Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is out now as a partnership between Timelock Studio and Croteam. It can run rather well on Linux, although you do need a quick adjustment for Steam Play Proton.
This is a much shorter and simpler game than previous entries, as it's a sort-of standalone expansion that sits together with Serious Sam 4. Although, going in cold is not a big deal, since it's mostly the usual mindless fast-paced shooting you would expect from a Serious Sam game. The game actually started off life from a modding team, who under guidance from Croteam, turned it into an official game in the series.
Direct Link
Out of the box, it does work on Linux with Proton and so it will on the Steam Deck too. However, there's no sound. A quick fix is available though! All you need to do is go into the sound settings and select OpenAL as the output instead of the default XAudio. After that, it all works as you would expect.
Performance is a bit shaky though, which is true on Windows as well. Since it's using Croteam's game engine, you can swap Direct3D 11 for Vulkan in the Graphics options to get native Vulkan on Linux (instead of it going through DXVK). In my own testing (at least on NVIDIA), you're definitely going to want to hit the switch to Vulkan too, as it gave a boost of ~20FPS in most cases and was less stuttery too.
It clearly needs some more optimization as a whole though, as other players have also noticed the low GPU usage and micro-stuttering that's completely random even with nothing happening. Most of the time it's okay and good enough to run and gun your way through it.
You don't get much breathing space, your heart will be furiously pumping and your fingers may begin to ache as it's so fast. Perhaps a little too fast at times, everything feels like someone set a knocked a magical speed dial up. Honestly, it's like you're on roller skates but that is true of most Serious Sam games.
It does the job quite nicely of making you feel like the ultimate bad-ass with no filler — it's all action. Unless you count a few optional side-missions, which are still full of completely insane action. A few dumb one-liners too because what's a hero without that? If that's what you're after, it's thoroughly entertaining.
Available to buy on Humble Store and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Ryzen 7 3700X gets only 30-40% Utilization and GTX 1080Ti 55-70%. Vulkan rendering.
Gameplay is kinda meh also, at least at the beginning of the game. Gunplay feels very weak and feedback is almost non existent. Specially shotgun. Explosions are good though and Sam jokes are pretty good in line with their earlier games.
Quoting: Upscalehmm, nope I won't be buying it because of lack of Linux support, same went for SS4 :(
Quoting: rea987Without a proper native port I'll pass. So many good native games to play.Instead of commenting this type of thing constantly - why not skip over Steam Play articles? Or even better, block the tag in your settings here so we don't have to keep reading it?
Quoting: Liam DaweTouchéQuoting: Upscalehmm, nope I won't be buying it because of lack of Linux support, same went for SS4 :(Quoting: rea987Without a proper native port I'll pass. So many good native games to play.Instead of commenting this type of thing constantly - why not skip over Steam Play articles? Or even better, block the tag in your settings here so we don't have to keep reading it?
Quoting: Liam DaweIstead of commenting this type of thing constantly - why not skip over Steam Play articles? Or even better, block the tag in your settings here so we don't have to keep reading it?
Such a nice way to treat the people who have shared hundreds of articles of your site on Reddit for years. Oh, not to mention there was no attack on the devs or anyone in those comments. I guess we are not even allow to say that. Sigh... Thank you.
Last edited by rea987 on 1 February 2022 at 9:20 am UTC
Quoting: rea987Not sure what your issue is. Nothing I have said is in any way unpleasant. The point is that this is a recurring thing. People read Steam Play articles they're clearly not interested in, comment about it and....for what? Just ignore them if you don't like them.Quoting: Liam DaweIstead of commenting this type of thing constantly - why not skip over Steam Play articles? Or even better, block the tag in your settings here so we don't have to keep reading it?
Such a nice way to treat the people who have shared hundreds of articles of your site on Reddit for years. Oh, not to mention there was no attack on the devs or anyone in those comments. I guess we are not even allow to say that. Sigh... Thank you.
Quoting: Liam DaweNot sure what your issue is. Nothing I have said is in any way unpleasant. The point is that this is a recurring thing. People read Steam Play articles they're clearly not interested in, comment about it and....for what? Just ignore them if you don't like them.
The issue is despite being a brilliant author and a great Linux gaming advocate, you seem to complain whenever there's a comment which states dissatisfaction even in a way without attacking any one. I am sad to see new Croteam titles do not get native support and there is a GoL article about the latest game. Should I keep it shut or go to Steam Forums to ask for native version only to be ignored or receive "bUy wInDoWs lOl" replies? If I cannot state my dissatisfaction about a game whose series historically support Linux in GoL, where can I? I am really troubled here, if anything, my comment contains no attack increases traffic to your website..
Quoting: rea987Everyone has a right to complain of course, and we do welcome opposing opinions as well as long as people remain respectful. The issue really, I guess, is how historically people just came to the comments to moan about us covering a game in Proton which happened quite a lot before (which really did irritate me).Quoting: Liam DaweNot sure what your issue is. Nothing I have said is in any way unpleasant. The point is that this is a recurring thing. People read Steam Play articles they're clearly not interested in, comment about it and....for what? Just ignore them if you don't like them.
The issue is despite being a brilliant author and a great Linux gaming advocate, you seem to complain whenever there's a comment which states dissatisfaction even in a way without attacking any one. I am sad to see new Croteam titles do not get native support and there is a GoL article about the latest game. Should I keep it shut or go to Steam Forums to ask for native version only to be ignored or receive "bUy wInDoWs lOl" replies? If I cannot state my dissatisfaction about a game whose series historically support Linux in GoL, where can I? I am really troubled here, if anything, my comment contains no attack increases traffic to your website..
In this case though, I agree now it's a bit different given they did previously support Linux.
Fact is though, Proton is here to stay, especially with the Steam Deck and we will continue to cover all aspects of playing games on Linux :)
Quoting: Liam DaweIn this case though, I agree now it's a bit different given they did previously support Linux.
Thanks for understanding. :-)
Also, no offense, and I do hope you try and take this feedback positiviely Liam, but try and be less defensive about critism; it's what makes us better.
Quoting: ShabbyXThe irony is that we are Linux gamers/users who frequently get ignored, and we do point that out on every website in the hope of improving the situation, and they also do sometimes say "well just stop reading this". It's the same thing really with proton vs native.I think I've already made my point. Some people choose to comment specifically on articles they're not interested in, to argue about native vs Proton and argue about us covering titles in Proton. It does need to stop.
Quoting: ShabbyXAlso, no offense, and I do hope you try and take this feedback positiviely Liam, but try and be less defensive about critism; it's what makes us better.I'm not being "defensive", I'm attempting to make things clear about what is and isn't acceptable.
Anyway, Proton coverage will continue because that is Linux gaming and it's the biggest thing we have going right now next to the Steam Deck. If all people want is "native or nothing", they really should go elsewhere. I don't want to have to keep going over this.
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