- "Are you serious?"
- ―Serious difficulty description
Serious difficulty is a difficulty setting in the Serious Sam games. It is featured in almost all Serious Sam titles. Finishing Serious Sam 1, Serious Sam HD, Serious Sam 3: BFE, Serious Sam VR, Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE and Serious Sam 4 on Serious difficulty unlocks Mental difficulty, and finishing the difficulty in Serious Sam Classics: Revolution unlocks I Am Ugh-Zan difficulty.
Overview[]
Serious difficulty is generally the penultimate difficulty in most of the Serious Sam games, as Mental difficulty (I am Ugh-Zan difficulty in the case of Serious Sam Classics: Revolution) is usually featured as the last possible difficulty. Only in certain games is Serious difficulty the highest, and final difficulty setting. Serious difficulty can be considered the greatest challenge in a Serious Sam game, as it offers the highest caliber of enemies featured in any difficulty. By comparison, Mental difficulty, despite being the last possible difficulty in some games, only offers the same amount of enemies and enemy strengths featured on Hard difficulty but makes up for this with the enemies repeatedly becoming invisible and visible. On the other hand, I Am Ugh-Zan difficulty, only available in Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, is essentially Serious difficulty but with 50% extra enemy health and the chance that enemies will spawn with fire or ice modifiers that can gradually harm or slow down the player, respectively, upon contact with them.
Serious difficulty is recommended only for the most serious, experienced players. Hard difficulty might be the closest comparison, but it is by no means an equal equivalent to the overwhelming amounts that can be found on Serious difficulty. Though obviously not impossible, Serious difficulty remains a worthy challenge for anybody looking to test their skills. It requires not only good playing skills, but a good endurance from the player. Levels will be much longer due to length and density of waves, so it would not be unusual for first-time players to be playing much longer on certain levels. Players who have knowledge of the levels, and where and when enemies spawn should be more than capable for the challenge.
Aside from the increase in enemies and the damage they deal, there are some changes that can make gameplay more daunting. For example, in Serious Sam's Bogus Detour, the player's health and armor is decreased to 50, upgrades are more expensive, and the behaviors of some enemies are altered. In the Serious Sam Fusion version of Serious Sam 3, as well as Serious Sam 4 and Siberian Mayhem, some enemies now have access to new attacks or behaviors otherwise not possible on lower difficulties (except Hard and Mental difficulties):
- Beheaded Rocketeers now have a chance of firing an opened rocket that homes in on the player in the same manner as Common Aludran Reptiloid fireballs, although that can be destroyed in midair.
- Gnaars now have a supercharged punch attack that deals more damage and has a lot more knockback than normal; this is signified by their fists glowing as they punch. It also inflicts Kicking damage instead of the usual Punch damage. This attack is not present in Serious Sam 4.
- Hatchling and Juvenile Antaresian Spiders can shoot dark green acid balls that travel in linear trajectories and bounce off walls and surfaces just like the Exotech Larva's plasma orbs, although they, like the Rocketeers' homing rockets, can be destroyed in midair.
- Kleer Skeletons can conjure electric chainballs which spin horizontally instead of vertically and have a bigger hitbox than vertical chainballs. These are also thrown in a manner that predicts the direction the player will strafe to, requiring the player to strafe in the opposite direction.
- Scrapjacks can fire a heavily damaging volley of grenades upwards. These grenades deal the same damage as rockets, but can bypass obstacles that the rockets would otherwise explode on impact with. This attack is exclusive to Serious Sam Fusion.
- Minor Bio-mechanoids may spin around in an attempt to catch players who are strafing.
- Major Bio-mechanoids are now more aggressive and will fire rapid bursts of missiles even more frequently.
- Octanian Sentry Towers behave a lot more erratically overall.
Advantages[]
In Serious Sam 1 and Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, the player is granted double ammunition collection, and the maximum ammunition capacity. In Serious Sam HD, Serious Sam 3, Serious Sam VR and Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE there is also a score multiplier of 50/51. To players seeking further challenges, this difficulty also unlocks Mental difficulty depending on the game and in Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, I Am Ugh-Zan difficulty.
Disadvantages[]
Enemies have a drastically increased damage multiplier (x2 in Serious Sam 1, Serious Sam 2, Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, and Serious Sam 4; x2.5 in Serious Sam 3 and its VR version), making dodging and accurate shooting of the utmost importance to ensure survival. A lot of enemies also move faster than on Normal difficulty. In addition to this, the amount of enemies is also drastically increased. It is not uncommon to encounter hundreds or even over 1000 enemies in a single level in the later levels of some games; for example, during the level The Guardian of Time in Serious Sam 3 or From Earth With Love in Serious Sam 4, well over 2000 enemies can spawn for the player to fight, though it is not necessary to kill all of them. In Serious Sam 2, enemies also have 25% more health, and the player's auto-aim factor is decreased by 20%.
As a result of the increased amount of enemies, waves of enemies will be much denser, and last longer. Ambushes (caused by picking up items like Extra Small Health) can also feature more enemies than normally found. Larger battles usually receive additional units which attack players far away. In Serious Sam 1 and Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, some of the enemies are replaced by stronger ones as well, the most common case being Gnaars and Beheaded Rocketeers being replaced by Kleer Skeletons. The amount of enemies can be overwhelming, all it takes is one possible mistake to kill or heavily damage a player. It is absolutely important to stay alert, as it is very easy to lose track of every enemy on screen, especially when dealing with Kleer Skeletons or Marsh Hoppers in excessive numbers. In Serious Sam 3, the amount of enemy increase is less drastic with typically only a few additional enemies per level, but the enemies still make up for this with their x2.5 damage multiplier instead of the standard x2.
In New Game+, the enemy count multipliers and received damage from enemies can further increase, eventually allowing otherwise weak enemies like Male Gnaars to kill a player in around two hits from 100 health.
| |||||