Serious Sam 4

Each successive game is getting worse. This time, the developers tried to do something new—specifically, open-world levels. I really liked the concept, but the game does not capitalize on it. The concept is underdeveloped and diluted by a factor of 10 to 1 in favor of the old, outdated gameplay. Basically, Sam was surpassed by Doom, and the developers are too afraid to do something new on a big scale. I also rage quit on a boss in the castle. No other game in the series is that difficult. And this isn't just fair, Dark Souls–like difficulty—it’s almost intentionally infuriating, reminiscent of "I Wanna Be the Guy" difficulty. I'm just too tired. I've already beaten a couple of hard bosses/locations (mine was insane), so I know I can do this. But you're telling me that I need to either restart the level to stock up on armor because the developers forgot to place a restock before the boss, or restart several levels to get the chainsaw I missed, which would annihilate the boss? No, thank you. That's too much effort for a brainless shooter.

Run and Gun, Have Fun

Serious Sam 4 takes the series in a new direction. This time around its a prequel that takes place before the older games. A 4-player coop mode is designed to allow friends to work as team to take on enemy forces. Of course the game is also single player.

The graphics in Serious Sam 4 are modern and more designed around modern consoles. The MSI Katana with RTX 3070 can handle this game fine. The game is barely playable in a GTX 1050 Ti.

If you like the Serious Sam franchise, this one will not let you down.
The fights are intense and fun
The story is actually good
The jokes are funny
The graphics are actually good
I can only recommend it! :)

I almost didn't bother with this game because I wasn't keen on the direction that Croteam took the series, but I picked it up during a sale because I was on a Serious Sam kick and figured that it couldn't hurt to have more Sam, and I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much I enjoyed it.

It feels a bit different from the earlier games in the series, but the heart is there, and I feel like Croteam put a lot of effort into learning from missteps in Serious Sam 3 to blend elements from every game in the series in a mostly successful attempt to make a perfect balance of all of them (even the VR games, I suspect, as one of the skills that you can unlock allows you to dual-wield different weapons at the same time).

The combat feels as excellent as ever, with many weapons that feel great to use and stay useful through the whole game (yes, even the single shotgun). In fact, the moment when I knew that I was going to enjoy the game was when I fired the shotgun for the first time and noticed how great it felt to use, and reassured when the next weapon was one of the punchiest double-barrel shotguns I've ever used in a game. It just kept getting better from there, with the addition of powerful weapon attachments that finally turn the status quo from being driven back by hordes to being able to push through them, and unlockable abilities that don't always hit the mark but are fantastic when they do (if you're not convinced by anything else, I implore you to take the dual-wielding skills and see how it feels to fire two shotguns or double shotguns at once).

As an improvement to Serious Sam 3, there's far less reloading (not eliminated entirely, but only a couple of weapons reload and they hold much more ammo than before, especially when dual-wielding), weapons are much more accurate without needing to aim down sights (even if not 100% accurate like in the first game), the melee system actually has a use, now (even if it's still kind of copied from the new Doom games), and you can actually see while fighting kamikazes, now, as they don't kick up enormous dust clouds. The game is much more colourful and less boring to look at overall, and there are far fewer hitscan-based enemies, so it feels much more fair to play.

To touch on the story, I was surprisingly okay with it, even if I don't necessarily agree with it being right for Serious Sam. Yeah, it's as dumb and cliché as people say, but that kind of felt like the point; like one of those unexpectedly poignant B-movies, it's all about fighting off nihilism through the hope that comes from what humanity does best, which is the sheer primal joy of dumb violence, dumb humour, and dumb clichés. It's stupid as hell, but it's fun, and a surprisingly wholesome and much-needed positive message right now. It all made sense when I found out that it's by the same writers as The Talos Principle. Unfortunately, in typical Croteam fashion, the story has issues with keeping a consistent tone, but I still enjoyed it for what it was.

