Sam is back as humanity is under siege as the full force of Mental’s hordes spread across the world, ravaging what remains of a broken and beaten civilization. Serious Sam and his Earth Defence Force squad are the last remaining resistance against the invading forces.

The Serious Sam games are balls to the walls non-stop crazy first-person shooter series akin to the latest DOOM games. You’re dropped in the middle of a level and all you need to do is reach specific checkpoints while killing everything coming barring down your way… and there’s a lot of them.

As with any shooters, you’re given a decent variety of weapons from a simple knife to a freaking cannonball. Never mind how Sam carries that use canon; it’s not the most flexible weapon but it can do a decent amount of damage to enemies. Some weapons like the mini-gun will just fire forever until you empty it; where others such as shotguns will need to be reloaded. Levels are also peppered with ammo, health and shield.

Thankfully, there’s a bit of gameplay variety to change the pace of the monotonous, albeit fun, shooting. You’ll be able to destroy puny enemies inside a giant mech, ride around on a motorcycle or drive a harvester vehicle and shred fouls coming your way. Also level will have optional missions that will net you extra bonuses. Picking up hidden purple orbs will also give Sam usable skill points to unlock new skills such as having dead enemies drop ammo/health, dual wield weapons, etc…

Unfortunately, not all is perfect in Sam’s chaotic world. The first one is the weapon wheel. Instead of having a simple wheel where you can select your chosen gun with a simple click or pressing Y to switch weapons like so many other shooters, there’s a more complex wheel. While you can easily select certain weapons, if you want to select a different variant in the 2 level wheel, you need to move the selector with the right stick and then press the RT which makes this more cumbersome than it should. And the other being that the drags on for way too long. Given its repetitive nature, they could’ve easily cut 2 hours of the game and it would’ve been perfect.

The game looks great as a whole; each level is uniquely designed visually speaking and it’s a surprisingly colorful game given its darker, let’s kill everything premise. And thanks to now current-gen gaming technologies, some of the levels have an inane amount of enemies on screen; borderline insurmountable. The voiceovers are perfect; while they do sound a bit like B-movie actors, the delivery is on point and the humor is solid. Soundtrack is near DOOM-like metal score that will get your blood pumping and bullets firing.

Serious Sam 4 is balls to the walls mindless shooting fun. There’s a lot of enemy variety to shred through from start to finish. And there’s a lot of guns to play with through the romp, and yes there’s some gameplay variety as using the giant mech is fun. Unfortunately, the game drags on for too long and and can’t image trying to get through some levels on the harder difficulty settings. If you love shooters I definitely recommend this game; but in short bursts to avoid burnout.

Overall
  • 75%
    CX Score - 75%
75%

Summary

Pros

  • Great humor
  • Addictive gameplay
  • Lots of weapons at your disposal

Cons

  • Overstays its welcome for about 2 hours
  • Might feel overwhelming on harder difficulties
  • Boring driving sequences

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