Say Something Once Why Say It Again?

Paradigm: Croteam/Devolver Digital

Serious Sam four: Say something once, why say information technology again?

A perfectly OK sequel that delivers more of what'southward expected

Past Sep 28, 2020, two:35pm EDT

Where did the joy go?

Serious Sam 4 is about a carbon copy of the previous games in the series, with a picayune extra emphasis on story, and some technical magic tricks that allow the developer to show a huge number of enemies on screen at once. None of these things really makes a difference in the experience of playing the game itself, all the same.

I have and then many fond memories of playing the past games. Serious Sam releases have e'er been simple affairs with a lot of guns and a lot of enemies, and they're at their all-time when played with fast music pumping in the groundwork.

The franchise used to deliver an fifty-fifty sillier have on the activity of fast-paced first-person shooters similar the Doom and Quake serial, without any of the self-serious aesthetics or fifty-fifty basic nods to realism. I can't call back of many other games that operated as such constructive stress relievers, even in brusque bursts. The Serious Sam franchise has always been a little bit of an underdog in that way, but without any meaningful improvements to that basic idea, why did we suddenly need a new one in 2020?

Serious Sam returns, and repeats

The last mainline Serious Sam game was Serious Sam 3: BFE, released back in 2011. That game introduced iron sights and running to the formula, which were barely incremental improvements, but the new game doesn't even go that far. Serious Sam 4 is just more of what I already expected from developer Croteam, created with an updated version of the Serious Engine.

The past games in the serial weren't broke, and their blueprint certainly hasn't been fixed with Serious Sam 4. Aliens have taken over the planet, and Sam Stone is hither to crack one-liners and to send them all back to hell. Like the other games in the franchise, this one is some other get-go-person shooter with big environments, hordes of enemies to kill, and a variety of weapons, each suited to a specific tactical need, all of which should exist used in plow when the action calls for them. I spent most of my time running backward in the game's big, open up areas, twisting side to side to avoid being shot, and keeping an center on my ammo while also scanning the level for healing items and armor.

Serious Sam 4 forces me to go on multiple things in my head at one time, along with a willingness to change tactics once another wave of enemies warps in to keep me decorated. In that location are skeleton beasts that throw bones and gallop at me, diving to slash at my face with their claws. There are the infamous headless enemies who scream (through their cervix-holes, I guess) while running toward me, belongings explosives to make certain I don't get comfortable in ane spot for too long; belching, vomiting beasts covered with pustules; and much more.

The enemy design has always been 1 of Croteam's strong suits. Each type of enemy is piece of cake to identify, even at a distance, and each 1 gives hints almost their numbers, direction, and attacks through sound every bit well as visuals. Juggling each enemy threat without making myself vulnerable to the next is a large part of the Serious Sam magic, and that challenge comes through in this game also.

There is very lilliputian existent-globe logic at play here. Instead, the game operates according to the rule of absurd: Sam can comport all these guns at once considering it's absurd to accept an armory. Enemies tin can warp into wherever Sam is, in any numbers they want, because he's meant to be overwhelmed. The story has Sam trying to find the literal Ark of the Covenant to save the world.

Why not, right?

The trouble is that I've played this game already, multiple times. The event of being about overwhelmed, while usually just barely staying in control, is wearing off through repetition. The engine tin can't quite go on up with the situations that unfold in the game or the increased emphasis on secondary characters and conversation. That'southward particularly apparent when there'south a intermission for conversations and everyone's face looks a little off, or when enemies seem dislocated by their ain numbers and stand around, waiting to be picked off.

Prototype: Croteam/Devolver Digital

And so why do we need another Serious Sam game at present? I don't know, and Croteam didn't seem to have a good answer to offering, either. While id Software constitute means to keep the tone and ideas behind the Doom serial intact while branching out in play and design with Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, Croteam seems likewise addicted of the base Serious Sam experience to try anything as daring. And then we're left with a retread of past games, with some impressive vistas filled with enemies and not much else.

It'due south non bad, but once again, the joy of the old games feels similar it has been squeezed out through repetition and a lack of frontwards motion. There'due south only not enough here to allow Serious Sam 4 to compete with the other large commencement-person shooters of the year. Still, maybe hardcore fans volition exist comforted by the return of a serial that barely changes, fifty-fifty afterwards almost a decade away.

Serious Sam four is out now on Windows PC and Stadia, and is coming to PlayStation four and Xbox 1 in 2021. The game was played on PC using a download lawmaking provided by Devolver Digital. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do non influence editorial content, though Voice Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can observe boosted data near Polygon's ethics policy here .

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/2020/9/28/21473692/serious-sam-4-pc-stadia-impressions

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