Yes, the game isn't perfect and it earned some criticism - I don't think that it looks as bad as people say, but some of the environments could have stood to be less repetitive. I am very happy that it's all much more colourful than Serious Sam 3, but a few of the levels, while fun, are meant to be "ruins" but amount to a mess of plain brick walls strewn about almost randomly on grass fields. There are many times when it feels like the map designers just forgot to close off parts of the map and you can wander off to the end of the Earth because it isn't clear whether an opening is a secret or a place where you can just walk out of bounds into an unnecessarily huge map - every other game in the series had a way to prevent you from doing that (TFE/TSE had you die of heat stroke/hypothermia if you wandered out too far, SS2 had generally naturally enclosed environments, and SS3 had the Sand Whale), so I'm confused about how this happened.

Overall, the game is a combination of fantastic gameplay elements held back a bit by some questionable level/visual design and an admittedly divisive story, but not enough to stop me from loving the gameplay the entire time. If you can look past those, there is a lot more to love about this game than many series fans would care to admit, and I would personally highly recommend it.

I don't even know where to start.

{Gameplay:}
Like every game i started this one on hard.
Why? I like to challenge myself and see what the game has to offer.
You also experince how good the game is, because you'll notice every Game error.

And thats where this game fails so miserably.

-The Enemys do NOT synagize at all with each other.
As an example:
“Sending in 100 bombers let the player kill 50 of them and then the rest gets eliminated by an other enemys is just boring and not really thought thru.“

-Over all sending in 100+ Enemys of the same type is really braindead Gameplay.
Me standing in a corner pressing left click and then sometimes R is not really good Gameplay at all.

"But not only the pure enemy dumping is bad."

-The bigger Enemy types are just not thought thru aswell and painfull to play against.
As an Example:
Having a Tank which does a lot of melee damage makes sence, giving him Fireballs which deal 50dmg and work like a sniper shot does not.

There are of course Enemys which i liked but the Gameplay again got dragged into the mud by other Enemys or just pure dumping them in.

-The Excuse of the Developer is to use your Gadgets.
And I give them a few credits, but in my opinion the gadgets are too strong and it's not really fun to use them.
Also, you have to find these gadgets first, which is made more difficult by the fact that the game only allows 10 gadgets of the same type.
I don't think you should only win battles with these gadgets because it's not guaranteed that you'll actually have them.

-The Bossfights are also not thought thru
Some of the bosses are just dead meat and don‘t even try to hurt you.
Other once like the Mech Bossfight is just pure trash.
The way to fight them is really anticlimactic.

-Levels are giant, which really just kills the Gameloop and the time to load a single level.
Just cutting the level at some point really only would be a positiv point.

--Rating: 1/10
The whole gameplay is questionable, I had fun at first, but the more I played, the worse it got

{Graphics:}
-The Style of the whole Game is trashy on purpose.
Thats fine but still gives me an uncanny feeling, like AI did everything.

-There is no real character design or facial expressions.

-The games cutsence resolution is really bad.
Every time the camera angle changes, the textures need to load again for like 1-2 seconds.
(RTX 3070 TI not a "ME" Problem)
--Rating: 5/10


{Story:}
Trashy on purpose, but i still liked it.

--Rating: 9/10

{Stability:}
-Game runs like a bucket of beans at times.
As i already said this has to do with the giant level design.

-The game also crashes at random times, very unfortunate when it crashes in a cutscene after a boss fight.
-Autosaves are a joke, if you run to far ahead it could be that you trigger a autosave while you are dying.

-Hitboxes are wild (very inconsitent)

--Rating: 2/10


{Price:}
-Game comes from 2020, if it was older i could maybe excuse some problem but for 2020 thats just sad.
-40 Bucks for a 5 Year old Game with a caliber like that is wild.
Doom 2016 cost 20 and does everything this Game does but 10x better.

