Serious Sam 4

The humor and the one liners are great.
only complain is about the outdated graphics.

whats not to like about Sam, Good action. Plenty of guns and ammunition.

Playing on Hard and enemies are already annoying, as in things jumping at me from all direction while I only have slow weapons isn't particularly fun but I know later I will have proper weapons and upgrades so maybe then I won't feel like this...
One thing is for certain, the game has a certain feel to it, kinda like the Operation Flashpoint games back in the day. As in the environment seems to not be part of the game, almost as if this was some highschool guy's first attempt at 3d. Blocky maps, most areas being on 1 plane unless deliberately terrain-y (roads are a good example, they are fully level with all around them), walls are usually just big boxes with low res textures being stretched onto them with their tiling turned up high... tiny bricks? And I'm playing on high graphics?

The whole thing feels like how I would expect an indie game to be despite indie games nowadays looking better? It's off, even the parallax feels blurry if that's even possible. Right! Reminds me of those "fake games" you usually see in movies where the kid is playing and you briefly see the screen.

Game is still fun-ish but I seem to recall even SS3 seemed to have better combat and the preceding ones even more so. Buy when discounted I guess.
Might update this as I progress but it's not likely anyone's really waiting on My review especially to decide to buy the game or not years after its release :)

So disappointing. Very bad performance even on an RTX3070, no longer has split-screen. The game looks great and would be fun if they fix it. Loved all the previous Serious Sam games.

It feels very raw and underdeveloped. Sound is clearly broken. Was not fun solo, was not fun in coop.

It feels a lot like Sam 3. I'm not yet fully into the game. It feels somehow off... not sure why.

Boomer shooter glory. Great gunplay, silly sense of humour and thousands of things to explode into little pieces. Great fun.

Look, if you're a Serious Sam player, you owe it to yourself to play through this at least once.

For me, personally, I'm not sure what I expected. So for me the highs were the highest, and the lows were the lowest. I'm not playing this game again.

This is a far better DOOM game than DOOM: Eternal. No stupid fucking Mario platforming, and the shotgun reigns.

Идеальная игра, во всех аспектах, и в сюжете, геймплее, графике, музыке. и вообще. Действительно серьёзная игра!

Just like the previous Serious Sam this game is a classic the Devs of this game always adds new fun idea without changing the core of the same old classic Serious Sam Zero Bullshit. Simple, Cheesy, Dry, Easy to Digest Humour (Cringy as usual but in a good way), Mindless endless shooting with tad bullet hell, Fun and EASY Maze/Secret puzzles. Dumb Pun and One liner.

You don't play Serious Sam for the SERIOUS life changing Story you just play it cause is just SERIOUSLY Simple and Enjoyable FPS game. If it's on sale get it and play with friends.

"Double the gun. Double the fun." - Samuel Herbert Stone

An absolute FPS masterpiece. Few campaign-based FPS's these days require the focus and strategy that Croteam weaves into their flagship universe. Most people credit Halo as the pioneer of co-op player vs. npc games. Real ones know that Serious Sam has held that crown since day 1. This 4th iteration only builds that kingdom higher with flawless game play, loads of stashed secrets, campy yet entertaining humor, and stunning maps and graphics. The love and attention to detail the devs put into their work is palpable. As technology advances, I hope one day this game can be experienced on the couch with a buddy along side me too, like the others. Seriously, keep it coming Croteam. You have my health (heart)

Прошел игру довольно быстро, ожидал конечно что сюжет будет подольше, но все равно игра стоит своих денег

This is one of the silliest and childish games I have ever played. This is not something I expect still to be made after 2020.
It is a game you play because you paid so much for it.

Such Amazing game in every aspect just remove AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

1. Excellent game ever made
2 . Not to get bore for a second
3. Graphics quality is awesome
4. Always will be a fan of SAM

This runs terrible. Incorrect shading artifacting and crashes all the time. It is not my computer either. Nothing runs as bad as this does.

Fun game shoot em up game

Great and fun and highly replayable.

cause itsthe best

Surprisingly good. Way better than SS3. Feels really close to the original game.

