Serious Sam 4 - 2020's Most Underrated Game

I like dual guns and combat. Only bad in this game is big levels, there is some empty parts with only running.

Really good review. Like some of the more recent comments, I disagree with your complaints on reloading and the skill tree. I never had an issue with it in BFE, and I don't now. If anything, it adds an interesting layer of challenge to the formula imo. As for the skill tree, it's not bad, but could be improved upon

Serious Sam is what I started playing when I got into PC gaming, this game does the series justice, I love it so much!

I loved the game, the only issue i have is with the cutscenes that didn’t play sound(im on ps5) and it’s very frustrating

I started playing it a few days ago. And so far, I’m enjoying every moment.

Although I disagree with your point on reloading and partially on the skill tree.

Reloading to me I'm perfectly fine with and it should stay. As things stand, it likely will. Since blasting all your guns away with no delay is fun, but would get old fast imo. Since reloading makes you tactically think on your surroundings. Which adds difficulty and realism to the game, which is what I want. Hence why I personally prefer 3 and onwards. Due to the modern look of weapons etc.


As for the skill tree, yes it is annoying that things are locked away. When it should all be available to the player. But that however makes things too easy. The whole premise of a skill tree is you progress, unlock points and get stronger. Whilst the difficulty increases with you.

You're a genius! Took the words right out of my mouth, I love this review, right on. I'm about to get a Xbox Series X and I am hoping to get this game and if possible the first encounter hd, if they make it for series x, I'm about to check that out. Last time I played a Serious Sam game, it was first encounter. Thanks for this review, I subscribed to you, you do this game a justice. I saw the ign review and didn't like it lol. It's supposed to be dated is what I think, that is the fun part.

You either love Serious Sam or you hate it. There's no in-between. I, personally, love it. I have the First and Second Encounters too. This one, compares to those two.

They need to fix PS5 version,.. game is still fun(*maybe they have by now),.. but damn,.. when shit is running on 3.2ghz 8 core prcessor with 11 Tflop GPU ,.. you really don't think you should experience framerate problems,.. Should run on ultra at 120hz at 4K or at least at 1440p,.. still a great game,..

Serious sam is a really great game. Just start the game. dont think too much and start shooting.

Finaly a review that speaks truth about this game ;p

I agree most of your opinion but skill tree and reloading are fine in my book. Also there is two skill point that fasters reloads and after you reload weapon shots faster. It is too bad that this video won't be noticed yet bat blind doom fanboys will talk shit about it.

I genuinely think the Reloading ADDS something to Serious Sam; in SS3, I would oftentime use the Assault Rifle on the Beheadeds and Grunts, and on occasion enemies that can become threats at Medium-Range such as Kleers and Hatchlings, as I may've little ways of one-shoting them if I'm going to be overwhelmed by meatshields (Gnaars). Furthermore, I would have to find a specific moment to reload it, during the middle of Firefights, and so I always was conscious of my inventory at all times, which is hardly something I get in other games, and so I thought it was exciting that way.

Plus the Devastator would've been broken if it had an infinite clip, which on the offset for the goal of balance, it would make its use as a rapid explosive weapons or as a last resort in a tight corner maybe completely revamped and make it about as useless against moving faraway targets as the Rocket Launcher, like I don't know how it could've been balanced any other way.

Serious Sam 3 is my favorite of the Sam games, maybe specifically for its gameplay (AND at least so far); I prefer TFE as a whole, but I thought SS3 added a bunch of Tech that was as simple to grasp as the Classic games, they didn't had to add quest markers and an intricate, annoying-looking cover system à-la Nathan Drake. Like that's the thing, SS3 may be as deadbeat easy to play as the Classics, and you can stick to the Classic formula since it still works, but if you pour time into it, you can REALLY appreciate the Tech behind it, like the C4s could one-shot most of the biggest baddies, but that was if you got close enough to them to latch it onto their bodies, which by that logic, the game heavily rewards your recklessness, which fits perfectly with the usual Serious Sam Formula, I relish it.

I thought I hated SS3 for 4 years, until I've given it another shot on Serious difficulty, and since then, I may've poured 400 Hours into it, which also counts the Mods that exploited this specific gameplay like on Fusion. I even make videos about it to showcase the insane tech, because I think that was the problem with SS3, is that people got to be made aware first of all of what makes the game so exciting. I did most of my Videos on SS3 in French though, only a few in English, which... well, I'll let you find these yourself since I don't want to give the wrong idea of what the point was of me doing them, but I also am doing an "Infinite Weapons Only Challenge", not public as of yet since I haven't finished it (parts of it is Unlisted, not specifically to remain hidden forever) and it may not corelate too much with the Tech in question like the C4s, but the Sledgehammer and Mutilator are hella fun to use when you get their timing.

