Serious Sam 4

On one hand, I managed to have quite a bit of fun with the same explosive dose of brainless, uncompromising action that the franchise has been delivering for decades. On the other, it’s hard to deny that this feels like an extremely amateur production.

I enjoyed running around and bunny-hopping while massacring hordes of enemies with my gigantic arsenal, conveniently stashed in the pockets of my jeans, but this feels like a mod created by some folks with a bit more money and not much else.

And by today’s standards, I’d say it’s not at all difficult to find a mod far superior to this.

It’s almost unbelievable. You can’t even use the excuse that they were trying something different.

Terrible graphics that wouldn’t hold up against games from the start of the seventh gen (I wouldn't be at all surprised if the assets are recycled from the Talos Principle); Hordes that aren’t even comparable in size and complexity to those in previous entries of the franchise; Appalling performance; Long loading times; Flat lighting and terrible shadows; Horrendous animations and effects; Frequent interruptions to deliver a completely pointless narrative with zero charismatic characters and cheap production values that make every cutscene feel as robotic and clunky as a PS1 game; Level design FAR worse than expected, featuring a huge amount of purposeless empty space and unnecessarily large arenas without proportional enemy waves (Somehow, they managed to make exploration even worse than in Serious Sam 3); Poorly planned fights (No pacing or structure and multiple random difficulty spikes); A complete inability to produce humor that doesn’t feel delivered with the finesse of a bone saw.

Overall, there’s a lack of polish on what is good and a clear absence of any improvement (with some aspects actually getting worse, even when they weren’t never noteworthy to begin with).

Locking lackluster (but almost essential) rewards behind awful side quests, which only serve to artificially inflate the length of each mission (Which are already unnecessarily long), was a great idea.

I loved getting a new weapon only to find virtually no ammo for it for several missions afterward.

I absolutely loved going out of my way to explore gigantic empty spaces (which I obviously only discovered was empty after wasting my time), finding a mere generic armor item, being ambushed, having to waste an absurd amount of ammo to deal with the enemies, then waste a minute or two running to the part of the map I was initially in (The game is full of these godawful detours).

Perhaps something went very wrong behind the scenes during this game’s development, but this comes dangerously close to being a bad joke.

They couldn’t even implement a decent dynamic music system!

During the levels, you’ll repeatedly hear the same first 20 seconds of a track every time an enemy shows up, until you manage to find a slightly bigger fight where the music can actually progress. Or worse, you’ll enter a monstrously huge arena designed for a pathetic fight with just a few enemies, forced to endure several minutes of epic symphonic metal blasting in your ears while you kill one or two enemies at a time.

It’s so archaic that the last time I saw something like this was probably when I played… well, Serious Sam 3. And even back then, it felt outdated.

Serious Sam 4 is by far the worst game in the franchise, and there’s no good reason for you play it over the previous entries. At least with the older games, you have a excuse to engage with this generic yet satisfying formula of a parody that stopped making sense a long time ago. They’re old and outdated, but solid.

SS4 has no excuse. It’s just bad to mediocre (In a franchise that never had high standards). Partially enjoyable under the right conditions, mainly because it’s incredibly hard to mess up such a stupidly basic premise—already outdone in execution and concept by nearly every other horde shooter. But they almost managed to.

If you’re going to buy it, make sure to get it at a very steep discount.

awesomely fun and wickedly satisfying. Lives up to the originals

I don't care how shitty the animations are, enemy spam has never been this fun.

Действительно хорошая штука, когда нужно выпустить пар! Кровь, монстры, супербыстрый режим убийства монстров! Действительно хорошая игра

I have always loved everything about this series and this one is no exception. Seriously.

[h3]There are bugs, but the game plays well.

If you love Serious Sam series kind of "quirky arena/wave based FPS/Boomer Shooter w a tiny amount of intercharacter dialogue or "story" added besides monologue w Netty... this will NOT disappoint! New age SS feels right where it should be.

I enjoyed this. Not quite as good as the previous games, but worthy of the title. Some of the comedy moments were classic.

If it's your first time playing through, don't try to conserve ammo or abilities. I thought the difficulty was a bit off. I played on mostly on normal, and found 80% of the action was a bit too easy, but suddenly you'd be swarmed with dozens of enemies and it was as if the difficulty had gone up a notch. This was especially true of the end battle.

Run, gun, kill, die.

So so fun :)

I got this game on 80% sale, which imo was worth it, otherwise I don't think it's worth it. Obviously not as good as other Serious Sam games, especially not SS:FE and SS:SE, those 2 are just masterpieces. I'd even argue it's the weakest Serious Sam game, even weaker than SS3, because there's just so many flaws with it compared to the rest, like having to rely on other characters throughout the whole game, while in other Serious Sam games you're all on your own the whole time. Lots of cringe encounters as well, which doesn't fit Serious Sam theme at all.

