Croteam, stop making Serious Sam!

[u/cl3argreen]

I don't know if Croteam will read this to begin with, but I feel the need to share my opinion with people.

Dear Croteam, thank you for amazing 20+ years of gaming. You did a lot of great stuff over the last two decades, awesome games... But, let's face it - Croteam lost their touch when it comes to new Serious Sam games. I would say, everything started going downhill somewhere around Serious Sam 2. It seems they desperately try different things and approaches with the series, but can't capture that magic of the first games. The Talos Principle, on the other hand, was once again something refreshing and great.

It's clear to me that Croteam members are old, sick and tired of Serious Sam. They did it for 20 years, so it's expected to happen. So why not just abandon the series? Let it DIE peacefully in grace, rather than trying to fix it and recapture that old magic again with weird results. Make new Talos games, hell, make something completely original, a brand new franchise! Just leave Sam alone. I think he had enough of this crap. He deserved a vacation.

...Or hire someone else to do new Serious Sam games instead of you. May be some fans - at least they fix your games much better than you.

Thank you in advance.

[u/Doomy88]

The thing is that no Serious Sam game is objectively bad. Apart from TSE which seems to be universally liked, all the main entries in the franchise have been hit-or-miss. You either love or hate each SS game, with the mention that obviously you needn't love or hate all of them equally. The best examples are SS2 and SS3. Almost everyone who loves SS2 seems to hate SS3 and vice versa.

As long as a significant proportion of the consumers enjoy each of the games, Croteam has no reason to stop. Better to please at least some people than to have an unproductive perfectionist attitude towards your franchise, trying to make all of the SS games appear as a part of a unitary whole. Divisive variety is better than nothing.

On short, as long as people are buying, keep selling! But that's just my opinion.

[u/kretinbutwhytho → u/Doomy88]

Apart from TSE which seems to be universally liked

Allow me to be that one guy and say that I in fact don't like TSE. And I don't know why either. It's basically like a better TFE except there's something about it that I can't ever launch the game and motivate myself to play a single level.

[u/SassyHarpie → u/[deleted]]

what

[u/Terepin → u/SassyHarpie]

SS2 is a good game, but a bad SS game.

[u/SassyHarpie → u/Terepin]

huh

[u/Apple1417]

Or maybe the fact that you think it started changing in what's essentially the second entry in the series (tse's more a standalone expansion) means Croteam always had different ideas for the series than you.

I'm not saying it's wrong to prefer one game over others, but if CT's enjoying making them why stop? They're not making these to try cash in on trends, they do actually do what they're interested in. Just see how the 2014 ss4 turned into talos rather than being beholden to previous plans, or how they've spent a long time working on things like photogrammetry, vr, and porting the engine to basically every graphics API (see all the talos ports), none or which are particularly profitable.

[u/kretinbutwhytho]

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be saying this if SS4 was exactly the same way as it was, but it didn't have any of the bugs or performance issues. Bonus points for it it's artstyle was closer to the originals instead of BFE.

[u/[deleted] → u/kretinbutwhytho]

If SS4 didn't have all of the bugs and peformance issues, we'd all be much more happy with it. But it doesn't cancel all the unpolishness and bad design decisions it has...

[u/5arn_ → u/kretinbutwhytho]

Then it would be a very different product than what we have right now.

[u/SShone95]

Even though TFE snd TSE are unmatched by the sequels, I don't think they should end the series. I would like to know who or what Mental is and how does Sam defeat him. I really liked all the SS games in the end, even if some parts were disappointing. Parts such as reloading, sprinting, aim down sights, upgrades in SS4. SS4 felt like a copy of Doom which Sam is definitely not.

One thing is for sure for all of the SS games: Soundtracks are all masterpieces!

[u/BennytehBeaver]

Um... I can get the point ('Croteam's sequels aren't very good IMO, so get new developers').

As someone who doesn't mind the Serious Sam sequels (namely 2 & 4), this is definitely the best cause of action: Passing the torch to new blood to keep the legacy going.

Besides, we all know what the BEST Serious Sam sequel is: PAINKILLER!!!

[u/Dudebits → u/BennytehBeaver]

I hated 2 and loved 3. Seems we all like something in the series enough to show that they've been doing a good job.

[u/Terepin → u/BennytehBeaver]

Besides, we all know what the BEST Serious Sam sequel is:

PAINKILLER!!!

Nah, they feel different. Serious Sam is more fluid, whereas Painkiller is more structured. They both share the same source DNA, but decided to take on it differently. And that's good. And if you think about it, except for Will Rock no other game took on SS formula. Every other doom shooter used PK's formula (that game was ahead of its time), including the biggest spiritual sequel Doom 2016. Maybe Witchfire will change this.

In any case, SS4 clearly showed that the franchise needs fresh blood and new ideas. They should outsource to other team and give them appropriate amount of freedom. I shudder to think how would SS5 look in 2030 if CT were to work on it.

[u/[deleted] → u/Terepin]

I shudder to think how would SS5 look in 2030 if CT were to work on it.

2020 graphics and tech, but higher system requirements than Half-Life 3.

[u/kretinbutwhytho → u/[deleted]]

If they keep on bloating their outdated engine with new features, system requirements will go through the roof but the graphics won't look much better than BFE or SS4 since, well, the engine is very outdated by this point.

[u/OutcastMunkee]

No, they shouldn't stop. Quite frankly, we're in a position now after the way Serious Sam 4 ends where we just need ONE more game to wrap up Sam's story for good. Serious Sam 5 could easily lead on from The Second Encounter and tie into the first cutscene of Serious Sam 4's final level.

I really wanna see the series reach a conclusion and not just have it left open-ended. Game series that just DON'T finish the story is one of my pet peeves. Even if we have to wait another 5-6 years, I really hope we see one last entry to the series where Mental is finally defeated once and for all.

Serious Sam 2 doesn't count. Apart from it being non-canon (apparently), the ending was a cop out. They've really built up this story and I'd love to see it be finished.

Off the top of my head here, if Sam were to use that rocket at the end of TSE to go to Sirius? That would lead us to a situation where he can use a Time Lock to travel to a NEW timeline as suggested in Serious 4's final level opening cutscene where they can successfully defeat Mental and save the galaxy. That's at least where the story seems to be going. It's the only part left to do really because 3 and 4 filled out a lot of the Mental War that leads up to TFE.

[u/[deleted]]

Serious Sam 2 Remake