Serious Sam 4

Mmh, we seriously need a sideway thumb for this, as Serious Sam 4 is fine and I can find myself enjoying some of its mechanics, but I'd much rather recommend you the other Games as of now. After years of the same dance in the Game Industry, I can finally put into words why I'm having a hard time clicking with it; we keep straying further and further away from Simplicity, such as constantly adding Parry Systems, Skill Trees, Bloat Collectibles, & realistic body motions, which slows down the pacing, when beforehand, the action usually went as fast as YOUR speed. Croteam also detered away from the Series' Simplicity that made it so great, but they had nailed it with [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/Neon_Henchman/recommended/41070/]Serious Sam 3: BFE[/url] as it still succeeds in keeping it simple, giving a lot of the Weapons their own Tech but you don't really need to interact with all of the mechanics, it always holds the potential of you going at a reckless speed, it's currently my Favorite FPS for these reasons. SS3 still has some faults, so I had hoped SS4 would be a continuation of its philosophy, and it kinda is, but also not really. First bad decision is the damn Skill Tree, there, Modern Gaming creeped its way in. Each of the 17 Upgrades need 1 S.A.M., but there are only 10 of them and very seldom Items found in the environment, there is no EXP in this. All Upgrades are optional and you can freely reallocate S.A.M.s, but the biggest flaw is they're not just simple conveniences like Stat Upgrades & Enemy Drops, several bar you from critical Game Mechanics. Notably, the Dual-Wielding they've advertised so much is only useful after finding a handful of S.A.M.s, but more insultingly is the feats SS3 Sam could pull from the start have been nerfed; SS4 Base Sam cannot Melee Finish stunned Scrapjacks, not even Kleers, this is ludicrous as Melee Finishers weren't even that good to begin with, they were situational at best as you weren't invincible, but still filled a need as a quick or last-second move when a few Enemies creep up on you. Thematically, this is terrible as Sam only became weaker in the previous Games as a result of losing his Weapons, but here basic features are barred behind these Upgrades. The Skill Tree in itself is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥; 1 of 2 First Upgrades Gives you Health when you Melee Finish Enemies, I already explained they weren't that great before, but now Time slows around you when you're doing it and the Moves heal so little that they could only be useful by spamming it, which would slow things down. Next are the Temporary Melee Weapons, as is it would've been great to have something similar to the SS3 Sledgehammer (Default is now Knife), plus there's no way they're [b]that[/b] useful for larger crowds, it just seems like a fun thing to do every now and then, but once again, something so basic is gated behind an Upgrade that needs 3 S.A.M.s in total, which includes the Melee Healing. All these decisions are baffling and you can hardly get to the fun stuff, but as it's impossible to own every Upgrade, you will often be switching them depending on the situation, which slows down the Game even further. You don't need any Upgrade to beat SS4, but it has become a bit ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ at times, so you're pretty much forced to explore everywhere to get a bit of a chance against the even wider hordes. However, we've got another issue with environments being progressively more detailed as the years go by, SS3 already had a problem of getting lost due to this & as everything looked the same, but at least you could allow yourself skipping past a few Items and Secrets. In SS4 though, as the S.A.M.s are inside static wooden crates, and a 1st Time Player won't know where they are, you're forcing them to comb each area, and still risk missing them anyway! They're still along the path, but again you won't know that for sure the first time! I even missed one of them on my 1st Playthrough, so I speak for myself in this. Due to all these problems, the Skill Tree is genuinely a detriment to the Serious Sam Series as it's fighting against you every chance it's got, again things used to thrive off Simplicity, it would've been much better off if Sam got all his unique abilities from the get-go, none of the bloat. But honestly, if I couldn't choose not having the Skill Tree, I would've much prefered an EXP System instead, as I would still be rewarded for actively seeking aliens while also giving some leeway if I don't, it would've felt much more organic to the Series' Gameplay and