Serious Sam: Shatterverse
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Critic Reviews for Serious Sam: Shatterverse
Serious Sam: Shatterverse is an incredible pitch which should be a genuine joy to play. However, it's not. The progression is awful, the moment-to-moment gameplay is okay at best, and it's got more than it's fair share of bugs as well. It's just not what it could have been. This is a game that could be saved by patches, and I hope it is, but on release, it's just not fun.
Shatterverse is fun when it manages to enrich its roguelite recipe and the builds finally take direction, but before getting to that point it takes a lot of patience and the willingness to overlook several uninspired elements.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Personally, when I look at Serious Sam: Shatterverse as a piece of pure entertainment, the only thing that really let me down is that it just doesn’t have the frequency of true bedlam moments that I like in my Serious Sam titles.
This new Serious Sam offers a side of the franchise we haven't seen before. I seriously doubt whether that is the right direction. You’ve seen the environments at some point, the enemies become very recognizable after a while, and the gameplay is too much of the same to become truly addictive. After quite a few loops, you’ve seen it all pretty quickly. The progression you make slowly but surely is the most attractive aspect of the game, but it is too slow. Co-op is where the game is most fun, and it is practically mandatory to play it. In that regard, however, I would rather see the good old campaign return instead of this roguelite approach that has now been chosen.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Serious Sam is one of those games you can just load up, hit a few rounds of killing aliens, and feel satisfied with what you have achieved. Shoot, punch, heal, kill it’s simple and fun, a great way to end or start your day. The sheer fact that we are still making this type of game in 2026 is just a testament to what a solid community can do when you make something fun. If you’re a fan of the series, this entry will satisfy your inner Sam.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Serious Sam: Shatterverse. It ticks all the boxes. It’s a perfectly serviceable first-person shooter / roguelite hybrid that uses its source material well enough to conjure up a half-decent excuse for a plot, and a varied arsenal of weapons for you to use against hordes of familiar enemies. I guess my main issues with it are how grindy it is, requiring you to play multiple runs before being able to unlock anything worth giving a crap about, and the simple fact that it is yet another roguelite in a sea full of painfully similar competitors.
My early impression of Serious Sam: Shatterverse was not all that positive – felt like a “Serious Sam at home” that lost the uniqueness of the original games, while also simplifying the game formula, losing the wacky easter eggs and more. And yet, despite some repetition of the stages, a couple hours in the game truly shines, thanks to the vast array of stage modifiers, the depth of the loot game and class builds, and the intensity of the gameplay on higher difficulties, making for quite the exhilarating FPS roguelite experience – especially in co-op. While we wait for the next mainline Serious Sam, Shatterverse shall keep us busy with its intense and highly replayable roguelite scenarios.
Shatterverse is surprisingly shallow for what it offers, but its fast paced combat does retain its signature feel. The multiverse appeal may be exhausting for some players, given its overuse in multiple forms of media at the moment, but a lack of creating your own Sam is an omission that is bizarre to me. Still, the cast here is fine enough, and at the end of the day, if it looks like Serious Sam and plays like Serious Sam, then I'm glad that the series is still kicking around, some 25 years later.
