In an ideal world, there would be an open-world Serious Sam game set in a gigantic field with meaningful progression, unlimited interesting enemies and heaps of guns – but it feels like the series has continued to innovate in all the wrong places. Seeing the peerless hordes race at you is still such a unique experience, and when you find your favourite gun and get into a rhythm it can be really great.įrom cannons to lasers and remote rocket chainsaws, it has varied weapons on offer, but the monotony will eventually grind out all of the joy you get from using them. Sure, there are more monsters than last time, and when the game finally drops you into an open-air map that is teeming with beasts instead of funnelling you through boring Roman corridors for several levels, you’ll get a taste of its true nostalgic potential. There’s only single-player and co-op (without crossplay) at launch, with a measly 16 levels to play through. Nothing has changed, and I’d argue that it feels even more stripped back and feckless due to the lack of modes on offer. If you were to blind me and tell me that this was an expansion for Serious Sam 3 that came out one year later in 2012, I would not bat an eyelid. Serious Sam 4 doubles down on this approach. The third instalment felt like a focus-tested Serious Sam game and it ate at the charming heart of the series, spitting out the part that made it all so much fun. It grafted in a linear campaign and adopted uncanny realism to meet the demands of the then-modern FPS genre, which had its brain destroyed by Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and its sandblasted colour palette. I was already disappointed with Serious Sam 3, which seemed like a step backwards. It was so novel and addicting that it made me want to sit in front of a monitor and play rather than enjoy the baking holiday heat, so I would use my pocket money every day to get a few hours in.īut in 2020, I feel like the series has fundamentally lost its way. I vividly remember playing the first game on a CRT monitor in the reception area of a hotel in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria in the early 2000s. As a Serious Sam fan, I know the game’s meant to be dumb fun. It’s not like I’m shocked due to a lack of familiarity or understanding of this veteran shooter series. Like a soft boy poser on Instagram, it contains multitudes. But it’s also clearly made with love by a team that adores this property. It’s a messy window to a past we should have forgotten about by now. It feels like this game arrived in 2020 via a burning asteroid, redirected from a galaxy that has not played a video game since 2011.
We spent most of our playthrough just gawping at this £30.99 (US$39.99) shambolic spectacle of a game, but Serious Sam 4’s faults were soon drowned out by minute-long bouts of laughter.
He had been driven to the very edge by Serious Sam 4’s monotony and if he left then and there, I really don’t know if I could have done it on my own. When I think back upon the six and a half hours I spent playing through it, I am consumed with guilt for coercing two of my most unfortunate friends into playing it with me.Īt one point, I had to grovel to get my co-op partner to see the last two levels of the game through after he threatened to quit in a fit of passion. It is remarkably stupid, but so aware and proud of its own folly that I think we should erect a marble monument in its honour. I think that Serious Sam 4 might be the dumbest game I have ever played.
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