In my playtime, I watched bodies skate across the landscape at top speed or die in place with no animation at all. Textures fail to load in properly, objects pass right through characters, and the physics are all over the place. Serious Sam takes you across Italy and the French countryside, but you'd be forgiven if you couldn't tell one from the other. Janky animations and thousand-mile stares make it feel like I'm watching mannequins that have sprung to life.Įnvironments don't fare much better either. Sometimes audio comes in too loud, too low, or doesn't match the subtitles at all. Sometimes they don't even blink! The audio is also poorly mixed. Character models look nice enough, but their janky animations and thousand-mile stares make it feel like I'm watching mannequins that have sprung to life. There's a distinct lack of polish throughout the game that detracts from the overall experience. You can tell immediately from the opening scene to the end credits. Unfortunately for fans expecting this game to be a step forward for the series, Serious Sam 4 is a mess. Croteam also promises to release the Serious Editor tool, which will allow fans to mod the game, shortly after launch. It's a far cry from the 16-player coop featured in Serious Sam 3, but it works.

The game can also be played with three other friends in a highly customizable coop mode. These additions encourage players to explore the maps in between firefights.

Sam also has a skill tree that can be upgraded as you find Sirian Artefacts of Might, or S.A.M.

The weapon attachments unlock alternative fire modes, while the gadgets offer offensive and defensive bonuses to Sam.Ĭertain gadgets, like the black hole and mini-nuke, were incredibly fun to use but don't appear as often as you'd like. New additions to the Serious Sam formula include branching paths with optional objectives that lead to gadgets and weapon attachments. There's plenty of weapons to shoot and plenty of enemies to shoot at. While they're mostly cannon fodder, there is an undeniable feeling of awe as you watch hordes of screaming enemies run across the horizon and straight toward you. Using the Legion System, Croteam can create large scale set pieces that feature thousands of enemies on screen at once. Serious Sam 4's biggest draw this time around is the sheer size of its battles.

Serious sam character