If you had told me that "Serious Sam 4" was taken out of a time capsule buried 10 years ago, I might have believed you: there's no "Amid Evil" throwback; there's no "Serious Sam 4" as a "Serious Sam" game. It's not a fashioning of past technological limitations into a new style; it's 100% real junk: battle music that abruptly ends when the last enemy is defeated; cutscenes that abruptly begin when the boss dies; textures of clothes, dirt, and rocks that pop in and out of place; rigid, weightless animation, The level events that sometimes don't trigger, or don't happen until you've cornered the last enemy stuck against a wall, etc.

At least the shenanigans are (mostly) endearing, and "Serious Sam 4," like all "Serious Sam" games, is fun to murder overwhelming hordes of aliens with giant guns while moving backward at figure skater speed. While shooting cyclops, kamikazes, vampires, and insectoids, you're always on the verge of being overtaken, just barely holding control, spacing your bullets just enough to allow them to travel. This tension underpins almost all of "Serious Sam 4's" 10-plus hour campaign, which can be played solo or in online co-op.

Bullet-rattling hundreds of beasts is as satisfying as power-washing a house, but the occasional technical shot with a powered-up devastator or a good-looking maneuver is also fun. One of my favorite scenes is the one in the French countryside, where he rushes toward an onrushing bull, brandishing a two-gun shotgun. I waited until I could see the glint in the devil's eye before firing both guns into his forehead and reloading at the same time. Rarely is it a good idea in a shooter game to face the enemy head-on in an open area, but "Serious Sam 4" offers some brave moments.

A minor but noteworthy change makes the scene possible: in "Serious Sam 3" (actually 10 years old), you had to stop sprinting before shooting, and there is a short animation where Sam repositions his weapon; in Serious Sam 4, by firing The sprint animation can be canceled and the shot is immediately fired. This change allows for greater speed. It is great fun to sprint from behind a front-facing shielded enemy and slam a barrage of shotgun fire into his back.

Serious Sam 4 is different from Serious Sam 3 in other good ways. The aliens are more colorful and unique, similar to the Zeds in Killing Floor. Enemy health bars and headshot indicators allow you to optimize your shooting to your liking. You also don't get stuck in the environment, as was sometimes the case in Serious Sam 3. It's as if Sam is a giant stick of butter. Sam is like a giant stick of butter.

"Serious Sam 4" is at its best right after introducing new weapons. It fills the arena with ammo and then throws a bunch of enemies at you so you can go on a rampage. The cannon cannon somehow fires a rolling cannonball bigger than Sam himself, turning everything in its path into goo.

At worst, it's too logical, but the difficulty is well designed. Normal kept me on my toes, and Easy was relaxing without being a cakewalk. The fun of shooting swarms of flying drones is overrated (as well as the guys who spawn at distant perches and shoot homing bullets), and there are some tiring sections, but for the most part, I was just harried enough to keep me on my toes and not get frustrated.

Although it looks almost exactly the same as it did in the past, "Serious Sam 4" contains modern ideas that are better than "Serious Sam 3". However, as much as I enjoyed the high frame rate, it is a shame that the computing power available in 2020 is not fully utilized. For example, the enemies do not gurgle merrily. Enemies repeat the same death animation thousands of times each time. A major technical feat is the ability to have so many enemies on the screen at once, resulting in some impressive scenes, but once the spectacle passes, my reaction is "oh great, another wave of skeleton bastards." That's the only way I can concentrate on obliterating so many beasts at once.

On the other hand, the story of a Russian priest and his search for the Holy Grail (actually an alien artifact) is cute, but doesn't make Sam Stone a star.

[11] [12] [13] [14] The attempts at pesos and romance are spoiled by the plastic action figure character models, and most of the gags are generic.

The standard joke in Serious Sam 4 is that Sam and crew are practicing a witty one-liner they say after defeating a big alien (the boss fight is fairly easy, not the focus), but the idea of an action hero practicing a one-liner is more of an action feels more like a cliché than a hero saying a one-liner. Like Duke Nukem, Sam Stone isn't making fun of anything modern (try playing a brooding father, then), but he's a lot more fun than Duke. [Serious Sam 4] is campaign-only, with no survival mode. I played it to test it out and it worked. It's not a teamwork game, and there is no resurrection system: if a player dies, they just respawn. (If a player dies, they just respawn (you don't have time to stop and revive a teammate who is about to be blown up by 100 aliens).

There are no mod tools yet, but Croteam says they will be coming soon, and there is a Steam Workshop package available in the menu. I can't yet determine what it doesn't have, but I'm happy to hear this.

Serious Sam 4 is fun, and certain ridiculously large battles should have you laughing in co-op with friends as you struggle to laser down rows of aliens. That said, there is a deep jankiness to this game, and the magic isn't quite as magical as one might expect from the larger scale. Whereas the new "Doom" evokes the spirit of the classics with modern flair, this is just "Serious Sam." Still, there is a part where you run over aliens with a combine, which I recommend.

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