Serious Sam is back! No, it’s not a sequel to Serious Sam 4 (which we reviewed here). Instead, Croteam has decided to release a fan-made mod for the game as an official stand-alone expansion of Serious Sam 4! Entitled Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem, the game takes place entirely in the snowy wilds of northern Russia, forcing you to face off against Mental’s hordes in freezing temperatures with nothing but your t-shirt and an arsenal of weapons! Oh, and you’re wearing pants too, of course. If you’re expecting a high-octane FPS experience with hordes of enemies, tight corridors, wide open plains, giant monsters and a bunch of ridiculous commentary, then you’ll definitely be in luck with Siberian Mayhem! This is the tried-and-true Serious Sam recipe refined and distilled by some dedicated Russian fans of the series collectively known as Timelock Studio and released by Croteam themselves through publisher Devolver Digital!
As we said in our review of Serious Sam 4, there were some definite design issues and gameplay problems that plagued the main game. While there might not be as many cinemas in Siberian Madness, a lot of the major criticisms of the previous release have certainly been addressed here. Level design is tighter and more focused, featuring a number of areas that force you to box yourself in to progress, distilling combat into that classic formula of tense dodging survival that the Serious Sam franchise is famous for. While the AI for enemies hasn’t improved significantly, the placement certainly has, and combat feels more aggressive with the rise in close-in action. These improvements carry though all five levels of Siberian Madness and the overall feeling is one of a much more structured experience, but not one that feels like it’s entirely leading you by the hand. There are still plenty of secrets to explore, so don’t hesitate to wander about!
On top of the refined design work, there’s a fair amount of new content here as well. In addition to the enemy line-up from Serious Sam 4, several new enemies have been added. Apparently, some of these were already in development by Croteam but were not ready for release in the main game and instead make their debut here. Weird frog monsters, giant flamethrowing enemies, and a few new boss types all make their debut as you shiver your way across the frozen tundra, guns blazing! The environments and designs are new as well, showcasing the frozen wilds of Siberia in all their digital glory. Rusted out equipment and abandoned villages abound, as well as a variety of industrial sites that will leave you scrambling to survive as they are flooded with enemies.
There are some interesting surprises here too, including a mech level that is an absolute blast and the upgrades you can earn with skill points are absolutely delightful, especially as you clamber onto the back of a Werebull and savage the hordes with your dual-wielded rocket launchers! Serious Sam is nothing if not a fun whimsical version of the typical FPS and the new comment track from Sam is full of quotable quips that will have you snickering along, even if the script doesn’t quite match the last game. It’s darn close though!
What’s not a surprise about Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem though is the challenge level. Normal will leave you struggling to survive the boxed in Kleer attacks as you’re underarmed and low on ammo, dodging and juking like a pro or dying repeatedly. Keep in mind that this is how Serious Sam is supposed to be played; a skin-of-your-teeth survival FPS that leaves you sweating by the time you finish an arena area that you’ve been locked into as enemies spawn rapidly around you, forcing you to run backwards, firing and switching weapons with frantic abandon. The series has been designed this way from the beginning and it’s great to see that really shine on the latest graphics engine with no lag or chop. Even veteran players might struggle with the difficulty on these levels though, and dropping down to even easy doesn’t make the game incredibly easy, though a lot of situations are definitely more survivable!
What will catch fans of the franchise off guard though are some of the enemy AI shifts for this version of the game. Enemies that were previously popcorn to plink off quickly and move on have become more challenging. Regardless of your difficulty, Beheaded Firecrackers are noticeably more accurate and their shots are harder to avoid than in previous games. The same goes for Beheaded Bombers, who are ridiculously accurate from long distances. They tend to attack from high points right in the middle of a melee and suddenly your life has plummeted and your armor is cratered before you even realize where they are…and then while you’re looking for the little buggers, a Sirian Werebull or an Octanian Zealot run up on you and you’re toast. As a side note, Werebulls are actually easier to kill than in previous games, which is handy since Syberian Mayhem throws a lot of them at you. Weird…you’d think it’d be too cold for them. While we’re still on the subject, the Octanian Gamma Troopers are also weirdly accurate now, even if their lasers aren’t very powerful and the Octanian Commanders shooting homing bullets from behind their shields are an absolute plague! You’ll definitely have to be wary of the weaklings here!
