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. Inserting itself into the main game as a lost episode opens the door for creativity without fitting into a mold. 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. Croteam put hundreds of enemies onscreen and worked it around the gameplay. Timelock Studio instead built gameplay around the hundreds of enemies onscreen, and that’s the key to its brilliance and brutal difficulty within it.
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. After Sam “Serious” Stone explores Tunguska, this now goes further into the Arctic Circle towards Siberia. While not unexpected, Sam Stone is wearing his normal clothing and is somehow instantly acclimated. 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. There are five chapters to this, in comparison to the base game’s fifteen chapters. Conversely, this takes about five or so hours to complete, where the main game took about a dozen. That equates to about half the gameplay with only a third of the number of chapters, that’s just math.
It wouldn’t be any form of an expansion if the developers didn’t add anything new. There’s twists on familiar enemies, like putting the beheaded kamikazes onto gliders. All-new enemies appear like the Hoppers which look and behave like a frog and a dog mixed together. The draconian burner has flame tanks on his back for that can be targeted for quicker kills. The octanian grenadier is a foot soldier that shoots grenades, as one might guess. The most outstanding new enemy is a giant sentry tower, as it will target and fire a barrage of missiles at your location. Taking it down requires killing its turrets, then destroying the overheating, exposed core – the challenge here is doing it while surrounded by enemies. 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. Only by exploring every nook and cranny of a level was I able to find two of the new gadgets in the game. The first is an airstrike, which does exactly what you think it does, as you paint a target for the bombs to fall. 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. 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.
I found the first two chapters pretty easy to get through, but the next three chapters are such an onslaught. Another reason you would be better having played Serious Sam 4, because this ramps up quickly, and you might not be ready for it. More often than not, Timelock Studios gives you enough ammo to get through every encounter. They do like to lock you in small rooms and drop (names of tough enemies) literally from the ceiling. The gunplay is largely the same, where headshots can instakill some, and C4 can do crowd control. Somewhat returning to the series are the indoor jumping platforms for a lot more mobility this time around. Shooting enemy projectiles are not only possible, but a great way to mitigate incoming damage.
Siberian Mayhem has a larger emphasis on exploration, something that Serious Sam 4 offered, but is done better here. Going off the beaten path will reveal secrets and side objectives. So much care and attention went into designing these environments, that it’s something you’ll want to stop and look at. While this style of play is rather against what the series is known for, there’s some really pretty locales. What’s not pretty, is how enemies will often get stuck in the environment for easy kills. This is perhaps a byproduct of having such open environments.
All 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. I assure you, there are no answers to that, though I’ll say the developers likely just want to give you a clean slate for Siberian Mayhem. There’s no gimmicky cold mechanics like trying to stay warm, the farthest it goes is sliding on ice (but so do the enemies). Weather plays a bigger role here, as blizzards come and go, rain falls, and fog fills the screen. Though I’ll say that the weather is very effective, and feels dynamic when it comes.
While the difficulty ramps up rather fast, it doesn’t take itself too serious and still retains its humor. There’s one part where you think you need to sneak around, as told over the radio, but as you turn a corner and are spotted immediately in hilarious fashion as everyone is staring at you. Along the way, Sam encounters less characters in this adventure, but he still befriends a small band of Russian resistance fighters. The ones you’ll encounter are few, but very funny and entertaining. There’s even a mech level, which almost feels like a prerequesite at this point.
There’s certainly some confusion as to why this is a standalone expansion. There’s not much of an explanation, but the developers have said:
Are there any differences and changes made in comparison to the base Serious Sam 4 game?
“Siberian Mayhem contains a bunch of general fixes, engine upgrades, tweaks, & updates for existing mechanics, as well as new options and re-balanced enemies and weapons functionality in order to provide the best Serious Sam experience”
Save for the aforementioned improvements, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is by all appearances the same thing. There are two APIs to play the game under: DirectX 11 or Vulkan. I found the Vulkan version of the game performant, but sometimes jittery and a lesser quality in visual fidelity. DirectX 11 performs more consistent, has a higher quality, but has a few less frames. The game supports Variable Rate Shading (VRS) for scene or full rendering, but since DX12 is not available, the only way to use it is with the Vulkan API. While VRS was enabled, the image quality suffered and didn’t look as good as it should. That aside, the game looks fantastic with everything maxed. Since this takes place in Russia, a mostly white backdrop makes all the other colors pop off the screen.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 9900K @ 5Ghz (Turbo)
– Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM 97 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
– Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
– EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12GB GDDR6X FTW3 ULTRA
– Seagate FireCuda SSD (500GB)
– Seagate BarraCuda SSD (1TB + 2TB)
– OWC Aura P12 NVMe SSD (2TB)
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.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
