Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem Review.

It is a cold day in hell and Sam is bringing the heat.

Sam is back for more mayhem and he is not letting a little cold hold him back. Nothing that a rocket launcher, some gasoline and a lot of cardio cannot do to warm you up. Keep that trigger finger warm and you are good to take on the world. Or out of this world. Whatever comes our way, we will welcome it with a boot to the head and a bullet in between its teeth.

What is it?

Siberian Mayhem is billed as a "midquel" and takes place between the penultimate and final levels of the original campaign in Serious Sam 4. With humankind barely hanging on in the devastating war with the alien forces that have ravaged the planet, Sam "Serious" Stone and the Alien Artifact Acquisition team led by General Howard Brand get in the possession of a powerful artifact known as the holy grail, a weapon that can turn this war and bring victory to the humans. unfortunately, things go not as planned, *spoiler alert*

This calm moment will not last long

General Brand betrays humanity and hands the artifact over to the alien leader Mental and became one of his servants. Serious Sam ends up lost in the Arctic Circle and has to find a way to Tunguska through the bitter cold and hostile environment of Siberia in order to stop brand and prevent his vicious plans.

This standalone adventure is designed by a team of talented members of the Serious Sam modding community grouped as Timelock Studio. Under guidance of Croteam who provided additional resources and assets they established the next Chapter in the Serious Sam saga providing approximately 7 hours of new content.

Gameplay
As described in our Serious Sam 4 review . Serious Sam's gameplay is a straightforward and simple throw back to 90's FPS mayhem.  Grab the biggest gun can find and start running and gunning taking out hordes of alien invaders who will come at you without mercy trying to overwhelm you. Run you over is more like it. Shooting and moving at high-speed pace even at the easier settings makes this game an adrenaline rush.   Run, reposition, dodge and shoot, make sure you do not get flanked. The gameplay is still the good old Serious Sam bread and butter, if you are looking for a something that pushes this franchise forward similar to what Doom did, then move right along. But if you are ok with old skool gameplay then you are in the right place.

There are few new additions to the Serious Sam 4 game though, new locations and environments across 5 new levels. New extraterrestrial infrastructures such as alien invader outposts and bases. Of course, there are new enemies such as the Dark tower, massive monolith armed with chain guns, rockets and able to summon other creatures or the hopper a mix between a frog and a demonic dog. There also have been gameplay tweaks such as the addition of traps, dynamic arenas with jumping platforms vehicle battles and more. 

Taking on all these new enemies requires new weapons and gadgets as well such as the famous AK rifle but also an energy crossbow and even a ray gun. The hoverboard scooter and the airstrike designator should also help even out the fight in your favor.

The wide-open areas are made up of various locations to explore and doing so will reward you with new tech as well as easter eggs for the fan. These items are at times hidden behind puzzles, some more complex than others giving you a small reprieve for the trigger finger.

Presentation

Siberian Mayhem has all the ingredients that are the makings of a Serious Sam game. Humorous one liners, a vast array of weapons and gadgets, and armies, upon armies of enemies to take on. The new game engine developed by croteam for Serious Sam 4 still performs well in this aspect and even though it is not mind blowing in the graphics fidelity it still looks good and brings the wow factor more in terms of performance.

The world and enemy design are creative and varied and are fun to explore.

The audio designs brings great gun sounds, explosions and horrendous monster growls to life and when the rock music kicks in during intense moments it makes you feel as part of an epic action hero working hard to safe earth.

Siberian Mayhem might be a smaller standalone expansion, but it does not feel like it. As a bonus you also do not need to have played SS4, though I do recommend it, in order to follow the story. Sam games never were about complex storytelling.

Parental note.

Since we are known for adding a note about ESRB ratings and letting families know if games are appropriate for everyone, please not that this is also an M rated game. This means it includes a bunch or things not for the youngest of the family such as blood, gore, violence, drugs references, bad language etc. But in terms of realism this is more like a cartoon then real life.

Final thought

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is an excellent stand-alone game for a good price that brings you around 7 hours of serious Sam gameplay bliss. The game is NOT easy but with a robust safe system and the option to go back a few saves and/or turn down the difficulty. But who wants to turn down the difficulty? We endure, we survive, we live on... in order to kick more aliens to the curb. Nothing new under the sun in regard to modernizing the gameplay but sometimes that old recipe is perfect the way it is and all I want is some comfort food. Serious Sam:Siberian Mayhem is my comfort food.

Developer: Timelock Studio and Croteam
Publisher: Devolver Digital Release Date: January 25, 2022
Platforms: PC (Steam and GOG)

Review platform: PC Steam
ESRB: M

About the writer: DadGeek (Rob) is the co-founder of GeeksVsGeeks. He is a product of the eighties and never let go of his geek interest and hobbies no matter how often someone told him to stop. His love for gaming and all things geeks has been part of his parenting style and permeates throughout the whole family. A family of Geeks vs Geeks