook: When factoring in the enemies' ArtificialStupidity, it's fairly easy to position Sam where one enemy can deal damage to, if not outright kill, other enemies. The Major Biomechanoid's rockets are particularly useful to lay waste to other mooks
* SharedLifeMeter: The first two games will occasionally lock Sam in an arena and hurl massive amounts of enemies that have to be killed, using a boss life meter to gauge the player's progress.
* ShiftingSandLand: ''TFE'', most notably the "Dunes" level.
* ShinySense: In ''Serious Sam 3'', ammo glows yellow, health red, armor blue, weapons green, and key items purple. This was done to compensate the lack of spinning around mid air and sparkling in the previous installments.
** Also available in ''NE'', even though they still float.
* ShootEverythingThatMoves: How else are you expected to save the universe?
* ShortRangeShotgun: The Double Shotgun, which is basically a melee weapon, similar to its ''Doom'' counterpart.
* ShoutOut:
** To ''VideoGame/DukeNukem''. In fact, Sam's incarnation in ''TFE'', at least on the package, looks like a black-haired Duke Nukem.
** Another one is at the start of ''TSE'', in the form of a red phone booth (gold in the XBOX version), and its conversation.
** One boss in ''II'' is called "Boss Hugo".
** The levels containing [[spoiler:the three challenges Sam must overcome in order to be free]] in ''II'' are named [[Music/IronMaiden "Be quick or be dead"]], [[Music/GunsNRoses "Welcome to the Jungle"]] and [[Music/{{Metallica}} "Jump im the fire"]].
** In the first level of ''TFE'', Sam whistles part of the main song from the musical ''[[Film/SinginInTheRain Singin' in the Rain]]''.
** In the second level of ''TFE'', at one point a boulder drops down and starts rolling toward you. Sam begins whistling the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' theme.
** In the first level of ''TSE'', while crossing a rope bridge he whistles the Peruvian song ''El Condor Pasa''.
** Cucurbito the Pumpkin's enemy bio states that Mental got the idea for him after listening to [[Music/TheSmashingPumpkins "a band whose name had something to do with destroying vegetables"]].
** To Creator/MontyPython upon picking up the Chainsaw in Poland:
--> ''"Oh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK!"''
** In ''II'', near the beginning of the first level is a [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros domesticated green velociraptor that can be ridden around like a horse]]. His name is [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Dino, pronounced "DEE-noh]].
** In ''II'', the list of names of the people staying at Mental Headquarters consists of himself, ComicBook/TheJoker, ComicBook/LexLuthor, [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]], [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Doctor Moreau]], and O.J. Simpson.
** In ''II'' in the penultimate level of the first chapter he can't get past a door and at one point screams, [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones "WILMAAA!"]].
** Again in ''II'', the Simba chief (and his villagers) keep calling Sam [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} "Samus".]]
** Later on, before facing Prince Chan, the cutscene is highly reminiscent of an old Asian movie, including voice-dubbing not matching lip movements.
** During the first level of the Kleer planet in ''II'', Sam says after NETRICSA suggests him to pick up the Rocket Launcher[[note]]As if it's not enough, the game even emphasizes the reference by capitalizing the first letter. Oh, and for bonus points, the level itself is called "Unreal Wasteland".[[/note]]:
--> ''"I love picking big guns. It feels so VideoGame/{{Unreal}}."''
** In the intro cutscene to the second level of the Kleer planet chapter in ''II'', the famous [[Film/TheWarriors "Warriors, come out to playyy!"]] scene from the film is recreated.
** In the end of the penultimate chapter, Sam calls out to the alliance fleet about to attack planet Sirius "Are you with me?" Among the responses are: "Acknowledged!" "Ready!" "Affirmative!" [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit "Roger!", "Rabbit!"]]
** "That was a nasty dive and I'd swear it reminded me of something... wait... let me remember..... [[Franchise/TombRaider hmmm...it has something to do with a 3rd person view and a woman...hmmm........Venice]]...hmmmm...nah, I can't remember."
*** In Double D, Sam also mentions that he knew this athletic girl once who was interested in raiding tombs for treasures and had the nicest pair of... handguns.
** ShoutOutToShakespeare: In ''TSE'' after grabbing a crystal skull:
--> ''"To be or not to be - that is a serious question."''
** [[Film/{{Aliens}} "They're coming outta the goddamn walls!"]]
** In ''BFE'' Sam can use [[VideoGame/DukeNukem3D Duke's Mighty Boot]].
** In ''BFE'', after "scaring off" one of Mental's warships:
-->''[[VideoGame/ZeroWing All your base are belong to us]], [[PrecisionFStrike mother fucker]]!''
** In ''BFE'', after Sam meets the Arachnids for the first time, he whistles the [[WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967 Spiderman]] theme.
** The posters in the secret "Yard of Fame" in ''BFE'''s first level include a few of these, such as "[[VideoGame/MonkeyIsland Look behind you, a Three-Headed Gnaar!]]" and "[[Franchise/MassEffect I'm Commander Shepard,]] [[Memes/BioWare and this is my favorite game on the Citadel.]]"
** The title screen for ''The First Encounter'' has Sam proclaiming [[Literature/GreenEggsAndHam "Sam I am!"]]. One of the achievements is also called that.
** In the ''Jewel Of The Nile'' DLC for ''BFE'', Sam talks about a NoodleIncident involving goats. Sort of like a certain [[VideoGame/Left4Dead2 Ellis trying to tell a certain story where there was a goat]].
** In ''Double D'', the player can find the secret [[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime Grave Before Time]], with the skulls of the main characters. The player can also find the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z86V_ICUCD4 Secret Useless Machine]].

