A good, modern take on Serious Sam. I think this is what they wanted Serious Sam 3 to be, but it doesn't matter cause we have this now. :D

- Serious dialogue? Check
- Serious guns? Check
- Serious soundtrack? Check
- Serious monsters? Check
- Serious setpieces? Check

Absolutely hate it

When I first started playing this I thought I wasn't going to like it. But I was wrong - this is a really good entry in serious sam and a fun FPS. I really disliked serious sam 2 & 3 - but 4 is nothing like them and fun in it's own way.

The first few levels are slow, large and empty. You'll encounter annoying enemy types and you won't have all your guns yet. But as the game progresses you'll get more fun guns and the maps will be filled with enemies. The only downside is the maps get bigger as well and you'll find you're running through massive empty arenas to get to the next section. For the annoying enemies you'll eventually get weapons to deal with them more easily.

There's a cast of characters that feel more like in jokes. At first they annoyed me but I grew to ignore them. They sometimes help in levels and you don't need to babysit them, they're "just there". There's also a story but it's really just there to move from stage to stage. Throughout the campaign there will be various boss fights, each with unique mechanics. Sadly there are also vehicle sections - they're not fun at all. They're especially annoying because you can't heal. You might even have to reload a earlier save point because the auto save decided to save when you have 5% health in one of these vehicle sections.

As is tradition with serious sam there are lots of funny hidden secrets to find. This game also features side quests that you can do which offer power ups or permanent gun upgrades, so they're worth doing if you find them. Knowing where you can go is a problem, lots of invisible walls and items you can see but can't get. It's never clear what you can and can't jump on. This isn't helped by the fact some stages are massive.

The new guns in this game are the auto shotgun (self explanatory) and the devastator, which is a sniper rifle that shoots large explosive shells. Returning weapons get upgrades, for example the shotgun gets a grenade launcher attachment.

There's a skill point system in this game. You'll find purple orbs that give you skill points to unlock silly abilities such as dual wielding or being able to melee larger enemies. The melee system for serious sam 3 returns. It's still as clunky as it was in that game but the animations are a bit faster.

Power ups are collectables that you can use on demand. This is a nice change from the usual power up system where you usually end up getting double damage after an encounter and can't use it.

I had the most fun playing on easy difficulty. Normal wasn't very fun, enemies can shot 2 you which in a game with hundreds on enemies on screen is not fun.

One of the problems with serious sam 3 was when they improved the graphics they made it really hard to see enemies. Serious sam 4 does not have that problem. The enemies stand out vs the background. There are also no hit scan enemies which is great. I did find textures are very slow to load. During cutscenes there's constant texture pop in. In the later levels even the geometry can take a while to load where you'll actively see the terrain mould itself.

Male enrichment

This game looks like garbage even on the top video settings. Level design is so bland it's like the low rent DOOM.... In no way is this game worth $40.

game so funny