''AAAHHHH yourself!'' - Serious Sam 4 coming in September 2020

[BigBoy91]

Fuck yeah! I might have to quit procrastinating and finally get a gaming PC for this. Been working my way through TFE/TSE and love them.

[Devalaous]

I'm annoyed its another prequel. Series currently is less and less advanced as the main plot goes on, starting with the brand new SS4, then ending at the ost aged of the bunch, Serious Sam 2, which is barely even canon due to how wacky and out there it is, even compared to the others. I finished Serous Sam 3 recently and I liked how it was just, ahem, serious enough, to have a sensible enough plot and a real sense of gravitas during its campaign missions. Hated the final level though. Nothing but a long long corridor with millions of enemies *yawn*

[Hellektronic]

"I'd buy that for a dollar, aggghhhh!!" -that guy from Robocop

 

This is fantastic looking. Give it to me.

[Avoozl]

I'm pretty sure he laughed after saying that.

[frag enabler]

22 hours ago, Devalaous said:

I'm annoyed its another prequel. Series currently is less and less advanced as the main plot goes on, starting with the brand new SS4, then ending at the ost aged of the bunch, Serious Sam 2, which is barely even canon due to how wacky and out there it is, even compared to the others. I finished Serous Sam 3 recently and I liked how it was just, ahem, serious enough, to have a sensible enough plot and a real sense of gravitas during its campaign missions. Hated the final level though. Nothing but a long long corridor with millions of enemies *yawn*

CT themselves stated that they don't recognize SS2 as canon. They barely acknowledge its existence, it was this bad. To this day it's the only mainline SS installment I just outright hate.

 

Also PK and SS shouldn't really be compared, even if they only seemingly differ by map size. SS is basically omnidiractional Space Invaders combined with bullet hell, PK is an arcadey zombie survival game.

[Devalaous]

13 hours ago, SuperchargedEuthanasiaDiv said:

CT themselves stated that they don't recognize SS2 as canon. They barely acknowledge its existence, it was this bad. To this day it's the only mainline SS installment I just outright hate.

 

All the more reason to continue from Second Encounter instead of pushing the series further back in time. I want to go fight Mental and explore a serious Sirius, damn it!

[Redneckerz]

20 hours ago, SuperchargedEuthanasiaDiv said:

CT themselves stated that they don't recognize SS2 as canon. They barely acknowledge its existence, it was this bad. To this day it's the only mainline SS installment I just outright hate.

I think it totally sucks balls that CT ignores SS2 as canon. Its obviously very different from mainline Sam, but it took a lot of cues from the console exclusive Next Encounter.

 

Personally (unpopular opinion) i find it the best Sam. The completely dumbfuck humor is on a similar level as Timesplitters: Future Perfect. I get however that this kind of dry humor only relays the haha's to specific groups of people, though.

I am surprised Dreamkiller has not been mentioned yet, as its heavily based off Painkiller.

[Uni]

IMHO, Serious Sam 2 was a fun, solid game and to hear that Croteam don't recognize it as canon is a shame. It had shitload of content, plenty of themes, great music and for me it was a long and fun experience. I actually enjoyed it more than SS3.

[chungy]

On 8/7/2020 at 7:43 AM, Devalaous said:

Hated the final level though. Nothing but a long long corridor with millions of enemies *yawn* 

what. That's the best part of Serious Sam 3!

[Devalaous]

I hate slaughtermaps, so its only natural I'd hate a line of nothing but endless enemies in a different series too :p

Every other map I enjoyed, in both the main campaign and the DLC, I like clever enemy placement and dont mind the occasional arena, but when its just 'heres 50 kleers, 50 scorpions, 20 cyberdemon knockoffs, 10 witchbrides etc', it feels lazy and uninspired, especially when its all in a row. most of the rest of the game had crazy enemy counts, but it always felt 'believable' like most Doom maps also do.

 

Metropolis in the original game was similar, but felt better designed. Not looking forward to playing Guardian of Time again when I play coop with my girlfriend, although since shes much better than me, she'll probably carry me through that one.

