This is perhaps a byproduct of having such open environments.Īll of the seventeen skills from Serious Sam 4 are here, but you’ll question why none of the skills you chose in the main game are here. What’s not pretty, is how enemies will often get stuck in the environment for easy kills. While this style of play is rather against what the series is known for, there’s some really pretty locales. So much care and attention went into designing these environments, that it’s something you’ll want to stop and look at. Going off the beaten path will reveal secrets and side objectives. Siberian Mayhem has a larger emphasis on exploration, something that Serious Sam 4 offered, but is done better here. Shooting enemy projectiles are not only possible, but a great way to mitigate incoming damage. Somewhat returning to the series are the indoor jumping platforms for a lot more mobility this time around. The gunplay is largely the same, where headshots can instakill some, and C4 can do crowd control. They do like to lock you in small rooms and drop (names of tough enemies) literally from the ceiling. More often than not, Timelock Studios gives you enough ammo to get through every encounter. Another reason you would be better having played Serious Sam 4, because this ramps up quickly, and you might not be ready for it. I found the first two chapters pretty easy to get through, but the next three chapters are such an onslaught. All of the additions here are things I wish could be used in the main game, but their exclusivity here will garner some unique modding opportunities. The second is so silly that it could only be in a Serious Sam game, and that’s the hoverboard scooter with two mounted gatling guns. The first is an airstrike, which does exactly what you think it does, as you paint a target for the bombs to fall. Only by exploring every nook and cranny of a level was I able to find two of the new gadgets in the game. When in Russia, do as the Russians do and dual wield an AK-74, a crossbow with the power of a railgun, or a laser that has the heat of the sun. Taking it down requires killing its turrets, then destroying the overheating, exposed core – the challenge here is doing it while surrounded by enemies. The most outstanding new enemy is a giant sentry tower, as it will target and fire a barrage of missiles at your location. The octanian grenadier is a foot soldier that shoots grenades, as one might guess. The draconian burner has flame tanks on his back for that can be targeted for quicker kills. All-new enemies appear like the Hoppers which look and behave like a frog and a dog mixed together. There’s twists on familiar enemies, like putting the beheaded kamikazes onto gliders. It wouldn’t be any form of an expansion if the developers didn’t add anything new. That equates to about half the gameplay with only a third of the number of chapters, that’s just math. Conversely, this takes about five or so hours to complete, where the main game took about a dozen. There are five chapters to this, in comparison to the base game’s fifteen chapters. Despite this being a standalone expansion, you’d benefit by having played Serious Sam 4 first, as the big bad of Siberian Mayhem is a pretty big reveal that would fall flat without that knowledge for the final battle. While not unexpected, Sam Stone is wearing his normal clothing and is somehow instantly acclimated. After Sam “Serious” Stone explores Tunguska, this now goes further into the Arctic Circle towards Siberia. This is an all-new episode that’s labeled as a “midquel”, taking place right after the next-to-last level and before the final level. Timelock Studio instead built gameplay around the hundreds of enemies onscreen, and that’s the key to its brilliance and brutal difficulty within it. Croteam put hundreds of enemies onscreen and worked it around the gameplay. Timelock Studio (the developer formed out of making this expansion) offers up a challenging and memorable game, a rare case where it exceeds its predecessor. Inserting itself into the main game as a lost episode opens the door for creativity without fitting into a mold. It may not be apparent that Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a standalone expansion to Serious Sam 4, mainly because it doesn’t have four in the title, but it is.
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