In 2001, unknown developer Croteam burst onto the scene with Serious Sam, a game that hearkened back to the good old days of Doom and Quake. Praised for its simplistic, yet fun gameplay, Serious Sam rose from out of nowhere to become a commercial hit with gamers worldwide.

Now, Croteam is back with its fourth installment of the series appropriately titled Serious Sam 4, which promises more mayhem, more chaos, and more frenzied gameplay from previous versions.

Like the titles before it, SS4 offers nonstop action at a breakneck pace. In every mission, you move from level to level where gazillions of enemies are unleashed at you in successively larger waves. The only reward you get from getting through the onslaught is the privilege of moving on to the next level where more enemies lie in wait chomping at the bit to get to you.

One Man Gang

If you played any of the Serious Sam games, you know that the gameplay doesn't take itself too seriously, offering laughable jokes and adolescent humor. However, despite what many might deem juvenile gameplay, the series had one major factor going for it: it was damn fun.

The game itself is amazingly accommodating despite the player's skill or experience in first-person shooters. This is due to the fact that enemies always attack in droves and no real evasive or complex countermeasures are needed. You just take aim and take down as many monsters as you can; which for many, is the perfect remedy for inpatients players longing for instant gratification.

Serious Sam 4 offers just enough new content to warrant a purchase: new weapons, more hardened enemies, a 4 player co-op mode, and a Legion System which allows you to unleash some of the best moments from the entire series. New additions to your arsenal are the chainsaw, the flamethrower, and the sniper rifle.

While I always prefer sniping enemies from a distance, it's not always the preferred weapon because you will almost always get overrun, in which case you'll have a better chance of surviving using the chainsaw or rocket launcher. Many of the enemy monsters are holdovers from the previous games, although there are a few new ones like the frantic Possessed, the Belcher, and the hard-hitting Zealots.

A Hard Man is Good to Find

The game is spread out over dozens of locales providing an excellent mix of backdrops that takes you through grasslands, caves, mountains, and lava-filled caverns. Graphically, the game looks amazing with enormous outdoor levels that are exquisitely detailed and a horizon that seems to stretch for miles.

You move seamlessly from indoor to outdoor environments and even with hundreds of enemies on the screen, there's was hardly any slowdown that I've experienced. The music is both melodramatic and lighthearted and quickens in pace each time you are in battle.

Despite the rich features, Serious Sam 4 isn't perfect. It is a short-lived game that can get tedious quickly since it follows a very coequal formula of just trying to stay alive for as long as you can often making it feel like an endurance test than a game. The multiplayer features, however, are fun and adds some longevity to otherwise simple gameplay.

Still, if you don't take Serious Sam 4, um, too seriously, you can enjoy it for what it is: a guilty pleasure that's packed full of fun and excitement that reminds us of why we started playing video games in the first place.