'Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter' Hits Vive, Rift

Croteam and Devolver Digital released Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and OSVR. The game's title makes it clear that it's a follow-up to Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter and is part of Croteam's efforts to make the franchise a mainstay of VR experiences.

The sheer number of Serious Sam titles available in VR can make it hard to know what to expect. This newest entry is a first-person shooter that emphasizes arcade action over silly things like crouching behind waist-high obstacles or peeking around corners. That action is present both in The Second Encounter's 12-level campaign, which allows single-player and co-op play, and the game's "various multiplayer modes" with up to 16 players.

You can change various aspects of The Second Encounter to suit your preferences. There are five difficulty settings for the single-player campaign, and the co-op campaign lets you decide if you want to enable friendly fire, infinite ammo, or an arcade-like mode where you and your buddy have a limited number of lives. You can also choose from capture the flag, deathmatch, and other multiplayer modes depending on what suits your fancy.

Croteam announced in February that it had three more VR titles on the way: Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam VR: The Third Encounter, and The Talos Principle. All three, much like Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter, were ports of existing titles to VR. The company also said it will continue to update the new Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope as well as a bunch of graphics updates made via Serious Sam Fusion 2017.

You can buy Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter on Steam for $30 as part of a 25% off launch sale. The game supports the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and OSVR; accepts input from motion controllers, gamepads, and keyboard and mouse; and can be played seated, standing, or in room-scale setups. Movement can be handled either via Croteam's Blink teleportation-based Serious Warp system or via trackpad/analog stick full locomotion.