в этой игре одни токсики фу

HOW IS IT THIS BAD, I AM SHOCKED

Edit: i played a bit more and it does not get better. Years after release and the game is still riddled with bugs, it looks like crap, it runs like crap, and the whole thing is just super inconsistent. One level youll be having a blast and the next youll want to blow your brains across the copy and pasted french countryside. I really hope Croteam learns that they need to actually spend time on creating products and not release them like this.

We really dug the first Serious Sam as a kid, but found Second Encounter and Serious Sam 2 lacking so fell off the series. This is a great place to jump back on cause this is the Serious action we remember. The levels are huge as hordes of enemies spawn in. You kill hundreds in the first level alone and the number only goes up as you go on. The enemy variety is good and the game knows when to mix it up, so you never know what you'll face next. To go with it, you've got a great arsenal of guns, each one useful in certain situations. Even playing on Easy, the game gave us quite a challenge. It's a frantic, stressful time, but it's a lot of fun. To top it all off, there's a fun cast of characters and some pretty funny writing. Probably not for the casual FPS fan, but those who are seriously into the genre will have a lot to enjoy here.

"From Earth With Love" well mental see you at serious sam 5 IF you're still alive our badass team will crush you and your damn little minion

the reload is mechanic its total bullshit and i hate it with all my hart other then that is more sam so its fucking awesome

This game is the buggiest, most unfaithful representation of Serious Sam games that I've had the displeasure of playing. There's a lot wrong and I'm marginally offended it has a "Very Positive" rating. I'm unsure if these reviews are from people who've never played the originals or perhaps started with Serious Sam 3, but either way, the game has a lot of foundational issues.

For further context, I played the entire game in co-op on harder difficulties and I don't think there was a single mission that I didn't experience 5-8 bugs each (ranging from visual glitches, animation glitches, texture streaming issues, t-posing, my motorcycle literally running away from me, a game-breaking bug that required me to restart the entire last level, and more).

There's a lot I could complain about such as level design, how co-op feels like an afterthought, their marketed Legion system that was only used as advertised once, how unnecessarily large the maps are, etc., but I'd rather just sum it up and say a lot of the game's design is antithetical to how Serious Sam is supposed to be, just like Serious Sam 3. It's like they're trying to make Serious Sam into something that it never was supposed to be.

Is it still fun? If you turn your brain off, pretend you've never played the originals, and/or have a friend to play with, yes. However, I'd only recommend it if it were on sale.

Better than SS3

Legend

Serious Sam 4 is a solid entry in the often underappreciated Serious Sam series.

The story and writing are hilariously over-the-top, like the best kind of terrible action movie. It's completely self-aware of its schlocky nature and fully embraces it. However, the events are pretty inconsequential and could easily be skipped. Let’s be honest—you’re not playing this game for a gripping narrative.

New to the series is a perk system, where you’ll find items that grant various perks as you progress. Whether you love or hate this addition, it does add a sense of progression, but in some ways, it feels like a step back compared to previous games where the power was unlocked from the start. At its core, Serious Sam 4 delivers the same bullet-hell, run-and-gun gameplay the series is known for. You’ll be facing overwhelming mobs of varied enemies while constantly jumping and strafing to avoid a barrage of projectiles. In many ways, it’s the same Serious Sam we know and love, with a few new enemy types but not much innovation compared to past entries.There are, however, a few fun twists on the classic run-and-gun gameplay, including vehicle combat missions and side missions scattered throughout the semi-open levels.

The gun arsenal is just as varied and fun to use this time around, with some new additions like the auto-shotgun and chainsaw launcher. Unfortunately, at several points through the game, your arsenal gets taken away, and you’re forced to re-collect your weapons over the next several levels. It’s an odd design choice that doesn't add much to the experience.

On a lighter note, I played The Talos Principle before Serious Sam 4 and couldn't help but notice the reuse of many assets between the two. It’s amusing, considering how tonally different these games are. In Serious Sam, you're painting ancient environments with alien blood and guts, while in The Talos Principle, you’re peacefully solving physics puzzles and exploring metaphysical concepts in the same surroundings.

Ultimately, I’d recommend Serious Sam 4 to fans of the series. For everyone else, there are better games out there that offer a more visceral and engaging bullet-hell or boomer shooter experience.