Oh, but what about SS4? Well I have yet to play much of it, since I'm just replaying SS3 in cycles like my yearly Dark Souls runs, and I think SS3 is criminally underrated so I wanted to share its fun aspects beforehand, but so far, if SS4 stays on the same path as SS3 did, I think it looks hella fun as well.

Reloading in serious sam is fine, and should stay. You actually have to think, swap weapons when you’re in a bad spot and adapt to your ammo count. Add in the fact that levels are more cluttered instead of empty now and you really have to be paying attention to succeed.


Sure as hell beats turning your brain off and just holding down the fire button while moving backwards like the old games let you do.

A lifelong fan of the series here, and it's nice seeing some actual love for the game. Ever since it released, i never understood the hate towards SS4. Sure, it has some technical issues, and the level design had its problems, but none of those issues stopped me from thoroughly enjoying the game. Hell, i even consider it to be the best game in the series since The Second Encounter. Siberian Mayhem definitely improved in the level design department, but for me it's optimisation was even worse than 4, especially on the first two levels.

Always love the series, the game doesn't disappoint. I have some of the most fun time since the 2nd encounter.

ss4 is a ass kicking old school shooter a love it , my XSS love it to seriously

Would you do review on Serious Sam: Next Encounter? That game is fun like XBOX version of classics but a bit faster paced and with a bit improved gameplay, in my opinion.

Just spent 22 glorious hours playing through the game on my series x and getting all the achievements, so much bloody fun!

Imagine saying 3 is bad but liking 4

Meh. I have to agree that the combat felt really outdated. In a sea of FPS games there are many more I'd rather play. Glad some people are enjoying SS though.

Halo he get a soft reboot Serious Sam and Duke Nukem do series deserve a soft reboot as well

I agree with your point about skill trees. Not everything has to be an RPG!

I agree on skill trees. Horrible thing, DooM Eternal had it even worse because it didn't even add anything too interesting, just few quality of life things that should be always active.
I disagree on reloading. It's just thing to differentiate weapons and adds a small thing to be vary of that can add to battle intensity.

Interesting how I tend to like the things that you hated (skill tree, reloading) and underappreciated the things you liked (dual wielding, gadgets, bosses, vehicles) but the result is still the same: this game is amazing and severely underrated

I played serious Sam 2, but I stopped because it was too exhausting.

Dual wielding is not a new addition. In Serious Sam 2 you can dual wield any weapon.

Skill tree is good

Who the hell is calling this outdated?

I agree with you completely. The reviewers don’t know what they’re talking about. This game is brill I love it

I highly disagree about your view of the skill tree! It does enhance the gameplay in many ways and allows customization of the gameplay in each playthrough, sometimes I like to play the whole game without getting any skill just to make the game more challenging for me (like I did in Dishonored), and that adds reply value to the game. I just bought this game on PS5 and I am loving it to death this far! I love the style of graphics and the game is just as much fun to me as Doom Eternal, both are my favorite shooters of all time. The PS5 version does suffer from few frame drops here and there, but I am not gonna netpicking asshole and will trust the developers to fix this awesome game eventually on consoles, also the loading screens are not that bad, just around 30 seconds.

I've been a fan since Serious Sam first released many years ago. It's stayed true to form, and it's a good formula. I do think a little more of a budget and a graphics overhaul could do wonders for this franchise. Serious sam 4 delivers what the games has always provided....Chaos and a bullet hell FPS experience. The 4th entry is just as fun as its predecessors. It would be awesome to see Croteam adopt Unreal engine 5 for the 5th entry. Gamers gravitate to eye candy, and games like this and Duke Nukem really nail the silly fun FPS experience.

Great review thanks, loving playing this currently. Agree seems silly to criticise it for being true to serious sams in the past!

I agree and bought this game day one nough said

the graphics look bad up close but there's no denying the large scale battles with lasers flying everywhere look freaking epic.

Thanks for the review, I've seen enough people shit on this game so its nice to see one to get my excited for it. I'm playing through all the others in co-op, just finished 2 (after first and second encounter) so we're going through 3 and then finally will be moving on to this game, the only one I haven't played before :)

I can't wait to try this game I have fond memories of the previous games

Serious Sam 4 was the greatest futuristic fps game i ever played tho. Sadly, it was very underrated but i absolutely like it

There is something shiny in SS4 but it's buried under an identity crysis, crappy cutscenes and animations , reused assets that give a cheap feel and so on. But under all that shit there is some great gameplay, when Croteam actually tries to make good arenas to fight in with the awesome weapons.

