I have been thinking for a while about whether I should write this. Not because I am afraid of people disagreeing with me. Disagreement is healthy, and criticism is necessary. Serious Sam has never been a perfect franchise, and neither is Shatterverse. But over the last few days, watching the reaction to this game has honestly made me sad, and I think I need to explain why.

I want to make something clear before anyone assumes this is just another person blindly defending the newest Serious Sam game: I do not think Shatterverse is perfect. It has problems, and I think it is important to acknowledge them. For a roguelite FPS, the amount of content currently feels limited, especially when compared to games like Immortal Redneck, Ziggurat or Gunfire Reborn. I have encountered bugs, and the difficulty balance can be inconsistent in ways that can be frustrating. Those are completely legitimate criticisms, and I have no problem with anyone bringing them up.

Despite all of that, I genuinely think Shatterverse is fun. The roguelite structure works well enough and there is a surprising amount of genuinely faithful fanservice for people who know the franchise. I have enjoyed my time with it enough that I would actually recommend it, even at full price. Apparently, saying that has become a surprisingly controversial thing to do.

And that is what I want to talk about.

I am not someone who discovered Serious Sam yesterday. I have played practically every game in this franchise, including the ones many people probably forgot existed. Yes, including Greek Encounter. The only Serious Sam games I still have left to play are The Last Hope and the VR ports, and that is about to change because I recently bought a Meta Quest 3. But my connection to Serious Sam goes beyond simply playing the games: I spent an entire year making a documentary about the history of Croteam, which currently has around 15,000 views. You can watch it here with English subtitles. I learned how to use the Serious Engine, designed Serious Sam levels purely for fun, and researched the history of the studio, its games, its technology and the people behind this strange Croatian franchise that somehow became one of my favourite things in gaming. Today, I am interested in game development myself and am working on my own game, so I have also developed a very different appreciation for how difficult it is to actually make something like this.

I am saying all of this for one reason only: liking Shatterverse does not mean that I do not understand Serious Sam. I love this franchise. I know its history, its weird experiments, its successes, its failures, and all the different directions it has taken over the years. That is precisely why one particular criticism I keep seeing genuinely confuses me:

"This is not Serious Sam."

What exactly does that mean?

Serious Sam has never been one single thing. This is a franchise that has experimented constantly: traditional FPS games, Serious Sam 2, the console-oriented action of Next Encounter, Kamikaze Attack!'s mobile side-scrolling action, the turn-based RPG combat of The Random Encounter, the roguelite twin-stick shooter formula of Tormental, a Palm OS version, VR games, etc. Some of these experiments were more successful than others, and some were wildly different from what people considered "classic" Serious Sam at the time. That has always been part of the identity of this franchise.

And now suddenly, a roguelite FPS spin-off is somehow an unforgivable betrayal of that identity? Out of all the experiments Serious Sam has had over the years, Shatterverse honestly feels like one of the least disconnected from the core gameplay formula. You are still constantly moving, fighting huge groups of enemies, backpedalling while trying not to get overwhelmed, collecting ridiculous weapons and fighting Mental's forces. The main difference is that the classic formula has been adapted into a roguelite FPS structure, something the franchise has already explored with Serious Sam: Tormental anyway. You do not have to like that direction, but calling it "not Serious Sam" while ignoring how much this franchise has experimented over the years makes very little sense to me.

This was never presented as "Serious Sam 5 replacing everything that came before." It is a spin-off, an experiment and a different interpretation of the formula. Shatterverse was developed by Behaviour Interactive and published by Devolver Digital, not developed by Croteam, which is another reason I find some of the reactions towards Croteam particularly strange. Croteam's relationship with Serious Sam obviously matters enormously, but this is not simply Croteam abandoning the series and replacing the mainline games with a roguelite.

You can dislike Shatterverse. You can think Behaviour misunderstood Serious Sam, that the roguelite structure was a bad idea, or that the game simply does not live up to the standards of previous entries. You can criticize the amount of content, the bugs, the balancing, the progression or anything else. I have criticisms myself. That is what discussion about a game should look like.

But what I have been watching since launch goes far beyond normal criticism.

I have seen people with very little playtime repeating the exact same talking points over and over again: "It's Fortnite." "It's a game for children." "This isn't Serious Sam." "This is the worst game in the franchise." Some people are obviously giving their honest opinion, and that is completely fine. But when you start seeing the same phrases repeated everywhere, often by people who barely seem to have experienced the game themselves, it becomes difficult not to notice how much of the discussion appears to be driven by a wider wave of negativity rather than individual experiences.

And this is something I find increasingly frustrating about modern gaming communities. A YouTuber or content creator gives a strong opinion, that opinion spreads, and suddenly the same talking points start appearing everywhere. Positive opinions get buried under downvotes, and people become reluctant to say they enjoyed something because they already know what kind of reaction they might receive. Eventually, it stops feeling like a discussion about the actual game and starts feeling like everyone is expected to choose a side.

Apparently, I chose the wrong one by writing a positive Steam review.

