Serious Sam 4's PS5 port is disappointing. For a one-year-old game, it would have been nice for some PS5-specific features to be added to this port and give us a reason to try it out on the PS5, but...there seem to not be many reasons to try Serious Sam 4 on the PS5. It does not feel like many changes were made to this port, and the experience is reminiscent of a PS3 game. If you're looking for a fun and demon-filled FPS for your new PS5 this holiday season, then you might like Serious Sam 4. Otherwise, perhaps you should consider waiting until the experienced is more polished.
“Why so serious, Sam?” was a question I repeatedly asked myself as I played Serious Sam 4 (PS5). After reviewing Doom Eternal on the Switch, I was excited for another opportunity to play a FPS demonfest on my PS5. Except, Serious Sam is far from serious. Gory? Sort of. Fun? Sort of. Equipped for the next-gen? Absolutely not.
Serious Sam 4 is best described as a Doom meets Duke Nukem FPS. You’re given a gun, a demonic enemy is introduced, you defeat a wave of that enemy, and then you move to a new area. All this happens while cheesy dialogue (read: the driest of Dad jokes) occurs between the side characters and Serious Sam. Once you get about a third of the way in, the dialogue will be washed out by the screams of demons (especially the bomb carrying ones who scream AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH until they’re slain). While the premise itself is kosher and occupies a good niche in the FPS genre that’s overwhelmed by edgy military shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield, Serious Sam 4‘s implementation feels watered down and emptier than what Doom and Duke Nukem manage to accomplish quite well.
I’m not using watered down lightly when I describe the gameplay of Serious Sam 4 when compared to Doom and Duke Nukem, as it incorporates the more annoying gameplay mechanics that make the game less strategic and more of a simplistic affair. The guns of Serious Sam 4 feel inconsistent in the sense that the sniper rifle feels less accurate than either of the shotguns. In some encounters, my shotguns were able to hit (and defeat, somehow) enemies that were quite far away. Acquiring ammunition on the normal difficulty is inconsistent, as well. Defeating enemies sometimes drops ammunition for the gun you’re using, and that ammunition is sometimes a quarter of what you ended up using to defeat the larger demons. There were several instances early on where I felt like I was forced to conserve ammunition because I was unsure if I would find ammo in the next area or if I would be SoL for the remainder of the level.
The demons themselves offer some variability, but each new demonic addition’s uniqueness quickly becomes a grindfest. One of my biggest critiques of Doom Eternal‘s DLC was that it amped up the waves of demons to 11 and threw all of them at you at once; Serious Sam 4 follows this pattern. As you progress, each encounter involves more and more enemies (with the occasional boss battle) and forces you to fire at will rather than vary up your play patterns to overcome the demonic onslaught. If you’re a generalist player in the sense that you’re not entirely familiar with FPS mechanics and gameplay, then you might relatively enjoy Serious Sam 4‘s gameplay. If the FPS genre is your preference, then…this game might not be for you.
I appreciate how there are sidequests and optional objectives in Serious Sam 4, but they rarely (if ever) pay off. The few side objectives I’ve done have taken me well off the beaten path and to very distant sections of the map that offer little else than a unique arena or two. On one level, I found a hidden boss that shot an endless stream of rockets at me. What was my reward for beating him? Health, and hardly enough to replenish what I had lost while trying to defeat him while staying behind cover. I wasted just about all my shotgun and AR ammunition and received a paltry amount in return. The side objectives give you some ammo, armor, health, and a tool or two that might prove to be useful on higher difficulties, but seeking these objectives on easier difficulties are just not worth the return on your time investment.
I mentioned the cheesy dialogue at the start of this review, and it’s worth discussing in its own section: There is so freaking much. There is rarely a quiet moment in Serious Sam 4. When you’re not attempting to survive the hoards of screaming demons, a character will be chatting it up with you for the sake of chatting rather than adding to the story. It’s a strange dichotomy to be screamed at by demon Karens and then be bombarded with puns and cheesiness over and over and over again, and it made me wish for silence. It got to a point where I took off my headset so I could focus on killing enemies because of the audio overload. The idea of puns and cheesiness is a nice idea, it just needed to be implemented in a more appropriately paced fashion.
Let’s talk about playing Serious Sam 4 on the PS5: Oy vey. In terms of graphics and load times, I was both surprised yet disappointed to see downscaled and blocky graphics on my now-one-year-old PS5. Blowing up demons results in a weird poof of red spray paint, vomiting demons throw up yellow paint, and the gory effects seem almost comically bad. It would be one thing if this was intended in the sense that the developers wanted to spoof every aspect of a Doom game, but here…it’s just disappointing. Even worse, Serious Sam 4 is hardly optimized for the PS5. The framerate of gameplay _and_ cutscenes can be inconsistent and choppy. Loading times are comically long, and when the game _is_ done loading, there is a very subtle and entirely missable update on the screen that lets you know that you can press X to continue. My first time playing I sat for several minutes thinking that something was wrong, only to realize that it had been ready for me to proceed. A more notable notification would have been nice. Serious Sam 4 also lacks several DualSense features I’ve now taken for granted on PS5 games. It would have been nice to utilize some of the PS5’s unique features.
Serious Sam 4‘s PS5 port is disappointing. For a one-year-old game, it would have been nice for some PS5-specific features to be added to this port and give us a reason to try it out on the PS5, but…there seem to not be many reasons to try Serious Sam 4 on the PS5. It does not feel like many changes were made to this port, and the experience is reminiscent of a PS3 game. If you’re looking for a fun and demon-filled FPS for your new PS5 this holiday season, then you might like Serious Sam 4. Otherwise, perhaps you should consider waiting until the experienced is more polished.
