Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2020
Serious Sam 4
Developer Croteam
Serious Sam 4 is a 2020 first-person shooter developed by Croatian studio Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. It is part of the Serious Sam series and a prequel to Serious Sam 3: BFE. The game was announced in April 2018, originally as Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass, and was released in September 2020 for Microsoft Windows and Stadia, followed by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S ports in December 2021. A… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
28 reactions from 2 sources (Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Sep 8, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
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| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
28 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
14,869 of 17,844 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
A written summary appears once the title has a score.
Reactions
28 of 28 · most liked firstRepulsively boring and extremely monotonous. Generally speaking, a "Serious Sam" game shouldn't consist of anything other than slaughtering hordes of monsters. But in this particular game, killing monsters is incredibly tedious. We barely managed to finish the playthrough with a few friends—half of whom dropped out along the way. "Serious Sam: The Second Encounter" was released 25 years ago, yet it is a hundred times better than the fourth chapter in every single aspect of gameplay.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Maps are too open with nothing in them just wasting your time while youre searching for secrets most of the time finding nothing Animations are looking pre 2000s (serious sam 2 has better animation ngl) and textures pop ins all the time even on the highest settings besides the gun models as if it was made in the 2008 bad shading and textures are very low quality characters are super annoying besides maybe hellfire and cutscenes are even worse quality wise sounds are a mess characters sound like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been playing SS since I found The First Encounter in the bargain bin at a multimedia shop in 2001 and I loved the franchise. I can 100% most of them on hard with one had at this point. Unfortunately SS 4 continues on the downwards trend of BFE by not only having serious graphical issues (textures popping up or blinding bloom in cut scenes, indoor areas too dark to see anything, HL2 had better facial animation in 2004...) but also the gameplay is seriously bad, and maps appear to have been…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I mean, it's Serious Sam. It's been the same for decades now lol. For some reason, the game thinks my 5080 isn't powerful enough and warns me when booting up the game. Cool.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Serious Sam 4 is exactly what you’d expect from a Serious Sam game — ridiculous enemies, huge weapons, nonstop explosions, and absolute chaos. The shooting feels satisfying, and fighting massive waves of enemies never gets old. The humor and over-the-top action give the game its own personality, while the campaign keeps things moving with plenty of crazy encounters. Playing co-op with friends makes the chaos even more fun. That said, the game can feel repetitive after a while, and some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oh this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ It's fun ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ though Listen if you haven't played a Serious Sam game before, I genuinely recommend checking out the First and Second encounter. Those are genuinely good games. If you HAVE played those games, you could consider checking this out on sale. It's an entertaining Serious Sam game, it's got personality, but it came out in the same year that we got DOOM Eternal, and I'ma be straight with you here, this ain't DOOM Eternal.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have honestly no clue why Serious Sam 4 gets all this hate. I enjoyed every aspect of this story. This is a prequel to Serious Sam 3 which itself was a prequel to The First Encounter people are mad that the game takes a wholesome tone? Well Duh this is before Sam got sent back in time all alone, I won't mention what happens because that would spoil everything however.. I must add that as someone who started with the First Encounter and has played all the serious sam games except for the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will say the weapons are pretty fun in this game, but the levels are incredibly boring and repetitive. In Serious Sam 4, Sam and company venture through generic, copy-pasted arenas, insisting the whole time that you're in Europe or something. Sam now has buddies who fight with him during the entire game, evidently included for comic relief, but not a single joke lands. It's actually funny at first just how unfunny the humor is, but play long enough and it starts to feel depressing; there is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Part of the Steam description reads: "Serious Sam 4 unleashes some of the biggest moments in the series’ history with the new Legion System and battlefields teeming with thousands of enemies!" I feel the need to correct this. "Serious Sam 4 unleashes some ONE of the biggest moments in the series’ history with the new Legion System and A battlefields teeming with thousands of enemies (in a one-time setpiece)!" While that's a really cool setpiece, you're not getting that in the rest of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's like Serious Sam 3, but better, but also so much worse. Pacing is better, gameplay variety is better, there's no pitch black tunnels with space monkeys that jump from wall to wall, there's no looking for keys in a giant map with infinitely spawning enemies, no taking on giant enemies with just a pistol, that's all good. But look, with BFE at least it seemed like they tried. In 2011 I was willing to look past a lot of this stuff, hell even in 2017 I wrote a positive review for Sam 3, but…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Even in the fourth installment of the series, Serious Sam doesn’t reinvent itself; it still plays exactly as you remember it. Absolutely massive hordes of bloodthirsty monsters attack from all directions, and you mow them down while running in circles around your enemies or backing away from them. Early on, you’ll use a pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle for this purpose; later in the game, you’ll fire homing missiles, launch mini-nukes, or tear enemies apart with the new automatic shotgun.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bad story, bad guns, bad encounters. Its like they learned nothing from serious sam 3
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →87. Serious Sam 3 Jewel of the Nile: Solid little expansion. The secret weapons from the main game became normal pick-ups and the hammer is now a sick axe. The first couple levels are oddly stingy on health though which got annoying. I liked it, but I'm taking break before I play Serious Sam 4!
