Serum is a new single-player, first-person survival game, created by Game Island and published by Toplitz Production. I got to play the closed test a few weeks ago for my first impression of the game and now with it coming to early access on Steam as of the 24th of May 2024, players can enter the harsh world of Serum as you fight to survive against the clock, and the elements of the world.

Players will take control of Adam after signing up for scientific experiments, and as he makes his way home on what was meant to be his last day on the job, something happens, and he awakens in a sewer. Adam, along with the other test subjects have been exposed to hazardous chemicals, and to maintain their health, they must inject a serum every few minutes. This is made slightly easier thanks to a timer display that’s been surgically implanted into his left arm, and you’ll need to keep a close eye on the timer to avoid a fatal ending.

When you first wake up, you can find another test subject who has passed away. Thankfully, they have a vial of serum on them to get you started, and as you progress, you’ll find a radio that lets you contact a lab worker by the name of Richard. He’ll help guide you to a safe location and offer advice on how to craft serums to extend your timer, but he can sometimes seem shady, cutting transmissions short and not wanting other staff to know that he’s talking to you.

Your timer will stop once you enter the first safe space, letting you take the time to loot and craft without worrying about your health. Richard will direct you to key objects, such as a respawn machine that works as a checkpoint, but you can also deposit excess time, giving you a bit of a boost should you need to revive.

When you do die you will drop your inventory key items, but equipped items such as weapons will stay with you, and a death marker will be displayed so you can easily find the lost items to reclaim.

The first item you learn to craft is the Serum, and it’s arguably the most important. As you collect the native plants, you’ll need to create these. A very handy tip especially early game I can give is to make use of the greenhouse in the first safehouse, by having the plants always growing for the Serum, even if you just stick around the base for a bit longer than usual, it never hurts to keep a nice stockpile stored and on hand when you need it, but also keep in mind plants in the greenhouse can wither if left long enough.

You’ll also find a blueprint for a scanner that shows items and wildlife in a radius and a machete, and this will come in very handy – you’ll encounter mutated animals and humans as you progress the story.

As part of a horrific experiment, you’ll need to travel through different testing zones to make your escape, and each area seems to have been created for a different test. Each zone is a different biome, and each has a variant of the serum you can learn to craft.

The starting area resembles a forest, filled with a variety of fauna, like rabbits and other non-lethal critters scattered about. The game’s combat picks up in the second zone, which feels more like an outback or desert-like biome, and it’s here that you’ll come across mutated bugs and the odd human enemies, all of which will be hostile.

Gameplay in Serum can be quite a challenge, given the need to manage the timer, defend yourself against mutants, and recover any loot you dropped when you die. Managing your timer is quite easy thanks to an easy-to-pick-up-and-play control scheme. You’ll just have to remember to hit the T command to keep an eye on the timer, combat at times can feel very hit-and-miss with a high stamina drain for heavy swings and spamming swings does not feel like they do a lot of damage, especially to humanoid targets.

The different biomes offer some amazing scenery to explore, changing from a dark sewer to bright forests, and barren deserts, offering a nice amount of variety to your experience and to engage with new wildlife and threats. Since the early test, one thing I did notice was a boost to the audio with hearing more in the world from snarls or calls of wildlife, and the radio calls between Adam and Richard.

In conclusion, while games like Serum are out of my preferred game style of choice, Serum offers a fantastic world to survive in with a lot of ways to play it how you want. For myself I stockpile serums and slowly chip away at the world, thankful enemies don’t respawn upon death. But for big-time survival game players, I can see Serum offering a good challenge to master the game and survive the world. I do feel the game is harder in certain fights than needed, Humanoid targets are the biggest threat I try to avoid.

Written by: Shane Walsh