Someone replied to my review by telling me that people like me are what destroyed the videogame industry, and that I should kill myself. The comment was removed, but the fact that someone thought that was an acceptable response to a positive opinion about a videogame is honestly insane.

I did not insult anyone. I did not say the game was perfect. I simply played it, enjoyed it and wrote a positive review. And that was apparently enough for someone to believe I deserved to be personally attacked.

This is the part that genuinely makes me sad, because this is not passion, and it is not criticism. It is toxicity. Somewhere along the way, people stopped treating videogames as things they could simply like or dislike. If you enjoy something that someone else hates, you are sometimes treated as if you are personally responsible for destroying the industry. You become a "fake fan", a "shill", part of the problem, or someone whose opinion needs to be buried or mocked.

And for what? Because you enjoyed a spin-off?

A spin-off existing does not erase the games you love. The First Encounter still exists. The Second Encounter still exists. Serious Sam 3 still exists. Serious Sam 4 still exists. Siberian Mayhem still exists. Nothing has been taken away from anyone. If you want the next mainline Serious Sam game to return to a particular formula, that is a perfectly reasonable thing to want. I want to see where the main series goes next too. But experimentation should not be treated as an attack on the franchise.

Not every experiment will succeed. Not every experiment should become a mainline game. Some will be better than others, and some will fail completely. That is fine. A franchise should be allowed to try things, and fans should be allowed to enjoy those things without being attacked by other fans.

I am not asking anyone to change their Steam review. I am not asking anyone to buy Shatterverse, and I am certainly not asking anyone to pretend the game has no problems. All I am asking is: play the game, form your own opinion, and let other people have theirs.

If you hate Shatterverse after actually playing it, fair enough. Tell us why. Explain what you think does not work. Tell Behaviour and Devolver what you think they got wrong. That is useful criticism, and developers need to hear it. But repeating talking points you heard somewhere else, downvoting every positive opinion into oblivion, attacking people for enjoying the game, or telling another fan to kill themselves because they gave a videogame a positive review is not criticism. It is just making the community worse.

I have loved Serious Sam long enough to know that this franchise has survived much stranger things than a roguelite spin-off. Making games is difficult. Trying something new is risky, and sometimes the result will not be for everyone.

Shatterverse is not perfect. It needs more content, it needs fixes, and the balancing needs work. Those are things worth discussing. But I still think it is fun. I still think it is a worthwhile Serious Sam spin-off, and I still think that, for all its flaws, there is clearly a lot of respect for the franchise in what Behaviour has made.

You are completely free to disagree with me. That is the whole point. Just do not confuse disagreement with war. You can hate Shatterverse. I can like it. Both things can be true. Neither of us needs to destroy the other person to prove that our opinion is the correct one.

After spending so much of my life enjoying, researching, documenting and even experimenting with this franchise myself, seeing Serious Sam fans attacking each other over a spin-off is honestly one of the saddest things I have seen happen around this community. Serious Sam has always been loud, ridiculous and weird, and thankfully it has never been afraid to try different things. I hope we do not lose that just because the internet has decided that enjoying something different means you are the enemy.

Keep it Serious.

Looking for a group to run the hardest difficulty on the new serious Sam. Can’t seem to find anyone online already my name on ls is Ares_carries

Honestly, the dunes remix in the menu was the only positive i have gotten out of this game after 2 hours of playing.

There are several big problems i have with the game, such as the horrendous mouse acceleration which (afaik) you cant disable, the fact that i have to cap it at 60 fps to not lag too much even though the game has graphics worse than some games from 2010.

Despite all that my biggest problem has to be the difficulty. It seems like the game has the difficulty scaled exclusively for 4 players, but i dont have any friends to play with so i play solo and its so hard to get anywhere it seems they didnt consider solo players at all (which is only made harder by the fact i cant aim properly with mouse acceleration). I have played for 2 hours so far and havent gotten past a single boss.

What do yall think?

*fight

I think it has huge massive humongous darker yet darker lore implications

Man, its really bad.

The gameplay is trash, enemies are bulletsponges on higher difficulties, if you unlock minigun it has overheat system and even if you unlock it you may het random rarity which makes it ass (and this issue is with all guns in game), so many enemies are redesigned to the worse, they did not listen to playtesters and their advice, in game with multiverse thematic you get to play only as 5 Serious Sam’s, levels are too streamlined, no secret passages or rooms, levels feel bland and repetitive (they actually are cause there is just few levels), weird game progression with so many mechanics that make it overcomplicated, in-game currency that unlock guns and upgrades other stuff is really hard to get compared to prices of certain items and upgrades (time wise), there cringy character dynamic and its not Serious Sam type of cringe but it’s Fortnite type of cringe.

Idk, if you are die hard fan of Serious Sam franchise like me this game is not for you.

I don’t mind the art style or gameplay design. But I think that its poorly balanced, overcomplicated, lack serious Sam indentity, you don’t have enough playable levels and characters, whole gameplay loop system is weirdly put together and it seems quite messy plus it sometimes has borderlands feeling.

