Sam's Club.
When Serious Sam made his debut in 2001, Sam “Serious” Stone was the boastful loudmouth, quick with a one-liner, and always ready to eviscerate the floods of aliens that would fill the screen. However, throughout all those adventures, Sam was just Sam, and while the games would feature co-op, it was just a convenient clone of Sam joining you. However, with Shatterverse, the newest entry to the series, Sam isn't the only Stone present and accounted for.
Uber Mental, who has been the series' main antagonist throughout all the primary games, is back at it again, and has discovered a way to travel between dimensions, killing alternative versions of Sam Stone. So, in an effort to combat Mental and put an end to his reign of dimensional hopping terror, The Serious Sam we know, now known as Sam Prime, puts together the Serious Program, an inter-dimensional organization that recruits Sam’s from other dimensions to stop Mental once and for all.
The basis for the game is being an action rogue-lite where each run is meant to make you a little bit stronger. While the brush it paints with isn't producing large brushstrokes here for any sort of significant progression, it's about micro-tuning basic perks through trinkets and weapon upgrades that act as your permanent unlocks. In typical rogue-lite fashion, your run will see you leveling up and selecting from a series of buffs that will make you stronger, faster, and more durable for that run. That, and increasing or enhancing each Sam's unique special attacks.
While the rogue-lite structure is new to the series, the same chaotic large-scale mayhem remains. So yah, you'll be blasting aliens in the face, mowing down waves of oddities, sticking it to Mental, and doing it again. However, instead of the same static levels upon each playthrough, the biomes switch and randomize as you progress through two stages and then face off against one of Mental’s Lieutenants and then repeat the process two additional times. Completing those nine rounds unlocks the next difficulty tier and then you’ll do it again.
Unlike most rogue-lite’s that feature co-op, Shatterverse has full five player co-op, making this a great game for large groups. This is equally useful for reviving your teammates, or keeping enemies barely alive to help heal your friends. While there are the occasional health vial, your main method of healing is through executing an enemy with a melee attack. That said, there isn't a unique animation for this act, it's just a basic melee hit with blood splattering on the screen.
Each of the five Sam’s that you'll play as come from various dimensions, visual styles, and unique walks of life. One is an four-armed alien whose name is literally just Sam Stone backwards, whereas another is a pint-sized cartoon version that I really wish would have been cel-shaded to really sell the idea. Rounding out the cast is a low-polygon model of Retro Sam, a female variant in Orphan Sam, and a Sam who is, by all accounts, broken, hence the name, “Broken Sam”. You are effectively guided through this adventure by Sam Stone Prime, the original series butt-kicker as his AI on board his ship.
Now, I don't mind the cast as they are very different, but I can't help but feel that the longevity and grind behind this game wouldn't have been better suited if you were able to create your own Sam, unlocking new faces, hairstyles, outfits, and gun skins, to really customize YOUR Sam. Because, at the end of the day, a rogue-lite needs a hook to keep you playing after you've wrapped credits, and I don't think Shatterverse has those legs. At least with what is here at launch.
What I do like about the cast is that they talk to each other throughout the mission, and to you, constantly. There are likely hours of these conversations and quips, and I rarely hear them repeated too often. While not all of the jokes land, it's nice that developer Behavior knows what this game and the series has been for over two decades. It feels like a Serious Sam game, and despite any issues I have with it, that is exactly why I do enjoy playing it.
Each run places you through one of several biomes. From castles to ancient ruins and snowcapped mountains, and lava-spewing volcanos, the variety is fairly decent, with levels being constructed of handcrafted segments that then get randomly placed and connected around each run. You'll certainly visit a few locations often, sometimes too often, and that does sort of suck the fun out of the randomization that doesn't always feel so random. Hell, we did three runs last night and the first series of rooms were exactly the same ones as before. That said, my theory is only a few biomes are available in act I as we saw the rest as we moved on to additional acts.
Each run can, at times, feel different, but that largely depends on you, your playstyle, and how many players are with you. There are challenge rooms that you'll find that have you killing everything that moves for a few chests filled with goodies. That said, I wish there were more variations of these rooms as I saw the same two or three almost all the time. There are secrets to find, such as switches in hard to reach places or jump pads behind ice that need to be shot out, or even target switches behind crumbling statues. Some puzzles simply revolve around finding eye-balls that unlock doors, should you track them all down.
Secondly, are anomalies. Theses are a riot, but only start appearing in Act II. I’ve only experienced a handful of them so far. Some are wild, such as playing in third person, or others that make the game vastly hard, like not being able to back up or those that obscure your vision. Another standout that is both a blessing or a curse is having enemies explore upon death. This is great because it helps kill enemies around them, but also sucks since that reduces the amount of enemies you can use to heal. Anomalies can be used or ignored, but using them boosts your earning of Dust, which is used to upgrade your Trinkets.
You will find chests that are filled with weapons and killing enemies can have additional weapons appear as well. However, while weapons are colored graded for different tiers, we were constantly finding worse weapons with weaker stats than what we were wielding. In fact, for the bulk of act 1, we barely found anything in a chest worth taking. That said, I applaud the developer for allowing each player to have their own instance of loot, so you are not seeing random players taking all the good stuff, like the recently released Mistfall Hunter.
