Serious Sam 4 will be a culmination of everything that popularized the franchise in the past in addition to a number of new improvements.
Speaking with SegmentNext in a recent interview, chief creative officer Davor Hunski of developer Croteam admitted to having learned from mistakes done in past installments, particularly where pacing was concerned. He took the example of Serious Sam 3 where players started off “slow and easy” before getting to enjoy the mayhem the franchise is known for.
Serious Sam 4 will improve on that pacing issue and will “provide a challenge to everyone, those who are new to the series, as well as those who have played every Serious Sam game released to date.” Hunski though noted that those less experienced may want to try the lower difficulties first to “learn the ropes” before raising the difficulty ceiling.
The main campaign will account for anything between 10 to 15 hours of gameplay depending on the players, and leaving the main path will get players more mileage. Croteam has often praised Serious Sam 4 for being bigger and better than before. Hunski pointed out that the new chapter in the franchise features “huge arenas, vast open spaces, and massive hordes to dispose of using an incredible arsenal and big explosions.”
Serious Sam has always been about big guns and absolute chaos, and we intend to keep it that way.
Croteam built a new legion system for Serious Sam 4 that enables “thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands” of enemies on the screen at one time. However, don’t expect that to happen at every turn. Hunski confirmed that the legion system is “a very situational feature” and “won’t be used on the majority of levels.” That being said, even some of the normal skirmishes will “include hundreds of enemies to create additional epic moments.”
Players will obviously need a ton of weapons to take care of such a horde of enemies. Hunski also confirmed that the arsenal in Serious Sam 4 has been expanded with a lot of new toys. Croteam has already revealed some of them but the other new weapons are being kept secret “as a surprise” for when players find them for themselves.
The developer will also be introducing new enemies in the mix. The Zealot, Belcher, and the Processed have already been revealed. Hunski teased that more new enemies will be showcased before the official release.
Serious Sam 4 is one of the rare upcoming games that will see a timed-exclusive console release on Google Stadia (alongside PC via Steam) in August 2020.
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will get their turn somewhere in 2021. Croteam believes that cloud gaming will eventually become a universal standard in the near future and after working with the platform, Hunski stated that the technology powering Stadia is not only impressive but also “the next big thing.”