Love this game! Hell I love all the Serious Sam games!!! Well except maybe for Serious Sam 2 lol If you love nonstop shooting and action this is the game for you! Heck the entire series is for you with the exception of Serious Sam 2 that is lol Must own and play!!! Hope they make a Serious Sam 5 next!!!

After finishing SS4 it was hard for me to decide on how I was going to review this. I am a very big Serious Sam fan loving the first three games. I might as we'll get my system specs out of the way first. Right now I am running Ubuntu 24.10, AMD 5800X3D, 128 gigs of ram and AMD RX 7900 XTX. Also running the most current version of Proton (Steam).
I really love the premises on what they were going for in this game. If it was not for these issues I would fully recommend this game. The two biggest issues that I had that took myself out of the game was when the game would random crash. There was also a weird part when I beat the game and at the end it said I died and had to do the end over again. The other issue and really took me out of the game was the textures not loading right. Almost all of the cutscenes were missing textures to load at some point. Also during gameplay certain objects would not load the textures right.
Out of Serious Sam 1-4 I would go 3,2,1 and than 4, 1-3 still hold up today as solid and fun games. To bad that there was not more deveolpment on this game to fix these bugs.

GET IT ON SALE! Game is somewhat worth then.
Otherwise, there is obviously gradual decline of the franchise. The First and Second Encounter are all time classics that made me love these series. Serious Sam 2 was also fun and had amazing graphics for its time. SS: BFE, I'd say it held up pretty good when it came out in terms of graphics and gameplay although starting pretty slow.
But SS4 unfortunately shows that Croteam can't quite keep up with the evergrowing industry. Now I know story is not that integral to these games but it felt lame to say the least. The majority of levels were kinda meh. However, the gameplay is still mostly good, the weapons are fun and some battles will keep you on your toes.
The most dissappointing thing about this game is its technical performance: you get framedrops on decent PC and that might displease a lot of people.
The only reason I give this game a thumbs up is because of the Serious Sam nostalgia and the fact that I got it very cheap. I completed it once and probably will never touch it again. Something I can't say about the older SS titles.

never played the story i always play the round based mode its fun as hell

I was a huge fan of The First and Second Encounter as a kid. To a lesser extent a fan of Serious Sam 2. Serious Sam 3 I thought was 'fine'. To me Serious Sam 4 just continues the downward trend to the point where I wonder if Croteam even still understands what made the originals fun in the first place.

If you remember TFE, it started off pretty slowly paced, only really kicking off until you got to Dunes with the rest of the game being terrific large scale battles. Similarly, SS4 starts off slowly, only the difference is after about 4-5 hours I was still waiting for that "and now the game opens up" moment. The gameplay up to that point just isn't very fun.
One problem is due to an unwillingness to be critical about the usage of modern engine tech, in this case there's often an overabundance of particles obscuring the readability of enemy telegraphing, if not their presence entirely. I have been killed loads of times by Kleers I never saw coming due to them being hidden perfectly by dust clouds.

There are also still tedious 'modern' gameplay elements like reloading weapons (just.. why) and sprinting.
Sprinting is vital to be able to properly evade enemy attacks, but you can't sprint while reloading, which you have to do in combat all the time. This is only fixed by unlocking an ability which, yeah, this game needed to follow that tedious trend of having ability upgrades for some reason. The stupid part is these abilities actually make the game more fun, they should just be part of the player's toolkit by default instead of being handed out piecemeal.

Another classic part of Serious Sam gameplay is exploring for secrets, something that SS4 also makes tedious. Lots of secrets are hidden behind platforming sequences but the movement mechanics are crappy. You slide off of things constantly making it just more frustrating than challenging. Some secrets can be obtained by firing rockets at stuff but you get so little ammo for the rocket launcher (at least up until where I played) that I elected to save it instead. In the end I just stopped bothering to try to get to secrets cause it was all getting on my nerves so much.