unlabelledView post →Serious Sam 4 is not a horrendous game, but it is a disappointment. And for that, it's a bad Serious Sam game. Spoilers ahead. I liked Serious Sam 3: BFE. Which was more modern than the First and Second Encounters (which I love). So this isn't a "this game is too modern" thing. The abundance of flat characters, the really weird inclusion of a friendly arachnoid (which doesn't even go anywhere), the way too big areas (A Breakfast in France was especially noticeable) and the fact that there are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Has frequent texture pop in issues, graphical glitches and general poor performance. On top of the glaring technical issues, it feels like a phoned in entry and Croteam still doesn't remember what made The First and Second Encounter great. They carried over too many ideas and game feel from 3.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is amazing how Croteam still manages to stay the same and yet improve the nearly perfect Serious Sam formula over so many years. Many other arena shooters didn't manage to hold up and progress during so many years, and Serious Sam still is a great example of the top-tier shooters. It is great fun playing it, although brutal difficulty, even on normal, can be crushing. Also great fantasy quest on an oil rig.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Serious Sam 4 is so underrated IMO. Some of the things critics complain about are actually subtle jabs at Triple-A game design itself, and don't hurt the gameplay or fun in any way. (e.g. vast expansive areas you never have to visit to complete stages, but have things there if you do).
unlabelledView post →Shout outs to Serious Sam 4 being verified but it runs at 2fps and the sound flat out doesn't work Looking the game up on protondb is just multiple comments asking "Why the fuck is this verified"
unlabelledView post →I finished Serious Sam 4. It is an absolute fever dream of a game; you'll go from cutscenes with the worst character models you've seen in your life a relatively pretty looking FPS with insane amounts of scale. The gameplay is also great, possibly the best in the series despite optimization errors.
unlabelledView post →Join me and @d6learning.bsky.social for a live interview/Q&A with writers Jonas & Verena Kyratzes on March 5, 17:00 CET! We will discuss writing for video games (The Talos Principle and Serious Sam 4 mostly), and then host a Q&A session. Grab a (free) seat here: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-writin...
unlabelledView post →If you just want to strafe backwards, hold left-click, and blow up thousands of screaming alien hordes with massive guns, this delivers the classic chaos in spades. That said, the visuals look surprisingly dated, and the Legion System doesn't feel quite as revolutionary in practice as it did on paper. It's unrefined and cheesy, but the core shooting loop remains dumb, satisfying fun with friends.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →+ gunplay is still fun - woke, with super ugly body type 2 characters and rainbow flags - pathetic level design for a Serious Sam game with huge empty spaces, literally nothing in them - pathetic story - not funny, pathetic characters - very weak jokes - game is ugly with objects and textures popping in just a few meters in front of you - the most iconic guns are nowhere to be found until very late into the game, be prepared to run with shotgun most of the time. - Achriman fight is terribly…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gunplay is super fun and addicting but the optimization is terrible
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A confused mess of a game that isn't helped by it's awful performance and poor visuals. It somehow has surpassed Borderlands in awful Marvel tier humour and writing, and the more the Serious Sam games go on, the less of any identity they have. They also keep making prequels instead of ever finishing the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ series for whatever reason, as if people actually care about the awful story of Serious Sam. Reminder, we're only here because Serious Sam 2. Despite that, we should've stuck to the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i don't understand how it's possible to be this bad at game design
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Turn Off Your Brain and Blast the Horde Prequel to the prequel - the ultimate boomer shooter brings back the one and only Sam "Serious" Stone after a 9-year wait. Unfortunately, the game is a mixed bag that underdelivers on several fronts, but on the flip side, it packs the absolute best gunplay in the entire series. If you don't expect a phenomenal story and have a few friends to hop into co-op with, I can recommend it. Pros: Amazing arsenal and fun gadgets. Good sound design and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's just not fun anymore, there are too many dead areas you have to walk through and the elements that made SS:FE and SS:SE fun just aren't here. Before Serious Sam 3, all the Serious Sam games felt like an exploration across levels, new areas to explore but with SS4 everything feels copy and paste, a walking simulator. The Urban combat forced on to