Serious Sam 4 is well worth playing with smooth gameplay and lots of enemies to blast into gibs. It's sort of a combination of Serious Sam 3's more 'real' locales (but no bombed-out Middle Eastern cities) and TFE/TSE's colorful carnage. All the classic weapons and enemies return with a facelift and a surprising amount of detail. Audio is generally very good with meaty weapons fire and distinct sound cues for each type of enemy; if you have quality surround sound speakers or headphones you can enjoy the thundering bass of the minigun and Werebull hooves, among other things. There is a story told through radio messages and cutscenes throughout the game, but thankfully the latter mainly occur between missions and fights (and they can be skipped if you wish). Croteam gives lots of options for the game, including the ability to disable quest markers and other popups modern games enjoy shoving in your face. Video settings have a variety of options and some presets, so those with weaker PCs can tweak them to find the right setup. There's a benchmark option where you can test your settings before starting a campaign, which is quite helpful for seeing how it performs. Pros: - Good variety in levels, from urban streets to wide open countryside. - Weapons are very satisfying (except for the knife, which they could have left out). - Combat is very smooth and responsive with mouse and keyboard. - Most fights are quite fun and have good pacing. - Some secrets are fun to figure out and have multiple ways to achieve them (sometimes in ways Croteam may not have expected). Cons: - Some levels are absolutely gargantuan, but exploring outside the intended play area is usually a waste of time and can be a little glitchy. - Ammo is too plentiful in most areas while Armor is surprisingly uncommon. - Certain boss battles are tedious due to the annoying gimmicks involved. Serious Sam 4 is a solid entry in the series with a few flaws. If you enjoy other games in the series, dig in!
Ion Fury is a game that was well worth waiting for. Strong level design with highly detailed environments, an arsenal that has no bad weapons, vast numbers of secrets to discover (many of them creative in how you access them), and fitting voice actors whose efforts breathe life into Bombshell and the main villain. It's one hell of a game. There are a few weak points from my perspective: 1. Many maps later in the game aren't as satisfying as those in earlier zones. I couldn't get enough of the early urban maps - which are easily the best in the game - but later on the player is stuck in one underground facility after another with rare exceptions such as the first map of zone five, which was a breath of fresh air. Sadly, the next map sends you right back underground. 2. Performance was poor in some areas, particularly some of the boss battles where enormous numbers of explosions and the like could drastically reduce frame rate. Thankfully these occasions were rare. 3. The selection of enemies is a bit lacking in variety. The game slowly rolls out new types of hostile as the player progresses, but not quite enough of them to keep you wondering what new horror may lurk in the next map or zone. Just a few more enemy types could have gone a long way. 4. The highest difficulty, Maximum Fury, seemed easier than it should have been. While the numbers of enemies felt about right, the amount of health and ammo made available to the player never left you feeling vulnerable for long. Fifteen to twenty percent less ammo alone would put more pressure on the player by forcing the use of more weapons in more situations rather than sticking with their favorites that rarely run low. Despite these flaws, Ion Fury is one of the best FPS games to be released in a long time and is possibly the best Build shooter in history. I hope 3D Realms and Voidpoint release more games using this legendary engine in the future.
