Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem

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 an excellent entry in the long-running series.

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem delivers what you'd expect from a quality DLC. It offers plenty of content and fun and addresses some of the original's shortcomings. As a result, we can recommend it to all fans of retro shooters. However, younger and more demanding players will hardly be interested.

If you have somehow enjoyed the base Serious Sam 4, you will most certainly enjoy Siberian Mayhem. It’s pretty much the same damn game, just with some slightly less terrible performance and some better level design. However, most of these changes don’t make up for a very superior overall package. If you didn’t like that game, this won’t be the one that will make you change your mind. For every fun action-packed encounter, there will be something else that is equally dull to bring the experience down a notch.

The video game equivalent of being picked up in a 2000 F-250 by a guy blasting Skynyrd and yelling HELL YEAH BROTHER at everything you say.

In short, Siberian Mayhem is a better version of Serious Sam 4 with tight pacing, well-thought-out combat arenas and some old-school touches. While the performance issues are a bummer, for ₹ 699/$ 19.99, there’s loads of fun to be had here. Devolver Digital should think of giving Timelock Studios more work in the future.

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a typical example of a shooter that is not for everyone.

Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem adds directly to Serious Sam 4 without changing much. Despite being a standalone expansion, players should go through Serious Sam 4 first. Only after, should Siberian Mayhem be considered for purchase?

It’s a game that relishes in its proclivity for ridiculous violence and over-the-top set pieces, and considering you can mostly ignore the superfluous additions, what we have is another highly entertaining entry in one of the genre’s most iconic series.

Serious Sam - Siberian Mayhem is an insanely driving and cool action game that ends exactly when you already want to take a break from the constant screams of opponents, pieces of meat that fill up the monitor and special effects. Siberian Mayhem brings absolutely nothing new to the genre - in fact, the game quite successfully steps on the same rake that the original Serious Sam 4 went on. However, they managed to make a good game that is just fun to play.