Serious Sam Fusion 2017 brings several Serious Sam games into one hub, where you and your friends can fight through the HD First Encounter, HD Second Encounter, or Serious Sam 3: BFE. Each campaign supports online co-op for up to 16 players. BFE also offers local split-screen co-op for up to four people, while each player joining through a VR edition needs a compatible headset. The scale runs from a small group sharing one screen to a crowded online wave fight, but the connected menu does not turn the separate campaigns into one game or one license.
The premise is direct: Sam Stone battles Mental’s alien forces in campaigns built around clearing areas full of enemies and moving onward. The First Encounter sends him through ancient Egypt, the Second moves across South American, Mesopotamian, and medieval settings, and BFE frames the fight as an invasion-era prequel. You are not signing up for a class-based squad or a branching co-op story. Each episode follows a similar loop: clearing enemy-filled areas, finding weapons and supplies along the route, then reaching the next arena where another wave appears.
One hub, three separate campaigns
Fusion is a launcher and shared layer for supported games you already own. It links their content into one menu and lets you switch between encounters without closing the application. That makes the collection convenient for groups that own several episodes, but the hub does not unlock them by itself. Each HD campaign, VR edition, and expansion remains a separate product with its own license. The Second Encounter has The Legend of the Beast, while Jewel of the Nile is a separate BFE expansion. A VR license covers its headset edition, not the flat-screen game; Fusion does not turn VR into a regular monitor version. Each session still uses the content for its selected episode.
The three base campaigns have different routes and moods. The First Encounter gives you 15 levels across Egyptian deserts, temples, and underground spaces. The Second Encounter takes the fight to several regions, including South American jungle and medieval landscapes, and adds weapons such as a sniper rifle, flamethrower, and chainsaw. BFE shifts the setting to a near-future Egypt under attack, with 12 campaign levels and a broader range of co-op variants. Each episode keeps its own level sequence and enemy roster; changing titles from the hub is a change of campaign, not a mid-level world swap.
The story stays in the background while you cross large spaces and clear enemy-filled sections. A stretch of open ground can become an arena as more enemies enter from the edges. Some charge straight toward you; others attack at range or arrive in groups that make you turn to follow the action. The enemy mix gives friends several simultaneous things to watch, but everyone uses the same basic arsenal rather than filling a permanent tank, healer, or support role. Cooperation comes from fighting the same crowd together, not from building a party around fixed classes.
The games are fast, loud, and deliberately over the top. BFE’s ruined city streets and ancient Egyptian structures sit beside the desert temples of the earlier campaigns. Expect grotesque monsters, explosive weapons, blood, and a lot of screaming enemies. The tone has a silly edge, but the action itself is relentlessly hectic: quiet travel sections can give way to a wide arena where the enemy count climbs quickly. If your group wants stealth, cover-based firefights, or a slow story with long character scenes, these campaigns aim somewhere else.
Weapons, secrets, and replayable fights
Your weapon choices change with the episode, but the shared pattern is easy to recognize. You find firearms and ammunition as you move through a level, then switch between tools that handle close threats, distant targets, or clustered enemies differently. In the Second Encounter, the sniper rifle gives you a longer-range option while the flamethrower and chainsaw push combat toward close quarters. BFE’s arsenal includes a scoped assault rifle, shotguns, a minigun, and a cannon that launches flaming projectiles. Fusion supports full controller input, Steam Workshop content, and cross-game modding; individual mods can add custom maps and content dependencies.
There is no shared character level or a long equipment tree sitting between campaigns. Most progression is attached to moving through levels, finding more of their hidden supplies, and choosing a difficulty or co-op variant for another run. The First Encounter alone hides more than 80 secrets across its 15 stages. The Second Encounter has more than 130 secrets across three worlds and a roster of 27 enemies, including five new types and three bosses. These discoveries and encounters stay within that campaign rather than becoming a shared Fusion-wide progression pool. Looking beyond the obvious route can uncover extra ammunition or other useful pickups, giving a familiar map something to reward besides a quick path to the exit. The challenge still comes from enemies and level layouts rather than from grinding a character build.
BFE lets the host choose among Standard, Classic, Coin-Op, Beast Hunt, and Team Beast Hunt co-op modes. Coin-Op turns campaign play into an arcade-style run with limited lives. Beast Hunt mixes campaign enemies with score competition, so it is less straightforwardly cooperative than clearing the campaign together. The Second Encounter also offers Coin-Op and Survival co-op alongside its campaign, with separate Survival maps for holding out against continued attacks. These variants reuse the series’ arenas and enemies while changing the conditions of a run. Team Survival is different from standard co-op: two teams fight each other while also facing enemy waves. BFE has five difficulty levels and co-op adjustment options; TSE has three difficulty settings and more than 18 multiplayer maps, separate from its campaign levels. The Second Encounter records scores in both single-player and co-op leaderboards. Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are direct player-versus-player options, not co-op chapters. Mode names and rules differ by episode.
Fusion’s wider multiplayer also includes versus modes. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Last Man Standing, and related options pit players or teams against each other. Those are a clear change of purpose from campaign co-op, not extra chapters in the cooperative story. A player who only wants PvE can stay with campaign or survival modes, while a group that likes a mix of shared enemies and friendly competition has options beyond the main route. Which modes appear depends on the specific game or map you have selected.
Workshop support and cross-game modding give the hub custom maps and altered content beyond the base campaigns. Modded sessions can require more than owning Fusion: some custom campaigns require several Serious Sam games and expansions. Those requirements attach to the particular custom campaign, so the shared menu does not make every map part of every library. Custom maps therefore remain separate content alongside the original campaigns.
Online and local play have different limits
The HD campaigns support online co-op for up to 16 players. BFE also supports local split-screen co-op and versus for up to four people on one computer, with multiple keyboards and mice. Its four-player local cap is separate from the online cap. Fusion has full controller support.
VR uses a separate edition and hardware path. Each supported VR edition requires an appropriate PC headset, tracked controllers, and its required runtime; Fusion’s minimum PC configuration does not support VR. The HD versions are the flat-screen option. Local split-screen is a separate, flat-only mode and cannot include a VR player. Headset requirements belong to the VR edition, not to the shared launcher.
Fusion is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux/SteamOS. The hub presents supported content on those systems, while each campaign, VR edition, and expansion remains a separate game entry and license. HD campaign co-op supports up to 16 online players.
The hub’s server browser gathers sessions for supported campaigns into one list. That does not merge the campaigns: a First Encounter player joins a First Encounter session, not a BFE map. Each listing remains tied to its selected episode, and each HD campaign supports online co-op for up to 16 players. The shared browser brings the campaign listings together, not their maps, expansions, or licenses.
Who will enjoy this group shooter?
Serious Sam Fusion suits friends who want classic first-person action, huge enemy crowds, and several campaigns to move between from one launcher. You can take a small local group into BFE split-screen or bring a much larger party into the online campaigns. The co-op rules and extra modes offer room for different kinds of runs, while secrets, difficulty settings, survival maps, and community content add reasons to revisit familiar arenas. The shared activity stays simple: shoot, move through the level, and survive the next flood of monsters.
Fusion remains a beta, and occasional bugs are a practical limitation. Its group options differ by campaign: HD online co-op supports up to 16 players, while BFE local split-screen co-op and versus support up to four on one computer. VR uses a separate license, compatible PC headset, tracked controllers, and runtime; it does not join local split-screen. Expansion licenses also remain separate from their base games. Those boundaries sit alongside the hub’s shared menu and its distinct campaign modes.