The gameplay is barely evolved from the early nineties, which is part of the charm, but definitely isn’t worth playing very much. Environments look significantly uglier and everything feels rather sparse and alienating as players run around each other, firing off shotguns until somebody stops moving. So, it’s basically the campaign without a story.Ĭompetitive multiplayer also returns, and it is by far the roughest offering in the box. There is a Survival Mode, which simply tosses players into a map and spews out enemies until all players are dead. While co-op is not quite as challenging as going solo, having a squadron of players in one map can be pretty damn fun, especially with the range of silly character skins on offer. In addition to single-player, the campaign levels can be conquered with up to sixteen allies in a variety of cooperative modes that allow for limited or endless respawns. The final stretch is all punishment, no entertainment. Without that final chapter, Serious Sam 3 is a huge amount of punishing fun. It doesn’t help that it’s a rather boring and dull level, leading the game to end on a frustrating, almost demoralizing note. The only downside to such a setup comes with the last level, which ramps up the length to an extreme degree and forces players down a very linear, tight canyon for over two hours. Most first-person-shooter campaigns take four hours in total to beat these days, but you won’t get through a quarter of this game in that time. Single levels can take between twenty minutes to a whole hour, which is almost unheard of by today’s standards. This is a strenuous, savage, unapologetically “hardcore” game, and I don’t think I’d have it any other way.įortunately, manual saves are in place, which is useful considering how long this game can be. I’ve not even mentioned the Brides of Achriman yet, with their telekinetic ability to hold players in place while other monsters take potshots. Players will learn to truly despise the Kleer this time around, as they always come at the least helpful moment, backed up by other creatures that cover them with explosive projectiles while they get in close with their bony blades. Serious Sam 3 is damn hard, and swearing at the monitor can be a common occurrence, especially in the last few stages, with Croteam perfecting the art of combining certain enemy types to create the most potent threats possible. Of course, winning isn’t quite that simple. They get quite irritating after a while, though. There are some new monstrosities to encounter, chief among them the ape-like “space monkeys” that are actually quite frightening in their first appearance, since they hide in the dark and leap out at Sam. Every enemy has been redesigned to make them look more detestable - and even disturbing - than ever. Most of the enemies are familiar, with headless kamikaze troopers, laser-spewing Biomechanoids and vicious Kleer skeletons returning with their familiar attacks in place. When one can safely pull off an execution, it’s sadistically amusing, but it’s never overpowered since performing them is not always sensible. While melee attacks seem overpowered at first, performing such moves during intense enemy waves soon becomes impractical, since Sam will take damage during the attack animation and will also have to drop whatever he yanked from the monster’s body before using weaponry again. Melee attacks allow Sam to rip the hearts out of beheaded rocketeers, pull Kleer skulls from their bodies, and even remove a Gnaar’s cycloptic eye. If Sam is near enough to certain enemies, he can take them out instantly with a melee attack.
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