Serious Sam 4 starts exactly how I expected: hundreds of enemies, huge guns, constant movement and complete chaos. For the first few hours, it works. The weapons are fun, destroying massive groups of enemies is satisfying, and the classic Serious Sam feeling is still here.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem becomes obvious very quickly: repetition.

Most of the game follows the same loop. Enter a large area, fight a huge wave of enemies, move forward for a while, and then do almost the exact same thing again.

At first it's fun. After several hours, it becomes extremely predictable.

Eventually, instead of entering a new area and wondering what was coming next, I was simply thinking, “Here comes another huge enemy wave.”

I understand that fighting hordes of enemies is the entire identity of Serious Sam. The problem isn't the number of enemies. The problem is repeating the same idea for hours without enough variation.

The campaign is also far too long for what it offers.

Many sections continue long after they should have ended, usually by adding another similar encounter followed by another one. If a significant amount of the campaign had been cut, I think the game would have been much more focused and enjoyable.

Ironically, a game with almost constant action eventually becomes boring because constant action doesn't automatically mean interesting action.

The large environments don't help much either. Many maps are huge but feel strangely empty. Their size often doesn't add anything meaningful to the gameplay; you're simply travelling through large spaces to reach the next enemy arena.

The weapons are easily one of the better parts of the game. Shotguns, miniguns, rocket launchers and the rest of the arsenal are satisfying to use. Fighting hundreds of enemies can still produce some great moments.

But good gunplay isn't enough to carry the same encounters for this many hours.

Another major disappointment is the presentation.

Serious Sam 4 was released in 2020, yet there are moments where it genuinely looks like a game from around 2002.

Character models, animations, environments, textures and some visual effects look incredibly dated. At times, it feels like you're looking at something almost twenty years older than its actual release date.

And I'm not saying every game needs realistic graphics.

The problem isn't realism. The problem is that many parts of Serious Sam 4 simply look unfinished and outdated.

Modern indie games made by much smaller teams can have better animation, stronger art direction and more polished environments than what is presented here. For a game released in 2020, that was extremely disappointing.

I wasn't expecting an amazing story either. Serious Sam has never been a series I played for deep storytelling. But the characters and story aren't strong enough to support such a long campaign, which only makes the repetitive gameplay more noticeable.

Serious Sam 4 isn't a terrible FPS.

The weapons are fun, some of the massive battles are impressive, and the classic Serious Sam chaos is definitely still there.

But the game simply doesn't know when to stop.

A shorter, more focused and more varied campaign could have made this a much better experience. Instead, the same ideas are stretched for far too long, while the visuals often feel shockingly outdated for a 2020 release.

For me, the biggest enemy in Serious Sam 4 wasn't Mental.

It was repetition.