Review for Serious Sam 4. Game for Linux, PC, Mac and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 25/09/2020
As soon as you set foot in that of Rome, you already understand that the playful prosopopoeia framed by Croteam will not conventionally be attributable to a simple health walk. Samuel Stone, the big American caricature, all muscles and ready joke that for many years has stagnated in the hearts of gamers across the globe, comes back to knock on the gates of hell for the fourth time, at least nominally, and is immediately amarcord, but not in the Fellinian sense of the term.
Sam kicks asses. In a capital oozing completely different suggestions than those gushing from the film of the majestic Emilian director, the city becomes a privileged place to welcome aliens and liters of wild blood, rather than illuminated heads and field flowers.
He takes the gun in his hand and, also thanks to the unlimited ammunition it is able to offer, the head of the first marrano available for martyrdom begins to hammer, proceeding seamlessly from one skull to the other. With the semiautomatic extension of Sam's arm, the exploration of the ruins forming the background to the events narrated corroborates the yearning for scouting of levels that, while not moving away from the usual linearity that the series has accustomed to, are full of secrets, secondary objectives to be met and bonuses to be obtained both through careful observation of the surrounding environment, and through the exploitation of the protagonist's acrobatic skills.
Although the presence of these additions is all in all welcome, the basicity of the actions necessary to dominate these challenges fails in an attempt to raise the longevity of the title, currently relegated almost exclusively to Campaign mode only.
With Deathmatch still beyond revealing, the multiplayer of Serious Sam 4 is in fact left solely to Cooperative mode, usable by up to four players at the same time. And it is a shame to observe how this feature has been exploited far below the possibilities offered by a title of this caliber, offering the same levels that can be crossed alone, populated by the same enemies, whose number of hit point available.
The (modest) increase in the vital statistics of the opponent's scum is absolutely annihilated by the possibility of being able to count on the help of other (hopefully) cogitating beings, making each game much easier than the single player counterpart, which instead has a level of difficulty absolutely in line with expectations.
The entire gestation of the development process related to Serious Sam 4 was directed to the realization of a binary work characterized by frenetic action, without stopping, and to obtain this result the development team focused their attention on rendering as many enemies as possible on the screen, rather than on the gross quality of the coatings. In some playful sections it will seem to be in the middle of a battle of any musou of Japanese ethnicity. Ed it is a shame to see how, in the face of particularly demanding hardware requirements and the many years that have passed since typing the first line of binary code, this first person shooter is not yet free from bugs and graphic glitches of various kinds.
Not even the support for APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan mitigates the disappointment, considering that their implementation does not increase performance, instead adding a extra level of instability to the already not too elaborate graphics engine, showing a management of lighting effects that defining a route is certainly an understatement.
And if it is true that Serious Sam 4 does not shine in the graphics sector, a lot the dialogues and the soundtrack take on the transcendent connotations of an experience bordering on mysticism. Each joke, especially those by now mythological John J. Dick, historical voice actor of Serious Sam, enhances a storyline that, although in line with the classic stylistic features of the shooter genre, never fails to snatch more than a few shy smiles. And the music? Simply spasmodic.
Serious Sam 4 is a good product, overall. The frenetic action that distinguishes it delivers adrenaline rushes as well as a good dose of challenge. Too bad for the lack of conviction with which the only multiplayer mode (currently) available was created, which would certainly have increased the longevity of a product which, although not transcendental, still leaves something good once the credits have been greeted.
► Serious Sam 4 is an FPS-type game developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital for Linux, PC, Mac and Google Stadia, the video game was released on 25/09/2020