Missions were fine, but a couple of them (very open ones) were very disappointing, purely because you had nothing to do in such an open areas, the lack of enemies is the main issue and things to do. I do respect them implementing unique stuff in this Serious Sam though, like use of Gadgets and Skill tree, which is a cool thing and I personally don't mind it, although I've heard people not liking that as well.

But yea, I don't recommend buying this game in it's full price, just wait for another sale before you buy it, because lack of Content (unless you're playing with mods) and weak polish of the game will leave you disappointed compared to other great Serious Sam games in the franchise. If I were to rate it, I'd give it 6 out of 10, definitely the weakest Serious Sam game in my POV, but I'd still recommend playing it if you get it on sale, because this game isn't worthy of 40 euro price tag, at max 20.

That's about it. Thanks for reading!

I love this game's theme. It reminds me when i was in elementry school and pretending i was fighting wierd creatures i made with my friends lol. Story kinda ass though ngl, kinda a waste of potential buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut... The gameplay is super solid and awesome!!! :)

Super epic horde killing. Auto shotgun is a great weapon for giant crab boss in Coliseum arena. La Nonna gives you a minigun when you're on your way to the Vatican Library which makes horde killing so much more fun, I really wish they gave us that gun sooner in the game.

Overall great game <3

It's made in the spirit of original Serious Sam 1 and is a ton better than garbage like Sam 2 and 3, highly recommend, it is very fun.

Its Serious Sam. you know what your getting.

A wide and wonderful array of monsters to shoot, stab, blow up and even Combine harvester them.

Old school blastery at its finest

As a longtime fan of the Serious Sam franchise I was disappointed with this one. The game runs poorly and lacks optimization (even though it doesn't even look that good, a little better than BFE (2011) at best).
The animations look unfinished and unpolished, especially in the cutscenes (where they look really bad, sometimes even like something from back when Serious Sam 2 was released).
The gunplay is actually pretty good! Still, pretty much the same as BFE, but the first-person animations do look pretty decent, and most guns are satisfying to use. Although the newly implemented gadgets you're probably going to save and not even use for the entirety of the game since there isn't really a point to it most of the time.
The music is, as in all Serious Sam games, really good! ..except that sometimes it doesn't even fit into the fights anymore and is too "epic" for its own good. Sometimes you'd hear electric guitar with the choir playing as you fight 2 weaker enemies in some small alley. The soundtrack itself is mostly great, though.
Map design was either way too big for the amount of things you had to fight, or too small. The LeGiOn SyStEm wasn't an actual legion of monsters , and turned out to be mostly a bunch of sprites , a real letdown with how much it was advertised :/
The character designs and most monster designs look pretty bad; I much preferred the direction Croteam took in BFE, even with some experimental realism that Croteam was doing back then. The witch-bride is much more fun to fight than she was in BFE, and there was much less unavoidable (hitscan) damage you take, which is a plus.
The story is pretty bad too. Which isn't that big of a deal. Serious Sam was mostly the game based around the gunplay, but unlike Serious Sam 2, it takes itself more seriously and makes a larger accent on the progression of the story, and it really wasn't an enjoyable experience for me.
And lastly, the NPCs and forced, unfunny humor they were going for were just the nail in the coffin for this game. It all felt really forced and made me wish they never had added any character interaction in the first place. (Except for Charlie, love Charlie<3)
The humor of this game is really corny as well and makes you cringe pretty hard in combination with the blank expressions of those characters and how uncanny their movements look.
I cannot recommend this to anyone, unfortunately.

The game is not bad
I was so excited when they uploaded the trailer of SS4 after 9 years of SS3 release, the only thing i enjoyed so much is the gameplay and to be honest the game has some glitches at least they fixed some of them when they updated some stuff

Pretty fun. Worth $20; $40 is steep. Runs well on PC.

Me got jumped by the whole army for having a slightly disagreement on their opinion.

But good game, I love being jumped

I have come to accept that "boomer shooters" are not my thing, and it took playing this buggy mess of a game to make me realize it. I can't help but get nauseous moving around.

At least DOOM had some kind of story... I also realize this is fiction, but the characters and enemies were so outlandish here that it went beyond being cartoonish.

4.5/5
The funniest and the most fun Serious Sam game ever.

Short version: Get it.

Long version:

Ever played Serious Sam?

If you say yes, get it.

If you say no, get it. This game is a prequel to Serious Sam 3 and 1, 2 is the sequel to 1. You arent missing out.

You play games like Doom and Quake? Get it.

You play games like Painkiller? Get it.

Any games similar to those above that involves slaughtering alot of enemies? Get it.

If you want a game where you want to fight bunch of enemies, this game is perfect for you. Its definitely worth picking up.

Always good fun no matter how often played

S. Sam 4 is a fun game worth buying, I wish though they looked more on their older games the first and second speically:P

Classic run and gun game. No Woke A$$ BS here!

I always loved the minigun in the serious sam games...and SS4 does not disappoint...it turns my enemies into chunky salsa without any waiting...and then, with just a few skill points...I found out I could dual wield them.

Play this game and turn people into mince as well

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