[chungy]

To each their own perhaps. Whenever I start up Serious Sam 3, I give thought (and sometimes do) to skipping the first three levels. They're the ones that to me feel totally uninspired and boring. I even recall in 2011 that there was running fan theory that the levels were either a parody of the monotony of contemporary FPSes (eg, Call of Duty), or were the leftovers of a CoD-ish game Croteam was developing. They feel way out of place in a Sam game, for sure.

 

It's probably more frequent that I just start at Guardian of Time, or just play the game's last three levels. I always feel those are the parts where it got "really good" and the most like TFE/TSE.

[Spectre01]

The final map of SS3, Guardian of Time, is pure art. It perfectly captures the bleak, end of the world, atmosphere after Sam becomes literally the last man alive as the entire planet is about to be destroyed. And what stands between you and the Time Lock is an army of 1.5k enemies. The excellent soundtrack and the muted colour palette which fades to an almost black and white the more you progress further reinforces the gravity of the situation. It's one of the most raw and emotional FPS levels I've played. Vega Core in Doom 2016 is great for similar reasons.

[wheresthebeef]

If I had to choose from the overly wacky cartoonish and obnoxious SS2 to the overly brown, gritty, ruhlistic boring as fuck SS3, I'd choose SS2.

 

I chocked 3's setting and weapons to them repurposing assets they originally made for a non-SS game, but the fact they are doubling down on it for 4 is disappointing.

[frag enabler]

14 hours ago, wheresthebeef said:

If I had to choose from the overly wacky cartoonish and obnoxious SS2 to the overly brown, gritty, ruhlistic boring as fuck SS3, I'd choose SS2.

 

I chocked 3's setting and weapons to them repurposing assets they originally made for a non-SS game, but the fact they are doubling down on it for 4 is disappointing.

That's because Croteam was originally meant to develop Doom 4. It's no coincidence that SS3 has a mancubus, baron, shotgun/ar grunts and that particular shotgun firing animation.

 

 

[hybridial]

15 hours ago, wheresthebeef said:

If I had to choose from the overly wacky cartoonish and obnoxious SS2 to the overly brown, gritty, ruhlistic boring as fuck SS3, I'd choose SS2.

 

Yeah, I do at least think SS2 was much better than SS3 and SS3 was... garbage. Why I don't have much interest in 4 really. 

[wheresthebeef]

2 hours ago, SuperchargedEuthanasiaDiv said:

That's because Croteam was originally meant to develop Doom 4. It's no coincidence that SS3 has a mancubus, baron, shotgun/ar grunts and that particular shotgun firing animation.

 

Thats why I said what I said.

[Hellektronic]

Wait... what was so wrong with SS3? I thought it was awesome stylistically.

 

In fact, I think all the games were good... I just want more, not any specific interpretation of more.

 

More, give it to me.

 

Quote

I'm pretty sure he laughed after saying that.

 

He did, I was just emulating how he laughed.

[taufan99]

2 hours ago, Hellektronic said:

Wait... what was so wrong with SS3? I thought it was awesome stylistically.

The game's overall style resembles the likes of CoD more than anything else. Some weapons aside from the usual pistol also employ reloading, which can be bothersome amid fights against waves of enemies.

 

Though I'm surprised this forum seems to be more tolerant towards Serious Sam 2 than most other people. SS2 and BFE are both disliked, but I've seen even less love for SS2.

[Hellektronic]

20 minutes ago, InDOOMnesia said:

The game's overall style resembles the likes of CoD more than anything else. Some weapons aside from the usual pistol also employ reloading, which can be bothersome amid fights against waves of enemies.

 

Though I'm surprised this forum seems to be more tolerant towards Serious Sam 2 than most other people. SS2 and BFE are both disliked, but I've seen even less love for SS2.

