Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem can be very briefly described in one phrase – “Our old friend Sam is thrown into the very heart of Siberia, where he does what Sam usually does.” This is, in general, an exhaustive description for all games in the series, just change the number in the name of the game.

The plot and what’s going on

The story campaign of Siberian Mayhem consists of five extensive maps, and more than once players will need to overcome several kilometers of plowed fields or icy tundra. You still have to overcome them on foot or by transport, the variation of which this time has been expanded quite well.

This is a spin-off of Sam’s adventures, which takes place between the final chapters of the fourth part. A brave fighter against an alien threat was brought to Siberia, where the traitor of humanity, General Brand fled. Together with the commander of the partisan resistance Igor Ledov, Sam fights his way through the hordes of monsters to tear off the general’s treacherous head.

The plot in Serious Sam has always been nothing more than an excuse for going crazy. Laser guns, huge monsters the size of a house, and carnage – all this was explained by the fact that the hero goes into the past and fights for the future of the Earth there.

The approach to the plot of the developers from Croteam changed with each part: at first part the plot was light, as if written as a script for a film, in the second part it became much crazier, the third part, on the contrary, became much more mundane and serious. And for the fourth part, the authors returned to what was happening in the original: the plot seems to be serious, but with so many oddities that it is very difficult to perceive it without a raised eyebrow. Siberian Mayhem follows the same path, except that it will be much stranger for players from Russia and the post-Soviet space than for Western fans of the series.

Gameplay

Traveling across the Siberian expanse, it is easy to see that the approach to level design has not changed much compared to Serious Sam 4. We have either wide corridors or huge fields bounded by forest and rocks, but there are small, but still noticeable changes.

Exactly the same as the fourth part of the series – in front of you is a typical “Sam”. Rush through the levels, shooting the enemy with lead from all barrels, complete simple side quests, “secrets”. There are a lot of enemies, and in order to effectively fight, you will definitely have to switch between guns otherwise you simply won’t have enough ammo, actively maneuver and use various useful gadgets, such as slowing downtime or an assistant drone.

All the gameplay problems have migrated from the fourth part: absolutely useless finishing moves, and useless because while you are trying to kill someone like that, you will be hit a hundred times or simply surrounded, the perk system, huge open locations that you have to ride back and forth on a snowmobile.

Fortunately, the game does not focus on this. There is only one open map and the skills that the game gives out in the story are enough to unlock the most useful perks.

Is it worth taking?

“Sam” has remained an “old school” shooter – one where you run at enemies, shoot, and try to shout them down. This is both a pros and cons of the project – for some, the game may seem outdated, and for someone, having spent seven to eight hours going through the story campaign (it is short in Siberian Mayhem, only five levels), they will get a huge adrenaline rush and charge good vibes for the week ahead.

So if you are a fan of the Serious Sam series, or just want to play an uncompromising and absolutely crazy shooter, then you simply have no options.

Technical part

Let’s talk about graphics and optimization. Despite the fact that the picture sends greetings from 2012-15, even at maximum settings and even at medium settings, I sometimes freeze in gunfights. And we all understand, this is a serious problem for a shooter. What hurts the eyes the most is the loading of textures. Well, fans of the series are used to weak graphics, but I hope they will fix freezes and loading issues.

But I would like to praise the sound, although it does not seem that there are at least some innovations here. And this series of games, which two decades later has the same sound of twitching the mouse in search of screaming enemies.

The design of the locations in the game looks great. The developers managed to bring the fruits of Russian depth to fame. Everything that is familiar to a Russian person is here: a village with a garden, garages for the whole street.

You can scold the already old animation, but in general, it’s just a nitpick.

Outcome

An insanely driving and cool action game that ends exactly when you already want to take a break from the constant screams of opponents, pieces of meat that fill up the monitor, and special effects. Siberian Mayhem brings absolutely nothing new to the genre – in fact, the game quite successfully steps on the same rake that the original Serious Sam 4 went on. However, they managed to make a good game that is just fun to play.

As soon as new level designers were involved in the development, a fairly conservative series was transformed. Siberian Mayhem absorbed all the best from the previous parts, but at the same time ruthlessly took the worst – so you only have to regret weak optimization and short duration. We are waiting for new projects, and we hope that they will fix the problems that have long followed the series.