Serious Sam 4 – Review | Sam Returns… Nine Years Later

Sam is Back

As someone who has a soft spot for the Serious Sam series, I was pretty excited when Sam would be returning for another iteration. It has been almost a decade since a new Serious Sam game came out, so when Serious Sam 4 finally came out, I was pretty excited to get back on the Serious Sam grind.

To get to the point, do I think this is the BEST Serious Sam game to date? No, but I do think this is a pretty fun Serious Sam game overall that obviously doesn’t take itself seriously because that’s what makes this game unique. There’s something charming about running around like a dumbass shooting as many enemies coming your way or to put it more professionally, strategically running.

Developed by Croatian-based developer Croteam, Serious Sam 4 is the blah blah blah, I’ll just get straight into the review.

This Game is Hard, but a Good Kind of Hard

At its core, Serious Sam has never taken itself seriously. That’s a fact, but something that I really need to give the credit for is that Serious Sam 4 did not change its formula one bit and that’s a good thing. Essentially, the core gameplay is run and shoot. See the enemy? Shoot. See a horde of enemies? Blow them away. Die? Start over.

It’s fun to play Serious Sam 4 and just mindlessly shoot as many enemies coming your way and what really helps too is the weapon selection is still seriously awesome. There’s a certain punch and feel to the weapons that just shooting over and over again doesn’t get old. Mindlessly shooting everything that comes your way and blowing up everything is seriously fun, and Serious Sam 4 get’s this right.

Something else I want to point out too is that this game is seriously hard, but a good kind of hard. I played on normal difficulty, but I still found myself dying over and over again. I didn’t really mind this because I love how there is a challenge to keep things fresh and challenging.

There’s really not much to say about its gameplay just because it’s Serious Sam! To quickly sum it up, the gameplay is still seriously awesome, the arsenal of weapons is seriously awesome, and mindlessly shooting everything is still seriously fun. That’s really it. It’s nothing complicated.

Seriously Cheesy As Always

While not really a big element of Serious Sam 4, there is a story mode. As you would expect in a Serious Sam game, the bad guys come down to earth, and Sam comes to screw everything up again.

For me, I enjoyed the story and it’s cheesy humor and dialogue, it’s was makes Sam… Sam. Some people might not care for a story, but I thought it was still a good addition to Serious Sam 4. It’s not the focal point, but it’s a pretty neat experience.

As with the gameplay, there’s still nothing much to explain other than you either like the story or not. You can skip it.

This time around, Serious Sam 4 introduces the skill tree which makes you increase health and stuff, but it doesn’t change the fact that the game at its core is still shoot everything up. It’s a really neat addition, but not really needed.

 

Still Seriously Awesome

While this review may not be long or in-depth, there’s really not much to review in a Serious Sam game other than, it’s still Serious Sam. The gameplay is fantastic and the story is cheesy as always, it’s what makes Serious Sam 4 a great run n’ gun shooter. While some people may like or not like the story, you can always skip it.

If you’re looking to continue the series, looking for something different to play, or mindlessly shoot everything in your way, I’d definitely recommend Serious Sam 4.

SERIOUS SAM 4 IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

If you would like to see a similar run and gun style FPS, check out our review of Hellbound.

Many thanks go to Croteam for a PC review code for this title.