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Serious Sam returns in a new instalment that, rather than simply copying earlier entries, attempts to give the series an entirely new identity. Behaviour Interactive has developed Serious Sam: Shatterverse, drawing primarily on The First Encounter and The Second Encounter. The game retains the fast-paced gunplay, massive waves of enemies and spectacular boss fights, but combines them with mechanics from the roguelike genre. Players can traverse alternate realities, use both classic and new weapons and modify subsequent runs. The developers also want the new instalment to be easy for newcomers to the series to pick up.
Serious Sam meets roguelike
Behaviour Interactive began work on Shatterverse with the aim of recreating Serious Sam’s distinctive style in Unreal Engine. The developers focused on dynamic shooting, retreating from hordes of enemies and the series’ characteristic arsenal and foes. Their biggest inspiration were the first two entries in the series, which team members still enjoy firing up. The upcoming 25th anniversary of the franchise was an additional reason to treat the new title as a sort of tribute to the series’ beginnings. The game therefore retains a fast pace, massive enemy hordes and powerful bosses. Each boss fight is intended to be a major event and a test of the player’s skill. Simply recreating the classic style was not enough for the team, however, because they wanted to create a game with its own identity. The team wondered why players kept returning to the originals and which elements were responsible for their unique atmosphere. One key aim became encouraging repeated playthroughs of 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 tough situations. These two elements led the developers to decide to combine Serious Sam with an FPS roguelike formula. In subsequent runs the gameplay can therefore change thanks to modifiers and acquired upgrades.
The new instalment will also be accessible to new players
The developers recognised that combining an FPS with roguelike mechanics might seem demanding to some players. For that reason all of Shatterverse’s systems were designed to be easy to understand while still allowing skills to develop across multiple runs. The game is intended to be approachable for people who have never played Serious Sam, an FPS, or a roguelike before. Multiplayer is also an important element and has been designed for playing with friends and family. Behaviour Interactive decided to use peer-to-peer multiplayer rather than dedicated servers. That way the game has a chance of still working in five, ten or even fifteen years, regardless of whether running servers is financially viable then. The game also includes an offline single-player mode. The developers wanted to avoid a situation where a purchased game becomes unplayable simply because its support has ended. Serious Sam: Shatterverse is intended as a complete, standalone product that does not require a service model to deliver gameplay. At the same time it has been prepared with future expansions, DLC and additional content in mind, if players want more.
Serious Sam: Shatterverse combines the series' classic formula with roguelike FPS mechanics and multiplayer gameplay. The game features familiar enemies and weapons alongside new elements created specifically for Shatterverse. Players are thrown into alternate versions of reality where they must face the hordes of Mental and his powerful lieutenants. Behaviour Interactive intends to expand the game with additional content, but the base version has been designed as a complete, standalone game.
source: Xbox
