Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem Reviews
Siberian Mayhem keeps the experience fresh while sticking to the roots of what makes Serious Sam so great: ruthless alien-killing action with plenty of puns along the way.
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a standalone expansion that takes Sam Stone to the icy land of Siberia. The expansion introduces new weapons, enemies, and gadgets for Sam to use against hordes of enemies of an unmatched scale.
Serious Sam Siberian Mayhem distills the DNA of the series down into a series of long, brutally chaotic levels backed by an all-time peak of a soundtrack, and I’d recommend it entirely to both returning players wanting more and new players looking into the series for the first time, with the only downside being that there simply isn’t enough of it in a single playthrough. More of this please, Timelock.
It’s hard to pinpoint why this expansion just isn’t included into Serious Sam 4 as DLC, because it misses out on varied and complex modding offerings. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is half the price and length of Serious Sam 4, making this standalone expansion worth the price of admission. This new team at Timelock Studios has tapped into the history of the series for absolutely brutal arenas that would make Croteam blush. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is to Serious Sam 4 as DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods is to DOOM Eternal. Which is to say that if you thought the main game was too easy, Siberian Mayhem is here to kick your ass for the most challenging set of levels with a smarter use of the numerous enemies on-screen.
If you loved the time you spend with original Serious Sam 4, this new expansion can be right up your alley.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Inevitably, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem doesn’t do much to attract newcomers to the series. It is what it is: an expansion designed to offer Serious Sam 4 fans more hair-raising combat encounters, with a sprinkling of new enemies and weapons. It’s disappointing that some of the technical issues that have plagued Serious Sam 4 since launch still persist, but if the idea of having an entire army of Headless Kamikazes running your way yet again gets you hot under the collar, it’s well worth the investment.
A lean and mean addition to the Serious Sam family that experiments with a few new toys, and offers more of the same Serious Sam goodness we've been accustomed to. It has the odd instance of unnecessary padding via one too many gunfights, but overall keeps a breezy, brutal pace.
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is an excellent entry in the long-running series.
How much fun you’ll have in the bleak, frozen landscape depends on how much you are still smitten with mid-90s first-person shooter mechanics. Serious Sam would rather die than apologize for being what he is. Those looking for an evolution or some sort of next step in gameplay design may as well look elsewhere. All encounters in the game play out exactly the same way they have for the last thirty years. You can mix things up with weapon choices, co-op, and difficulty settings, but that’s about it. 2016’s Doom received loads of (justified) praise for finding a way to push this genre forward. Siberian Mayhem is clearly content to keep touring with the hits. While I won’t drag it for being true to itself, only devout followers of the church of Sam need apply.
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is another action-packed oldschool shooter with tons of enemies and interesting weaponry. Although the gameplay is good, minor bugs and design mistakes can spoil your impression.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
A new Serious Sam game! And guess what? You get exactly what you'd expect! Siberian Mayhem is a mindless fragfest that does not overstay its welcome. Just a shame that graphics also seems to be coming from 10 years ago.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As a standalone DLC, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem lasts the right amount of time and if you love rude and ignorant run & gun shooters, you will also love this hilarious trip to Siberia.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Serious Sam: Sliberian Mayhem offers the similar carnage and heart-pounding action of its predecessors, with some cool new weapons to boot.
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is funny because his name is Serious Sam, but that's it. In the end, it brings absolutely nothing to the original game, worse, it is downright less fun and too serious.
Review in French | Read full review
If there is another Serious Sam, please try to build around the core mechanic, which has always been shooting monsters in the face with insane weapons. Previous titles such as Serious Sam: The First Encounter and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter had fantastic level designs. Every level felt amazing, and it was fun from start to finish. The most recently released games do not feel that way, and please get rid of the strange art style where the game is trying to be more realistic than ever before.
Ammunition-fueled ATV trips, Mech piloting sequences and taking down squid-operated choppers levels of insane action can’t save Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem. No matter how varied the environments or silky smooth the gunplay and weapons may be this time around, it’s clear the franchise is in need of more of a shakeup. Blowing through waves and waves of extraterrestrial threats doesn’t take long to blur together and once more feels like going through the motions. It’s frustrating too; creating a game with the help of loyal fan modders is arguably as true as the franchise can get. Still, it struggles to impress. Maybe it’s high time the Serious Sam series take notes from its most recent setting: traipsing away on ice for a little while.
Full of secrets, desolate and still somewhat gorgeous – Siberia might be the home of bloodshed you were missing in Serious Sam 4. All for the low low(?) price of 30 quid.