There's something resembling a plot with a cast of badly animated characters with cringe voicelines. Speaking of voices someone really should tell Sam's voice actor that whatever voice setup he is using has pretty bad reverb. Sam's voice sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom or something (something that has been a problem since Serious Sam 2 so I guess it's intentional by this point)

TFE/TSE and 2 had some pretty amazing soundtracks, something that's also absent in 4, it was pretty much generic metal or unmemorable 'ambient' tracks the whole time I played.

I could probably complain about more stuff but to sum it up I really really do not like Serious Sam 4, I don't know what people who call this the best in the franchise are smoking, it pales in comparison to the classic entries.

I'm neutral about this entry in the Serious Sam franchise. On one hand it adds some neat features like dual-wielding and gadgets that spice the game up a bit. However, on the other hand you have half-baked levels, battles that go on for far too long, balancing issues, and a story that's pretty lackluster. I really tried to give this game a shot but I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. If you enjoyed the previous entries then I'd say give this a shot and maybe you'll find more enjoyment in this game than I did.

The game is mostly good. If you like Serious Sam, this is more Serious Sam.

In some of the reviews, people are complaining about the game having too much walking. This is accurate. There is way too much moving from point A to B. Walking, driving, whatever.

But I still had fun. Glad I played it. I like these kind of games.

9.8 out of 10
It's cheap , It's awesome , great with graphics and feeling with the guns , DRIVE BIKE , lets you duel minigun and double barrel shotgun and many many many more that you just want to sit back and relax and enjoy killing thousands/millions of enemies. It is nearly a perfect game
only the reason its not 10/10 is just some minor issues that I personally didn't like which are the followings:
1-Sometimes subtitle bugs and show the next one in brief of a second then disappear.
2-animation team did a great job with first person animations , but the rest of animations are made cheap. not just the cinematics but by press H to go to third person , and you see how messed up they look.
3-the last battle was annoying a bit as there are so many enemies with basically no sign of health and armor packs so you might die few times, but you get lot of ammo (unlike some other game ..*cough* doom *cough*)
4-the secrets got cut to like 6 per chapter , old serious sams had like 15-20 above and you would at least get 8 of them with out trying to look but they are much much less in here and they are very hard and stupid to find now.
and last but not least 5-Kamikazi and those crazy running dudes (forgot their name) they have the worst sound , they are loud AF and you can't even tell where they are coming from because everything is just so colorful they get blended or get stuck behind a wall.
Overall , they are bearable and it was a very fun thing to play , give the game a try , I'm sure you will love it.

a ridiculous over the top explosion fest where you shoot aliens in the face with absurdly massive guns. The story? who cares? you're here for chaos, and this game delivers lol! The combat is pure madness, mowing down hordes of enemies with weapons that make no sense but feel awesome. It's cheesy and it's a ton of fun. It was super fun playing co-op mode with my friends lol, France was unforgettable!

Typical Serious Sam game, lots of guns, ammo, and enemies.
However the secrets rely on a lot of random platforming, gone are the days of destroyable walls, secret levels and other 'secrets' that weren't too hard to see.

As others have said the graphic detail popping is very noticeable, even on pretty decent rigs with high refresh rates. I got used to it pretty quickly but distracting for sure.

Also they are leaning too heavily on the 1-liners, it feels really forced in this game where others it didn't; perhaps it's just getting stale, not sure.

The battles and fights were fun although most fights were either really easy or frustratingly hard, mainly because of very inconvenient auto saves.

Hopefully they go back to the simpler roots with the next iteration.

I'd recommend on sale.

Simply awesome! The fourth part of Serious Sam helped me relive my childhood and truly capture the nostalgia of that time :) As for the game itself, it's the same brutal action-packed shooter, where Sam's character is further developed through the storyline and dialogues with a touch of 'coolness'

Unless you're a hardcore classic Sam fan, you probably wont notice the quote-unquote "issues" with this game that some people seem to have.

