Sam and his military buddies, who mostly exist to get killed off, don’t mesh with the few other human characters, and don’t take the situation all that seriously. The end result is tone whiplash, where it’s difficult to tell if Croteam wanted to make another comedy or a darker, more gritty alien invasion story. The narrative is a clean slate change up, showing how Sam ended up being the one to use the time-lock to fight Mental throughout Earth’s history. Manual information based around Sam being a space captain with a redemptive streak are hinted here through some graffiti but go against his characterization as a dude-bro military lunkhead here, and the entire concept of scientists in the future sending Sam supplies through the time-lock was thrown out the window with the end of the game. The BFE part of the title means “Before First Encounter,” the return of the alien killing adventurer being a direct prequel to the first game in the series, and a bit of a soft reboot.

Serious Sam 3: BFE was the product of both desperation and wanting out of a creative rut. Forever was a product of over-ambition and poor management. Released just a few months after the much mocked Duke Nukem Forever, Serious Sam somehow found himself in the exact same position as ol’ Blondie, but for different reasons. Games were becoming more expensive to make, and they definitely did not have the resources to make a new Serious Sam game and an improved engine both – at least from what one can infer playing through Serious Sam 3. One problem: Croteam were not doing well financially after a string of failed projects, and their new publishing partner was still growing into a proper force in its own right. Eventually, they found a working relationship with the then new Devolver Digital and got to work making HD remakes of their first two games, putting Serious Sam back in the public consciousness and preparing the world for a new entry in the series. This included a modern military shooter that the financiers backed out of, and a failed pitch to Id for a new DOOM game.

With the game’s disappointing sales, Croteam had to buy back the rights to their signature series from 2K, then shopped around for awhile for work.

The times were not kind to Croteam after Serious Sam 2.

Serious Sam Spin-Offs After Serious Sam 3.

Serious sam 2 wallpaper