Serum Review (PC)

Have you seen the sci-fi Justin Timberlake film, In Time? If you have, then you should have a rough idea of what Serum brings to the table. The survival open-world game puts a unique twist on the film. Instead of a system that thrives on buying time to live longer, the game forces you to jab yourself with a mysterious elixir every few minutes to survive.

Like most games in Early Access, Serum isn’t without its blemishes. It certainly needs a little more polish to reach its full potential. However, with what Serum offers so far, is it enough to pour precious hours into now and when the full game drops sometime later this year? Check out our Serum review to find out.

End of the World

Humans have finally done it. Earth is on the brink of destruction from a biologically mutative agent called the Blight. Anyone who comes into contact with the Blight is transformed into a ghastly monster out for blood. 

With the Blight taking the form of a toxic fog that pollutes every plant and animal it touches, no one is safe. No one but you and a few select others have signed up for an experimental program.  

You will have to inject yourself with a mysterious elixir simply called the Serum. However, the Serum only protects you from the Blight for a short amount of time. You also cannot inject, say, two Serums at the same time to prolong your ‘immunity’ because your toxic levels will build up to deathly status.

Breadcrumb Trail

So far, within the first few minutes of playing Serum, it kicks off with an intriguing premise. It compels you to want to find out more. Yet the premise I have written so far is my understanding of what’s going on here. A rough understanding that I’m not sure is completely accurate because Serum has a breadcrumb way of storytelling.

There's a point when your character tells his family that he will be a part of a treatment program and will return to them as soon as he’s found a cure for the blight. He then wakes up in a sewer system with an LED clock implanted into his wrist. It’s a ticking time bomb that indicates how much time you have left before taking your next dose of Serum.

Failure to take serum before the time runs out will transform you into a violent, mutated version of yourself, a version you cannot come back from. So, you set out to find serum, with a timer and intense music in the background to remind you of the urgency every step out into the Blight-ridden world requires.

Gooey Green

Besides the premise, the environment stands out to you from the moment you first boot up the game and well into the first few hours of exploration. It’s crystal clear Game Island and Toplitz Productions were going for a gloomy, constantly hanging sense of dread in the air. You comb through atmospheric, lavish green swampy and greenery biomes that always have a thick fog of the Blight looming over you.

With time, the environment starts to feel ‘samey,’ but before then, at least before you dive deeper into the scavenging and combat sections of the game, you really take the time to appreciate the passion project Serum so clearly is. It’s immersive throughout your playthrough, and the mutated creatures that you run into only serve to add an unnerving experience to exploration.

Serum Hunt

Serum is rarely found in the environment. So, if you’re lucky enough to find it while exploring, you can shoot up a new dose that gives you more time to find some more. Otherwise, you can craft serum from organic materials, whether the plants in the environment or mutated animals that drop the ingredients you need once defeated. 

Serum has a neat gameplay loop where the timer determines how much time you have to explore. So, you spend every second collecting as many resources and crafting ingredients as you can. You may run into recipes, too, that show you how to craft valuable tools and weapons. But when time is almost running out, you have to get back to base, where your timer stops counting down. At the base, you have all the time in the world to craft a new serum to inject into yourself.

With renewed time, and possibly a new weapon, spears, bows, clubs, and more, you return to the wild to face new threats and gather better resources. With each run, you’ll craft different types of serums that give you new abilities. You’ll also gain extra buffs, like the ability to withstand damage, for instance, or access to longer-lasting serums. 

Into the Deep

With longer-lasting serums comes the opportunity to forge deeper into the dreadful jungle. You'll take on more dangerous mutant creatures and discover hidden secrets. The overall goal seems to be geared toward finding a permanent cure for the blight. To get there, you need to research new serums and share your findings with others positioned at faraway stations. 

The story is a little shaky, especially the deeper you get to the other biomes. It seems all you unravel are little story bits that don’t necessarily make sense as a whole. While giving away little information can work to build suspense in some games, overall, it felt like a missed opportunity to develop a compelling and wholesome narrative. 

With such a solid premise, Serum could definitely elevate to higher levels with a neat story campaign tying your efforts into an ultimately worthwhile experience. Additionally, a map can also be quite useful to know the areas you have been to and the areas you may have missed. Because you soon start to wander blindly with the ‘sameyness’ of the environment doing little to alleviate the burden of finding your way around. 

Die Monsters

Combat plays another vital role in the gameplay. While the monsters are hauntingly beautiful, with creepy appendages and mutated body frames, their animations as they attack you feel janky. What’s more? The combat mechanics themselves feel janky, too. You can attack or block, but the execution feels unpolished. Combat is by no means complex, yet you will die a tad too many times. 

Often, mutant creatures will have enhanced strength. And so, even one smack is enough to kill you. Thereafter, you are revived with none of the resources you had, forcing you to get back out there and try again. Perhaps dying and trying again would be fun if the combat was in-depth and flawlessly implemented. At the moment, though, it still leaves a lot to be desired. 

More Incentive

Meanwhile, upgrades offer little motivation to keep exploring out of personal choice. You do get crafting stations to create enhanced serums and farm plants that generate more serum. Yet, the benefits you enjoy from them rarely push you to keep playing. At best you’ll unlock more time to get farther into the wild biomes. 

Each serum should grant you distinct skills. But your character doesn’t seem to evolve as much as you would hope. Surely, if the serums cause you to mutate over time, you should end up with a superhuman fighter. Not to mention the fact that you’re continuously exposing yourself to the Blight for longer periods with each run. The latter alone can make up for some compelling narrative points.

Verdict

Serum is currently out in Early Access via Steam. It comes with its fair share of bugs and crashes. You may experience some frame rate drops and stuttering here and there. But you almost always expect all these performance issues for a game still in Early Access. So, it comes down to just how worthwhile the content is and whether it has the potential to make for a fantastic game by the full launch. 

I’m happy to say, yes, Serum has immense potential to positively impact survival open world as we know it. It introduces a neat gameplay loop of choosing between exposing yourself to a dangerous toxic fog or returning to base to salvage the resources you have managed to scoop up so far. Each run has a ticking timer adding to an ever-present sense of urgency that never really goes away even in the slower sections of the game.

The music, too, carries an upbeat undertone that keeps you on your toes, always. The more you play, the more invested you become in finding a permanent cure for the Blight. Yet the closer you get to the cure, if it even exists, the more dangerous the mutant creatures roaming around you become. On paper, it all sounds perfectly intriguing. However, the execution needs more polish to unlock the full potential of Serum.

While the premise easily grabs your attention, the storytelling fails to sustain your curiosity, often leaving you with more questions unanswered. Meanwhile, the combat feels janky, with animations that could use more polish. The crafting system, too, needs to offer more incentive to make the constant need to expose yourself to the Blight worthwhile and fun. If the developing team irons out these concerns, Serum can be an excellent post-apocalyptic survival open-world game.