Headshot damage.

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

Am I the only one who feels it really upsets the game balance? Being able to one shot pretty much everything that before took anywhere between 2-4 rockets feels weird for a Sam game.

Still not sure if I consider it a good addition or not...

[PikaCommando]

I think it's a good addition. It rewards skilled play and encourages the player to do more than "shoot x amount of times in that enemy's general direction".

[Mankybus]

I'm in two minds. I like it and dislike it, it's great for dealing with low tier enemies but when enemies like the werebulls are already hugely nerfed and now suffer headshot damage, it makes them total pushovers.

[TM2P]

I'm fine with it. It makes the double barrel shotgun feel more powerful against werebulls now.

[Lipi]

Like. Realistic enough. Headshots ARE supposed to kill you faster. I kind of felt bad that in older games part of the body didn't matter.


It does overpower the shotguns though, as even a small no. of pellets shot inaccurately can go through the head, but why the hell not? I love shotguns!

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

Originally posted by Mankybus:

I'm in two minds. I like it and dislike it, it's great for dealing with low tier enemies but when enemies like the werebulls are already hugely nerfed and now suffer headshot damage, it makes them total pushovers.

Exactly. Werebulls have huge heads and them dying to 1 rocket instead of 2 does make them pushovers.

Devastator is even more overpowered than before since now you can snipe heads with it too, making Reptiloids and Red Scorps pushovers too. Scrapjacks went from slow beefy tanks to being pretty fragile too where you can just unload 2 mags from the starting pistol into their head and they're dead.

Just feels like the headshot multiplier is too high, especially for the Sniper Rifle. It can even one-shot Witch Brides FFS. They seem to triple or quadruple the normal damage. They should just reduce it to double IMO. But that won't happen since you will no longer be able to one-shot the orange guys :/.

[ShurikMur]

Originally posted by Caius Misus:

Am I the only one who feels it really upsets the game balance? Being able to one shot pretty much everything that before took anywhere between 2-4 rockets feels weird for a Sam game...

It is an improvement: headshot is an option, but it is not always possible. Sometimes there are so many things going on: kleers and werebulls jumps right in your face - good luck trying to hit all the scrapjacks staying in a distance.

The option to shot in a face is good, the overall difficulty can be easily adjusted by the raw count of enemies.

[Wolvinof]

Don't worry, when the modding support comes out, there's bound to be one that disables headshots.

[TrashRat]

Werebull head hitbox is tiny, what game are you guys playing? It's more fun to double knife them for an instant kill right before they hit you anyway.

Headshot damage is a necessary balancing component for how large the hordes are now, playing on Serious it's obvious especially with the Processed lunge attack that you have to focus on landing headshots as much as possible to avoid dying. I don't understand why it would be a bad thing to have your skill rewarded like this.

[ShurikMur]

On the other hand, sometimes headshot damage indeed feels like cheating. Minigun and laser also gets headshot damage bonus. But minigun makes it much easier to connect enough bulletw with the head to make it die faster and death ray (secondary on a laser cannon) just instagibs if pointed to the face.
But I can't say that I felt bad doing this again and again :)

[Soulmyr]

It's great because not only does it reward precise aiming, but you also get some amazing gore, like headshotting a Werebull or Scrapjack. If you're a purist you can always ignore it I guess, but you're really cheating yourself out of a more fun experience.

[The Squiggly One]

I like it because it gives a skilled player the option to play more aggressively without taking tons of unavoidable damage. The new stagger system contributes to this as well. In the old games, some of the enemies felt like bullet sponges and much of the time the best strategy was to play really conservatively and use LOS to avoid damage while jiggle-peaking with high-damage, low-rate-of-fire weapons. This is still the best strategy when there are LOTS of enemies, but I like that in the new game, it's more viable to rush down enemies and burst them down with precision damage.

This isn't the only way in which they've buffed the player since Serious Sam 3, by the way. Between the high-powered weapon mods (rocket launcher and grenade launcher in particular), the dual wielding, and the perk system (sprint and shoot at the same time!), the player in this game does a LOT more damage and has a LOT more strategic options than in any previous Serious Sam game. I think they do a good job of compensating for this by sending huge hoards of enemies at you more regularly than in previous games.

The game still feels challenging to me (unless you use the ridiculously OP consumables that the game gives you, like the black hole grenades or time warp), and the overall skill cap feels higher because precision damage matters.

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

I guess it just feels weird that every weapon gets the bonus. Cannon, Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher. If it was just hitscan weapons, fine but everything? Really feel like they went overkill with the damage multiplier too. It was definitely a WTF moment for me when a Witch-Bride immediately exploded after shooting her in the head once with the sniper. I suspect that the reason I am always pretty much full on all ammo is because the headshots reduce the ammo consumption way too much. And it is not like landing them is hard to be honest.

I also get headshots even if I am not actively going for them. For example, basically any projectile launched in a Werebull's general direction will result in a headshot. In fact, I am having trouble not headshotting them and have to actively aim so that I don't hit the head :P


As for the weapon mods, rocket launcher is fine since you launch 5 missiles, you get 5 missiles worth of damage. But the Grenade Launcher secondary should DEFINITELY consume more ammo. The amount of area and damage it does is insane and it still costs you the same as a regular shot. Making it eat like 2-3 extra ammo on detonating it prematurely (so you basically don't get a free carpet bombing effect on top of the normal explosion) would be way more balanced. Death Ray also seems super overpowered. Either Increasing the ammo consumption even more or making it deal less damage based on distance would work wonders to make it balanced since you can just tap you mouse, sweep the horizon and boom - everything is dead for like 40 ammo.

[Soulmyr]

Originally posted by Caius Misus:

Death Ray also seems super overpowered.

You only get enough ammo to use this in like 2 levels, and even them if you use the Death Ray you will drain the electricity pretty quickly.

[InconspicuousBlackVan]

Originally posted by Soulmyr:

You only get enough ammo to use this in like 2 levels, and even them if you use the Death Ray you will drain the electricity pretty quickly.

Yeah, you get it late so there's that at least. But the ammo is pretty much a non-issue. You never hold it down for longer than a few seconds. Just make quick sweeps or wait for the enemies to line up while you backpedal and you can kill waves upon waves of enemies for very little ammo.

[Oobaneko]

Previous sams was like tower defences with accurate management of ammo and aiming. In this game you must effectively use all ammo and arsenal you have to deal with horde. It's short-time spawned, but spawned whole, so things like death ray, especially in last horde, just saves your day, so as dual cannon. Headshots very good addition, so with good aiming you are able to kill wizards, witches and scorps by one shot. So, one shot by headshot, or three shots? It's not o ly about ammo, but also about time. And time is precious.