Suns Out, Guns Out!!
I remember Serious Sam? It’s a first person shooter that came out back in 2002, I remember it looked cool but I was consumed at the time by No One Lives Forever 2 and WarCraft 3 Reign of Chaos. So, I never really bothered, fast forward to today and Serious Sam 4 has dropped on the Xbox. While not having much in the way of a deep story, other than kill the invading alien threat I came away very impressed by Serious Sam 4. This will basically sum up my entire review “I regret waiting so long to jump into this franchise…”
Serious Sam 4 is a crazy, over the top, laugh out loud a minute shoot spree that is like a happier version of Doom but instead of demons its awful aliens, and vampires…and yes demons. Crazy Monsters? Check. Guns and Ammo galore? Check. Awesome Soundtrack? Check. But you know what is uniquely Sam’s… he is hilarious and knows when to drop a killer one liner. My favorite bit is when the team tries to get the rookie to come up with a one-liner…it’s a hoot!! Seriously, the personality that is on display in this game between Sam, the rookie and Sam’s team of friends is what kept me playing. You just never knew where this story was going, or what crazy thing was going to happen next.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99
One of the early standouts was Father Makhil, not your typical padre, as Makhil is out here wielding a shotgun and dropping aliens with ease. All the while making jokes about ‘praising the Lord and passing the ammunition or giving someone their last rites’ until finally we are ambushed in a stairway. Once all the aliens have met a lead-filled end, the good Father says without missing a beat “Forgive me Sam, I almost made a ‘Stairway to Heaven’ joke” “You are Forgiven,” Sam replies dryly. Serious Sam 4 manages to be witty in a way that not many other games do anymore. It knows it’s a video game, and that its utter ridiculous to have one man versus all these monsters but it leans into to it which for me was super rewarding.
That’s not to say that everything was great with my time in Sam’s shoes though, unfortunately I ran into numerous issues even being able to get the game started. Even playing on the Series X I had issues with hard locks, crashes, and saves disappearing. Once players are able to get into the game, while they won’t be blown away by the graphics at all; Serious Sam 4 does look really good in motion. There is a ‘Performance’ mode which I highly recommend.
This game feels as if it was meant to be played at 60fps and anything else is just disrespectful. Also, one of the cool things about Serious Sam 4 is you can play in first or third person and even change at will by pressing on the d-pad. And for those of us who just wanna have some fun it offers tons of customization as far as aim assist, reloads, auto lock on and even has multiplayer where you can play co-op with friends. I wasn’t able to try that out, but with as much fun as I had alone, I can imagine Serious Sam 4 being a blast with buddies.
Serious Sam is a lot of fun, issues and all. Not every game has to take the gamer on an epic journey, emotional or otherwise sometimes just having enough baddies to blast and a good one liner is enough. And like I said in the outset of this review I regret waiting so long to jump into this franchise. Even with the issues that I experienced, and I promise you there was many, I still can only think of one word to adequately express what I think of Serious Sam 4… Fun. 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.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
