SERIOUS SAM 4: PLANET BADASS

Serious Sam 4 is a 2020 first-person shooter developed by Croatian studio Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. It is part of the Serious Sam series and a prequel to Serious Sam 3: BFE. The game was announced in April 2018, originally as Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass, was released in September 2020 for Microsoft Windows and Stadia, followed by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S ports in December 2021. A standalone expansion, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem, was released in January 2022.

Plot

An unknown amount of time before the events of Serious Sam 3: BFE, a massive portal opens in Tunguska, Russiawhich serves as a bridgehead for Mental's forces to invade Earth. As the whole planet scrambles to repel the alien invasion, a unit from the Earth Defense Force led by "Serious" Sam Stone is sent by General Brand to Rome to meet Father Mikhail, a priest who claims to have found some clues leading to the Holy Grail, which, according to him, is a powerful alien artifact hidden inside the Ark of the Covenant that may aid them against the invasion. However, the team is forced to abandon the city when it is overrun by the army of Lord Achriman, one of Mental's generals. In order to get back to the city, Sam and his companions retreat to Pompeii, where they remotely use the seismic capabilities of the HAARP complex to trigger an eruption on Mount Vesuvius that disrupts Achriman's air forces. Jones, one of Sam's companions, is killed by one of the alien monsters during the mission.Upon returning to Rome, Sam meets a gun-toting old lady called Nonna who provides him directions to the Vatican, which Father Mikhail believes contains the next clue to the Grail. There, Sam retrieves a book that reveals that the Grail is located in an abandoned church in Carcassonne, France. In Carcassonne, Sam is confronted by Achriman, who kills Kenny, another one of Sam's friends, in front of him before fleeing. With help from the local resistance, Sam and his friends arrive at the church and defeat Lord Achriman, whom Sam kills personally to avenge Kenny. Outside the church, Father Mikhail begins to express doubt that the Grail is really what is hidden inside the Ark of the Covenant. When Mikhail uncovers the Ark, he finds that it actually contains a golden scepter with the figure of a snake wrapped around it (likely Aaron's Rod). General Brand then appears and reveals himself as a traitor, intending to offer the artifact to Mental to earn his favor. The artifact transforms Brand into a monster who kills Mikhail and captures Sam along the rest of his team.After awakening inside Brand's transport plane, Sam escapes by parachute to an abandoned oil platform in the Arctic where he obtains a boat and departs to Tunguska in pursuit of Brand. On reaching land, Sam is assisted by a version of himself from the future who provides him with a snowmobile before departing. At the site of the superportal in Tunguska, Sam finds that his friends have also escaped from Brand and joins them a large scale battle between the EDF and the alien forces. Brand recaptures Sam and offers both him and the artifact as a gift to Ugh-Zan VI, one of Mental's most powerful warriors, but the alien rejects him. With help from his friends, Sam kills Ugh-Zan VI with the artifact and straps Brand to an ICBM that the team then launches into the portal, destroying it.After the battle, Sam and his remaining friends celebrate while remembering their lost companions. Sam indicates that their next mission will be in Egypt, leading to the events of Serious Sam 3: BFE. In a post-credits scene, the future Sam visits Nonna to tell her that he has a mission for her.