Serious Sam 3: BFE Review

Serious Sam 3: BFE (Steam PC)
Developed By: Croteam
Published By: Devolver Digital
Date of Release: November 22, 2011
Price: $39.99

In this day and age where the by the numbers FPS formula dominates everything with it's bland linear levels and cutscenes every 3 seconds, the genre is starting to go stale. Croteam and Devolver Digital promised to fix all that with the release of the third major title in its flagship series, Serious Sam 3: BFE. Gone would be the cookie cutter approach, the sparse enemy encounters, and crappy gameplay that recent FPS offerings brought to the table. Did they deliver? HELL FRIGGING NO!




Serious Sam 3: BFE is yet another in a long line of tired worthless "blockbusters", which are mere shells of the former glory from gaming's past. You start off in modern day Egypt with the same stereotypical soldier-boy wannabes that you'd see in the latest Modern Warfare shlock and the plot, or lack thereof, unfolds in a predictable mess. The gameplay has you sprinting down barren streets, with a few foes popping out occasionally to take potshots at you, and are easily dispatched by modern gaming's latest cheat- err, innovation, aiming down the sights. Honestly in my many years of gaming I have never been so let down by crap like this. Serious Sam 3: BFE is an utter disgrace and should NOT be bought.


























Did you think I was freaking SERIOUS!?

Croteam has pulled the greatest prank in the history of gaming with SS3:BFE, by making the opening act of the game a blatant example of EVERYTHING that is currently wrong with the genre. I imagine everyone who worked on the game is sporting a healthy trollface right about now. Right at the point where you are ready to just rage about the steaming pile that you just paid 40 bucks for, the game totally switches gears and becomes a classic Serious Sam experience, complete with all the trimmings. Hordes of screaming kamikazes. Waves of foes out for your blood. And all the bigass weaponry you need to blow them away.




All of Sam's usual foes are here from the cyclopian Gnaar to the Scythian Witch-Harpy, all gloriously rendered on the Serious Engine 3.5 with style to spare! Also returning are signature weapons such as the rocket launcher, double barrel shotgun, and the chaingun, with piles of new toys added in the mix to help you unleash Armageddon on your enemies.




The gameplay experience is literally ripped out of the 90's with sprawling levels to explore, plenty of enemies to kill, and no one holding your hand and showing you where to go. SS3:BFE is a big-boy's FPS, so time to ditch the diapers and man up! Another thing: you can SAVE YOUR GAME. The usual autosave system is present, however you can actually open the menu and choose "Save Game". It's a mystical and advanced technique thought lost in days of checkpoints and consolization, but SS3:BFE pulls it off perfectly!




Of course no Serious Sam experience would be complete without a crapton of extras, and SS3:BFE delivers! Right off the bat you have a lengthy single player campaign, local splitscreen co-op and deathmatch, online co-op and deathmatch, AND survival mode. Add to that a metric crapton of tweakability, where graphic sound and control settings can be edited to your every whim. You can even swap out the blood and gibs for nommy showers of candy! Yum!

I can honestly say that Serious Sam 3: BFE is the best FPS experience I have had in years, and that's saying quite a bit, what with the recent releases of RAGE and Duke Nukem Forever and Bulletstorm. If your on the fence, take my advice and buy it. Buy 3 copies! Fork Parker will thank you!