Serious Sam 4 is still a good game but falls short. It has the same “mixed bag” feeling that I also experienced with Serious Sam 3.

The story is classic in true Serious Sam style. Mental is invading the earth again and this time, almost conquered it all. Instead of being the almighty hero, like the previous games, you are now part of a resistance movement that opposes Mental’s forces, who have occupied countries all around the world. You need to find “The Holy Grail”, which contains a special weapon to turn the tide. You travel through Rome, France, and meet various characters along the way that accompany you.

That all sounds fine and dandy, but in a Serious Sam game, you don’t need a team?! You are death itself, blasting everything and everyone in your way to bits. Now, your kills and carnage are being stolen by random NPC’s that travel with you.

The main reason that I disliked the game so much is the military, Call of Duty style of playing. Sam only talks in Nay Seal slurs, you are in a U.S. Army squad, you talk about “The mission”, it just does not feel like Serious Sam anymore. This was already a big shift in Serious Sam 3, but here, they take it to a whole new level. It is U.S. army simulator 3.0 (oh yeah, with some monsters). I do not want to hear sh!t like FUBAR, hot LZ’s, affirmative, roger that, on your six etc. It is not fitting of a Serious Sam game. I sound like a angry grandpa, but my point still stands.

Serious Sam 4 also tries really, really hard to make you bond with all the characters and new squad mates that it introduced. I cannot explain why, but it does not work. All the characters try too hard to be cool and memorable, but are all empty shells that do not add anything to the game. And then there is the interaction between them and Sam, which is very awkward and cringy most of the times.

Speaking of Sam, his famous one liners and short, but powerful responses are all gone and replaced with awkward and shallow dialogue in which he tries a mix between being badass but wise, and compelling at the same time. This was already a problem in Serious Sam 3, but in this installment, it got even worse.

The graphics look beautiful and can be considered next gen. The Ray Tracing, the lighting, the detail, it is all very good. Animations and gib effects look solid. The only problems are the textures that pop in last minute in cut scenes and big areas. The design of the eyes on every character, however, is terrible. They are wide open and look lifeless. It almost looks like every single person in Serious Sam 4 is pumped full of cocaine or speed to forget their troubles.

The new enemies and weapons are nice and all look good. A lot of original foes are present and completely redone, and some are created specifically for Serious Sam 4. It is a nice mix and a nice addition to the existing roster.

A big issue in the game are the huge, massive, gigantic, absurdly large maps in which the levels are played. Ninety percent of the map is empty, with nothing to do. You get lost, you feel that you missed a lot of stuff but no, it is just decoration. Many times I searched whole hectares of empty space, just to find out there is really nothing there. I then want to return to the position I need to go, only to find out that I approached it from the wrong side, and need to make a huge hike back to a certain entrance.

Because of the ginormous maps, you can easily escape difficult battles. Follow the path again to a certain point and just casually kill off groups of monsters. The best example of this is the final battle. You slide down some sort of rock ditch and are greeted by a million Kleers and Bio Mechanoids. No problem, just jump off the mountain side, walk back up to the start of the slide and use a fat bomb or rocket on the trillion enemies that have all ganged up as one unit at the end of the slide because their programming could not reach you any other way. Problem solved. The next area, I played 300 -Spartan style. A small passage between mountain sides, I waited for the billions of enemies to come to me and blasted them all to oblivion, while my back and flanks were secure.

There is another problem, called auto-save. Many times, I got my ass handed to me in certain battles, only for the auto-save feature to save my 2 HP ass and let me die infinitely. Then, a popup with the best intentions from Croteam appeared with the message: “It looks like you are having some trouble with this section of the game, would you like to lower the difficulty?” Although not their intention, it was the biggest middle finger and mockery that I experienced in a long time.

The sound effects are really nice, but the music is a mixed bag. There are many great new soundtracks but some are a little blend, weird in composition or stereotypical like the French accordion mixes in the France levels. I need to give credit though to the remix of the Grand Cathedral soundtrack, that one was epic.

Speaking about epic, the final battle was a masterpiece. It was something that I did not see coming. The millions of soldiers and enemies, facing off against each other was glorious. It looked a little blend in the background with the endless streams of assets (I mean soldiers) that charge in a fixed line to the enemies, but when in battle, you could interact with every enemy you faced. It was well done.

Serious Sam 4 tries to insert some RPG elements by completing side missions and collecting orbs which give you some extra skills like dual wielding guns. This should feel amazing, but nine times out of ten, I forgot that this was a thing. It mainly felt pointless sadly.

In the end, I liked Serious Sam 4, mainly because of nostalgia, my deepest respect for Croteam and their developers and because it holds true to the series in terms of enemies, past events and weaponry.

However, the many issues, tweaks, new mechanics and somewhat weak story, made me realize that I cannot recommend this game sadly, although I really wanted to.

It is a mixed bag, like I mentioned, but the side filled with vomit in this bag, wins unfortunately in my opinion.

Streaming on Xbox One S via Game Pass. The game is kinda fun. It doesn't take itself too seriously, adhering to the obvious ironic title.

This was my first exposure to the series, beyond a vague awareness of the franchise and its premise. This entry sticks to that comical gun blasting formula, laying heavily into campy characters, exaggerated explosions, and mindless undead or alien hordes. That style has a nostalgic quality reminiscent of the original doom, wolfenstein, and Duke nukem to which I had dedicated many childhood hours. Unfortunately this game hasn't received the same modernizing treatment as recent entries into Doom and Wolfenstein. SS4 feels at least a decade old.

While the textures and models are nice, the movement of the characters, enemies, projectiles, and objects feels clunky, mechanical, robotic at best. There is little to no environmental interaction; nothing moves on collision, nothing breaks or even shows bullet marks when shot.

The ability to aim - only slightly improved through options within settings menu - is on par with the 30 year old shooters which inspired it. The game still achieves a run and gun mechanic because there is no perceivable effective range difference or damage dropoff among the different guns. Surrounding hordes will patiently wait and cause no damage while a melee animation takes place. It all just feels very PS1 Era.