🔰SHREDVIEW🔰 - From someone who actually plays and finishes the games before reviewing.
🔷 ABOUT THE GAME & LORE 🔷
From the starving deserts of ancient Egypt, we power on the Delorean for a trip to the Pharaoh’s kitchen storage, where we will open up a can of sandworms and make some people happy today. Seriously, what the f**k is this s**t?
Serious Sam 3: BFE is straightforward Oldschool First Person Shooter which is the product of a failed experiment. I’ve stole Fisher’s Splinter Cell gear and snooped around investigating what the lab coats at Croteam were up to and found out they were actually working on a Call of Duty military shooty game that got scrapped, so they decided to make another Serious Sam instead.
Unexpectedly, this turns out to be a prequel to the First Encounter released in 2001. I don’t know why they pulled a Star Wars ten years later but here it go. It basically sets the events before and while the world was taken over by the Aliens. Ta-duh!
🔷 THE GAMEPLAY 🔷
👉 GENERAL:
This title pissed off a lot of the “purist” crowd who’s brains peaked in 2001 and never evolved past it. People were pissed about the additions while I am still pissed off about every release counting as something you would find in the pyramids. Went back to it for the achievements in 2025 and I still got cobwebs on my desk, here’s the breakdown:
▪︎ The format of the gameplay remains true to the origins. We immediately start to feel familiar and nostalgic about the past, and it should end there. From the get go you will notice few FPS conveniences debuting along the new engine, dragging more substance out of a simple rundown. After all, you do nothing but shoot while on foot and kill as you chill, except now there’s also melee and contextual executions like ripping out a Gnaar’s eye out and use it as a throwing weapon, fantastic!
▪︎ There is now a sprint mechanic, one of the thing that a portion of the community didn’t like. Why? If you walk out the cave you’ll say “look how much is there to explore” until someone grabs you and walks you further then you say “oh s**t, there’s even more”. Let the game evolve, I am happy about the sprint mechanic allowing me to switch my pace, as well as the rest mentioned down further.
▪︎ The weapons now have recoils, weight, fire rates and reloading mechanics that you should feel more (Remember they were working on a military shooter). Few of the weapons also have AIS (Aim down sight) mechanics. This is another thing that a lot hated. Again, stop trying to hold the world back for your own comfort. Go play the originals and spam an unlimited magazine all you want, nobody will care to stop your pre-historic ass.
▪︎ The new engine allows combat to be more focused on the opposite of that enormous space arena flow, it is now more contained, therefore more aggressive, better scripted and puts more pressure on the player as well as adding a few new enemy types. I’m not saying this was all great, this was all weird but It’s not because of the new stuff, it’s because not enough new stuff.
▪︎ So everything in the base game spans across 12 main missions, that’s it. For some reason there is a DLC which adds 3 more missions. In typical fashion, hidden secrets and areas everywhere, some so hard to spot it would’ve taken years without collective information from guides, it’s not a bad thing but don’t tie it to achievements it’s plainly ret**ded. The game’s area design prevent 2 secrets from being obtained.
▪︎ BFE also emphasizes on different game-modes, some introduced in the previously released 2010 HD remasters of first and second encounter, and some new: There is COOP for up to 4 players, Survival mode, coin-op and several versus/multiplayer game-modes.
👉 NAVIGATION SYSTEM:
Obviously, there’s a lot to navigate in those confined sectors as secrets are everywhere but as the campaign direction goes, you have only a way forward, where the game wants you to go. There is no map,no quest markers, no signs except for the pre-defined paths. Some levels do have shortcuts that allows bypassing a significant portion of a mission and that’s everything you need to know.
👉 PHYSICS & MECHANICS:
We’ve finally reached the red zone, and hereby I mean fanatics get their period. As mentioned above, the game brings a few modern conveniences and mechanics, which make sense, to keep a piece timeless and relevant it must adapt, look at Doom, Wolfenstein, and Croteam tried. Again, I wasn’t mad at all they tried, I was upset they didn’t go hard enough. All the new sprinting, reloading, aiming, melee felt fresh to me.
