Behaviour Interactive just dropped Serious Sam: Shatterverse on Xbox, PS5, and PC, slapping Unreal Engine 5 onto the backpedaling boomer shooter formula while turning it into a 1-5 player roguelite co-op mess. The Xbox Wire post from game director Nic Duchesne spells it out: they kept the core chaos—classic enemies, big guns, wave defense—but added multiverse Sams, run modifiers, boons, and procedurally shifting arenas instead of linear campaigns. Croteam gave the blessing, but the results are already splitting the room on day one.

Steam user reviews tanked fast into Mixed territory with complaints about input lag, host desyncs, crashes, missing features like push-to-talk, and a cartoonish vibe that feels more Fortnite than First Encounter. Forums are flooded with "this isn't Serious Sam" rants and refund demands, while some playtest vets say the combat loop and co-op scaling still slap when it works. Cross-play launched day one across platforms, and it's a complete $19.99 standalone with no live-service crutches promised—though expansions are on the table.

The backpedal-and-blast energy is there, but the execution is getting roasted harder than a bad netcode patch. Classic Sam fans are vocal about the roguelite pivot and art direction feeling off, while Behaviour's Dead by Daylight pedigree shows in the co-op focus. Whether the chaos sticks or the launch jank buries it depends on how fast they patch the disconnects and input issues players are already screaming about.