Serious Sam 3: BFE

About Serious Sam 3: BFE

Serious Sam 3: BFE drops you into a chaotic prequel set three years before the original game. Croteam released this title back in November 2011 as a throwback to classic arena shooters. You play as Sam Stone on modern Earth fighting off Mental's alien invasion across Egypt and Nubia. The story kicks off with your chopper getting shot down and leaves you surviving alone against endless hordes. It launched on PC, Mac, Linux, PS3, and Xbox 360. This is a loud, fast-paced action game that ignores modern cover mechanics in favor of constant movement and heavy firepower. You run around ancient ruins and temples while shooting everything that moves.

Gameplay

You sprint through levels packed with enemies and unleash massive weaponry without taking cover. The core loop involves running in circles to dodge fire while blasting waves of creatures until they die. You encounter puzzles involving Sirian technology or platforming sections where you must reach specific areas. Combat feels frantic because the game forces you to keep moving since there is no safety zone. You switch between heavy machine guns and rocket launchers to clear screens full of monsters. The single-player campaign takes you through tombs, pyramids, and temples in a linear fashion. Multiplayer modes include deathmatch and co-op play where you can team up with friends. Split screen support lets locals play together on consoles without needing an online connection.

What Players Think

Players seem split on this entry but respect the chaos. The IGDB shows a 70.4 out of 100 score based on 177 ratings. Most gamers spend around 9 hours to finish the main story according to community data. Completion rates are moderate with only 19.3% of players unlocking achievements on average. The rarest item is the Reindeer Hunter achievement which only 2.30% of users have earned. Critics and fans note the game feels like a direct sequel in spirit even though it serves as a prequel to the first encounter. Many reviews mention the frantic pace as both a strength and a weakness depending on your tolerance for screen clutter. The price has hit a historical low of 2.99 dollars at Humble Store making it an accessible buy for those curious about the series history.

PlayPile's Take

This game is for people who want unfiltered shooting action without complex storylines or stealth sections. You will spend most of your time running and gunning rather than thinking. The 62 achievements offer some long-term goals but the low unlock rate suggests many players quit before finishing everything. At under three dollars on PC it is a steal compared to current AAA prices. The multiplayer holds up well for local parties since split screen works perfectly. Do not expect deep narrative depth or clever mechanics here. Just bring a controller and get ready to blast through hundreds of aliens in ancient Egyptian settings.

Storyline

Prior to AD 2060, humanity had slowly begun uncovering artifacts and ruins left behind in ancient times by the Sirians, the famous and long-thought extinct race from the place of Sirius. Unfortunately, Mental has chosen this time to turn his attention upon Earth. He dispatches his space fleet carrying his endless hordes to attack Earth, leading a three-year conquest that has humanity driven almost to the point of extinction. In a last-ditch effort, the survivors turn to the Time-Lock, a recently excavated device supposedly capable of granting a single person the ability of time travel via an inter-dimensional portal. Through it, that person could reach a pivotal point in time and alter events of the past. But as the device lies dormant, they must first discover a means to turn it on. Sam "Serious" Stone, part of the Earth Defense force, is dispatched with a detachment of soldiers in the Alpha team to modern Egypt, which is occupied by Mental's alien army. Their original mission is to recon, rendezvous, and extract Bravo team who are protecting Dr Stein, a scientist carrying hieroglyphics believed to contain instructions for powering up the Time-Lock. Sam's insertion goes haywire as his chopper is shot down and both teams are quickly wiped out. However, he is able to recover the hieroglyphics from Stein's phone in the museum and transmit them to headquarters. Deciphering indicates there is a hidden Sirian chamber below the Great Pyramid. Sam clears himself a path to a tunnel underneath the Sphinx and descends into the Pyramid. He not only discovers the hidden chamber but recovers crucial information and a bracelet device from the remains of what might have been Earth's last Sirian. In order to power the Time-Lock, two dormant but incredibly powerful plasma-energy generators need to be activated. Hellfire from Charlie team inserts Sam to bring both online. This is slowly accomplished and Team Charlie is staged to enter the Time-Lock. Sam is relieved of duty and in the process of being extracted from Cairo, but is shot down once again and is forced to flee towards the lost ruins of Nubia. Traversing through more tombs, Sam gets back in touch with Hellfire and learns that Mental's forces have overrun the human military and killed them all shortly before dying herself. Now determined to finish what the Sirians has started, Sam vows to use the Time-Lock himself and kill Mental in the past before he can destroy humanity in the present. Sam then makes one last travel to Hatshepsut Temple, where the Time-Lock is located. The struggle to this destination ends with Sam killing Ugh-Zan IV. With Ugh-Zan IV dead, the Time-Lock then activates, displaying an inter-dimensional portal to 3000 B.C., the timeline where the Sirians became extinct. Sam calls Mental on Stein's phone and is answered by Mental's daughter, Judy. She tells him that Mental is planning to "moon" him. Sam notices the Moon plummeting rapidly within Earth's atmosphere and escapes through the Time-Lock to 3000 B.C. as the Moon impacts Earth, destroying the planet.