Serious Sam: Shatterverse hits PC and consoles next week

Devolver Digital is releasing Serious Sam: Shatterverse on August 31 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The publisher posted a final launch reminder on Bluesky today, telling players to "jump in with four serious friends and battle through shifting worlds." The game was originally revealed back in March during an Xbox Partner Preview showcase.

Up to five players at once

The classic Serious Sam formula relies on giant open arenas and overwhelming swarms of enemies. Shatterverse takes those massive enemy counts and structures them around a run-based roguelite format. You play as various alternate-dimension versions of Sam Stone, teaming up to defeat Mental.

The cooperative mode supports up to five players simultaneously. That is an unusual number for a co-op shooter, which usually cap at four. I am curious to see how chaotic the screen gets with five people firing miniguns at once. It sounds messy. While Croteam established the series' identity with massive open spaces and endless waves of screaming Kamikazes, Behaviour Interactive is taking those familiar elements and compressing them into a structured, repeatable loop of randomized upgrades.

Behaviour takes the wheel

Croteam created the franchise in 2001 with Serious Sam: The First Encounter. They are not the primary developer here. Montreal-based Behaviour Interactive, best known for the asymmetrical horror hit Dead by Daylight, handled development duties for this spin-off.

Croteam gave the project their blessing, and long-time voice actor John Dick is back to voice the titular character. Handing an established property to an external studio is always a risk, but Behaviour has plenty of experience managing live multiplayer environments. They know how to keep players engaged in a loop.

The franchise has seen a few different iterations over the last two and a half decades. Serious Sam 3: BFE launched in 2011, followed by Serious Sam 4 in 2020 and the standalone Siberian Mayhem expansion in 2022. Those games stuck closely to the traditional linear campaign structure. Moving to a roguelite format is a major mechanical shift for a series that has historically relied on memorizing enemy spawn triggers. It is a big jump.

Devolver started with Sam remakes

This release is a neat historical milestone for Devolver Digital. The company was founded in Austin, Texas back in 2009, and their very first projects were publishing high-definition remakes of the original Serious Sam games. They built their entire initial business around this franchise before expanding into the massive indie label they are today. Returning to the property with a modern roguelite spin-off feels appropriate.

The core loop involves procedural anomalies, escalating weapon modifiers, and stacking boons. Roguelite shooters live or die by their build variety. If every run feels the same, the player base will drop off fast. Serious Sam has always had bombastic weaponry, so adapting those guns into a system with randomized upgrades makes sense on paper. We will find out if the execution matches the concept when it launches next Monday.