Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem

Sam Stone is back to fight the alien threat, this time in the cold landscapes of Siberia. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a standalone expansion that continues the legacy of one the most predictably unpredictable FPS franchises in the history of gaming, adding more complexity to the maps, and even bigger hordes to kill.

The Serious Sam formula has always been repetitive by design, and Siberian Mayhem might not be that much different than its predecessors. However, this repetition also comes with the added satisfaction of blowing countless hordes of enemies to smithereens, and that’s a sensation that many modern FPS games seek to emulate, but only the geniuses at Croteam know how to master.

Reliving the Classics

An untold chapter in Sam Stones’ life, Siberian Mayhem has our smart-mouthed heroes traveling to the icy wildlands of Siberia. The game acts as a standalone expansion to Serious Sam 4, re-using most of the enemies and weapons from the base game. The gameplay also remains untouched, though that’s been the case through most of Serious Sam’s history.

Like Serious Sam 4, Siberian Mayhem is a return to form for the series after the slight departure that was Serious Sam 3 BFE. However, one thing to note is that maps seem to be more complex in this game. Mostly gone are the wide open areas of the first Sam games, and now we have something that seems to be more in line with newer fast-paced FPS games such as 2016’s Doom.

However, there’s no doubt that the Serious Sam formula will remain untouched in this expansion. In these games, most of your time is spent navigating from room to room, facing endless hordes of enemies and circle-strafing them to advance to the next area. It’s simple, repetitive, and also insanely fun.

Serious Graphics

Like its predecessor, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem makes full use of the powerful Serious Engine 4. This has allowed Croteam to place an outrageous amount of enemies on screen at the same time – a feat that is both visually impressive and immensely entertaining for the player.

The bad news is that Siberian Mayhem might also come with the same technical issues that made Serious Sam 4 somewhat of a headache to play. This is no Doom Eternal: slowdowns do happen when there are many enemies and explosions on display, not to mention an odd glitch that seems to affect texture loading from time to time.

Other than that, most of the gameplay of Siberian Mayhem promises to be silky smooth, especially if you have a beefy machine. Here’s hoping that Croteam delivers some optimizations for their engine, because, in terms of graphics, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is chaotically gorgeous.

The five new levels introduced in this expansion feel incredibly varied, even by Serious Sam standards. From deserted forests to a spooky ghost town, this might be one of the best games in the series when it comes to level variety. Considering this is just an expansion, it’s impressive what the developers managed to achieve with this game.

Pros

• Amazing level and enemy variety
• Challenging boss fights
• Outstanding visuals and physics

Cons

• Gameplay can get repetitive
• Some minor performance issues
• Sam’s one-liners can get a bit too cheesy