Home / Games / Serious Sam 3: BFE
Serious Sam 3: BFE
Serious Sam 3: BFE is a prequel to the original indie fast action FPS and Game of the Year sensation - Serious Sam: The First Encounter!
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
19 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Tons of fun. Level and enemy designs are fantastic. Music is great. Good and unique weapons.”
“The game is fun in general, but it is filled with weird bugs/glitches. Not sure if that has something to do with me playing it on Linux or not. Some examples: - In dark parts when using the flashlight, the camera…”
4 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Of all the Serious Sam games, this one is the most realistic in terms of visuals. You appear in modern day Egypt ravaged by Mental's minions, do battle in the ruined city, desert ruins and dark underground chambers…”
4 of the 101 reviews raise this.
4 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Very good game. It's comedy mixed with intense violence, ancient egyptian style levels, a great soundtrack, and a really good multiplayer. It also supports splitscreen, which is a feature not many PC games have.…”
3 of the 101 reviews raise this.
“Tons of fun. Level and enemy designs are fantastic. Music is great. Good and unique weapons.”
“Very good game. It's comedy mixed with intense violence, ancient egyptian style levels, a great soundtrack, and a really good multiplayer. It also supports splitscreen, which is a feature not many PC games have.…”
“Of all the Serious Sam games, this one is the most realistic in terms of visuals. You appear in modern day Egypt ravaged by Mental's minions, do battle in the ruined city, desert ruins and dark underground chambers…”
8 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“This game is so bland and disgusting and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sand there is so much sand and everything is janky, ship this back to base and burn it”
“Feels like a free to play random unity store asset mash-up... for $40. This game clearly struggles with identity. Sam as a US marine running around modern Middle-East. What is this a COD4 rip off?”
“Continues the story of the first two games with a few new additions of monsters Face animations are atrocious, but it's meant to be goofy anyway 7 / 10”
8 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“I've played SS:FE, SS:2ndE, and SS4 before this. This doesn't feel like a Serious Sam game at all. Feels like a 2010's Call of Duty type of game. I love these games, but skip this one. Couldn't bring myself to finish it.”
“SS3 is just... tiring. The last 3-4 levels are horrible and the last one is the most boring ♥♥♥♥ I have ever played. The game just keeps throwing unending waves at you. I know that that is the idea of this series but…”
“doesnt feel like serious sam at all, just looks like a random unity asset flip the gunplay is boring and the enemies are hard to spot in the environment the glory kill feature is useless and you will never really use it…”
3 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“The game is fun in general, but it is filled with weird bugs/glitches. Not sure if that has something to do with me playing it on Linux or not. Some examples: - In dark parts when using the flashlight, the camera…”
“now the game crashes......why?”
3 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“The game is fun in general, but it is filled with weird bugs/glitches. Not sure if that has something to do with me playing it on Linux or not. Some examples: - In dark parts when using the flashlight, the camera…”
“The first ever game that can make me sick of motion.”
3 of the 101 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“firstly, its not ''anarchistic mayhem'' its rather F@cking b@llsh$t. In campaign every area looks the exact same, so you have to watch like a guide not to get lost like it makes me want to throw up(idk how this is…”
Counted across 101 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 88.4% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“I love when a kamikaze bomber get stuck somewhere in the map walls and proceeds to scream for twenty minutes... Music to my ears..”
— a player, Steam review · 10 hrs played“It's still a cool, meaty shooter, but in my opinion, it's better than the first games. The first and perhaps most important reason is the good gameplay and a compelling storyline. It's also worth noting the pretty decent arsenal, but I especially enjoyed executing enemies in…”
— a player, Steam review · 16 hrs played“It and it's sequel SS4 are the true descendants of the Duke Nukem franchise”
— a player, Steam review · 4 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 11:47 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Serious Sam is Back, Baby! Enter the Shatterverse
Hey folks, It's a massive day for everyone at Croteam and Devolver Digital because we get to announce a brand new partnership with Behaviour Interactive, who are working on the next installment of the
SERIOUS SAM COLLECTION goes physical for Nintendo Switch!
Special Reserve Games has teamed up with Devolver Digital and Croteam to create outstanding physicals! This is a PREORDER for a physical product. Estimated shipping date is NOVEMBER 2022. At the heart
The next chapter of Serious Sam takes you to Siberia
Hi all! More than any time before, I bet you didn’t see this one coming. While there was a lot of talk about the next big thing coming for SS4 within the Serious Sam community, nobody came even close
Serious Saturday - BFE Co-Op Mayhem
Hey, everyone! This Saturday we are starting to warm up for Serious Sam 4’s release with another community event! We are going to kill a horde of enemies and hopefully, we are going to have a horde of
Serious Sam 4 is launching August 2020, pre-orders are open now
Hey everyone! I'm pretty sure many of you have already seen what's up by today, but here's a breakdown. Serious Sam 4 is launching this August, and pre-orders are open now. You can get your hands on a
Games like Serious Sam 3: BFE
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Serious Sam Classic: The First Encounter
94.8% · 1,343 reviews
shares Split Screen, Local Co Op, Gore, Old School
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
91.0% · 3,094 reviews
shares Aliens, Online Co Op, Gore, Old School
Serious Sam Classic: The Second Encounter
94.4% · 655 reviews
shares Split Screen, Local Co Op, Gore, Old School
Serious Sam Classics: Revolution
87.5% · 1,411 reviews
shares Split Screen, Gore, Old School, FPS
Serious Sam II
87.7% · 4,066 reviews
shares Online Co Op, Gore, FPS, Co Op
EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair
95.6% · 8,089 reviews
shares Split Screen, Aliens, Local Co Op, Online Co Op
Screencheat
92.5% · 1,412 reviews
shares Split Screen, Local Co Op, Online Co Op, Local Multiplayer
Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (beta)
91.9% · 2,113 reviews
shares Local Co Op, Online Co Op, Gore, FPS
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action, Indie |
| Player tags | FPS · Action · Co-op · Gore · Comedy · Online Co-Op · Multiplayer · Aliens · Shooter · First-Person · Old School · Local Co-Op (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · Shared/Split Screen PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op · Shared/Split Screen Co-op |
| Languages | English * , French, German, Italian, Spanish - Spain, Russian * , Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Bulgarian * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 62 |
| Estimated owners | 2,000,000 – 5,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | http://www.croteam.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows XP 32-bit (with service pack 2 or 3) Processor: Dual-core from Intel or AMD at 2.0 GHz Memory: 1GB Graphics: nVidia GeForce 7800/7900/8600 series, ATI/AMD Radeon HD2600/3600 or 1800/X1900 series DirectX®: 9.0c Hard Drive: 4GB free hard drive space Sound: DirectX9.0c Compatible Sound Card