👉 GRAPHICS & OPTIMIZATION:
Far from something that will leave a mark, quite the opposite. I found the terrain / urban sections to be over-cluttered + the design and colors makes it look full while it isn’t, to the point where my eyes were burning. Idk, I don’t believe there will ever be a release in the series that’ll not scratch the retina. This game looks rough, it plays rough, it’s like walking on gravel bare feet. Don’t get me wrong, for it’s time, it did introduce a lot of new particles, effects capabilities and it looks alright but more towards bad than towards good enough.
👉 ACHIEVEMENTS & COLLECTIBLES:
Straight ass. I did not enjoy the grind. Most are story related and functional, but multiplayer and DLC related stuff is just something I despise. Besides that, the game is so broken and unpolished that some secrets are downright inaccessible in the last stable version of the game, If you use console to noclip them, the game turns off your achievements. I ended up using a kind soul’s save file from a previous version as a rescue for all secrets in one playtrough. Thanks Croteam, f**k you! This was a whole cup of diarrhea.
🔷 CONCLUSION 🔷
Now that I’m finished reviewing this great experience, I will now wipe, wash my hands and say this: I am still waiting for a great Serious Sam comeback. Croteam should seek guidance from ID Software. As I said, look at Doom, Wolfenstein, Thief, Mafia series, System Shock, there’s a lot of reboots that stay true to the original format while introducing modern graphics and mechanics to emphasize or elevate that original feeling. Yes, Serious Sam 4 did a 15% better job but it still wasn’t it. With all that said, I just realized that I forgot to flush.
🔷 PROS & CONS 🔷
✔️ PROS:
- Courageous to introduce new concepts to the standard series.
- Familiar design, true to its core.
- Sprint makes the pace adaptable.
- Aim down sights, reload & weapon weight are introduced.
❌ CONS:
- Disgusting achievement grind.
- 100% completion forces buying a DLC which is horrid.
- Every release must look ancient for its release year’s technologies.
- The dialogue & satire is not amusing, it is cringe to the bone.
- F**k this game’s achievements.
🔷 SHORT REVIEW & STATS 🔷
• PLAY STYLE:
✅ PVP
🔳 PVE
✅ ONLINE CO-OP
✅ Online Multiplayer
🔳 SPLIT SCREEN
✅ SINGLE PLAYER
• GRAPHICS:
✅ Fire the designer.
🔳 Fairly old game, what you expect?
🔳 Not great, not terrible.
🔳 Great
🔳 Exceptional
• REPLAYABILITY:
🔳 YES
🔳 EVERY NOW AND THEN
🔳 NOT SURE
🔳 RARELY / ON MAJOR UPDATE / DLC RELEASE
✅ NO
• STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS:
✅ YES
🔳 NO (WTF MAN)
• GAMEPLAY:
🔳 WTF IS THIS ♥♥♥♥
✅ TERRIBLE
🔳 DECENT
🔳 ENGAGING
🔳 HAD A BLAST
• DIFFICULTY
🔳 DARK SOULS
✅ BAFFLING
✅ CHALLENGING
🔳 MEDIUM
🔳 WALK IN THE PARK
• STORYLINE:
✅ A WHAT? WE WRITE CODE NOT BOOKS
🔳 GOES FINE WITHOUT ONE
🔳 DECENT
🔳 ENGAGING
🔳 SHAKESPEARE AINT GOT S**T ON THIS
❗ NOTE: If you like my work, please check out the rest of my reviews, I put a lot of work in these to offer the best overall description of what you’re up against. Thank you in advance!
https://steamcommunity.com/id/cervusrex/recommended/
❗ NOTE2: - This is a review based on personal preferences and opinions. I always suggest you try the games for yourself before letting others decide for you. Even though we're all gamers, we are sure not the same.
