I was pretty shocked when they brought Serious Sam back the better part of ten years ago! So, I was even more shocked when I heard that they were dusting Sam off and bringing him back once again. I have to start by saying if you like Serious Sam games, you will like this. If you don’t… well, in all honesty, there is nothing new here to win you over.
How to Download Serious Sam 4
To download the game from Steam, click on the Download button at the end of the review.
The Game Review
One of the things that I feel like they really tried with Serious Sam 4 is the story. It is still very much a meathead “bro” style of story with aliens and so on. However, with all the one-liners, over the top performances, and so on. They do slow it down from time to time and try to give the story a bit of heart.
The game is set in Europe. This time Sam and his squad are pretty much looking for the Holy Grail to stop the alien threat. It is pretty cheesy and not as strong as modern first-person shooter fans may be used to. Yet, there is a charm here and I found myself interested in what was going down.
Visually, Serious Sam 4 is about what I expected. There is a ton of variety to the aliens in their design and that is impressive. Even more impressive is how the game can throw a ton and I mean a ton of enemies on the screen at once for you. My main gripe with the visuals is that they do have a bit of a “low budget” feel to them. Most evidently, the facial animations and especially the eyes of the characters in the cut scenes.
What will make or break Serious Sam 4 for most people is the gameplay. This is where I feel that the game will win you over or not. They have added a very basic skill tree here and the ability to dual-wield weapons along with new finishing moves which while cool are hard to pull off. However, everything else is pretty much the same as it was in the previous games.
You have to defeat enemies in large arena-style levels and then take on a boss. Most of the time a level objective is getting from point a to point b, killing a ton of aliens as you go. There are side objectives that you can do as well and these tend to be much harder than the standard story levels.
The game has more in common with older first-person shooters than it does with modern ones. There is no regenerating health in this game and as a result, you will die a great deal. I kind of like this as it forces you to think about what you are doing, but I can see why some folks may find it more on the frustrating side, especially as some of the save points are a bit far away.
Speaking of save points, you can play the campaign with up to three other people and then you do not have to worry about save points. If you die when playing with friends, you just respawn into where they are fighting. I have not played the multiplayer yet, but I would bet this game is very suited to having fun with your friends.
Serious Sam 4 is 100 percent a game that was made for fans of the series. They really have not changed much here at all and I found it did more than enough to tug at my nostalgia strings. Those who have never really cared for Sam’s type of gameplay will not find enough here to win them over.