Being more of a casual player of the series myself, I would say this game is easily in my top 3, though maaaybe not worth the high price tag (then again, I am a pretty stingy mothertrucker)

Overall, if you like casual FPS games that'll still offer up a hot plate of challenge, pick up this game when it goes on sale :)

Pluses:
I love Serious Sam games!
Peak Sam humor
Good storyline with interesting plot twists
Gunplay is solid
Perk system is good, though not necessary
Includes guns from SS3 as well as new ones

Minuses:
Stutters and slowly loading textures; not optimized at all
NPCs are goofy, with constant crouching and strange running
NPC allies are overpowered and do a lot of killing for you
Only 2-3 level designs with different shapes
Usable animations feel outdated, like from 2005
Last boss fight is goofy and poses no real threat, with repetitive moves
Boss fights with lightning look terrible, everything appears flat
Compared to other Serious Sam games, this is a downgrade

I had high hopes for this game and am somewhat disappointed. Despite the classic humor and some good features, performance issues and repetitive design detract from the experience.
6.5/10

Its got that good ol frantic, chaotic shooter gameplay that keeps up with the Serious Sam brand, along with some modern upgrades, and some cheeky humor in a 'B grade action movie' story line that doesn't take itself too seriously.

It scratches a lot of the same itches as the newer DooM games without being a clone of it.

It can be a *bit* repetitive at times, but that's not always a bad thing.

All in all, I thoroughly love this game.

Just a fun shoot 'em up game. Highly recommend. Especially if you like cheesy macho one-liners.

You play as Sam Stone aka Serious Sam. Serious Sam 4 (SS4) is a first person shooter developed by Croteam. What makes it and the rest of the games in the series unique is the large number of enemies you face at a given time. This entry takes place after Serious Sam 1 The First Encounter (TFE) and Serious Sam 1 The Second Encounter (TSE) but before Serious Sam 3 Before the First Encounter (BFE). While this game does introduce great new features such as the skill points and weapon upgrades, the features that were marketed or at least suggested such as the horde system and open-world are non-existent.

This game can be played in single player mode or in coop mode. Unfortunately there is no split-screen support or leaderboards this time. This game also has Workshop support.

The weapons include the pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, rocket launcher and the usual series staples like the mini gun, grenade launcher, laser gun, and the incredible cannon. New additions include an auto-shotgun and a heat seeking buzzsaw gun which is so powerful that they give you barely any ammo for it. Each weapon is useful in particular situations. The weapon upgrades which I will go into detail later are a fresh addition to this entry and make the weapons more fun to use.

There are a lot of graphical artifacts, making it difficult to see enemies. The previous games had open areas with not so many distracting artifacts, including TSE with its grassy areas in the Aztec levels. Now you have a bunch of trees carts, and more. This is one step forward with SS3’s barren forgettable level design but one two steps back. Also the enemies occasionally blend in with the environment. Croteam needs to take a page from Sega where they chose a deeper blue for Sonic so that he wouldn’t blend into the level on Green Hill Zone.

You level up Sam by collecting alien artifacts. Each artifact gives you a skill point that you can use to give yourself abilities. This includes the ability to dual wield weapons, gain HP from melee attacks, reload faster, take less damage, and more. Unfortunately the variety of skills you can is low. 3 skills are an upgrade to Dual wielding, and 3 more skills are an upgrade to melee attacks. Also I played this on Serious difficulty and in my opinion there is absolutely no reason to contribute to the melee attack tree. The developers are very generous and allow you to re-allocate your skill points yourself at any point in the game by pausing.

You can also collect weapon upgrades and one-time use items by completing side missions. I will get to the side missions in a bit. Weapon upgrades include a device that lets you shoot 5 rockets at a time, a grenade launcher attachment for your shotgun, and a laser beam for your laser cannon. These are incredibly useful in certain battles and are fun to use. Items include drugs that let you run really fast, drugs that give you HP, a black hole grenade, a holodecoy, a hacked drone, and more. These items are also fun to use.

One problem is that the main way of getting these skill points, weapon upgrades, and items is to complete side-missions. The side-missions are just detours in the main level. If the goal is to get from point A to B with C being in the middle of A and B and D being a side-mission, you have to go from C to D and then D to C instead of D to B. In other words you take up a lot more time for items and weapon upgrades that you will need in the higher difficulty levels. This makes the first couple of levels very grueling. And the side-mission path can be very long especially in the French countryside levels.

