Serious Sam 3: BFE

Overview

Serious Sam 3: BFE is the fourth game in Croteam's over-the-top, run-and-gun shooter franchise. First announced on May 14th, 2009, the game runs on "Serious Engine 3.5", an updated version of "Serious Engine 3," which was used to power Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter in 2009 and Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter in 2010. BFE was released on November 22 of 2011 on PC, with releases for Xbox360 and PS3 planned to follow at an unannounced later date.

Story

As always, the game's protagonist is Sam "Serious" Stone. Serious Sam 3 takes place, as the subtitle ("Before First Encounter") suggests, before the original game in the series. Set in the near future, the game begins with Mental's invasion of Earth well-underway. Sam has been called in by the world's most powerful leaders as humanity's last chance of fighting back against extinction. To this end, Sam has been given the mission of investigating ancient Egyptian and Sirian ruins in hopes of unlocking the secrets of long-dormant alien technology to be used in the fight for Earth.

Military special forces aid Sam along this mission by providing transportation and intelligence, while Netricsa returns as Sam's in-the-field intel analyst. When it comes to fighting, however, Sam stands alone, both in destructive ability and survivability. However, despite Sam's natural talent for annihilating everything he comes in contact with, it slowly becomes apparent that Mental's hordes are simply too numerous for Sam to kill fast enough to stop Mental from blowing up the Earth. Fortunately, Sam discovers an ancient alien device called the Timelock, and as the final, dark hour of Earth's futile resistance nears, Sam battles through Mental's mightiest forces to power up the Timelock and send himself back in time to keep fighting Mental and try to save humankind.

Gameplay

Evolution of the Headless Kamikazes.

Serious Sam 3 features the series-signature level design of pitting a heavily-armed player against hordes of enemies in large open spaces. The engine supports destructible environments and players/enemies can break certain walls and columns, making cover sometimes unreliable. For this reason and due to the overwhelming numbers of advancing enemies in the larger combat encounters, players are encouraged to stay on the move, running away from and dodging onslaughts of enemies while grabbing powerups strewn about the battlefield and shooting non-stop.

Many familiar enemies return, including the Beheaded Kamikaze, Kleer Skeleton, and Sirian Werebull, though they have all been given slight redesigns due to the much greater graphical fidelity of the new game engine. Most enemy AI is based on simple, predictable patterns (in multiple cases meaning "rush towards the player with reckless abandon"), which allows the player to quickly understand and react to the attacks of huge numbers of enemies with split-second timing.

Serious Sam 3 deliberately forgoes several popular game design elements of modern shooters in favor of preserving the trademark style of gameplay from earlier Serious Sam games. This means Sam's default movement speed is about as fast as an automobile driving on city streets, his sprint speed is comparable to highway driving speed, he can sprint indefinitely, he can carry every single weapon in the game at the same time, and he has absolutely no form of recharging health. Health, weapon, and ammo powerups are plentifully scattered around all levels (and glow colorfully for ease of identification); enemies often spawn into levels out of thin air (explained as "teleporting in reinforcements"), optional secret areas and items can be found hidden throughout the game (often rewarded for platforming finesse or exploration); various keys have to sometimes be collected to open locked doors; and aside from cutscenes (which can be skipped by pressing the shoot button), the game never takes control away from the player for an instant during gameplay.

Sam's arsenal and overall means of mayhem have grown since his last murderous adventure. Sam can now perform a variety of melee attacks, including wielding a sledgehammer that he can swing around in a 360 degree arc to kill any enemy in his immediate vicinity. Sam can perform context-sensitive melee attacks, which can be triggered within close proximity to certain enemies to kill them instantly, such as snapping the neck of an Arachnoid or tearing out the eyeball of a Gnaar (which can then be thrown as a projectile weapon at other enemies). Additionally, Sam can use the "Arrow", which works like an energy lasso to ensnare one or more enemies and then rip them to shreds.

Sam's arsenal of guns is dominated by familiar mainstays such as the double barrel shotgun, rocket launcher, and cannon (that shoots cannon balls the size of buses). New guns include the Semiautomatic Pistol, which replaces the dual revolvers; the Assault Rifle, which replaces the Tommy Gun; throwable C-4 which serves a kind of ultra-powerful grenade; and the Devestator that combines the best of both the Grenade Launcher and the Sniper Rifle. Two weapons can only be found as secrets: the Lasergun and the Sniper Rifle. Some weapons feature an enhanced aiming mode: the Pistol has iron sights, the Assault Rifle has a red dot sight, and the Sniper Rifle has its familiar zoom.

Weapons

• Sledgehammer
• Sirian Mutilator Bracelet "Arrow"
• SPO38 Semiautomatic Pistol
• Double Barrel Coach Gun
• 12 Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun
• XM214-A Minigun
• M29 Infantry Assault Rifle
• XPML21 Rocket Launcher
• C-4 Demolition Charge
• XL2 Lasergun
• A.S.-24 "Devestator"
• Raptor 16mm Sniper Rifle
• SBC Cannon

Serious Sam 3 features three major modes of play: Campaign, Survival, and Versus.

Campaign

Campaign mode can be played with 1 to 16 players and features 12 sequential chapters that tell the story of the game. Upon completing each chapter, a score is tallied for each player according to factors such as difficulty selected, number of kills made, number of secrets found, time taken, etc. This score is ranked in online leaderboards.

Survival

Survival can be played with 1 to 16 players and tasks players with trying to survive as long as possible in an enclosed arena filled with weapons and powerups as endless waves of enemies attack from all sides. Survival times are ranked in online leaderboards and medals (tried to achievements) are awarded to players who reach certain time thresholds. There are two maps that can be played in Survival mode: Death Canyon and Deserted.

Versus

Versus encompasses the player-vs-player competitive multiplayer modes of the game. These can all be played with up to 16 players and include:

• Deathmatch
• Capture The Flag
• Instant Kill
• Team Deathmatch
• My Burden
• Beast Hunt
• Team Beast Hunt
• Last Man Standing
• Last Team Standing

PC System Requirements