even given the Enemy Multipliers a bit of an edge, instead of S.A.M. being solely busywork. As for the Gunplay itself though, it's actually fairly decent, there are even more Weapons than SS3 (no more Secret-Exclusives), they've all got this "weighty" feel that reflects their punching power, and there's some Jank as you can Reload Weapons while switching and still being strategic with it. Even the Headshots/Critical Hits, which were alien to the Series up until now, are especially satisfying to pull with the Sniper. There's some good ♥♥♥♥ right here. It's not to say they got it all right, as once again, SS4 Sam got nerfed; SS3 has Bullet Spread, but it always remains Static, affected little Weapons, and could be completely dismissed by Iron Sights. In SS4 however, several Weapons have it worse somehow, the Minigun is no longer Perfect Aim and Assault Rifle is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ without Iron Sight, and the Spread is now Dynamic as it gets worse the longer you hold the trigger. I get it's for Balance for stuff like Minigun Vs. Lasergun, but it makes a portion of the arsenal unreliable, the Spread should've remained Static, as you find yourself repeatedly stopping to have the Reticle recede back just to get some accurate shooting. The Sniper Rifle also got nerfed yet is the most viable for Headshots and Airborne Enemies (even Technopolyps of all things), it's way too slow now, making misses very grating, thus it's not as fun as it was in SS3. Speaking of which, Headshots were a neat idea on paper, and it does make the Pistols reliable Late Game, but also negates both Simplicity & even skillful play; Werebulls always took two Rockets, but now can be instantly killed if you shoot one into the head, among other examples. Purposely going for it though is not always reliable due to the unevenness of the ground & the Enemies' bobbing movements, so you often end up overcompensating in case you don't get lucky Headshots. It's not an issue about wasting Ammo, rather it adds yet another random element, as past Serious Sams always stuck to a rigid formula. Khnums perfectly exemplify this problem; in SS3, they always needed 10 Rockets or Devastator Shells to kill, regardless where they hit, and as they were the only Enemies that attempt to dodge your Rockets and retaliate over long distances, it became very important to count how many explosives hit. In SS4 though, they still act the same way, maybe a bit more beefy, but now there's no use counting shots as it's always going to be up in the air when you kill them due to random Headshots. Furthermore, more Enemies have become more perceptive and attempt to dodge Rockets as well, that or the Hitboxes are less lenient than in the past (I think my Rockets repeatedly go between their legs). Personally, I would get rid of Dynamic Spread, as well as Headshots except for the Sniper & reverting its Nerf, it would've kept things simple while also adding more meat on the bone. I still have yet to talk about Level Design, but I ran out of space, and maybe giving it more Playthroughs would improve my enjoyment like it did for SS3, this Review was mostly a way to put into words what it is that irked me for a while. Nonetheless, it goes to say it's as if every decision to "Modernize" Serious Sam is to purposely ♥♥♥♥ with longstay fans, it's ridiculous by this point and makes it hard to enjoy the Moment-To-Moment.

A great game that sadly received a lot of bad press at launch because of poor optimisation. After many updates the game is in a much better place now. It has it's fair share of graphical glitches but if you're willing to look past that, then there's a lot of fun to be had here. Definitely worth a shot if you're a fan of 3 or the classic sam games. SS4 RULES!!!

Better graphics for sure but boring storyline and cringe characters. 7/10.

Відстала років на п'ятнадцять нудна гра, пару місій були більш-менш цікавими. Очікував від неї більшого.

Weakest Serious Sam, but still a Serious Sam game nonetheless + Gameplay is great + Mech sections + Maps look good + Side objectives + Auto shotgun and Devastator +- Enemy models look good, while the npc models are PS2 quality +- Final mission is awesome, but the Legion system is misleading; the thousands of soldiers are just copy paste models - Half-assed 'open world' - Stuttering - Weak ass melee - Cringey dialogue

Вечно прогружающиеся текстуры, говенные персонажи, тупорылые шутейки, неинтересные локации, нулевой импакт от оружия... это недоразумение, а не приключения Сэма.

Who the f came up with idea to ride giant slow mech in fast-paced arena shooter and make that ♥♥♥♥ unskippable