Serious Sam 3: BFE is a prequel to Serious Sam: The First Encounter, set amid Earth’s fight against Mental’s invading forces. Its battlefields place shattered cities beside ancient Egyptian temples, giving the shooter’s conflict a setting where modern ruins and the ancient world meet. The design looks back to arcade-style action, with no cover system and waves of enemies pressing the player to keep firing.
Sam can carry his weapons together and switch between them on the fly, drawing on an arsenal that includes a scoped assault rifle, double-barreled shotgun, minigun and flaming cannonballs. Familiar foes such as the Headless Kamikaze and Gnaar share the enemy roster with new threats including the Scrapjack and Khnum. Close-quarters melee attacks add a direct option when enemies get near, alongside the game’s emphasis on sustained gunfire.
The game offers single-player, online and local split-screen play, with co-op, survival and competitive modes among its formats. Its modes include cooperative assaults on enemy hordes as well as versus matches, so the figures reflect more than one way to play.
