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Serious Sam returns in a new instalment that, rather than simply copying the earlier entries, aims to give the series a completely new identity. Behaviour Interactive has developed Serious Sam: Shatterverse, drawing primarily on The First Encounter and The Second Encounter. The game keeps the fast shooting, massive waves of enemies and spectacular boss fights, but pairs them with mechanics familiar from the roguelike genre. Players can traverse different versions of reality, use both classic and new weapons, and modify subsequent attempts. The developers also want the new instalment to be easy for newcomers to pick up.
Serious Sam meets roguelike
Behaviour Interactive began work on Shatterverse with the aim of recreating Serious Sam’s distinctive style in the Unreal Engine. The team focused, among other things, on fast-paced shooting, retreating in the face of hordes of enemies, and the series’ signature arsenal and foes. The biggest inspiration were the first two entries in the series, which team members still happily fire up. The upcoming 25th anniversary of the franchise was an extra reason to treat the new title as a kind of tribute to the series’ beginnings. The game therefore preserves high-octane action, massive enemy groups and formidable bosses. Each boss encounter is meant to be a major event and a test of the player’s skills. Simply recreating the classic style wasn’t enough for the developers, though; they wanted to create a game with its own character. The team asked why players kept coming back to the original instalments and which elements were responsible for their unique atmosphere. One key assumption became the desire to have players repeatedly replay the same missions in search of secrets and better scores. The other was the unpredictability of encounters, in which designers could deliberately put the player in difficult situations. Those two elements led the creators to the decision to combine Serious Sam with an FPS roguelike formula. On subsequent runs the gameplay can change thanks to modifiers and upgrades you obtain.
The new version will also be available to new players
The developers realised that combining an FPS with roguelike mechanics might seem demanding for some players. That’s why all Shatterverse systems were designed to be easy to understand, while still allowing players to develop their skills over successive runs. The game should be accessible even to people who’ve never played Serious Sam, an FPS or a roguelike before. Multiplayer is an important feature too, designed for playing with friends and family. Behaviour Interactive opted for peer-to-peer multiplayer rather than using dedicated servers. That way the game has a chance to remain playable in 5, 10 or even 15 years, regardless of whether maintaining servers will still be cost-effective then. The game also includes an offline single-player mode. The developers wanted to avoid a situation where a purchased game becomes unavailable simply because support for it was discontinued. Serious Sam: Shatterverse is intended to be a complete, standalone game that doesn’t require a live-service model to provide gameplay. At the same time it’s been prepared with future expansions, DLC and extra content in mind, should players want more.
Serious Sam: Shatterverse blends the series' classic formula with FPS roguelike mechanics and multiplayer gameplay. The game features both familiar enemies and weapons, as well as new elements created specifically for Shatterverse. Players find themselves in different versions of reality, where they must face hordes led by Mental and his powerful lieutenants. Behaviour Interactive plans to expand the game with additional content, but the base version was designed as a complete standalone release.
source: XBOX
