Amazingly, despite being 13 years old, Serious Sam 3: BFE holds up pretty well.

Over the top comedy violence and action, reasonable FPS gameplay, and a bit more effort in the narrative and story than previous Serious Sam games.

And once more it shows that when developers really put effort into a high quality launch, it pays dividends. The developers had an understanding that their game will be around much longer than the hardware it was designed for. As such the assets and visuals look fine even today... significantly better than amateur games released this year.

You can get this for $3 on sale and it takes about 10 hours to finish (twice that if you're achievement hunting)... the value for money here makes it a no-brainer. Compare this to an "indie" amateur shovelware game that costs $1 and is intolerable after 5 minutes and you can see why this kind of game is a wiser investment for your hard earned cash.

Serious Sam 3 is a massive mixed bag of a game. Its high points are very fun, and its low points are a slog to endure. Its worst level was bad enough to make me drop the game in 2019! It has its charm, and it's a blast when it gets into its groove, but it is too inconsistent and riddled with frustrating sections to recommend.

SS3 is a prequel to the first Serious Sam game, but thanks to the time travel elements of the series, it's set in modern Egypt. You play as Sam as he fights against the invading aliens of Mental's army, with your main goal being to reactivate an ancient time machine to turn the tide of the losing war. Sam's journey takes him from the streets of Cairo to the Pyramids to the Sinai Desert, with occasional trips to underground structures left by benevolent aliens and ancient Egyptians.

SS3 has some new mechanics compared to the original games, but not all of them are welcome additions. Sprinting is great, and it makes navigating through long stretches of maps less tedious. Reloading is limited to a few weapons, and it felt fine as a risk/reward mechanic on when to pull one off. Aiming down sights felt unnecessary, since there are only 2 weapons that make use of it, and the improvement to accuracy and zoom increases are minimal.

This is a horde shooter like the other Serious Sam games, meaning that you'll fight hundreds to thousands of enemies per level. The game starts off simple with only a handful of enemies at a time, but it doesn't take long for your first "war sequence" where dozens of various aliens rush you at once. Forget the conventions of tactical shooters, because SS3 is about killing insane numbers of enemies before they overrun you! The thrill of blasting apart dozens of cloned soldiers can quickly give way to fear as massive "werebulls" suddenly join the fray. Survival hinges on you learning the quirks of your guns and rapidly switching them as needed.

The enemies of SS3 have tons of variety, and most are fun to fight. They feel distinctly alien and have their own strengths and weaknesses to remember. The towering Bio-mechanoids can pummel you with rockets, but their massive size makes them easy targets for any of your guns. The Hatchling Arachnoids are fast-moving scorpion-like creatures with powerful chainguns, but they're weak against melee attacks. The only enemy I disliked was the Witch-Bride of Achriman, a boss-turned-uncommon enemy who can teleport and levitate Sam in the air, damaging you and hindering your aim while other enemies wail away at you. Her high health and annoying combat ability killed the pacing of some fights and forced me to drop everything to hunt her down.

Serious Sam 3's levels come in varying degrees of quality. Unearthing the Sun was a highlight for me, featuring different hordes divided up by collectibles and a battle around the Sphinx. The later levels include destructible environments, which make for thrilling battles in the ruins of Ancient Egypt. Multiple levels feature underground segments, which have dim lighting and require the use of a flashlight to navigate. These force you to slow down, and like the Witch Bride, they kill the pacing on what should be a fast and frantic game.

The Cairo-based levels were less entertaining for me, due to their dull environments and close-quarter designs. The worst level was easily "No Place To Hide," a frustrating mission where invincible sentry turrets are stationed around every corner, and you're forced to maneuver around enemies and obstacles to shut them down. It's so slow-paced, unforgiving, and against the core gameplay that it made me actually give up on the game in 2019.

The optimization for this game is also pretty bad. Despite being an early 2010s release, and having plenty of options for tuning performance, SS3 is a very demanding game to run. It looks beautiful, and it can handle hundreds of enemies when its settings are correctly adjusted, but it asks way too much of modern PCs.

Serious Sam 3 doesn't overstay its welcome, but it has more negative points than positive ones for me. For every time I'd have fun throwing C4 at Headless Kamikazes or minigunning Cloned Soldiers, I'd have to endure two underground sections or Witch Bride fights. Its co-op mode is fun, but nobody plays its multiplayer anymore. It has modding support, but enabling any mods disables achievements. Its quality is all over the place, and I can't recommend it. It doesn't run well, its bad levels are some of the worst I've played in an FPS, and it doesn't offer enough fun moments to make up for them.

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