Serious Sam 3: BFE

Yeah, this is the game that's been eating my entire weekend, though I still managed to squeeze in 1000 words or so per day.

What is it? A bare-bones first-person shooter series that revolves around fighting giant hordes of monsters. This installment, a prequel to the first, takes place in near-future Egypt, before Sam enters the time-lock and goes back in time to ancient Egypt. I have completed this installment on Normal, and for those who are interested or on the fence, I have compiled several posts I've made on another forum where I periodically posted impressions of the game.

This may contain minor gameplay spoilers by the most stringent definition.


TL;DR version: While this installment has added certain modern gameplay elements like reloading, crouching, and sprinting, it still retains what makes Serious Sam special. Here's to Croteam.

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Five levels in, and I'm having a blast.

If the game's guilty of any flaw, it's starting even slower than The First Encounter. First stage, you have to fight with just a pistol and sledgehammer. Second level, you get the shotgun. Third, the assault rifle. Fourth, the rocket launcher. (Although I also got a hidden laser cannon). It's a slower trickle of weapons than I'd like.

On top of that, stage four has a really obnoxious gimmick, though the very end of the stage almost redeems the rest. Almost. There are fewer hordes in the beginning stages; by the start of level 5, I was having fun, but I wasn't blown away.

Then came level 5. The hordes became true Sam-level hordes, the level design got even more complex, more awesome weapons get introduced, and it all ends with a boss fight that probably counts as the most epic moment in the series yet (unless there are more to come in this game).
Pro: Yay, new weapon: remote charges!
Con: ...which you can only carry 10 of. Aw.

The level design has really improved; no longer is it a linear tunnel separated by large open chambers (although don't get me wrong, those chambers still exist here and there). The city levels are designed like a sequence of nonlinear mazes, and health and armor is spread out in a way that rewards exploration, so if anything, the level design has become much more old-school, which I like. Each level thus far except the first has had a boss at the end. The first two, maybe three bosses are just introductions of regular enemies with more health, but they're done in a challenging way so it doesn't feel cheap.

Old enemies return with new attack cues and patterns (for instance, the biomechanoid walkers now fire a huge barrage of rockets when at low health), and the handling of the controls feels even better than the previous games. The melee works well without being useless or overpowered, and the sledgehammer is fun, although I don't really like how your view bobs when you use it when enemies aren't around. Thankfully, when there's an enemy in your sights, Sam lifts the sledgehammer automatically and it becomes much quicker to use.

All in all, if I didn't have so much homework I'd stay up all night to play this. I feel like I got the better deal between my brother and I (my brother got Battlefield 3 for $30, I got Sam for $32).
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From level 6 onward, the level design becomes a lot more like the First Encounter in that you're now exploring temples and temple courtyards, just with more complex structures and temples. It could stand to have larger hordes, though, and I almost miss being charged nonstop by Kleer. I'd advise those who that the difficulty of the first two was just right to play on Hard at first.

Also, up until level 8, there's a shortage of ammunition for powerful weapons like the missile launcher. That makes fighting the not-Mancubi substantially more difficult at first. Heck, the game uses far, far more infantry-type enemies than medium or large sized enemies, but it's harder to take out larger enemies quickly with the rocket launcher because there's less ammo (again, until level 8).

The levels have gotten really long. I've been at level 8 for about an hour now.
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EDIT: I take back the whole "easy" thing. Rather, the game has a better difficulty curve than previous games. I'm at the final level now, and don't have much to say except that it's substantially harder than previous final battles, with far less health powerups available (at least during the early sections). Also, all levels since 8 have also been great, although I still hate space monkeys.

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EDIT2: YES. Definitely the hardest final level out of the series. That... was... glorious. You know that statement I made below about missing being charged by Kleer? Not anymore. That final level delivers that and more in droves.

Moving to Virtual Worlds