For the record, BFE stands for "Before First Encounter", since it's a prequel. Actually, the third part of a series that already told all its good stories in the first two chapters tends to be a prequel, and nowhere is this more prevalent than video games. Bioshock Infinite is set in the 1920s and Bioshock in 1960. Metal Gear Solid 3 was set during the Cold War, Devil May Cry 3 was set during Dante's wrist-cutting years and Serious Sam 3 is set in the future.
...Yeah, no story has ever survived messing with the time-stream, except maybe Back to the Future.
Save for the dude with the minigun (that's you), you get to fight ALL those things.
Serious Sam 3: BFE was created by the same group as the original Serious Sam games, Croatian developer Croteam. You might not know it from how it starts, but it is still mostly the same game. The Serious Sam series is designed to evoke old-school shooting from back when there was variety in the enemies and the guns you used to mow them down in droves - and I do mean droves. The Serious Engine is even designed to render as many things as possible - quantity over quality. Does that thinking spoil the game, though? Certainly not - though there are some other things that might do it for some people.
Serious Sam 3 starts out a little slow and plodding. The plot is that Sam Stone, AKA "Serious" Sam (that's you) has been dropped into war-torn Cairo to help get rid of the aliens who are invading the Earth. The first thing you'll notice about Cairo, 21XX is that it looks exactly like a lot of other cities you may have encountered - save that there's aliens rather than Arabs/Russians all over the place. And there are even enemies who look like generic, grey clones of one another and use assault rifles.
As for the way the plot is told, most of it is through cutscenes and conversations with Quinn, the voice with an Internet connection in Sam's ear. Sam does make a few joking remarks about certain situations, but unlike in the original games these are much fewer and further between. In fact, if it weren't for the non-regenerating health, you could almost be forgiven for thinking that the game is almost like Halo or a first-person, PC-centred Gears of War...
As I mentioned before, Serious Sam's gameplay as a series is meant to evoke games like Doom, Quake or Duke Nukem 3D. Rather than placing a series of walls or wall-like objects between your unit and a unit of soldiers who would be exactly like yours if they weren't yelling in a foreign language, it's just you, a lot more than two guns and several dozen (and in some cases, several hundred) enemies. All of them look different, act differently and require you to switch between different weapons to most effectively dispatch.
You'll be hearing "AAAAAAAAA" a lot. Fear the AAAAAA.
Here's the thing, though: you can't just fire randomly. Most enemies don't drop ammo, and the supplies of everything except the basic pistol are limited. You also can't stand still for too long, or someone will get close or fire a fast-moving projectile - meaning that if you haven't yet learned how to be light on your feet in a shooter, Serious Sam will teach you the hard way. In particular, Serious Sam 3 has a whole lot of enemies spread across its twelve levels, meaning you'll probably have difficulty with quite a few different sections.
In a "heroic last stand" kind of way, it's incredibly fun to fight off massive hordes of enemies without anyone helping out - sure, there is co-op, but it's difficult to get a game. It's particularly cathartic to finally complete a section that was kicking your ass before. Can't get through a certain mob of Kleers? Come back in a while when you're fresh and it'll feel so much better for the trouble.
Ohh, yeah...Feels good, man.
Though all the games are quite violent, serious "gore physics" weren't used until the HD versions of the first two games, and they've been improved a lot for Serious Sam 3. It now feels better than ever to rip through a mob with your various weapons - auto rocket launcher, grenade launcher, double-barrel shotgun, sledgehammer, and even a full-size cannon. There are also some melee finishers, but those take time to do and it's only really "feels good man"-level gore when you rip out a cyclops' eye. Nevertheless, it certainly is a very gratifying game - if you're good enough to blast through the hordes.
By no means is Serious Sam 3 a bad game. Sure, the (possible) Modern Warfare parody it starts out with goes on a little too long, and the game is kinda short, but the shooting and the dodging are better than ever and if you're a "twitch shooter" newcomer, it costs a lot less for about the same length of game overall than most shooters on the market. If you already have your Ph.D in backpedalling around massive open levels, though, I'd go with the HD version of Second Encounter instead - cheaper, all the levels from the first, plus a whole bunch more and you don't have to put up with as much slowness to begin with.
It's also already made the leap onto the XBLA, which BFE is yet to. You PS3 owners don't know what you're missing...