--Rating: 0/10

{End:}
Do i recommend this Game?
No, sadly i really started to hate it.
---Rating: 3/10

Serious Sam 4 has been overall enjoyable. There are some gorgeous levels, the gun play feels very satisfying, and the gameplay has the classic Serious Sam moments with an overwhelming amount of enemies. As a fan of the series, it was very enjoyable. There's been noticeable performance issues that held the game back, and certain moments throughout the game felt less like a challenge to overcome, but bad design choices that were just unfun to trudge through. The story is also a mixed bag, feeling like a corny 90s-2000s action movie. The dialouge can just be annoying and the story can feel like something you just have to deal with to get to the good parts, which should never be the case. I'm curious to see how else Croteam could present a Serious Sam story.

can be fun but doesn't feel like a serious sam game

Love the game, too bad the mission i'm on spammed me with so many enemies i don't want to play it any more.

the game doesn't save. TF is the point in playing? I'm very happy I got this for next to nothing because that's absolutely unacceptable.

Крутая игрулька, как и сюжет, вот бы только ещё потом выпустили продолжение после tse

If you know serious sam, this game checks all the right boxes (in my opinion). Yes, it could be more optimized and feature rich, but it feels so good that I feel like it redeems itself. Feels like the original SS1, but more challenging in areas.

Also an underrated part of the game is the characters and story. It genuinely has character, and I feel like it went unnoticed.

If Croteam reads this, they should come back and do a reboot. Keep it close to this, but optimize the shit out of it, pack it with features, fix up survival mode. It would be 10/10

Otherwise I really enjoy this game. Classic shooter gameplay. Rewards weapon choice. Pretty epic battles and good bosses.

I personally am a huge fan of Doom's reboots so I know where people's hearts are at when they say it could have done better, but you have to judge it by it's own series' standards, and by those it does excellent. I only wish it had the optimization and elegance of SS: TFE HD, but its good for what it is and I find both worth playing!

Must have for the fans of Serious Sams series. Good gameplay and story.

Had to launch the game files from installed location to even launch the game. Its still not very much polished and devs needs to fix some of the issues. But no updates rolled out after 2021.

Serious Sam 4 is a masterpiece of chaos. No pretentious storytelling, no unnecessary mechanics, just you, an arsenal of absurdly powerful weapons, and thousands of things to kill. The action never stops, the enemy count is insane, and every battle feels like a war against the impossible.

The soundtrack is a relentless force, pushing you forward as explosions, screams, and gunfire fill the screen. The environments are massive, beautifully crafted, and exist purely to be turned into battlefields. Sam himself is as sharp as ever, delivering deadpan one-liners between mowing down hordes of monstrosities.

The weapons are brutal, the enemies are relentless, and the sheer scale of the battles is unmatched. This is old-school FPS at its peak,fast, challenging, and ridiculously fun.

10/10 – The king of chaos returns.

Serious gameplay, would recommend.

its good but the skill tree is really stupid or poorly executed i feel

It's a Serious Sam game :) if you've played one and like it you will enjoy this. A few bugs but nothing game breaking. A good time to remember the old style of FPS games. Constant movement, a ton of weapons, and unending enemies.

Lots of cool new features, but feels VERY rough, unpolished, cheap. Looks somehow worse than BFE.

Just a fun shoot everything game.

If you always enjoyed or Loved the Serious Sam Games than this one Sure Delivers really Great Game definite recommend

This game is so f****** boring. It's just about straight going 2000m between the goals and killing similar monsters. So you should be going by your legs for 6000 m per chapter. Monsters are monotonous, the game "treat" you with just one new monster per 3 chapters. There are 15 chapters in the game, so there is three types of monsters in first chapter and then they will just match. The main disguise in this game is the "beat all monsters, then pass to the next stage of chapter". So you need to kill 200+ similar monsters for 10+ minutes in every chapter and then you can pass. There is no fun, because you can't get enough ammo for fun guns and get the game of just shooting with default desert eagles. No interesting perks, just classic two guns two hands shit. The plot for me ended in place, where the game told me to go with bike for 9000 m to the next place through open field. It's just so boring and you can't get fun out this game.

this is game is just fun, its the most fun ive had on any game in a long time. the team have done a great job and there is nothing to complain about

It took about 10 minutes to realize the game 1 shouldn't be in third person and 2 is janky as hell.

Expected a romp but it felt like a bad arcade game.