As you kill aliens, collect gold, shield fragments, and gather health, you'll eventually level up. Each level allows you to choose from three various modifiers for that run. From boosting your defense, the amount of health you get from executing an enemy, to how fast you reload or reducing your special attack’s cooldown, these modifiers can certainly help, but only if you keep upgrading them as the run goes on. Boosting my special attack for another 3 seconds is fine, but adding another two on that is another matter entirely.
These buffs are typical of the rogue-lite genre, but I do wish a bit more of them got really weird or inventive, like having ricochet bullets or applying a jump slam or something to affect gameplay. These mostly seem like pretty safe and basic traits that sort of go against the crazy antics the Serious Sam games are known for. And while you can't upgrade your Sam through some form of skill or trait system, these perks, and your equippable trinkets, are all you really get here.
Between each level, you'll be able to upgrade your special ability, purchase new guns, top up your health, or purchase new modifiers, with the latter being available before each major boss. Thankfully, due to the simplicity of each kit, you're not finding yourself tinkering and build crafting for any more than a minute when you should be getting black to blasting mobs with your friends.
Those aforementioned abilities vary from Retro Sam unleashes a series of clones, to Orphan Sam dropping a series of spinning razor blades that appear through a portal. However, apart from changing a few basic traits, with the same three options each time, there is no way to really alter how they work, or even alternatives to strive towards. Like, imagine if instead of dropping the portal, and the razor blades spinning around, Orphan Sam could trigger them as a buzzsaw shield bubble for a moment and make her invulnerable to damage for 8-10 seconds. Instead, the specials are static, somewhat boring, and lack creative variety. Don't get me wrong, dropping that razor blade portal is great in large groups, but imagine how it feels thirty times in.
Weapons all have different stats, and there are plenty of options when it comes to picking your murder device. You'll initially start with just pistols, shotguns, and a tommygun, but eventually find laser pistols or ray guns, and grenade launchers, and then use your progression currency, the catalyst orbs, which we will talk about shortly, to buy new guns, like a sniper rifle or the double barrel shotty.
Weapons have traits and there are quite the number of them to see. Affixes are traits that will appear on guns as you find them. From firing faster projectiles, reducing spread, but shooting fewer bullets, to increasing the chance to stack bleed on an enemy, there are nearly 50 of these, and some are only available in certain acts to find on your guns.
Trinkets are another way to make your Sam feel a tad different, even if those differences are just surface level numbers and stats, like increasing the duration of your ultimate ability, increasing base damage on all guns, or even unique ones specific to each character, hence the need for trinket loadouts. Trinkets come in a variety of objects, from plants to keychains, staplers, mugs, and lunchboxes, they are all set atop your desk at the SP hub.
As you continue to push through a run, hoping to reach that boss on the 9th stage, you'll be collecting catalyst orbs as a progression and unlock currency. This can be used to buy guns, upgrade them, or purchase new characters. That said, while there are only five characters, and you start with one, unlocking the other four all can be done in a little over two hours. I had them all unlocked after about 4 partial runs.
Currency can be found on a run, but the bulk of what you'll earn is through discovery. Shatterverse keeps an index of the creatures you've killed, the bosses you've vanquished, and the locations and variations that you've traversed through. Each discovery rewards you said currency, so it gives you a hidden objective as you play. So, after a somewhat successful run, even if it ended in defeat, you are almost always collecting some form of a reward to keep unlocking new items or saving up for something better.
The enemy variety is what you'd expect from a Serious Sam game, with a few new additions and returning favorites, such as the charging fodder in the Gnaar. However my favorite the series, the dudes screaming with bombs in their hands, are back, and just as fun as ever. In fact, I played with a friend who had never seen the franchise before, and they became her favorite as well.
Unlike other entries in the series, Shatterverse runs on the Unreal Engine and not the typical Serious Engine, which was behind all titles from First Encounter to Siberian Mayhem. Overall, the game runs extremely smooth, but graphical fidelity isn't exactly what this game is shooting for. Visuals are fine and fit well within the Serious Sam vibe, especially as the series has largely been set in colorful and vibrant environments.
While Shatterverse is devoid of any sort of online store, at least at the time of this writing, I'm uncertain as to what there is really to strive for here. There are no character or gun skins, no additional characters or weapons past what is provided, and I can't see this as a game that once the credits have rolled that you'd be returning to in any constant capacity. Sure, you may continue runs to find every last area, and upgrade every last weapon, but why? I don't see the point in diving into all those sessions to fill out the index once you've likely bought everything you will have wanted anyway.
While long-standing fans may get a kick out of the multiverse scenario here to dive back into some Serious Sam gameplay, I don't quite see the lasting appeal of sticking with it. Rogue-lite fans might be turned off by the lack of depth in your progression as characters only really serve as a vessel for their abilities than anything of substance. It leaves me wondering who exactly this game is for, and if Behavior has plans to support it post launch, given its game-as-a-service-lite presentation.
Overall, 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.
Developer - Behavior Interactive.. Publisher - Devolver Digital. Released - August 31st, 2026. Available On - PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Rated - (M) Blood, Strong Language, Violence. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X/S. Review Access - A review code for Serious Sam: Shatterverse was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.