(Screenshots from Google Images, don't know any exact sources but I'm pretty sure none of them are copyrighted. It's not like this is for profit, anyway.)
...Yeah, no story has ever survived messing with the time-stream, except maybe Back to the Future.
Save for the dude with the minigun (that's you), you get to fight ALL those things.
Serious Sam 3: BFE was created by the same group as the original Serious Sam games, Croatian developer Croteam. You might not know it from how it starts, but it is still mostly the same game. The Serious Sam series is designed to evoke old-school shooting from back when there was variety in the enemies and the guns you used to mow them down in droves - and I do mean droves. The Serious Engine is even designed to render as many things as possible - quantity over quality. Does that thinking spoil the game, though? Certainly not - though there are some other things that might do it for some people.
Context
Where have I seen this before?
Where have I seen this before?
Serious Sam 3 starts out a little slow and plodding. The plot is that Sam Stone, AKA "Serious" Sam (that's you) has been dropped into war-torn Cairo to help get rid of the aliens who are invading the Earth. The first thing you'll notice about Cairo, 21XX is that it looks exactly like a lot of other cities you may have encountered - save that there's aliens rather than Arabs/Russians all over the place. And there are even enemies who look like generic, grey clones of one another and use assault rifles.
As for the way the plot is told, most of it is through cutscenes and conversations with Quinn, the voice with an Internet connection in Sam's ear. Sam does make a few joking remarks about certain situations, but unlike in the original games these are much fewer and further between. In fact, if it weren't for the non-regenerating health, you could almost be forgiven for thinking that the game is almost like Halo or a first-person, PC-centred Gears of War...
...then this guy shows up, and (most of) the problems mentioned earlier recede.
Challenge
Challenge
As I mentioned before, Serious Sam's gameplay as a series is meant to evoke games like Doom, Quake or Duke Nukem 3D. Rather than placing a series of walls or wall-like objects between your unit and a unit of soldiers who would be exactly like yours if they weren't yelling in a foreign language, it's just you, a lot more than two guns and several dozen (and in some cases, several hundred) enemies. All of them look different, act differently and require you to switch between different weapons to most effectively dispatch.
You'll be hearing "AAAAAAAAA" a lot. Fear the AAAAAA.
Here's the thing, though: you can't just fire randomly. Most enemies don't drop ammo, and the supplies of everything except the basic pistol are limited. You also can't stand still for too long, or someone will get close or fire a fast-moving projectile - meaning that if you haven't yet learned how to be light on your feet in a shooter, Serious Sam will teach you the hard way. In particular, Serious Sam 3 has a whole lot of enemies spread across its twelve levels, meaning you'll probably have difficulty with quite a few different sections.
Gratification
In a "heroic last stand" kind of way, it's incredibly fun to fight off massive hordes of enemies without anyone helping out - sure, there is co-op, but it's difficult to get a game. It's particularly cathartic to finally complete a section that was kicking your ass before. Can't get through a certain mob of Kleers? Come back in a while when you're fresh and it'll feel so much better for the trouble.
Ohh, yeah...Feels good, man.
Though all the games are quite violent, serious "gore physics" weren't used until the HD versions of the first two games, and they've been improved a lot for Serious Sam 3. It now feels better than ever to rip through a mob with your various weapons - auto rocket launcher, grenade launcher, double-barrel shotgun, sledgehammer, and even a full-size cannon. There are also some melee finishers, but those take time to do and it's only really "feels good man"-level gore when you rip out a cyclops' eye. Nevertheless, it certainly is a very gratifying game - if you're good enough to blast through the hordes.
Conclusion
By no means is Serious Sam 3 a bad game. Sure, the (possible) Modern Warfare parody it starts out with goes on a little too long, and the game is kinda short, but the shooting and the dodging are better than ever and if you're a "twitch shooter" newcomer, it costs a lot less for about the same length of game overall than most shooters on the market. If you already have your Ph.D in backpedalling around massive open levels, though, I'd go with the HD version of Second Encounter instead - cheaper, all the levels from the first, plus a whole bunch more and you don't have to put up with as much slowness to begin with.
It's also already made the leap onto the XBLA, which BFE is yet to. You PS3 owners don't know what you're missing...
(Screenshots from Google Images, don't know any exact sources but I'm pretty sure none of them are copyrighted. It's not like this is for profit, anyway.)