Any last words?
Fuck you

-Father Mikhail to Brand

love it gameplay wise, but the optimatization is crap, and graphics settings are very vague

hehe i just Joking :steamthumbsup:

optimisation is bad and looks dated even tho 2020

Funny game +++

Yeah, for no reason the game lost my savegame. Furthermore this game loads like forever. Much heavier titles load 10x faster than this one. But not keeping savegames is the killer for me.
Could have been fun, but his is just nonsesne

I love this game very much for the story and challenge

I LOVE THIS GAME

I really love croteam since i was a little kid because i started my pc gaming career with Serious Sam.
Serious Sam 1 is still one the best arena shooters of all time but i dont know why Croteam is not focusing on making it better just like the first one. everyone knows that SS2 wasnt good as SS1 and neither SS3.
and now after finishing 4th one again i can say it was a mid game while Talos Principle 1 and even 2 are fantastic!
its not just about weakness of Serious Engine.. its about lack of Creativity.
First of all i dont know why game has turned into a joke? i mean Sam has been always funny but i think this is a little bit too much and there is no balance between being Serious and Funny!
Second problem: why there is no sense of mystery in this series anymore? cause i remember Serious Sam 1 beginning was scary as hell
Third problem: why characters are so sublime and ridiculous? their behavior and how they have been animated is not good at all
Please Croteam... give more attention to Serious Sam series when you care about Talos that much.
and last words..... Actually i liked Siberian Mayhem and i think Timelock studio has done a better job with this series after Serious Sam 3

Thank you Croteam ⠀
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀:¨ ·.· ¨:
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ `· . ꔫ

This was a fun game that doesn't take itself too seriously. When Doom and Quake first came out, there was another game that was similar to them called Duke Nukem that tried the same formula with a little bit of humour thrown in and some ridiculous weapons. Serious Sam is more like Duke Nukem than a modern day Doom. It is the kind of game you have on hand for when your mates come over and you just want to randomly shoot a bunch of demons without putting much thought into the zone layout or mission. It also runs very smoothly and has some great sound effects. The story was what you would expect from a game like this but I did appreciate the humour throughout. Like a good fighting game or racing car game, this game provides a nice break from the longer, story based games you might have in your collection.

good game

Awful
* Game looks pretty bad, stutters, textures load very late no matter the settings
* Objective marker is a half-assed way around awful level design that has big, linear and empty maps
* Motorcycle section is useless and brings absolutely nothing to the experience

Apart from the gunplay which is pretty good, this is, by far, the worst entry in the series.

Old wine in a brand new bottle !

This game is great. Just pure ol' fun Serious Sam carnage.

This One's one-liners go extra deep. Don't lose your shoes while playing the game.

It's just what you expect from a Serious Sam-Game.
Hordes of monsters, weapons and a bit of story to justify the massacre.

Seriously....entertaining & magnificent.

I mean its serious sam alright

Excellent. in the spirit of SS1 and SS2, unlike SS3....

The game's pretty bad but the mods are great.

This game is good i do not get why people dislike it, it's not the best but it is good

Great modern version of an old game. Top graphics and game-play. Highly recommend but not for the faint hearted. Good hardcore shoot'em up!

Now I know where the AtomicHeart themes came from...

Despite the fact that the game is revealed only in the second half (after the Vatican boss), and I can recommend completing the second half - you won't lose a thing if refuse.

And, where's the flashlight? (oh, of course! they even disabled the dynamic shadows that are in SS3)
But Croteam added a small location in the dimness (Castle part), which turned out to be quite atmospheric..

Gameplay:
combat mechanics [improved after SS3, but it's been 9 yrs] 7/10
combat logic: RETRO
atmosphere (second half only) 5/10

Lore and setting [large-scale is back, but no more seriousness] 5/10

Plot and characters/semiotics [spoiled SJW France] 3/10

Graphics 6/10

Sound work [crooked, but informative] 8/10
(somehow XAUDIO2 2.7 LINE2 sounds better then OpenAL to me)
Sound design & music [good footsteps, lack of details] 7/10

.
Find any saves with an unlocked France mission, if you want some old Sam.

