which is that this expansion is supposedly better than the main game. In terms of qualitative changes, this has 3 new weapons, which are basically just variations of the old weapons, and some new gadgets I think. Nothing essential was changed for the better.

But I do think it's worse in some aspects. The levels are slightly more linear. When playing Sam 4, I don't recall ever dying because I left playable area, but here I did twice, and there was one place where they put some tiny bushes as a wall.

I think the biggest problem here however is that coming off of Sam 4, which was super intense in the last chapters, you're having to start from scratch with none of the skills or weapons and fighting smaller groups of enemies. We've already experienced the growth, I don't think there's any point in making us go through it again.

Story-wise also, I didn't care for any of the characters here. This feels like deleted scenes of a movie. Kinda cool to see, but also you realize why they were deleted. It took me 3 hours to beat it and felt like a completely optional/skippable experience.

I like how authentic the Russian environments look though. There are also some references seemingly placed there specifically for the Russian audience (Serious Sam is big in Russia). For example, I found a graffiti that said "Cool Sam is the best!" and below that "He's serious, not cool" and then something else below, I don't remember. "Cool Sam" is how the title was localized in Russia, so he's mostly known under that name there.