Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope

Lore & Background

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope is a wave-based first-person shooter played in virtual reality from a standing or seated position. The player is mostly stationary, moving only within a limited space, while enemies approach from a 180° field. The game features twenty levels, four on each of five thematic planets, with waves of enemies culminating in boss fights. Players can dual-wield weapons including pistols, shotguns, rocket launchers, chainsaws, and power swords, and can evade attacks through physical movement or a shield. Good performance grants weapon upgrades, skills, and power-ups such as increased damage and time slowdowns. All levels support cooperative play with a second player via online matchmaking. Additional modes include 'Endless Wave' and 'Arena', each with eight levels of random enemy sets. Development began when Croatian studio Croteam received development units of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Lead designer Davor Hunski convinced colleagues to develop VR games, leading to the formation of Croteam VR. The team incrementally added VR features to their in-house Serious Engine and added rudimentary VR support to The Talos Principle. Impressed, they expanded to Serious Sam games but found existing control schemes problematic, settling on a mostly stationary approach. A test level with enemies and weapons from previous Serious Sam games proved popular, and the team pivoted to a releasable game. Narrative elements were developed by Jonas and Verena Kyratzes, writing The Last Hope as a training simulation for protagonist Serious Sam, connecting to series canon while allowing flexibility. The game was announced at E3 in June 2016 and entered early access in October 2016. Cooperative gameplay, a feature that had never been planned, was added in December 2016 due to high demand. The game left early access on 20 September 2017.

Reader's Guide

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope holds significance as Croteam's first VR title and early access game, establishing a dedicated VR division. Its development process—from experimenting with VR headsets to creating a stationary wave-based shooter—reflected the challenges of early VR game design, particularly around movement and control schemes. The game's reception was mostly positive, with post-release reviews praising its gameplay and visuals while criticizing difficulty spikes and online multiplayer issues. It was included in lists of best VR games by PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun in April 2020. The Last Hope also contributed to VR technology adoption, being among the first games to support Nvidia's Variable Rate Supersampling (VRSS) in January 2020. A version for location-based entertainment, Serious Sam VR: Arcade, was also developed. The game's legacy lies in demonstrating how a classic first-person shooter franchise could adapt to VR, using a stationary approach that emphasized dual-wielding and wave combat, and in providing a foundation for Croteam's further VR experiments.

Did You Know?

• The game was developed by Croteam VR, a specialized division of Croteam formed to experiment with VR implementations.
• Croteam turned down a substantial financial offer from Oculus VR for temporary exclusivity on the Oculus Rift.
• The soundtrack was composed by Damjan Mravunac and released via YouTube in July 2017.