 

Bahhh... Serious Sam 2 was silly for sure, but the guns, the gameplay, it was textbook. And I liked the inclusion of reloading and small touches of realism in 3, because it felt more... modern. It felt grittier and darker too. If the next game doesn't follow that theme? I wont boycott it, lol, people are just way too sensitive to change. They can change the style all they want, I trust them by now to make an awesome regardless of the specifics.

 

Painkiller on the other hand, lol... I hear the new ones are hairy, like the quality went south and third party companies got involved. BUT, the first Painkiller was awesome, absolutely perfect. And if that's the only good one to ever exist, that's just fine with me. I have no problem playing older games, obviously, lol.

 

 

[wheresthebeef]

3 hours ago, Hellektronic said:

Wait... what was so wrong with SS3? I thought it was awesome stylistically.

 

I'll start with a disclaimer that I don't outright hate SS3 nor think its bad. I just wish they weren't making another one.

 

I dislike the brown/gray palette and the stale environments. If a few levels were that urban desert setting it would've been fine and actually cool, but it was so repetitive it dragged the game down. Compare that to Second Offense and SS2's variety. There's a few levels I do like and I really liked that giant sandworm mechanic to explain why you can't go too far outside the map.

 

The weapons were also boring. Most of them would would fit in in something like Call of Duty or Battlefield. Compare that to the variety in the first two encounters and SS2 where weapons came from different time periods and were more eclectic. Reloading weapons I don't really have an opinion on one way or another, SS3 was clearly balanced with reloading in mind.

 

If this was the only Sam game to be a prequel and thus look like every other shooter on the market, it would've been fine on its own. I hate that they are doing it yet again with a brand new game. ESPECIALLY when so far every numbered Sam game has been completely different. Should've just named this one BBFE (Before Before First Encounter) instead of 4.

 

I'll say too, as much as I prefer SS2 over 3, I still think it doesn't hold a candle to First and Second Encounter. Those games were perfect and while the HD remakes were nice, they still changed a number of things I loved about the original, but thats a different story.

[Hellektronic]

23 minutes ago, wheresthebeef said:

If this was the only Sam game to be a prequel and thus look like every other shooter on the market, it would've been fine on its own. I hate that they are doing it yet again with a brand new game. ESPECIALLY when so far every numbered Sam game has been completely different. Should've just named this one BBFE (Before Before First Encounter) instead of 4.

 

Eh, let's be honest here though, prequel, sequel, the story isn't really important, lol. It's a very oldschool Doom-style game, any story is mostly just an excuse to fight more things. It's... purely second to the gameplay, more or less. So ya know, SS2 wasn't my favorite, but its still very fun. SS3 wasn't my favorite, but its still very fun. And as long as it maintains that fun element and lots of cool weapons, it really can't go wrong.

 

I mean I can see how the realistic weapons of SS3 would put people off, but I think it was an intentional step to portray the era, being before a lot of the weapons were developed. When soldiers other than Sam fought the aliens, ya know, traditional military stuff. But then by Serious Sam 1, it's like ONLY Sam fights the aliens, he's the Doomguy and everybody else gets their asses kicked, lol. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest a lot of the weapons in the first and second encounters were futuristic and designed with him in mind to fight Mental.  *shrugs* If you think about it that way, it's not so absurd. And from the way this new one looks, it's going to be more traditional Serious Sam, like a direct prequel to 1. It might not be as good as 1, which it probably wont be, but it'll be fun, and you can always expect that out of a Serious Sam game.

 

I don't think it'll disappoint.

[wheresthebeef]

3 hours ago, Hellektronic said:

 

Eh, let's be honest here though, prequel, sequel, the story isn't really important, lol. It's a very oldschool Doom-style game, any story is mostly just an excuse to fight more things. It's... purely second to the gameplay, more or less. So ya know, SS2 wasn't my favorite, but its still very fun. SS3 wasn't my favorite, but its still very fun. And as long as it maintains that fun element and lots of cool weapons, it really can't go wrong.

I never mentioned the story because the story never mattered.

The reason it being another prequel is lame to me is simply because it means it wont be outlandish and instead be more grounded yet again. That isn't Serious Sam to me. They can make a sequel or even just a soft reboot if they really want to ignore SS2.

