Serious Sam 3: BFE Review

Game:  Serious Sam 3: BFE (Before First Encounter)
Year (s):  2011
Company:  dev.  Croteam
            pub.  Devolver Digital
Engine:  Serious Engine 3.5
Type:  First Person Shooter (throwback gameplay)

Price (as of January 3, 2012 )

Regular price on Steam:  39.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  Not Applicable

Game Time:  25 hours, first time on normal

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voP2uozhRX8


Plot

Aliens attacked, and nearly everyone has been wiped out.  As Sam, you fight your way through Egypt attempting to uncover and activate an ancient alien artifact that will send you back in time to save the world!  Thus time travel explains why Serious Sam 3 is illogically subtitled Before First Encounter.

While the other games had text-based story elements, BFE has cutscenes.  These cutscenes allow for more of the testosterone-and-smart-ass personality of Sam to be enjoyed. 


Serious Engine 3.5

While Serious Engine 3.5 has definite graphical improvements over earlier engines (for example, they added particle effects and some physics), the franchise's engines continue to be about five years behind the cutting-edge.  On the other hand, there are dozens of enemies at a time in Serious Sam.  A graphically competitive engine with that much going on would have an unplayably low frame-rate for nearly everyone.  With the constant carnage, I wasn't stopping to admire the textures. 


Gameplay Compared to The First Encounter

Most weapons have to reload now, but all the familiar weapons came back.  Finishing-move melee attacks and two hand-to-hand weapons have been added.  Gameplay is nearly identical to the first, with only one or two enemies programmed to not charge directly at you.  Nearly all the enemies are back, plus a couple of new ones.  Cover is of limited use, as a lot of scenery is destructible.

There is more gore, especially with melee attacks.  Bullets that hit sand or stone will send up a short-lived cloud of dust, adding to mayhem by obscuring targets.  The pistol and the assault rifle can be aimed (slight zoom), and Sam can now sprint as much as he wants.  Sprinting is faster than most enemies, but you can't reload while doing so.  As in the original, health, armor, and other items are picked up by running over them.  Secret areas are also featured.

I liked The First Encounter because it was hard, but I didn't like having to cheat to get past a couple insane parts.  I didn't cheat in BFE.  While First Encounter threw you in to the shit pretty quickly, BFE ramps it up over the course of the campaign.  There also seems to be (at least, on normal difficulty) a lot more ammo and other goodies to pick up.


Audio

Two different directions were used here.  Most of the time, there's relatively ambient background music.  Boss fights (and the bosses are gigantic) loop a few songs by metal group Undercode, albeit without the vocals.  This reminded me of playing Doom back in the day, while listening to Metallica.  Good idea, Croteam. 


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

A handful of third-party indie games with Serious Sam in the title were released on Steam to promote the release of BFE. 

The Digital Deluxe Edition, which can be bought stand-alone or as an upgrade to the regular version, offers a few bells and whistles, but no new BFE gameplay content.  No information right now on further developments.


Final Thoughts

Croteam has been putting out essentially the same game for the last decade.  Either you like the old school style with difficulty turned to eleven, or you don't.  I won't begrudge anyone if they can't get in to Serious Sam.  That being said, BFE was more enjoyable in many ways from The First Enounter, and it would be a much better introduction to the franchise.  I thought the last boss fight was lacking, but found the rest of the game tons of fun.  I'd recommend playing BFE on someone else's computer than already owns it to see if you'd like it.