Review of Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem – meat grinder with vodka flavor

If anything should be left to the Croatian Croteam, it’s their “homelessness” and determination, which brings us more and more main roles from their Serious Sam series. While various FPS brands have tried to go in all directions (and sometimes successfully – DOOM), Sam “Serious” Stone’s adventures remain true to their roots and still offer the same approach to playability, with all the bad and the good. Some people like it, others don’t. You must decide which group you belong to.

However, if you are one of the first, you will surely hear that nothing has changed with the advent of the independent adventure Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem, which Timelock worked on with Croteam and the services of members of the modding community.

• Platform: PC
• Publication date: January 25, 2022
• Producer: Croteam and Timelock Studio
• Genre: FPS
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: Yes (collaboration)
• Disk space: 26 GB
• Game time: 4 hours
• Availability: 18+
• Sales version: Digital
• Price: EUR 19.99 (Steam)

Hunt for the traitor

This “midquel”, as the authors themselves call it, takes place between the penultimate and last chapters of the fourth part, when our main character goes in pursuit of the insidious General Brand. This will lead him to Russia, where, in addition to an unpleasant winter, large crowds of Mind Miners await him. And that’s basically all for the story.

History works only as a frame for local events.

Again, you’ll find a few cutscenes from the movies here, but the story really only works as a setting for local events, and you definitely won’t see any fancy twists. But it does not matter, because, probably, no one expects this. However, what’s back in full force is a bunch of sticky rumors our protagonist constantly spreads that go hand in hand with the stereotypical new Russian characters, who have a love for their own people and their leader, but also a “typical” accent. It’s stupid , it’s silly, but in a way it’s cute.So it’s just a lightning-fast canape.All five chapters took me a little over 4 hours, and sometimes I screwed up quite a bit.

Make a deal with enemies

However, it also brings its considerable bonuses. From the very beginning, the title sets an absolutely brutal pace, which is broken by the third chapter, which is just unnecessarily scattered. So the action is mostly continuous, your finger almost never leaves the trigger and thanks to this you can wake up on a site with animals indiscriminately enjoying the bloody hell that is unleashed (if the title was too brutal for you, you can traditionally turn on the filters that the blood was exchanged on flowers), backed up by a sharp guitar and a frightened kick. It’s simple, basically works on the same principle, but can still be fun. So assuming it’s your cup of coffee.

In any case, the fact that this is a separate adventure, directly related to the fourth part, is evident not only from the story itself, but also from local models or patterns. This means that the individual locations offer a relatively large area (especially the last three) where you can explore them quite freely and at the same time find various secrets as well as secondary missions. And I definitely recommend you go through, because it’s usually the best thing Siberian Trouble has to offer, despite the fact that you will get a significant widget reward from them. But it is definitely a pity that the authors did not come up with a slightly more imaginative environment. Although the scenery itself, in fact, is almost constantly changing, they look ordinary, sinless, and nothing catches the eye after sin. This is probably to some extent due to the somewhat outdated visual itself, which would rather suit more significant styling. However, this is also the problem of the third and fourth parts. And I’ve probably come to terms with that fact.

The pace is brutal and the action is continuous.

However, personally, I must appreciate that we also saw the inclusion of several puzzles that successfully break the stereotype. Yes, these are really simple things that can be solved quickly, but their very presence is nice. And the stereotype is successfully destroyed by episodes in which you use the services of a vehicle or fur, in which you unleash complete destruction. I definitely “whispered” into them. At the same time, it’s definitely nice that the campaign can be played again in cooperation, where cutting with a friend is always more fun.

New reinforcements on both sides

However, not to be too brief, the developers have added a few new features. They can be found, for example, in the armory, where you can use three new types of weapons to destroy the local base. The first is a very powerful electric crossbow, nicknamed “Perun”, which with one projectile is able to take out most enemies forever. The second part then becomes the Burner Beam Cannon, which will make a really nice clearing with a fire beam. And since we are in Russia, naturally, there should not be a shortage. Each of these guns then fits perfectly among old acquaintances and, for example, I hope that the said beam pistol will appear in other works.

In the arsenal we find three new weapons.

However, reinforcements arrived on the opposite side. If I’ve counted well, we’ve seen a total of four new types of enemies, some of which can pretty much flood you under the cauldron. From the very beginning, you will need to take care of the frog/dog crosses, which are very agile. But thank God it won’t last long. But missile watchtowers, that’s another story entirely. They can only be destroyed by shooting at the reactor, which only opens when the tower needs to cool down. And trust me, dodging missiles and attacking endless waves of enemies don’t mix well with accurate timing.

it’s still rubbish

But some changes had to be made under the hood. If you’ve played the fourth part, then you probably know that you’ve encountered a lot of technical problems, such as bouncing textures, poor launch, and a few bugs and glitches. At the time, I was hoping that these problems would be fixed, but, unfortunately, this did not happen. So I was hoping that at least the improved engine that the Siberian Mayhem was running would do something about it. And although I have to honestly say that the game definitely went better on my lineup, the situation is still far from ideal. This means that you often notice, for example, the lowering of the artificial intelligence, when the enemies just get stuck in place and do nothing, and I also turned off the sound about two times (loading helped). But it’s not that bad. But it’s worse in terms of fluency. Although the title ran without problems for a long time, but as soon as the big shootouts started (especially in the second half), the frame rate began to fly in all directions, and various reconfigurations did not help either. However, it never happened to me that I got to the stage where it was impossible to play it. However, when I looked through the discussions on Steam, it seems that I am still one of the lucky ones, because I have not been affected by the often mentioned micro-stutters or freezes.

The game works better than its predecessor, but it’s still not perfect.

In addition, various balance adjustments were also required. And that’s probably going to be true, but the title still runs into the same problem as the quad, where every once in a while you run into a phase that has almost absurd difficulty fluctuations and can be quite frustrating. It’s okay that the game offers uncompromising difficulty even on the “Normal” level (the lower one is too easy), but it would be a little better to compare the levels of individual skirmishes.

Russia is not a country, Russia is a way of life

So, if you’re a fan of the brand or the fourth installment itself, Siberian Mayhem is a treat you’re sure to enjoy. Keep in mind that you may see the end a little sooner than you would like, but the same is reflected in the valuable, which is a lousy 20 euros. However, if the series does not mean anything to you, or you roll your eyes at its simplicity and envy, feel free to skip this headline.