Game Review: Serious Sam 4 (Xbox Series X)

Released on modern consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series S/X) in December of 2021 following its 2020 release on Windows, Serious Sam 4 is the latest entry in the Serious Sam franchise. Developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital, it is a prequel to Serious Sam 3: BFE.

When people talk about great FPS games, the Serious Sam series’ is not often the first one that comes to mind. However, the first two games; Serious Sam: The First Encounter and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter are two of the finest FPS games ever made.

What made those games standout out from the pack was the choice of colourful graphics, huge levels and intense shooting mayhem. Serious Sam games love to throw humongous waves of enemies at you while giving you an array of weapons to take them all out. The first two games are pure thrill-rides and if you’ve never had the chance to play them, rectify that.

After the release of Serious Sam 2 in 2005, fans had to wait six years for the next entry which was Serious Sam 3: BFE. A game that made some fundamental changes to the formula, swapping out wide and open levels for smaller, more confined environments. As well as changing the graphical style to a more realistic look.

It was a good game but just lacked polish and that Serious Sam spark. Something just felt off with it.

Seemingly aware of this response, Croteam have gone back to basics with Serious Sam 4. Massive levels with endless amounts of enemies and tons of guns to destroy them with. All while keeping the more realistic graphics and putting a bit more work into the story.

Speaking of…

Set before Serious Sam3: BFE, Mental and his forces have begun to invade Earth. The whole planet is engulfed in war, a war that humanity looks to be losing. “Serious” Sam Stone and his unit are sent to find the Holy Grail. Which is actually a powerful alien artefact that they think can be used to defeat Mental and his armies.

Their journey will take them to the streets of Rome, Pompeii and a volcanic eruption, the French countryside, Carcassonne, the Artic and Russia. All while blasting every single member of Mental’s forces.

The story is solid. Deeper than expected and with more cutscenes than you might expect to see in a Serious Sam game. Some might say a story is unimportant to a game like this but it is nice to have some reason to be blowing the shit out of everything that comes your way.

On gameplay, Serious Sam 4 has very few faults. Especially if you’re familiar with the style of these games. Wave after wave of enemies, section after section of explosive action, level after level of increasing enemy forces with some puzzle solving and a ton of secrets to uncover. From the localised and small early battles in the streets to the gargantuan chaos of open countryside and huge arenas. Serious Sam 4’s FPS gameplay is untouchable and it’s as close to the First and Second Encounter style as you’re going to get.

From the biggest (and they get really big) to the smallest, everything wants to kill you in this game so you’re going to need some ‘serious’ firepower to deal with them. All the Serious Sam favourites are here. From the basic pistol, shotguns and machine guns to rocket launchers, Gatling guns and cannons, there’s an array of weapons to use.

Serious Sam 4 also introduces additional items that can help aid you in battle for a brief time. Boosts such as being able to slow time down or go berserk, useful in some of the game’s later tricky moments.

Perhaps the biggest new inclusion though is ‘perk’ system. Where secret pickups allow you to spend points by adding new skills to Sam for use throughout the game. There’s nothing that wildly changes gameplay but there are some useful things amongst the choices. Keen players will have to search every nook and cranny to find them all though, such is the wealth of secrets in every level.

Yes, gameplay is repetitive and that is going to be a massive turnoff for some but this is Serious Sam and it’s all about screaming “war” and unleashing chaos over and over again. Stupidly fun and simple to get into, especially when the game does open up. Although the sudden difficulty curve in the last two levels is a bit frustrating.

From beginning to end, on a moderate difficulty and with only doing a few of the bonus objectives that crop up, Serious Sam 4 lasts around 10 hours which is a decent amount of bang for your buck.

It sounds like a modern great FPS and worthy entry in the Serious Sam series, which it is. But…

There is no getting around this, Serious Sam 4 has some glaring issues that really shouldn’t be happening in modern games and on modern consoles. The most obvious being graphical glitches that occur in ever single level, before every cutscene, during every cutscene and after every cutscene. There wasn’t a single time when textures didn’t take a few extra seconds to load or the environment didn’t have some sort of glitch. It’s staggering how bad the performance of this game is, made all the worse by some painfully long loading times too.

It’s such a shame too as this is the best-looking Serious Sam game ever. Levels are varied and detailed, backgrounds look amazing, the lighting is great and the enemy detail is exciting. Then you get up close to things and it’s just ugly.

Of course, graphics aren’t everything but the number of noticeable issues within Serious Sam 4 is just unacceptable.

Is it forgivable? That depends on how you feel about the gameplay. If you’re brand new to Serious Sam 4, you might not fall in love with it and you might wonder just what the fuss is all about. If you’re a series regular, it’s like meeting an old friend. An old friend who has had a rough few years but after a few drinks together, it’s just like old times. Sure, you can bemoan the lack of advancement or modernisation but when it’s this much fun, who cares?