This is how Serious Sam levels need to be designed. Just pure arcade action where you use the fundamentals of the game to win creative battles. That's it, a simple formula that will never get old, with no drama, no characters making comments while you play, no philosophical villains, no skilltrees, no stupid gadgets, just pure well thought-out action. But no dev is going to have the balls to create an entire game using this philosophy, probably because players don't even want pure action like this anymore, and journalists would say the game is "simplistic and outdated". What a disgrace... I never finished this map, though, because of the boss battle, which was super long and not very fun to be honest.
@@jukaa1012 If your game is niche, there's no need for evolution in the sense of becoming something new, just refinement of the traditional formula. Take Doom, for example. You could say that Doom Eternal is an evolution of the series and offers something totally new that is attracting thousands of players. Nice, but this "evolution" has ended up generating a completely new experience. Doom Eternal is a very fun game, but it's basically a new genre within first person shooters and the experience it offers has ZERO relation to the experience you'll get in Doom 2. Luckily for Doom 2 fans, even today new megawads with vanilla mechanics are produced, where the original formula is refined to absurdly high standards. So there's nothing to complain about... Croteam has tried to innovate with each Serious Sam, but after 2, 3 and now 4, it's become clear that they can't offer anything useful anymore and the only thing that still keeps the series alive is precisely the old formula that stubbornly resists in each of these new games, and is the only redeeming part of them. They should just embrace the original, arcadey, simple formula and take it to higher levels of refinement.
@@jpa3974 nonsense. I am speaking stricktly about lvl design. The combat in sam 4 (enemies and guns) have obviously evolved and i would argue mostly in a positive way - yet still feel like serious sam trough and trough. What has been stagnant for years now is lvl design and fight design. And im arguing this map even tho the fights are mostly fine the lvl design is basic as fuck. The only reason we celebrate it is beacuse the base game had really bad lvl design to the point that the original tfe from 23 years ago feels fresher and more fun to play
@@jukaa1012 I don't agree with you that SS4 is an evolution, in fact Serious Sam 4 is utter garbage in terms of game design. The problem is that there is an optional skilltree with different paths, an abundance of overpowered gadgets, powerful additions for some weapons that the player may not have for entire levels and a completely broken optional weapon that trivializes entire combats (the flying chainsaw). This lot of stuff creates a problem for level designers: the player can approach each fight in completely different ways depending on what they have to use at the time. Riding a Khnum, for example, leaves you invincible for several minutes while you destroy practically any enemy, so depending on the skills the player decides to use in each battle, the introduction of a Khnum into battle can either be a nightmare that will make the battle much more difficult, or it will literally be easy-mode. How can anyone create a decent level design in this case? It's impossible.
@@jukaa1012 I agree with both points actually. The level design of this map is indeed very basic and it was never meant to be groundbreaking in any way. There's definitely a lot of potential for much more interesting lvl design IF you have the time. At the same time, SS4's gameplay is an evolution but not always for the best; some features like skills and gadgets are not seamlessly implemented into the core gameplay and hence not using them allows you to make a more polished map. Does Serious Sam need to change its combat mechanics in any way? Or is taking level design to its full potential enough to keep the game fresh?
I apologize for the off-topic comment but do you happen to have the 'Serious Sam Custom level design flaws BINGO card' you had it posted on your community tab on your channel? I'd love to have it in case I decide to delve into Serious Sam mapping in the future, so I can use it as a reference on what not to do during the mapping process.
such a beautiful encounter style of map design, absolutely love it
This is how Serious Sam levels need to be designed. Just pure arcade action where you use the fundamentals of the game to win creative battles. That's it, a simple formula that will never get old, with no drama, no characters making comments while you play, no philosophical villains, no skilltrees, no stupid gadgets, just pure well thought-out action.
But no dev is going to have the balls to create an entire game using this philosophy, probably because players don't even want pure action like this anymore, and journalists would say the game is "simplistic and outdated". What a disgrace...
I never finished this map, though, because of the boss battle, which was super long and not very fun to be honest.
this is still lacking imo, it captures 2001 era serious sam somewhat but still its 2024, where is the evolution?
@@jukaa1012 If your game is niche, there's no need for evolution in the sense of becoming something new, just refinement of the traditional formula.
Take Doom, for example. You could say that Doom Eternal is an evolution of the series and offers something totally new that is attracting thousands of players. Nice, but this "evolution" has ended up generating a completely new experience. Doom Eternal is a very fun game, but it's basically a new genre within first person shooters and the experience it offers has ZERO relation to the experience you'll get in Doom 2. Luckily for Doom 2 fans, even today new megawads with vanilla mechanics are produced, where the original formula is refined to absurdly high standards. So there's nothing to complain about...
Croteam has tried to innovate with each Serious Sam, but after 2, 3 and now 4, it's become clear that they can't offer anything useful anymore and the only thing that still keeps the series alive is precisely the old formula that stubbornly resists in each of these new games, and is the only redeeming part of them. They should just embrace the original, arcadey, simple formula and take it to higher levels of refinement.
@@jpa3974 nonsense. I am speaking stricktly about lvl design. The combat in sam 4 (enemies and guns) have obviously evolved and i would argue mostly in a positive way - yet still feel like serious sam trough and trough. What has been stagnant for years now is lvl design and fight design. And im arguing this map even tho the fights are mostly fine the lvl design is basic as fuck. The only reason we celebrate it is beacuse the base game had really bad lvl design to the point that the original tfe from 23 years ago feels fresher and more fun to play
@@jukaa1012
I don't agree with you that SS4 is an evolution, in fact Serious Sam 4 is utter garbage in terms of game design. The problem is that there is an optional skilltree with different paths, an abundance of overpowered gadgets, powerful additions for some weapons that the player may not have for entire levels and a completely broken optional weapon that trivializes entire combats (the flying chainsaw).
This lot of stuff creates a problem for level designers: the player can approach each fight in completely different ways depending on what they have to use at the time. Riding a Khnum, for example, leaves you invincible for several minutes while you destroy practically any enemy, so depending on the skills the player decides to use in each battle, the introduction of a Khnum into battle can either be a nightmare that will make the battle much more difficult, or it will literally be easy-mode. How can anyone create a decent level design in this case? It's impossible.
@@jukaa1012 I agree with both points actually. The level design of this map is indeed very basic and it was never meant to be groundbreaking in any way. There's definitely a lot of potential for much more interesting lvl design IF you have the time. At the same time, SS4's gameplay is an evolution but not always for the best; some features like skills and gadgets are not seamlessly implemented into the core gameplay and hence not using them allows you to make a more polished map. Does Serious Sam need to change its combat mechanics in any way? Or is taking level design to its full potential enough to keep the game fresh?
Well done.
I apologize for the off-topic comment but do you happen to have the 'Serious Sam Custom level design flaws BINGO card' you had it posted on your community tab on your channel? I'd love to have it in case I decide to delve into Serious Sam mapping in the future, so I can use it as a reference on what not to do during the mapping process.
i.imgur.com/Zpg59Lu.png
This is referring to Sam Classic more than SS3/SS4.
@@an0nn Thank you.