Don’t worry though, even with the nasties waiting for you, you’ve got a couple great new weapons in your arsenal, including a sniping crossbow that does massive damage over a huge range and an absolutely badass ‘raygun’ that literally disintegrates its way through hordes of enemies! All the regular weapons are back too, of course, including the ability to dual wield almost everything, your trusty shotgun with grenade launcher, the multi-rocket launcher, and even the trusty cannon. The black hole device is back from Serious Sam 4, and you’ve also got stuff like the TACT which can summon an airstrike and the wicked fun Hoverboard Scooter. The Time Warp is also great fun as you get to run around like the Flash, slaughtering and disappearing. Honestly, the arsenal for Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is easily one of the most enjoyable in FPS gaming, so go to town!
The visuals in Siberian Mayhem should be no surprise. Using the same engine as Serious Sam 4, other than the new graphic designs and new enemies, the overall graphics have stayed pretty much the same. If you’re running an older system, you may experience intermittent texture drops and some other little issues, especially in some of the cinemas, but it’s nothing major. Enemies can get stuck in a few areas too, leading to some oddly amusing antics until you blow them up. For the most part though, this is a seamless and excellent visual experience.
Accompanying the frosty visuals is a solid Sam soundtrack with the all the requisite sound effects. Beheaded Kamikazes scream at you as they run, the trampling of Werebull hooves thunders through the speakers and lasers sizzle and crackle around you in the heat of battle. The Serious Sam series has always had solid, immersive audio and Siberian Mayhem is no different. As you enter a major battle, the electric guitars crank up and away you go on a high-octane death frenzy, fed by the blasting music and pounding of enemy feet/hooves/tentacles.
So what’s wrong with Siberian Mayhem? Turns out not a whole lot! Each level will run your around an hour or so, leaving you with a 5-6 hour experience unless you’re a completist and love finding all the weird secrets. This is definitely a short game, but it’s fun and intense, so for $20, it’s well worth your time. The only real complaint is a minor design one. There just aren’t all that many evil little traps in Siberian Mayhem. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the series, the first two games were absolutely chock full of jump-scare death traps where you’d pick up a health item and suddenly get swarmed by enemies right in your face, leaving you to blast randomly to attempt to survive. These have slowly petered out over the course of the series, and while they’re tossed in here and there in Siberian Mayhem, it would have been great to have players get attacked when they were trying to heal to recover from being swarmed by enemies in the first place. For a fan-made release, you’d think there’d have been a few more intense ‘Gotcha!’ moments, but they’re mostly few, far between, and easily survivable. It’s also possible that some of them are exceptionally well hidden, but hey, that’s for the second playthrough, right?
Regardless of whether you like the hostile Siberian north environment or not, or even whether you’re a fan of the Serious Sam series or not, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is an absolute blast to play and stands entirely on its own as an excellent entry in the series. This is a fun ride that’s worth playing more than once and more than worthy of the publication that Croteam gave it! Timelock Studio has absolutely nailed this one, so don’t even hesitate! Just go out and kick some alien butt! Now if only Croteam would sell official Sam shirts…Sam’s new t-shirt with the three buttons is absolutely aces!
This review is based on a digital copy of Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem provided by the publisher. It was played on an I7-8700K with 16 GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, an Asus GeForce GTX 1080 ROG Strix graphics card. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is available for PC on Steam and GOG. Screenshots are press photos because my stupid computer doesn’t want to let me take screen captures…. *mumble mumble*