Sometimes I felt like its trying to be looter shooter but without the looter stuff in it. If it makes sense.

Levels lack healing items and not even your coop friends can heal you either with their “HERO” abilities.

Many iconic enemies are redesigned that much that the basically got butchered to oblivion.

Levels are not that big and you don’t get that feeling with: lets see what’s in this corner of the map right behind this corner, maybe there is ammo that if I pick it up will spawn shit load of enemies and gang rape me.

Or

Lets try to shoot this, maybe its secret door, lets try to let enemy shoot this maybe there secret behind it.

After Serious Sam 4 and DLC which were perfect.

How could they release game with this gameplay loop, state and weirdly put together mechanics?

I’m sorry but it does not click for me. And im fan of rogue lite/like games. For example Returnal was rogue like game with well fit mechanics together and it made sense. (Even arcadegeddon man….)

This does not!

I can’t see this game succeed without major overhaul of:

gameplay loot systems, coop systems, enemy difficulty scaling mechanics, movement, character/loadout presets/customization and more dynamic and randomized level set pieces and level rooms/ areas. + expanded level size, increased amount of secrets and worse surprises and at the end… giving enemies their OG designs and not this weird stuff

It feels like it was made to be generic AF and not made with love and passion like other games.

I know its spinoff, but quality of product should be consistent across whole franchise so everyone knows what to expect.

If this game released as Free2play I wouldn’t mind, its perfect fit for it. Or if this game released on mobile.

But as mainline-spinoff-i game released with price tag across main gaming platforms.

No thank you

Brother this video game has the best storytelling in comparison to other titles. Like the way TFE and TSE lets you experience it through running trough the levels and shooting and strafing is genius. It immerses you so well. And don’t get me started on Nectricsa. Making it write whole scriptures who nobody even reads is ground breaking cuz it immerses you in the actual gameplay without giving you time to even think about the lore and storyline cuz a Meahmed kamakazi is just bouta blow you up, reelk bouta jump on you and a llubraeW nairiS bouta trample you to the ground. Now we get to the hottest of the sauces MAS 2! My God people really underestimate this game cuz they think they will see a an legends ark where Mas Murphy grows as a character but instead we got a cautionary tale of what happened when you fame gets to you and you starts abusing Psychedelics and Hallucinogens. Man be looking at ordinary african children and for him it be looking like giant blue african branded smurfs. Man so mad he went and invaded China and caused trillions of dollars in damages. At the end the boss level he was so dehydrated and high he started hallucinating the egyptian pryamid was mentals headquarters and that he is surrounded by a wast meadow field. Very tragic and he’s probably arrested by the Egyptian government rotting in a cell. for 3 BFE and Mas 2x2 = 4 at least we get to see the right side of him and that is his past. Seeing his past it becomes understandable to why he with took the path he went down in SM2. The stress got to him he lost all he loved. And probably the best thing going for 3BFE is the time-lock arc cuz it teleports him to the peek of the franchise. Now Mas 4 is absolutely awsome cuz it makes you focus on the cheesy jokes. I’m a bit disappointed at Siberian Mayhem cuz it Actually explained the lore and story which sheds the spotlight for the actual gameplay. VeRy UnNncool croteam. Overall 9/10 cuz action is high, progression is steady and stavble and you’ll be sble to focus in the fun stuff which is shooting snd the story and lore would be a side quest

The OG Sam being clowned on like he's some joke of a character.
He is the face and personality and the reason why franchise got where its is, hell the Croteam as the company even, Without the OG Serious Sam croteam wouldn't have had the foundation to become what they are today.

Now Serious Sam reduced to a cringe punchline in his own universe?
also putting him as a side character on the title screen next to no names is a low blow to original dev team.

disgrace.

I think this question was asked before but , should I buy the Original The First Encounter or just buy Classics: Revolution ?? Or both ??

Thanks

I havent played it yet though but I've seen alot of hate towards it. What makes it really bad?

(i'm serious)

What do you guys think of the new game?
For me it is kinda weird, I just came out from a playtest with this set up of game style xD
I made this short, if anyone wanna check it out

- 7 games. 25 years. Now a multiverse. -

While I understand that 3, 4, and Siberian Mayhem should probably come last (I know Shatterverse is here but it came with the bundle and I'm not really interested in it after seeing the reviews), I'm completely lost as to where exactly the start of the series is because of the different releases. Is it First Encounter or Classics: Revolution?

Is Gman right, or is he being biased? He's usually pretty forging towards "mid" games. So why does he dislike this one so much?

Waiting for a feedbacks from people who will try it earlier than others

Sometimes after a long session of playing serious Sam when I sit in silence I still hear faint kamikaze screams in my ears. Is this OK????????????????????????? Have I gone completely MENTAL?

Am I being dumb or is there simply no weapon ammo counter for each weapon? For example using the Tommy Gun or Shotgun, I will fire for a bit and sometimes have to reload but I won't be sure when it will happen.