Croteam know how to make a shooter. While Serious Sam 2 may have faltered in the eyes of some, the majority of FPS fans would agree that the First, Second, and even Before the First encounters are some rock solid fast-paced shooting games. So when Serious Sam 4 was announced in June of 2013, many were reasonably excited. Sadly, the game dropped off the face of the earth for awhile while Croteam made a philosophical puzzle game, but now we're starting to get some new details thanks to an interview with Reboot magazine.
Serious Sam 4 will be set before Serious Sam 3, making it the earliest title in the Serious Sam timeline. On top of that, Jonas Kyrates, writer of The Talos Principle, will be writing Sam's next title. Of course, what everyone plays Serious Sam for is the impeccable gameplay, which also seems to be getting improvements. "In Serious Sam 4 we'll try to pump up all the best characteristics of the previous games to the extreme," says Dravor Tomicic, Serious Sam 4's gameplay designer. We also learn that it aims to be the shooter with the "biggest number of enemies and largest maps".
The video wraps up with Croteam's technical art director claiming it will be the best looking Serious Sam title, straying away from the "dark and monotonous aesthetics of Serious Sam 3". Much like in The Talos Principle, Serious Sam 4 will make use of photogrammery to help bring high quality authentic assets of the locations that the game is set in, which is confirmed not to be the usual Egyptian setting.
Of course, the most exciting tidbit from the interview is the increased enemy count. For those unaware, Serious Sam has always had a stupid amount of enemies in their levels, with Serious Sam 3: BFE's final level featuring over 1,700+ enemies, 1,000 of those being made up of the default gunners and over 500 of the dreaded kleer skeletons. So how will Serious Sam 4 top this ludicrous enemy count? We'll just have to wait until Sam rides again to find out.
Our Take
I love the Serious Sam titles, the first one in particular, so hearing that development for the prequel is well underway is great news. I am a bit confused by the choice of writers, as The Talos Principle wasn't particularly known for cheesy one-liners performed by the hammiest voice acting imaginable. Still, as I mentioned earlier, I play Serious Sam to shoot things. As long as the game does a good job letting me shoot things, I'm fine.
