The simplistic gameplay of Serious Sam 2 is similar to that of previous games in the series, but Serious Sam 2's lives system is a radical departure from the original games in the series (which would allow you to resume from checkpoints or saved games an infinite number of times). Although "Serious Sam for Xbox" was the first game in the series to feature a "lives system", Serious Sam 2 was the first PC game in the series to implement this system.