Serious Sam: Tormental (2022)

Ultimately, despite not really doing anything new, Serious Sam: Tormental has that “one more go” draw to it that makes it worth adding to your Steam library, especially if you’re a fan of Sam “Serious” Stone, twin-stick shooters or roguelikes. If you like all three, it’s a must-have. Even better, you can play it in co-op, and it has much more to offer such as challenges and gameplay mods that will increase the difficulty somewhat, but also the score you can earn. This is Serious Sam, but not as you know it. But it’s still a barrel of laughs.

It’s not that Serious Sam: Tormental is a bad game, its just one that doesn’t do anything new. In an already increasingly crowded market for indie, rougelite games this one is bound to be missed simply because it doesn’t do anything new to push the genre forward. Of course, the opposite side of that is that it doesn’t really do anything negative either, it is a solidly made top-down shooter.

It’s a perfectly functional game, if nothing else, and for only $12 you’re certainly not risking a lot by purchasing it.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to say whether Serious Sam: Tormental deserves your time and attention. As a twin-stick shooter, it’s designed well and works to provide enjoyable gameplay for anyone looking for something simple. But when compared to its peers, it’s just not that special or unique that would warrant an extended amount of time spent on it, even if you happened to be a big Serious Sam fan.

Sam "Serious" Stone is back in a new top-down shooter with roguelite elements that delivers a thin-like-paper crazy story and some entertaining (but repetitive) bite-sized gameplay elements.