Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem - Review

When Croteam released Serious Sam 4 on PC a few years ago, I honestly thought it would be a while until we saw more of the series, not counting the console ports from last year, but to my surprise, they had a frozen treat on the horizon. Now that the standalone expansion is here, it was time to don the snowshoes of Sam and see if this was the perfect frozen summer treat.

The story of this expansion is not a sequel or anything like that, but instead acts as more like a lost chapter, providing some more context to the main story of the game, or at least posing a what-if style scenario. The good news is that if you haven’t played Serious Sam 4, this doesn’t care as the story is pretty contained, but if you have played through it, there is a lot more context to the events, but as a Serious Sam game, it is more about laying waste to hordes of enemies, than unravelling machiavellian levels of plot and story. Siberian Mayhem does introduce a host of new characters that you interact with, Ivan, Vlad and such, but it is best not to get to attached to them and while they are mostly stereotypes, they can be a little fun. One-eyed Olga is another new character you meet along the way, but her time is honestly so limited, it could have been just a generic person and it wouldn’t have changed much else.

As a Serious Sam game, you should know by now what you are going to get here, lots of guns and even more enemies to lay waste too and for the most part, it feels really familiar. The usual line up of guns is here, the pistol, shotgun, assault rifle and more, but there are also some really wonderful new additions to enjoy. The new Perun crossbow was one of my most favourite weapons, it was silent – as a good crossbow should be, but also very deadly, allowing for me to take down some solo enemies, on those rare occasions I could. There was also a massive laser gun, that could devastate most enemies in a single hit, but even some of the more dangerous and larger foes, were quickly defeated by it, the only catch was that it went through its ammo like nothing else, so it was best used sparingly.

Of course, the series is best known for throwing hordes of enemies at you and here the game does that many times, though there are a lot more tighter corridors than I can remember the series having before as well. Regardless of the space you are in, there is a lot of shooting, exploding and then quippy one-liners to enjoy and while the game doesn’t deviate from that too much, it never gets frustrating. There are times when the open spaces are massive and you can get a vehicle of some form to drive, but they are not that common, compared to the amount of time you will be moving under the power of your own two legs, there was a nice section about getting a train ready, but it ended with a cutscene and no climatic roof top escape, with Sam staving off the horde. One of the open spaces did have enemies coming consistently and in numerous waves and it was fun, but that one came not long after one open space with a tank and the result was it felt a little less impressive.

Something else that was unimpressive, the game had a number of bugs for me, the most common being that enemies would just stop in place and then do nothing until I started to shoot at them again. When the music ramps up, you know the enemies are coming, so hearing the music and not being able to find any enemy, was a pain, but to then discover one just loitering behind a pillar or at the top of some stairs, was bizarre. What would have made it more understandable, is if they had gone to the generic t-pose, but they were not broken animations, they were just standing there, as if catching their breath. There were also a few times that I would be stuck waiting for the game to realise I had killed the enemies in the area, in order for the next trigger to occur, these moments were not as frequent as the idling enemies, but still happened more than it should have.

As far as the presentation goes, this was a chiller look for Sam, mostly cause of the world location, but other than that, it looked almost identical to what Serious Sam 4 did. There are a smattering of new enemies and objects around the place, and they all looked great, but they also fit within the existing design that unless you knew what you were looking for, you wouldn’t notice them. That is a honestly a testament to the art design team, because creating new assets years after the game released and having them blend so well, can be quite tricky. The music and sound effects are just as incredible now as they are in the main game, though some of the voice work is a little meh in the quality department, but it serves its purpose well.

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a great, standalone adventure for Sam, like the other games in the series it never takes itself serious, despite the name and your time with it will be rewarding. For those who gave Serious Sam 4 a go and found it to be too old school, this is not going to change your mind in anyway, shape or form, as it has the exact same drawbacks, but for those who just want more Sam, this is a perfect way to get it. A few technical issues shouldn’t mar the overall experience and given how summer is heating up right now, this might just be the perfect way to chill out.

The Score

8.5

Review code provided by Devolver Digital

The Pros

+A shorter campaign, but one that is focused on just enjoying the action

+New weapons are amazing, the crossbow alone is a game changer

The Cons

-The story can be a little shallow at times, especially if you have finished Serious Sam 4

-Some technical issues do pop up quite often, which can hamper your enjoyment