"6/10"

Honestly I dont get the hate for this game, it heavily went far above my expectations. Its far better than Serious Sam 3. There are levels that are a bit questionably put together with vehicle sections in giant empty maps here and there but other than that this game is very solid experience level to level, with interesting side mission content sprinkled in between. It also has a suprisingly decent story with some good characters. IT ALSO HAS ONE OF THE MOST STYLISH COOLEST ENDINGS TO A GAME I HAVE EVER SEEN. Even if.... I dont think it was exectued very well. The game does feel like dogshit in places, very unoptimized questionably put together with different levels of tape and glue but over all it slides above enough for me to recommend it and say I was genuinely impressed. Is it old Serious Sam returned? No. Is it better that Serious Sam 3? yes.

8.6/10 - Suprisingly better than I expected by far, with the dare to try new things which some land well and other land terribly. (its also put together with sticks of glue and tape but it works right?)

Serious Sam 4 is a fantastic addition to the legendary series, delivering the classic, over-the-top action fans love while injecting modern enhancements that make it feel fresh and exciting. Croteam has once again nailed the formula of fast-paced combat, massive hordes of enemies, and that signature Serious Sam humor.

What Makes It Great?
Massive Scale Battles:
The Legion System is a game-changer, allowing you to fight thousands of enemies at once. It's pure adrenaline-pumping chaos that feels epic and satisfying.
Classic Gameplay with Modern Polish:
The gameplay retains the old-school charm—fast movement, explosive weapons, and relentless enemies—while benefiting from modern visuals and smooth mechanics.
Diverse Arsenal:
From the iconic double-barrel shotgun to futuristic laser weapons, every gun feels powerful and fun to use. Weapon customization adds a nice layer of strategy.
Beautiful Environments:
The locations are stunning, from sprawling countryside to ancient ruins, providing a perfect backdrop for the carnage.
Co-op Mode:
Playing with friends in co-op mode elevates the experience. It's chaotic, hilarious, and exactly what you want in a Serious Sam game.
Hilarious Dialogue:
Sam's witty one-liners and absurd scenarios keep the tone light and entertaining throughout the intense action.
Why It's Worth Playing
Serious Sam 4 doesn't try to reinvent the wheel—it embraces its roots while adding just enough innovation to appeal to both longtime fans and newcomers. It's a love letter to old-school shooters but with modern technology that enhances the spectacle.

Whether you're a die-hard fan of the series or someone looking for a chaotic, fun FPS experience, Serious Sam 4 delivers in spades. Highly recommended for anyone who craves non-stop action and unforgettable battles.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Serious Sam 4 is an absolute blast and a must-play for FPS fans. Grab it now and get ready for a wild ride!

Recommended, but with the caveat that you're a big fan of the series and it's on sale, because this thing is ROUGH.

Cool new things: the gunplay is maybe the best it's ever been. I'm glad to see secondary fire options like the multirockets and death ray, the ability to dual wield anything you want (double miniguns will never get old). Gadgets were also a nice addition. The ability to ride werebulls and khnum. Enemies also have weakpoints for critical damage. The carnage probably hasn't been this good before.

Downsides: the level design is abysmal. Huge sprawling areas of nothingness, heaps of wasted time running to places just in case there's a secret of some kind. The environments look identical throughout, and it gets really old, really fast. What happened to the creativity seen in SS2 and Next Encounter? Even SS3, which was only set in Egpyt, managed to feel more environmentally diverse, and somehow the graphics look newer in that game too. I also felt the encounters were paced very weirdly, leaving stretches of time where you see nothing happening or just pockets of very few enemies.

Overall i came out feeling like i had a good time, but very meh at the same time. I don't think i'd replay it, but i hear Siberian Mayhem makes up for a lot of SS$'s shortcomings.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☑ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

The game felt without a direction, the difficulty was all over the place, sometimes medium was medium, sometimes it was legit too easy, and sometimes it was too difficult.

The bosses weren't very inspiring, and the game overall just felt soulless. I guess for less than 10 EUR, the game is alright, but I wouldn't buy it again.