Serious Sam 4 Review

But two prequels are better than one!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Okay, it's not that franchise, but I'll explain. Instead of eloquent metaphors, here's one simple fact for you: Serious Sam 3, in which "Cool" Sam Stone confronted an endless army of Mental, came at a time when many of us were drooling over the GeForce GTX 550 Ti GPU. How long ago was that!

Serious Sam 3: BFE took place immediately before the events of the very first game and ended with the fall of the moon to Earth, which led to the destruction of all life. However, Sam managed to escape in a time portal. It would seem that the third part fully justified its timeline and became an excellent prequel. However, Croteam managed to create another story prior to Sam's journey through the time portal. It takes place on a planet that is tired of losing the war, but resists the invaders with the last of its strength. Serious Sam 4 takes place on a scarred but undefeated Earth. And Sam is still making a significant contribution to the war against Mental.

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Serious Sam can be compared to other heroesdynamic shooters. For example, to call a more talkative version of the Executioner or a less arrogant Duke Nukem. The main emphasis in previous games was on the fact that the hero alone opposed a huge horde, and the almost useless plot logically explained the change of scenery between levels. Enemies clustered in dozens, and Sam destroyed them with a wide variety of weapons. At first, he always had a limited arsenal, which over time grew to an impressive, ridiculously powerful size. However, no matter how powerful Sam's weapons were, in the confrontation with annoying bulls, endless hordes of skeletons, walkers armed with lasers and rocket launchers, or yelling at the top of their lungs (but headless) kamikaze still lacked something.

Several new aspects have been added to Serious Sam 4, but the biggest addition is a more meaningful story. It is not particularly twisted, there is no place for intrigue and surprises, but nevertheless, thanks to it, we can study Sam's personality much deeper (at least through communication with other characters).

Giving Sam more personality is a welcome addition, but it can't be called athe name for the Serious Sam series. The main emphasis is still placed on dynamic skirmishes with hordes of monsters and the search for numerous secrets on the levels. And Serious Sam 4 lives up to that formula, and refreshes it significantly. First, and most obviously, the events unfold not in the vicinity of Ancient Egypt, but in Italy, France and even Russia. The streets of the cities and ruins of Italy are great for standard levels of the type of movement from point A to point B. But as soon as you go to France, you will find yourself in a huge open world. And in Russia, the biggest battle in the series awaits you.

Another new addition to Serious Sam 4 is the presence of miles of open-world levels. Yes, despite this, the story route is still straightforward: there is always a marker indicating where to go, but, on the other hand, this is a real gift for those who like to look for various secrets, because there are no extra walls that limit your movement. Due to the sheer scope of France's first levels, it's hard for me to give an accurate estimate of how empty or full this world is. Yes, when I deviated from the planned plot route, there was a feeling of emptiness, but I can’t say for sure that I didn’t miss a few cleverly hidden secrets. The vast distances have made it necessaryty in the use of vehicles: a motorcycle, an ATV, a tractor and even a huge harvester with which you can grind skeletons and other opponents.

In addition to the main goal, each level contains one or two side tasks. They are marked with blue markers, so you can decide for yourself whether to be distracted by them or better to ignore. For each additional task you will receive a bonus reward. Sometimes it will be a new weapon (for example, a powerful installation that shoots saws), other times it will be new or already familiar gadgets. But, frankly, the real reward of the extra objectives is the ability to kill even more minions of Mental. However, why give up yet another gadget that allows you to distract opponents with Sam's hologram or create a huge Black Hole? No one forces you to use such devices without fail, but each of them can be a saving straw in intense battles.

But Sam's true strength is revealed in a wide arsenal of a wide variety of weapons. A regular pistol, a shotgun, a double-barreled shotgun, an assault and a sniper rifle, a minigun - all this returns from the previous one??shchih parts of the series. Such a crazy shooter would not have happened without the classic grenade launcher! How about an automatic shotgun? Or homing jet chainsaws? To solve more serious problems, the beloved by many "Ravager" is suitable. All weapons seem to be very powerful. But his dignity is instantly leveled by the fact that dozens or even hundreds of monsters are constantly trying to tear Sam apart.

As you progress through the game, Sam will find artifacts of power that provide skill points. You put them into another new aspect of the game - the skill tree. Each artifact gives 1 skill point. Any locked skill requires the same number of points. It cannot be said that the skill tree turned out to be somehow complex and complex. However, there is something here that will allow Sam to get more weighty arguments in the confrontation with Mental (I take it globally, because in the fourth part the main antagonist is a completely different person). By unlocking the necessary skills, you can ride bulls, increase the rate of fire after reloading, use two weapons at once (and not only pistols), and so on. There are 17 perks to choose from, which means that all of them are equally useful to one degree or another. After all, who wouldn't want to be able to fire a minigun and rocket launcher at the same time?

Serious Sam 4 is perhaps the richest (both gameplay and story) game in the series. It reveals the main character, more thoroughly introduces us to the background of the world, and all this does not run counter to the most important feature of the title - dynamic action. Everything starts relatively calmly, but gradually things are gaining momentum. And instead of a few turned towards Sam, furious bulls and headless kamikazes rush at full speed, four-legged reptilians appear, throwing homing spheres, and some new opponents. And between major battles, there is a place for research. Everywhere there are nooks and crannies containing numerous secrets (up to secret bosses), so the replay value here is at the highest level. The only downside is poor optimization. Despite the simple (but still beautiful) scenery, even medium graphics settings will require some pretty impressive hardware.