you in SS3 and SS4 at the start of the game is just boring and and so drawn out. If feels like there are 3 or 4 different concept designers…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is not Serious Sam. It is a game that carries the Serious Sam name and mimics some elements of the original series. From an optimization standpoint, the game feels okay. The engine is good, and I've always liked the visual style of the Serious Engine. It has generally been well optimized for me. However, the overall game is very disappointing. The level design, characters, and overall structure feel completely different from what a Serious Sam game should be. It's difficult to explain…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game tries to be a lot of things and ends up being none of them. I've been a Serious Sam fan since the original First Encounter. I love the series and I love Croteam, but this one just didn't land for me. I completed it. I did not have fun. This review contains spoilers. There are some baffling design decisions in this one. For some reason Croteam decided to add enemies who are immune unless you shoot them in the back (or shoot them with rockets/grenades or energy cells). These guys also…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wow, just wow. Croteam really outdid themselves this time. They made another game with mindless shooting, big arenas that are a waste of time, except now they added a YELLOW PAINT, just in case the player is so stupid they can't find their way in roblox-tier level design. The characters are pointless, and speak only in reddit humor and marvel movie writing. The controls are terrible, because croteam is still using an engine they made in 2000. jumping feels like nothing. you just move up.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is just you, guns and shiz-ton of aliens standing between you and your waypoint. Plus silly slapstick humour that makes you cringe and laugh. This game was the most fun game I have played in a while.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the best serious sam game everrrr, best in the series!! BUT...... IT'S TIME TO GET SERIOUS MOTHER FKR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Uncapitalized potential held together by duct tape, dreams, Croatian alcohol and covered in a river of steaming dogshidd and agony.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pure and simple brainrot fun. Highly recommend.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This Game killed the Serious Sam Franchise for me. Then it buried it, dug it up again, and had sex with the corpse infront of me. If i would sit down right now and teach myself how to code, i could make a better serious sam game in 2 years.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not an epic title but enjoyable one, I liked this despite all negative experience on the start (bugs, poor performance and so on). Current version is good. This is pure "eurojank" experience and that's massively appreciated in current world of AAA slop, it is both "new" and "old" feel, thus refreshing. Finished whole game under Proton runtime on Arch, no issues at all.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ah, good old Sam. Great graphics and the soundtrack rocks, what to expect from Serious Sam? Same old gameplay with some cool features like riding a mech (really cool) and a directional pointer so you don't stray too far from objectives (some maps are really huge). Unfortunately Sam's character model is kinda downgraded from Sam 3, I like Sam 3's model a lot more. Still a must-have for old school shooter fans.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just go play the third game or go back to the first or second encounter, this game feels empty and unfinished. The whole thing is more frustrating than fun
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Incredibly fun I've played Serious Sam games since my childhood and was a big fan of BFE back in the day, and compared to those games, Serious Sam 4 is so much more fun! I've played it 2 times: first on hard difficulty, and then I went on a Serious + all secrets run, which took me 39 hours in total. The gameplay is what you would expect: you just run, grab some ammo, shoot, melee, shoot again, and just keep on shooting most of the time :D But what I liked most, is that the shooting is super…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →goated game and very well optimised, it runs on potatoes and you won't struggle feeling like a badass
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great game loved every minute of it. why the thumbs down? because cro team are exactly like sandlot (EDF series). what started out as quirks because of being a small low budget team, incel appreciation for these quirks allowed the developers to never fix anything that bugs the ♥♥♥♥ out of most players. despite amassing popularity, recognition and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of cash they decided to never waste time or money fixing the things that piss people off and instead leave it up to the community to do the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Serious Sam 4 is fucking awesome to play! If you want a Doom Clone, this is the game for you!
