Serious Sam 4 Game Review - Ok Sam

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Publisher: Devolver Digital
Developer: Croteam
Platform: PC, XB1, PS4, Stadia
Genre: FPS

Wow I haven't played a game like Doom, I mean Duke, I mean Will Rock, I mean....ok. So this is Serious Sam 4. Besides the tacky poster and fact that they've decided realistically that Sam would look more lean instead of superficially bulky on a game that thrives on superficiality on certain levels. It's not entirely a bad thing once a game figures out what it wants to do with itself. Serious Sam series has always maintained the high body count killing spree for the past 2 decades and this one is no different.

Well, maybe in some regards. Visually it is far superior thanks to high-res textures, lighting, global illumination, tessellation, basically current-gen stuff. As for the rest, the guns sound much better, they sound loud, they click nice, are more projectile based. The game has good humor with likeable characters of their idiosyncrasies and there're more enemies on the screen than there were last few games. Which is what an SS game is supposed to about, just providing more enemies to kill while you're dodging and weaving around killing multiple bulls with rocket launchers.

Problems however have to do with the game's main design philosophy, it is showing its age and had me reconsider the possibility that this game would suck. It didn't but it wasn't the most ecstatic I felt playing a shooter such as this. In some cases, it was kind of underwhelming compared to the previous game. Am a bit conflicted again because I did have fun but not for the reasons most people would think.

< Main Campaign >

SS4 is a prequel to SS3 BFE, yeah, it's the opposite of sequels. Who woulda thunk, lol. Anyhoo, the game takes place directly on Europe starting with the invasion of Mental and the rest of the Sirian species invasion. As the first invasion begun, it's time for Sam to get 'serious'. As you progress through the game, you unlock various weapons you need to defeat a whole onslaught of armies with every arsenal you could find. It's going to be tough, but that's how Sam likes it. His bacon that is.

Yeah, so the story itself is a straightforward hero saves the day by defeating an army of aliens kind of deal as the previous games did. It was never about story, that's just used as template. But, the characters are great company to enjoy. They're funny, albeit trying to be too funny sometimes with likeable personality quirks. It's basically people with high vocabulary who makes fart jokes. But funny fart jokes. Sometimes sharp witty ones too.

While the writing is good, the story give it less agency to care as they are just throwaway jokes there for you to least chuckle while you deal with the killing spree. It ain't so bad, though not as much good as or better than other games but I take it Devolver Digital added their touch of savage, crude, euphemistic jokes just to add humor to a game world that's there for you to blow s#!t up. Last note though, the prerendered cutscenes look weird. Just doesn't work when it comes to modern games, although its novelty does stay pretty well.

Now, for the gameplay. You just destroy enemies in large open areas. That's it. The missions are very linear, there's you running around large areas finding secret stash or weapons hidden away. Some side missions here and there offer you great rewards like new gadgets, weapon upgrades or beefier guns. You shoot, kill, blow everything that comes at you to smithereens.

Sam can carry over dozens of various weapons of all sorts, even the gadgets he has can be a nuke launcher that levels the entire area full of enemies. Save it for last resort though cause you won't find a lot of these elsewhere. Besides that though, you have life injections that give you 50+ health whenever you need it. Time bombs that freeze time allowing Sam to blaze shoot everything in the time left. There's even, get this, a steroid item which increases damage and makes you freakishly fast. It's old Duke Nukem stuff but SS does it pretty better. Again, it's pretty age old mechanic and age pretty much shows.

You encounter so many different types of enemies that you forget how to tackle each of their weakpoints as you're busy shooting and dodging, combat can be intense, jumpy and pretty much inundated when you have so many enemies being thrown at you at the screen. They have tech that can even put out several thousands of them in one fight but sadly they've only used that once which is really disappointing to find out honestly. I mean, come on, there's a Mini-Nuke. That's the best weapon for scenarios like this.

But yeah, there are a lot of enemy types. Ones especially the game is known for, the freaking Kamizakes. I have a hard time sleeping thanks to these guys, because they pretty much traumatize me everytime they blow up while screaming like agonizing martyrs dealing pain in hilarious fashion. Much like Pokedexs, there's bestiary for them to read. Which doesn't benefit gameplay much because they're just there for nice pass in time.

Side activities have you doing errands for people or finding new gizmos to use. Other times you'll find hidden stashes or dossier documents that acts as lore for the game and some of the main characters as well. It's a nice addition, helps distract from the main mission objectives and with great rewards. You also get to engage in funny banter such as this.

Serious Sam 4 does provide the same old killing enemies while collecting stuff kind of old gameplay. There isn't much change to the formula. Then again, after the Doom reboot series, I guess if that works, why wouldn't this? Except Doom had so much to offer in fashion, SS4 feels a little exhausting to play due to how many times it keeps reminding you that a lot has changed since SS3 BFE. Sure, the humor is accompanied with you, there's so many grunts to shoot and throw missiles at since they're all cannon fodder. And finally, the cheesy jokes. Good cheesy jokes.

Then there's the boss battles, which can be easy at times but also pretty intense. This game will knock you off your feet if you let it. The difficulty can be summed up pretty easily by stating that if you don't shoot quick enough, you'll die sooner and pretty much easily for them since enemies will find ways to surround you. It took me over 20hrs to finish this game and that's a pretty long for a linear campaign, suck it up TLOU2.

< It has Co-op >

Yes, the game has a nice classic co-op mode for upto 4 players. The game is challenging enough in normal, you can just pummel enemies in the higher difficulty tiers it has, upto 5 difficulties. With 4 friends, playing at serious you'll die in hilarious fashion but it'll be easier for you and the rest of the team to finish the game at its most macabre level of challenge.

It actually enhances the experience since you get to play not as one Serious Sam but 4 Serious Sams. Against the toughest foes that Mental can throw at you.

< Presentation >

The game obviously never cared about looks, but then again, it has a clean look to it when everything you see is high-res in terms of textures. The rest, if it was 2015, this would have blown minds but I honestly couldn't for the life of me find the right superlative to put it. They use their own in-house engine and yet it doesn't achieve high-fidelity especially for a game of this size with large open maps. Everything feels, looks and sounds dated but only in high-res. It's doable but nothing that touches even close to the ceiling.

Not only that, but the game needs beefy hardware to run it. My 570 wasn't doing so hot at the highest settings possible. Overall, this game gave me a hardtime to draw the fine line between novelty and it's just there.

Least the animation is ok, the voice and sound design is pretty standard but acceptable. The music, I mean if you like Duke Nukem level of B-tier soundtrack, yeah this is pretty much it.

< Verdict >

Serious Sam needs a serious makeover. Don't get me wrong though, this game can be a lot of fun, but just being a lot of fun is no excuse to sloppy map design, gameplay feeling old and tiring use of old tropes. The co-op mode least helps out making it a blast to play with friends, other than that, it is what it is.