The game is a bad serious sam but not particularly a bad videogame.

Older than 20 huh, I played this game for the first time in 2010 and I was 6 years old.

I have to really disagree about the graphics being "bad" overall. There are some grayer levels after the volcano that look slightly dull, and the indoor environments, cutscenes and a few outdoor areas here and there look bad (like a lot of the french City level and the second to last level with the ice and all), but I actually really enjoyed the vistas that it produces, the landscapes and buildings both. My particular favorites are the last level and Citadel. Despite the varying fidelity and overall way less professional execution, I feel like I had more enjoyment looking at this game than doom eternal (and listening to and playing as well, lol).

About the graphics:
It's the art director that screwed up.
The lighting is terrible. The world has an out of world feel to it. It's too big and can't have much detail.
The modeling artists could've done a better job.
The animation is really bad, especially if it's not mocap. Their animators didn't improve a lot since they started the franchise. This is my biggest disappointment.
The post processing fx looks relatively bad and adds to the out of world feel, since it's too intense and misplaced.
The textures are good, with exception of the characters.

Would LOVE to play this game on PS5 with adaptive triggers!

underated? wtf ? serius sam 4 was probably one of the worst game in the series, even the fans hate it and not was because is "outdated" , it because the poor level design and bad ideas in the game , like put many irrelevant dialogues in the story , is clearly a a mediocre game , even the legion system is a failure and never used in a good way , is not underrated is just mediocre

It's quite strange that people criticize the gameplay itself for being outdated. I've seen people criticize design choices and bugs throughout the game, which is totally fair, but criticizing this series' gameplay is like criticizing ice cream for being too cold

I dont understand the emphasis on realistic enviornments. Its a game where you unrealistically suck ammo into your person and unrealistically kill armies of enemies. Just make the game fun.

I think, Sam has an identity crisis since part 3. It tries to implement modern mechanics like reloeading and upgrades that don't fit at all into an old school shooter.
In Sam 4, the worst aspect to me is the level design. They tried to create realistic environments instead of fun arenas. The result: Tons of big fights feel cluttered. You get stuck on trees and benches while fighting, might not have enough space to maneuver or encounter tons of empty spaces that serve no purpose.
It's still a good game, but is very flawed.

Whoever thinks that the gameplay is too old school havent played much old school shooter imho

amid evil and the darkness allows u to summon black holes.

There are several things I don't agree with in the review.

1. Realism has nothing to do with bad graphics. Talos Principle uses the exact same realistic style and basically the same engine, and it is a beautiful game. Serious Sam 4 has some landscapes and ruins that are considerably decent, but overall the game really doesn't look good, probably more because of a lack of polish. The human characters are terrible, but this is only important in the cutscenes.

2. The definition of Serious Sam as a game where you walk backwards and circlestrafing is pretty generic. SS has a very unique gameplay that involves several enemies that are more agile and faster than the protagonist. The question is to know how to prioritize the right enemies in view of your resources to always maintain a viable area of maneuver. This is why the more complex battles in Serious Sam always have that "puzzle" element. Serious Sam 4 has plenty of such situations, but unfortunately the total lack of balance (I blame gimmicks, skilltree and some weapons) makes it very easy for the player to "break" absolutely everything.

3. Reloading the tommygun is a positive addition. I also found it positive that the shotgun no longer needs to be reloaded as in Serious Sam 3. The point is not that "reloading = bad", but that reloading should be used in a balanced way and in the matter of these weapons, Croteam balanced them correctly, in my opinion. Another positive modern addition is "headshots". All fans of the series were probably worried when they heard about headshots but it worked very well in the game.

Conclusion:

I agree that Serious Sam 4 has a very good gameplay. I also agree that the journalists have no idea what they are talking about. But the game is very rough, even today after so many updates. Some levels do not flow well, some weapons are too powerful (flying chainsaw), the gimmicks instead of adding a strategic factor end up only serving to the player to skip difficult battles, the skilltree gathers from vaguely useful things to things that completely break battles like riding on enemies, etc. It is a game that has the potential to be fantastic, but this potential is not really awakened in most of the campaign. There is always the hope that modders will start creating more balanced and interesting maps, but Serious Editor 4 is a disaster with no documentation at all so I don't hold out much hope.

This game deserve move love for real, some level's design is not as good as old SS but the core gameplay is fun as hell.
tbh,even you don't like SS4,you can't deny the soundtrack is really really good.