Serious Sam 3 adds no modern gameplay, thank heavens

The levels in Serious Sam 3 are large, with wide streets and open areas; you can move around in a way that's not common in most modern first-person shooters. The levels had to be this way, because the game supports 16 player co-op, an option that sounds insane. Then again, the whole game is insane.

During one section of the level I played, I was instructed to hide inside the remains of a building. The result? The charging bull-like enemies simply ran through the walls, sending destruction in their wake, before slamming me a few hundred feet in the air. There is no hiding in Serious Sam 3, and cover is useless. There is only one right way to react to every situation, and that's to kill everything you see.

I was able to check out the melee kills shown above—I ripped an eyeball out of the bad guy's head—but the rest of the weapons I used came from the classic games. I was told that there are announcements to be made in both areas, but we'll have to wait for that. This meeting was just to see how the game felt.

And the game feels wonderful. The levels are monstrously open, giving the hordes of bad guys plenty of room to swarm you while you try to shoot your way through a clear path. This is all about a large number of enemies attacking you while you try to hold them off and survive. Nothing else.

When you see a pile of guns and ammo, get ready—you're about to get massacred by a huge number of enemies. The game makes you tingle with anticipation whenever you reload your guns.

The title is coming to the PC first, using a heavily updated version of the Serious Engine 3; I was told it was more like Serious Engine 3.5. The graphics deliver everything they need to, and they're a nice improvement from the past games and even the re-releases. When I was younger I used to have a playlist of nothing but '90s-era Industrial music that I would play during my Serious Sam sessions, and 30 minutes of that was enough to purge all the aggression out of my system.

It feels good knowing I should begin rebuilding that playlist. Serious Sam 3 is coming to the PC this summer, with console versions on the way at a later date.