Serious Sam 3: BFE

Serious Sam 3: BFE is a game in the Serious Sam series. It was developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. It was released on 22 November 2011.

Plot
The game is a prequel to The First Encounter, set during the Mental War. A majority of humankind was killed and only some of them were left, including Sam. Sam and his allies try to find a way of defeating Mental, but things go awry as many of his allies get killed, thus Sam becomes the last man on earth and has to try to stop Mental alone.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Unlike most, if not all, games set in Egypt, this game is the first and so far the only game to be set in modern Egypt instead of ancient Egypt and it has the cities and streets very accurately.
 * 2) It drops the cartoony/less serious style from Serious Sam 2 and goes back to being more serious but funny, like in the first game.
 * 3) Decent graphics that are much more grimey compared to the other entries.
 * 4) Great soundtrack, courtesy of its composer Damjan Mravunac.
 * 5) A dark storyline that shows how Mental's invasion of earth affected humanity and how Sam traveled back in time.
 * 6) The game introduces a sprint mechanic, which is useful for travelling through levels faster.
 * 7) The new weapons are good additions to the series. The c-4 for example, can be attached to enemies then detonated, dealing major damage to larger enemies and killing groups of weaker ones.
 * 8) As with the other games in the series, it has mod support, which allows players to make their own weapons and campaigns.
 * 9) The Jewel Of The Nile DLC is a neat campaign that features three well designed levels, makes the lasergun and sniper rifle regular weapons, and brings back the Reptiloid from the first game.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The game is considered one of the more inferior entries due to having elements that are associated with military shooters. This is because many of the early levels and weapons were originally meant for a military shooter Croteam was asked to create. That was, until the holders backed out.
 * 2) * There are city levels which are much more slow and boring at times since you don't fight hordes of enemies. Thankfully, the latter half of the campaign is much more like a traditional Serious Sam game.
 * 3) * There are some weapons that have reloading which is inconsistent since others don't need to reload.
 * 4) The art style was criticized by both fans and critics for going for a more realistic approach as opposed to the more cartoony/realistic mix from the first game.
 * 5) The visual effects are a bit problematic since the particle effects for things like dust and sand are too big and the bloom is blinding.
 * 6) Some of the new enemies in the game are annoying. An example is the Witch-Bride, a flying enemy that levitates you in the air, slows your movement and chokes you while other enemies are attacking you, making it easy to lose health.
 * 7) The lasergun and the sniper rifle are secret only, which means new players couldn't know they existed in the game. Worse, their ammo is secret only as well, and are rarely found, which means you can't use them often.
 * 8) The takedown mechanic, while interesting in concept, is pointless. You don't gain anything from it aside from a gib from the enemy you killed which you can throw. However, throwing is slow and the gib can only kill one enemy.
 * 9) The Khnum, Scrapjack, and Cloned Soldiers are essentially just enemies ripped from Doom. The Khnum is the Baron of Hell, Scrapjack is the Mancubus, and the soldiers are the Zombie Soldiers. This is because Croteam was nearly given the rights to make Doom 4.

Reception
Serious Sam 3: BFE received mostly positive reviews by fans and critics. Critics praised the gameplay, music and multiplayer modes, but criticized the difficulty as sometimes being hard and the art style being generic.

Many fans of the series consider the game an improvement over Serious Sam 2 due to being more like the original games, but generally considers the entry okay at best, and inferior to the first two games at worst.

Trivia

 * Playing a pirated version of the game will make a minature scorpion (one of the strongest enemies in the game) follow you and try to kill you; however this version is golden and extremely fast and if you actually killed it somehow, another one will come to you.