[[/folder]]

* ''Serious Sam 4'' (2020)

''Serious Sam 4'' was [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/06/serious-sam-4-coming-late-2014/ announced]] for Q4 2014, though it has been continually delayed since, with the first hints of what it will be like since then coming in 2018, where it was revealed to have the subtitle ''Planet Badass''. Early promotional art seems to indicate that it's a prequel to ''BFE'' - so a prequel to a prequel - taking place in Europe during Mental's invasion. The game is set to release in August of 2020.

* ''Serious Sam The First Encounter'' (2001, [=PC/Palm OS/Xbox=])

As of late 2016, the series has been in the process of being converted to VR, starting with the aforementioned ''Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope'' in October, and VR-converted versions of the two halves of ''Serious Sam HD'' following in March and then April 2017.

!!''Serious Sam'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* ''Serious Sam: The First Encounter'' (2001, [=PC/Palm OS/Xbox=])

* ''Serious Sam Double D'' (2011, [=PC/X360=], developed by Mommy's Best Games)

* ''Serious Sam: The First Encounter'' (2001, PC/Palm OS/Xbox)

* ''Serious Sam II'' (2005, PC/Xbox)
* ''Serious Sam 3: BFE''[[note]]Before First Encounter[[/note]] (2011, PC/Mac/X360/PS3)

* ''Serious Sam: The Next Encounter'' (2004, PS2/GC, developed by Climax Solent)

* ''Serious Sam Double D'' (2011, PC/X360, developed by Mommy's Best Games)
* ''Serious Sam Kamikaze Attack!'' (2011, PC/iOS/Android, developed by Be-Rad Entertainment)
* ''Serious Sam: The Random Encounter'' (2011, PC, developed by Vlambeer)
* ''Serious Sam: The Greek Encounter'' (2012)
* ''Serious Sam Double D'' (2011, PC, developed by Mommy's Best Games)
** ''Serious Sam Double D XXL'' (2013, X360/XBLA, developed by Mommy's Best Games)
* ''Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope'' (2017, PC)
* ''Serious Sam's Bogus Detour'' (2017)
* ''I Hate Running Backwards'' (2018, PC/Switch/Xbox One/PS4, developed by Binx Interactive)

* ''Serious Sam Classics: Revolution'' (2019)

In ''[[GaidenGame Serious Sam: Next Encounter]]'', Mental attempts to get retaliation on Sam by creating a pint-sized evil clone of him. Going through ancient Rome, feudal China and finally legendary Atlantis, Sam fights against a cyborg gladiator minotaur, a mechanically modified three headed Asian dragon and the soul of a Sirian warrior fused with the spaceship to create a terrifying giant flying robot, before he eventually defeats and captures the evil clone.