unlabelledView post →I have never played a game with optimization this bad in my life. How can a game stutter while simply walking down a straight road on a laptop with an RTX 5060, 32 GB of RAM, and an Intel i7-13620H? The stuttering is so bad that it's almost unplayable, and the graphics aren't even that impressive. I thought they would have fixed it after six years, but apparently not. What's even more disappointing is that they abandoned the Serious Engine and switched to Unreal Engine, so at this point I doubt…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →genuinely one of the most BORING FPS shooter I've played
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a fan of the serious sam series since the first encounter (the original one) and played all and everything of the series. This part doesn't feel like it belongs to all the rest. The maps are huge but poorly made, rendering takes place within what feels like a 5 m radius around the player even with all the settings maxed, the enemies behave in strange ways that might appear like bugs but ain't, optional side quests are not optional at all because they will yield you very necessary stuff most…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game felt like a watered down version of a Serious Sam game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very weird game. Feels like a mix between Doom and Just Cause. The gameplay is nice, however many times you get overwhelmed by massive hordes of enemies which can be both exciting and annoying depending on how you feel. Boring story, poor graphics and sometimes slowly loading textures, lifeless and forgettable characters, horrible puns throughout the whole game, several enemies copied straight from Doom but with a reskin, fluent movement and bunny hop except when you want to make a hard jump…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →OG Sam'r here. There is still a little bit of Sam flair in this installment. No nearly as much as I remember. But a fun game either way. Love you Sam!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →scary,funny,awesome game and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ~ beheaded kamikaze POV: My Life
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Jooo,Switch2 is here! :0 That Moment,when these Leaks were so real... It's a New 3DS Moment,I FEEL ME OLD XD I may buy it, when we get... Good Exclusive Titles, GTA5&6, Serious Sam 4/Siribian Mayhem, Dead Space Remake... Any interesting Game, where the GPU would be on Fire. I expect it around 400€
unlabelledView post →Was having a blast. Everything I look forward to in a Sam game.......till a certain sidequest put a bad taste in my mouth. Why is the pandering a thing in every game?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolute disgrace for the brand and the lore. I dont get all the positive reviews. Trash-tier but not funny trash, more like sad trash.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A really great game and prequel to Serious Sam 3 BFE but has a few flaws Pro's: Great soundtrack as usual Great returning weapons and brilliant new ones Great Gadgets The maps are expansive and the new side quests are a good edition Varied environments across Italy All the enemies are here with a few new ones Fun bosses Meh: Cutscenes just like SS3:BFE and they're just as 50/50 here, can be cringy and animation is very stiff The massive map you travel on the bike needs more things to visit…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Serious Sam 4 is the worst entry in the main core series by a rather large margin. While the gameplay is mostly the same, I’d still say it feels watered down. The only good addition is the perk system, mainly because it allows dual wielding. Aside from that, though, it’s pretty bad. SS4 loses a huge chunk of what made Serious Sam, well, Serious Sam. The more realistic style they’ve been going for since Serious Sam 3 just does not work. The older cartoony, goofy, and extremely gory art style…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's fine. The game is horribly optimized running unstable 70 FPS at 1080p, the dialogues feels forced at times and looking for secrets in this highly detailed world is a chore. But, this is still your classic SS experience which is just as fun as it always was. You get a skilltree which allows you to dual wield or ride werebulls, gadgets which provide variety of useful effects, some secrets were really funny, the vehicles are fun to use and the stages are way more disntict than they were…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →a really great game, t̶h̶o̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶5̶8̶-̶6̶9̶ ̶f̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶7̶2̶0̶p̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶2̶0̶-̶4̶0̶ ̶f̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶1̶0̶8̶0̶p̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶s̶u̶c̶k̶s̶,̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶,̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶u̶n̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶+̶ 100%ing it is fun edit: nvm all that ♥♥♥♥, i'm a dumbass who didn't realize that i had super sample anti aliasing on (at x4) which killed my fps by running the game at x4 times the resolution, now i get like 50-70 fps on 1080p and cpu medium (2 customized), gpu ultra (11 customized),…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a good game. However, I liked "darker" SS3 better. For me, Sam himself has always been a counterpart to Duke Nukem: speaking not that much, having deep sarcastic responses. This is a some kind of "we wanted to make mayhem style, but overdid it": way too much dialogues, most of them are pointless and cringe, not to mention F*CKING PARTNERS (who also talk too much). Also, for me, Serious Sam (the game) is a counterpart to DOOM. In doom, slayer has a sci-fi weapons to use against sci-fi…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →buggy unfinished poorly optimized mess, loses the charm of the first games. gameplay wise i could argue that it got better, but everything else from level and enemy designs to forced unfunny humour is a major step-down. the only thing that's consistent with all the games is a great ost - this game is not an exception. loved to hear the grand cathedral, hero and dunes interpolations. 5.5/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mmh, we seriously need a sideway thumb for this, as Serious Sam 4 is fine and I can find myself enjoying some of its mechanics, but I'd much rather recommend you the other Games as of now. After years of the same dance in the Game Industry, I can finally put into words why I'm having a hard time clicking with it; we keep straying further and further away from Simplicity, such as constantly adding Parry Systems, Skill Trees, Bloat Collectibles, & realistic body motions, which slows down the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Classic. Fun, simple, cringe... ohh my youth... Recomended!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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