I love the Serious Sam franchise. It’s easily in my top 5 FPS of all time. Big guns, over the top action, ridiculous satirical spoof comedy, and a humorously endearing protagonist; The series embodied many things I love. When CroTeam announced that Serious Sam 4 was in production back in 2018, myself and many longtime fans were chomping at the bit for any news and details we could find. Alas, the team remained pretty quiet about the project. That is, up until today.
The official Serious Sam Twitter account tweeted out the reveal on Wednesday, with a link to a countdown on its Youtube channel. In what can only be considered true Croteam M.O., eager fans and newcomers were left in awe and dismay as the exciting new trailer lasted a full 52 seconds. While it did give a nice glimpse of the engine’s new fidelity and offer us a glimpse of our boy Sam riding what appeared to be a redesigned Sirian Werebull, the only other details (the most important ones) was its official release window; August 2020, and that it would only be launching on Steam and Google Stadia. Consoles unfortunately won’t get to hang with Sam until 2021.
Getting a date that’s fairly close is great, but where was the gameplay? Well, if you took a quick trip over to the game’s official Steam page you would be treated to multiple new videos, about a minute or so long each, discussing the game’s weapons, enemies, combat structure, and most intriguing, the new Legion System.
The Legion System is designed and optimized specifically for SS4:PBA in order for the team to have literally thousands of enemies and characters battling on screen without a hit to the engine’s performance. The Sam series has always been notable for throwing dozens to hundreds of enemies at you all at once. It’s a core component of the game’s identity. What Croteam is proposing with the Legion System is that we will effectively be involved in scenarios akin to any of the major battles in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings theatrical trilogy.
The few weapons they highlighted show plenty of improvement to aesthetic detail and functionality. Dual wielding weapons looks to make a return and series mainstays like the Grenade Launcher, Shotgun, and Quad Laser make a return alongside some teased new toys that will make the game even gorier.
It’s clear Croteam’s focus has been to make this the biggest, craziest, most challenging Serious Sam yet, and I feel pretty confident that they are poised to deliver. It’s going to be a grueling but worthwhile wait for August. Remember kids; “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” -Sam Serious Stone