 

Also the reason the weapons were traditional in 3 is because of a design decision. They didn't have to make it a prequel, and even then, they didn't have to make the weapons traditional of the era. But they chose to and I personally wasn't a fan.

 

Of course they could always introduce some time dilation stuff or parallel universe where theres actually unique new environments and weapons and its all being kept under wraps, but I wont jump in launch day to find out.

 

In fact I'm going to add in that I really only love First and Second encounter, the rest I enjoyed but not nearly as much. I don't think Croteam will ever go back to making a Sam game like those so its up to an indie developer to do it instead. All these retro shooters are coming out, there should be an early-ish 3D Sam style game. Do all the weird physics and crazy rooms those first games did, skyscraper sized monsters, and throw in some large hordes of enemies once in a while.

Edited August 11, 2020 by wheresthebeef

[Hellektronic]

14 hours ago, wheresthebeef said:

In fact I'm going to add in that I really only love First and Second encounter, the rest I enjoyed but not nearly as much.

 

I don't think anybody would argue against First/Second Encounter being the best, because they were way ahead of their time and the gameplay inspired a lot of developers to attempt a similar game. But you know how it is, as technology advances you need more manpower and money, and with more manpower and money comes more complications. In the beginning Croteam was just this... tiny Croatian development studio in a world of big-name games. But they overcame the odds and presented a hell of a product, and kept succeeding game after game.

 

So you know, in a lot of ways game series becoming something different is unfortunately the nature of the beast. More people get involved, more ideas get involved, fan opinions also get involved, and eventually the original ideas get kind of muddled by the new ones. Take for example Doom 3 compared to Doom 1/2- A LOT of the people involved weren't there for the original, and many of the original people weren't there for 3, lol... so you could argue it might as well have been a different company entirely. I'm sure Croteam is no different. Once they hit the big time they became a different entity, and each sequel they became an even different entity.

 

So who knows? Maybe this current incarnation of Croteam is looking past SS3 and looking for a more classic, oldschool gameplay? I guess we'll never really know until it comes out.

[GarrettChan]

To be honest, the gameplay of SS2 is fine. Of course, there are some exploration of gameplay mechanics here and there (like vehicles), but overall it's still quite SS. The people who like to criticize SS2 is the cartoon look of the game, and the "jokes" they made for the cut scenes. TBH, Serious Sam series is never a "serious" game even thought there's "serious" in the title, so using cartoon look for the game is kind of like personal preference, so I'm neutral to that. Oh yeah, maybe SS2's plot is stupid, but... the whole SS series plot is never serious either. For the cut scenes though, I don't really like it, but it's not the main part of the game, so I kind of can let it slide.

 

SS3 looks nice, but it plays bad. I hope they won't make another SS3 type of game again.

[Spectre01]

Here's a short clip of the Legion System, which I don't believe has been shown off properly yet:

Looks great. The apocalyptic art direction is spot-on.

[snapshot]

3 days

 

 

[frag enabler]

This will be the biggest disappointment since DNF, and I'm saying that with a heavy heart

[NoXion]

15 minutes ago, SuperchargedEuthanasiaDiv said:

This will be the biggest disappointment since DNF, and I'm saying that with a heavy heart

Why? I had no expectations of this game until I first read this thread. DNF ended up being a dog's breakfast because of its perpetually delayed development. Is there some story about the development of this Serious Sam game that I've missed out on?

[frag enabler]

Just now, NoXion said:

Why? I had no expectations of this game until I first read this thread. DNF ended up being a dog's breakfast because of its perpetually delayed development. Is there some story about the development of this Serious Sam game that I've missed out on?

Some people received early access codes and have been streaming it. The game looks incredibly disappointing, it's basically BFE 2 - kept virtually all of the stupid ideas and added a lot more of its own. I'lll be picking this up in a bundle at a 90% discount in a year or two

[Chip]

Oh hey, this comes out tomorrow! Hope it's good!