The series also spawned several spin-off games, most of them released in 2011 to promote ''BFE'':
[[index]]
* ''[[Videogame/SeriousSamTheRandomEncounter The Random Encounter]]'': ''Serious Sam'' reimagined as an [[RolePlayingGame RPG]].
* ''Double D'': ''Serious Sam'' as an ''VideoGame/{{Abuse}}''-style 2D side-scrolling ShootEmUp.
* ''The Greek Encounter'': ''Serious Sam'' as a top-down ShootEmUp.
* ''Kamikaze Attack'': A PerspectiveFlip where you control a [[{{Mook}} Headless Kamikaze]] trying to kill Sam.
* ''VR: The Last Hope'': A VR first-person wave shooter, in Early Access as of 17th October 2016.
* ''Serious Sam's Bogus Detour'': Another top-down shooter, developed by ''VideoGame/{{Hammerwatch}}'' developer [=CrackShell=].
[[/index]]

As of late 2016, the series has been in the process of being converted to VR, starting with the aforementioned ''Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope'' in October, and VR-converted versions of the two halves of ''Serious Sam HD'' following in March and then April 2017. A pair of {{Compilation Rerelease}}s also exist: ''Serious Sam Classics: Revolution'' combines the Classic versions of ''First'' and ''Second Encounter'' into one game (along with a third campaign called ''Bright Island''), developed by an indie team of ''Serious Sam'' fans [[ApprovalOfGod with help from Croteam]], who themselves have created ''Serious Sam Fusion 2017'', combining the HD versions of ''First'' and ''Second Encounter'', their VR versions, and ''BFE'', including the ability for the VR and "flat" versions of any one game to be able to play together; Croteam also promised a VR version of ''BFE'', which released in November 2017, and have hinted at a possible remaster of ''Serious Sam II''.

* ''Serious Sam: The First Encounter'' (2001)

* ''Serious Sam: The Next Encounter'' (2004)
* ''Serious Sam Advance'' (2004)
* ''Serious Sam II'' (2005)
* ''Serious Sam 3: BFE''[[note]]Before First Encounter[[/note]] (2011)

* ''Serious Sam Double D'' (2011)
* ''Serious Sam Kamikaze Attack!'' (2011)
* ''Serious Sam: The Random Encounter'' (2011)
* ''Serious Sam: The Greek Encounter'' (2012)
* ''Serious Sam Double D XXL'' (2013)
* ''Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope'' (2017)
* ''Serious Sam's Bogus Detour'' (2017)
* ''I Hate Running Backwards'' (2018)
* ''Serious Sam: Tormental'' (2019)
* ''Serious Sam Classics: Revolution'' (2019)

Serious Sam is a series of videogames (mostly {{first person shooter}}s but later branching onto other videogame genres) developed by Croteam.

* BloodierAndGorier: Starting from the ''HD'' remakes of both ''TFE'' and ''TSE'', the series has a lot more hemoglobin to spare thanks to the new engine. Parodied in one the trailers for the game showing off one of the alternate blood types, put to "Sunshine and Lollipops".

''Serious Sam 4'' was [[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/06/serious-sam-4-coming-late-2014/ announced]] for Q4 2014, though it has been continually delayed since, with the first hints of what it will be like since then coming in 2018, where it was revealed to have the subtitle ''Planet Badass''. Early promotional art seems to indicate that it's a prequel to ''BFE'' - so a prequel to a prequel - taking place in Europe during Mental's invasion.

* TranslatorMicrobes: NETRICSA actively translates other languages for Sam. ''BFE'' features both old tablets with hieroglyphs and modern Egyptian graffiti in some areas. Upon looking at them, subtitles will appear in the original language, but then slowly transition to English (or whatever set language). [[WildMassGuessing This is also presumably why]] Sam can talk to Gnaars, Mental, and whoever else.

** [[https://imgur.com/AcMmoiW this]] lists the total number of monsters in all the games at 45723. more than all the other listed FirstPersonShooter protagonists ''combined.''

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Beheaded units deployed by Mental's hordes are reanimated Sirian soldiers, revived with a combination of magic and cybernetics (in ''BFE'' especially, where they have a robotic eye in the place of their head). They are extremely weak when compared to the average human, but unlike most zombies they still retain rudimentary intelligence (being able to use weak, basic weapons and obey orders) as well as move at a pace faster than a walk.

* BitterSweetEnding: In ''BFE'', [[spoiler:Sam ends up defeating the powerful Ugh-Zan IV and activates the Timelock, thus traveling back in time for ''TFE'', but Mental throws the moon at the Earth causing both to be destroyed immediately after]].

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Sci-fi orcs in this case in ''II''. They have green skin and are in space suits.