Serious Sam 4

Serious Sam 4 still has the spectacle of hundreds of enemies bearing down on you, but its long stretches of run-and-gun shooting quickly become monotonous.

Technical issues and tired tropes aside, Serious Sam 4 is a largely successful synthesis of the series' disparate identities.

Mowing down thousands of aliens in Vatican City is worth doing at least once.

It's a simple review for a simple game, folks. Serious Sam 4 doesn't wildly reinvent the formula; and really, it doesn't need to. There's plenty of room for old school style FPS games in an ocean of looter shooters and games-as-a-service titles.

While fitfully fun and well designed, Sam 4 disappoints as both a sequel and a next-gen product. While it wasn’t particularly optimised on PC it still represents a low for PS5 performance. A compromised port of a game that’s only slightly above average in the first place. A serious shame.

Serious Sam 4 is fun to play – and an even bigger joy if you bring co-op into the mix. If you’re a fan of the series, then you’re going to feel right at home. If you’ve never played a Serious Sam game, then just don’t go into it expecting the same level of narrative as story-driven games, because you aren’t going to find it here.

Serious Sam 4 takes us back to a simpler time in first-person shooters, where massive guns and well-timed one liners make up the bulk of the action. There's a bit of jank that's impossible to miss and Croteam isn't breaking any new ground here but Serious Sam 4 is a great way to just shut off any critical thinking and blast away at a few thousand aliens for an afternoon.

Serious Sam 4 is easily the richest game in the series, expanding on the character and his world while not holding back on the action that's been the major draw from the earliest days.

There is some joy in the cheesy story, almost like watching a B-movie that's so bad it's still entertaining. The experience could have worked as a parody to other shooters, but the poor level design and inconsistent quality smack of missed potential overall. At the very least, four-player co-op is available, and playing with a small group of friends might be just what Serious Sam 4 needs to ascend from 'lackluster' to 'janky-but-lovable.' Unfortunately, with a $40 price tag, most players would be better off buying Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter and The Second Encounter if they want to re-live the glory days of the franchise.

Serious Sam 4 is just fun, and in a time where real life is so very serious its nice to have a game just be fun again.