Being blunt, like Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior, Serious Sam’s tone and sense of humour has always been very much of its time. At first the problems largely stem from the lowbrow writing. However, after the first half of the game, cracks start to appear. The addition of online co-op also makes the battles all the more fun, especially when playing with a friend on one of the higher difficulties. A single well-timed blast of the double barrel shotgun will cause a fireworks display of blood and torn limbs to go flying across the map.Īn old school reliance on health and armour pickups, minus any form of health regeneration also forces a similar high risk, high reward strategy to id Software’s recent efforts. Each attack carries weight and the development team have done a stellar job with the enemy death animations. This is especially true as the core shooting mechanics, while not on Doom’s level, are very satisfying. There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as charging headlong into a 1000-strong army of Mental’s alien goons while dual-wielding miniguns. And it’s here that Serious Sam 4 shines brightest. Outside of the b-movie Earth Defense Force games I’m yet to find a franchise that’s been able to load each level with quite so many squishy enemies to defeat. Every level you’ll find yourself shooting, burning, kicking, stabbing and generally doing unpleasant things to an outright ridiculous horde of hostile aliens. Related: What you need to know about the PS5įrom the opening scene to its end credits, Serious Sam never gives you pause for thought. The combination of factors aren’t terribly original, but they manage to entertain in an oddly comforting way by offering a no-thinking-required, over-the-top arcade shooting experience that’s so absurdly silly it’s hard not to get enthralled in the opening hours.

Skills are split into isolated clusters that let you do things like recover health from “melee kills” – which work in a similar way to Doom’s executions – or dual-wield weapons. These skills and gadgets offer the only semblance of strategy in the game. S.A.M is a skill system that lets you unlock new abilities using alien artifacts that are found in hidden locations littered around the game’s main campaign. They act as the primary reward for exploring the game’s side missions, which are basically mini-levels within maps that task you to take down a challenging boss, or extended wave of enemies. Attachments are rewards that let you tweak certain weapons, doing things like adding an under-barrel grenade launcher to your basic pump action shotgun. Weapons are rewarded/discovered as you play and range from a basic pistol and double shotgun to outright ridiculous alien blasters. These are pretty much the only things that offer any variety to the game, outside of the locale of the levels. The only changes are tweaks to the weapons and gadgets on offer, new attachments and an underbaked skill system. Serious Sam 4 wears its status as a “classic” shooter franchise as a badge of honour, and intentionally sticks as close as possible to the original games. If this sounds a little retro, that’s exactly the point. Though the settings change in each, the basic goal is the same: blast your way from one checkpoint to the other using an increasingly awesome arsenal of weapons and gadgets to take out any alien foolish enough to get in your way. It tasks you to blast through 16 levels, spread across three story chapters. As shooters go it’s about as old school as it gets.

This focus on “bringing the same classic chaotic run and gun, arcade gameplay” back to a new audience is Serious Sam 4’s greatest strength, and also its most glaring weakness. Instead, it’s a direct sequel that sees you once again step into the shoes of Sam “Serious” Stone as he continues his fight against alien invader Mental, and his army of bizarre monsters. While it has similar aspirations to Doom and Shadow Warrior, Serious Sam 4 is not a reboot. It aims to pull the same trick as Doom and Shadow Warrior before it, bringing a classic franchise back from the grave. It is a game fans of the franchise have been awaiting for close to a decade, with the last “true” entry having launched all the way back in 2009. Serious Sam 4 is the latest entry in an iconic first-person shooter franchise that was all the rage in the early 2000s.

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