the cutting room mirror

Serious Sam 4

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This page details pre-release information and/or media for Serious Sam 4.

Credit for videos: Nigmas

E3 2018 Demo#

An early demo was shown at E3 2018, gameplay of 'A Breakfast In France' level, which was heavily promoted with the legion system despite only appearing in the final level of the game.

Watch on YouTubeWatch on YouTube

Here are 2 videos of the demo. The first is the footage that was shown at E3, the second is gameplay that was streamed over Discord by Croteam due to fan requests... to show the footage that was shown to journalists behind closed doors. The video is laggy because of this, and half the video is just driving with the battle music playing in the back. The developer playing also goes the wrong way at one point, needing to backtrack to activate a trigger. This demo is from a year into development, 2 years before release and has a lot of differences. Keep in mind the game was scheduled to release in 2019 by this point, so the unfinishedness of the game really shows how rough development was. Note: Some of these things listed were in a different video of the discord stream that i can't find anymore, it is the same gameplay with people talking over it and has an extra part at the beginning with the loading and main menu.

Differences#

Game#

  • The main menu is copied from Serious Sam 3, as well as the executable icon. The menu uses a different font already.
  • An early level list is shown, showing the cut side levels (Zoo, Mental Labs, Hospital) as well as the cut Refinery level which was axed very late in development
  • The Episode name is "PB" which stands for Planet Badass, the final games uses "Serious Sam 4".
  • The game takes a very long time to load.
  • Every Level uses the preview image from Serious Sam 3's "Summer In Cairo" level.
  • Serious Sam uses an early model, his body is much chunkier especially in his neck. The bomb logo is more opaque on his shirt. His gloves are a much shinier leather material and lack details.
  • The song Wild Life from Serious Sam 3 plays when first entering the motorcycle.
  • When riding a vehicle, your weapon is a static model instead of a view model anchored to the screen. There is also no animation for switching weapons.
  • The FOV is lower.
  • The crosshair is the default one from Serious Sam 3
  • Ammo, health and armour pickups use Serious Sam 3 models.
  • There is no HUD at all.
  • There are no cutscenes, so the sidequest has a sniper rifle being flung out of the bell tower.
  • The environment is more detailed, which was toned back for performance... even though final stills runs terribly.
  • Shadows seem to be darker, making lighting look more contrasted.
  • At 12:22, an unused line of dialogue plays.
  • At 13:27, you can hear UI sounds from Serious Sam 3 when the developer is changing weapons.
  • The demo ends with the combine harvester section. The NPC is absent.
  • The steering wheel moves in this version as pointed out by sirnoobs21 on Youtube
  • Blood effects do not go on the screen when killing enemies.
  • The demo ends with the early logo, and an unused dialogue line plays.

Weapons#

  • The Assault Rifle uses an early model which is still used in final by Legion System redshirts. It re-uses the sprinting and idle animations from Serious Sam 3, however the reload animation is unique.
  • The shotgun uses an early model with a magazine like Serious Sam 3. It uses very basic animations and lacks camera shake when firing. Re-uses Serious Sam 3 sound effects
  • The pistol re-uses the Serious Sam 3 model with new animations, holding the pistol one handed, as well as using new sound effects.
  • The sniper is entirely different. Uses a different model based off some kind of hunting rifle and is bolt action similar to Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. The scope texture is re-used from Serious Sam 3. The weapon still needs reloading like final.

Enemies#

  • Octanian Gamma Troopers re-use Clone Soldier death sounds from Serious Sam 3 and take cover just like them as well. Octanian's were referred to as Soldiers during development, hinting at them just being reskins at this point.
  • Male and Female Gnaars use a different running animations. At 13:01 you can hear the gnaar's idle sound from Serious Sam 3
  • Processed use entirely different sound effects, and animations. They also seem to move slower. They lack any blood effects appearing on the environment when killed
  • Werebull uses different textures and Serious Sam 3 sound effects.
  • Biomech Minor uses very basic animations. The tentacle things on it's "head" are completely static.
  • Headless Kamikaze's scream lacks the multilayered effect that was applied in final. E

The Last Hope Development Assets#

Credit: Nigmas. Within the files of the VR spinoff game Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope are some assets from pre alpha versions of Serious Sam 4 from 2013-2017. The final game uses assets from The Last Hope such as Space Mummies and stock oil rig assets used for "The Package" level.

Melee Finish Animations#

Watch on YouTube

NETRICSA Prototype#

An early prototype UI for Sam 4's NETRICSA using UI assets from Serious Sam 3. Nigmas seems to have removed the video for some reason.