Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 68 | 64 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 83% | 77 | 1000 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 72 | 67 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 85% | 79 | 30 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 85 reviews sampled · 69 total reviews in window · weighted 55.2 up / 9.5 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (120)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 80
“When everything is trying to reinvent itself in the forms of a remakes and reboots, Serious Sam 4 stays true to franchise's identity, which still feels great, even by today standards.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“Serious Sam 4 takes a good care of the series' legacy and fans will be happy. But the visual style hardly meets modern standards and level-design is also a bit boring.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Technical mess, outdated visuals, awkward 'modern' design decisions… and a lot of fun to play!”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Serious Sam 4's core shooting is as fun as can be, and the writing is on par with Hollywood's best action flicks, but everything else in the game is too dated for the overall experience to be truly enjoyable.”
read full review ↗ - 95
“When it comes to Croteam, it’s the small touches that matters, and Serious Sam 4 is full of them. It maintains its classic chaotic style of arena shooting, improves in much needed areas. After eight years of the latest entry, is good to have Sam back.”
read full review ↗ - 65
“Serious Sam 4 is a nostalgia trip that takes us back to the “good-old-days” of gaming but presents itself in a modern environment. However, they are a bit too late, as the lack of innovation and obscure map design put this game way behind leaders as is currently Doom. The back-pedalling Sam is still there, but his quips and lovable character will ware out after the 10th wave of the same enemies.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“In this day and age, sometimes we just need to hold down the trigger and scream at the top of our lungs. Serious Sam 4 succeeds on that front, and delivers it with a dual rocket launcher-wielding grin on its face.”
read full review ↗ - 40
“The absolute best Serious Sam 4 has to offer are things we've seen plenty of times before, and that just simply doesn’t cut it given the amount of annoyances it contains and how far other movement based shooters have come in the same time span.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Croteam has yet to surpass its first two Serious Sam games, with Serious Sam 4 basically being one more entry; one that is great fun, but far from an evolution of the series. The flaws are aplenty, although they are rarely very serious (pun not intended), making this fourthquel more disappointing than bad - because, make no mistake, this is very good. Sure, it's not the best Serious Sam game… but still a Serious Sam game. Fans of serious action will understand.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“Serious Sam 4 is the heavy metal mosh pit to Doom’s beautifully choreographed ballet of death. Rough around the edges, but incredibly fun to play if you are a first person shooter fan.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“Serious Sam 4 has everything fans of the series could want and more. The fights are chaotic and extremely violent and the gunplay is the best its ever been. It can get a bit redundant and it overpromised on certain features, but anyone looking to demolish thousands of aliens will find tons to love here.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“While fitfully fun and well designed, Sam 4 disappoints as both a sequel and a next-gen product. While it wasn’t particularly optimised on PC it still represents a low for PS5 performance. A compromised port of a game that’s only slightly above average in the first place. A serious shame.”
read full review ↗
GameMAG
INDIANTVCZ
3DNews
Jump Dash Roll
Hu3br
PLAY Zine
Gamer Escape
VGChartz
Cubed3
Gaming on PC
PC Invasion
Push Square…and 108 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Serious Sam 4 Editor, Update 1.08, and Steam Workshop!Mar 23, 2021significant · resets scoring window
- Serious Sam 4 Update 1.07 is Live!Dec 22, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- Serious Sam 4 Update 1.06Dec 4, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- Serious Sam 4 Halloween Update (1.05)Oct 28, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- Serious Sam 4 Update 1.04Oct 9, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- Serious Sam 4 Update 1.02/1.03Oct 1, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- The Serious Sam 4 Hotfix v1.01 is LiveSep 25, 2020
- Serious Sam 4 Development UpdateMay 22, 2020