Another way to get items is to discover hidden parts of the level known as secrets. Unfortunately most of them involve you doing parkour-style platforming to jump to high buildings or blocked off corners. These items are very annoying to get because the jumping is ass in this game; it makes Counter Strike 2 look like Super Mario 64. But this is a small gripe since this isn’t a platforming game.

There is a bigger story in this entry compared to the others, but it just equates to badly written dialogue and two dimensional characters. They employed the same writers of The Talos Principle but I imagine it was difficult for them to make an interesting story for a character who just spits out one-liners. They even parody this by having one of the villains give very long and philosophical speeches before you blow up his egg sack. The humor in the other entries came from the environment you were in. In TSE you find a pay telephone in the middle of ancient South America and a boxing glove and Santa Claus in the medieval times. But there are funny moments in this entry like when you run over enemies with a combine or complete a text adventure on an abandoned oil tanker.

I really liked this game and I think it is better than BFE. However it has about the same score as BFE even though it is much better than it. I have a couple of theories on why.

The first teaser for this game was Sam riding a motorcycle and killing enemies in the country side. When I first saw that, I and I suspect many others, thought that this game was going to be like Breath of the Wild. Even the removed subtitle, Planet Badass, suggests this. This was the only bit of information we got about the game for a while. But there are no open world elements in this game. You do get to ride a motorcycle in the countryside but you have to follow a set path.

The second marketed feature was the “horde system” which was the idea that you would fight an absurd amount of enemies (10,000) at a time compared to 100's like you normally do in this series with your army. This was a cheap bait and switch. You do this in the prologue of the game and on the last level in the game. But it is hollow and doesn’t require any strategy. Also most of the enemies are not even hittable. It is just a cheap trick. But I never really wanted this feature, I already have to fight 100's of enemies at a time and I think that is good enough for me.

At launch this game was buggy and many speculate that it a rushed release. But it works fine now unless you play it with the Vulkan renderer which looks terrible and runs at a noticeably lower framerate than the DX11 one.

I think the marketing team really screwed Croteam over. They tried to market small portions of the game as main features instead of a well-done sequel to Serious Sam 3. This is a great game but not the one they marketed.

I really enjoyed it. Very fast paced combat vs HUGE mobs of enemies. Gunplay is satisfying. Enemies have good design.

A Genuine Review.....

Short Story

Game-Play

Music

Characters

Graphics

Price

Not sure why the harpies are censored? I guess the devs are not taking this game seriously?

Kudos to the Serious Sam 4 team. After the real disappointing/infuriating Serious Sam 3, this one is the perfect redemption. They fixed ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING from the last game and added some flair for good measure.

I loved how the game design, solved all those issues, while going one step further.
Example 1: The reloading. The reloading was atrocious in the last game and half the time you were reloading and not shooting. So how did they solve it. Introducing the perk system which a) lets you reload way faster but mostly b) lets you dual-wield weapons. So instead of waiting for a reload, you empty the magazine on the first gun, and shoot with the second gun while reloading the first. As long as you have ammo, you are a devastating machine.

Example 2: New guns. They brought new guns and alternative fire. The old ones are there but now you have an automatic shotgun, a devastator which is the baby of sniper and a grenade launcher, and my personal favourite the death ray for the laser gun. You have no idea how satisfying it is to have a whole field wiped with a death ray.

Example 3: The enemies. The classics are here (kleer, kamikazee, reptilian and biomechanoids) but they tweeked the previous ones to a more fun challenge. You still have those teleporters and the vampires, but now they don't stun you, the blur is avoidable and has shorter duration, and they die significantlly easier. Also, they ditched the camouflage enemies, and now all the enemies are clearly visible, while looking realistic.

The extra flair: Jonas & Verena Kyratzes (from the Talos Principle) write the dialogues and they do a goddamn good job in it. They brought all the satire and the ridiculousness from the previous games, but actually turned it better. The characters are fun and memorable and there are times that you will feel a gut punch - which I did not expect in a silly game as a Serious Sam game. I won't spoil anything, but the "I lost my shoe" line was pure excellence. It shows that if you have a talented writer, even a game like Serious Sam can benefit from it.

So yeah. I'm absolutely 100% in on this. If you like some good old over the top action with some nice writing, Serious Sam is one of the best choices out there