Serious Sam 3: BFE is a shooter that wants to be a throwback. It takes aim at the golden age of first-person shooters, the era where cover was for amateurs and pulling the trigger made things go boom. That ambition shows in nearly every frame of the game.
Trailer, via DevolverDigital.
The Story Behind the Gun
Serious Sam 3: BFE is a prequel to Serious Sam: The First Encounter. It sets the story in Egypt during Mental’s invasion of Earth, in a timeline before the original game’s events. The plot follows Sam “Serious” Stone, part of the Earth Defense force, who lands in modern Egypt to help extract a team protecting Dr Stein, a scientist with hieroglyphics linked to the Time-Lock. The Time-Lock is a device that grants time travel through an inter-dimensional portal, and Sam’s mission turns into a fight to reach it and change the past.
The story moves fast, jumping between Sam’s escape from Cairo, his travels through Nubia’s ruins, and his final arrival at Hatshepsut Temple. It ends with Sam calling Mental on Stein’s phone and speaking with Mental’s daughter, Judy, before escaping through the Time-Lock as the Moon crashes into Earth and destroys the planet. The stakes are large, and the game does not waste time building them.
Guns, Hammers and the Horde
The combat is where the game earns its keep. Sam faces waves of enemies across wide-open and closed environments alike. There are 13 weapons in total, five of which need a manual reload. The knife and chainsaw from earlier games have been replaced with a sledgehammer with three modes of attack. Health does not regenerate. Instead, health and armor power-ups sit scattered through each level, and finding them becomes part of the puzzle.
The levels are full of secret areas, and some weapons — like the Lasergun and the Sniper Rifle — can only be found in those hidden spots. Ammo, health and armor are tucked away too. The player must find keys, pull levers and look for environmental clues to move forward. There are no puzzles in the traditional sense, but the game asks players to pay attention to the layout around them.
Classic enemies return. The Beheaded Kamikaze, the Beheaded Rocketeer and the Kleer Skeleton are all back, along with new foes like the Khnum and the Scrapjack, which draw on designs from older shooters. The Kamikaze returns to his original shape, rather than the design from Serious Sam 2. The Gnaar’s design has changed entirely — it is now much larger, walks on all fours and looks nothing like its bipedal counterpart in the original game.
Where It Lands
Serious Sam 3: BFE runs on PlayStation 3, Linux, PC, Mac and Xbox 360. It was first released for Microsoft Windows on 22 November 2011, followed by OS X on 23 April 2012. The Linux version came later, released on 6 November 2012, the same day Valve opened the beta branch for Steam for Linux.
The game’s split-screen co-op mode lets four players share one screen. The multiplayer supports up to 16 players online. Both modes extend the solo campaign’s lessons into shared play, though the focus stays on the single player experience.
Key Facts
– Developer: Croteam
– Publisher: Devolver Digital
– Release: Windows — 22 November 2011, OS X — 23 April 2012, Linux — 6 November 2012
– Platforms: PlayStation 3, Linux, PC, Mac, Xbox 360
– Weapons: 13 total, 5 with manual reload
– Online: Up to 16 players
– Co-op: 4-player split-screen
The game’s strengths are also its limits. The lack of regenerating health and the need to find scattered power-ups reward players who explore, but they can frustrate anyone moving through a level at pace. The closed environments in the early levels break the game’s own promise of wide-open spaces. The humor, which leans on jokes about cover and other shooters, does not always land.
Serious Sam 3: BFE is a solid shooter built on a love for the past. It respects the traditions of the genre while adding new enemies and new ways to move through its levels. The story moves fast, the combat holds up, and the Time-Lock ending delivers a fitting close. It does not reinvent the wheel, but it does not need to.
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