Serious Sam 3: BFE (PC) (2011)

Overview: Serious Sam 3: BFE is a first-person shooter and prequel to Serious Sam: The First Encounter. As Sam "Serious" Stone, the player fights against aliens, with many different weapons to find and use along the way. Broadly speaking, Serious Sam 3 is quite similar to the Doom series (e.g., Doom (1993) or Doom II (1994)).* Serious Sam 3: BFE emphasizes traditional first-person shooter gameplay. Explicitly, this means more action and shooting over stealth and cover.

Sam "Serious" Stone

*Another common feature between Serious Sam 3 and the Doom series is friendly fire (enemies can damage enemies).

Recommendation:
While Serious Sam 3: BFE is straight up fun, if I were given a choice between it and Left 4 Dead 2 (2009), then I'd choose Left 4 Dead 2.

Wave after wave of enemies came. It was awesome.

With that being said, Serious Sam 3 places some emphasis on the single-player mode (as opposed to the Left 4 Dead series which emphasizes the four-player co-op). To be fair, I have yet to play Serious Sam 3's multiplayer mode. Supposedly it's awesome.

[20190630 Edit]

20140126:
Today I played some Serious Sam 3: BFE. It took a while to get the hang of shooting enemies. Overall, the game was fun.

Various Observations:
1) Items that can be picked up are highlighted. Furthermore, they are automatically picked up upon contact.
2) A really power movement is to use your melee attack (default key: E). For some enemies, this move is an instakill. For others, it knocks them back and stuns them.

3) The music plays whenever there's an enemy around, similar to some of the newer Prince of Persia games (e.g., Sands of Time).

As a newer player, I'm still not entirely used to pinpointing an enemy's location using sound and the direction of damage from the display.

4) Fortunately, the game autosaves in many places.
5) Kiting is effective, though running will cancel a reload, so make sure not to run unless absolutely necessary.
6) There were a couple of enemies that surprised me the first time they popped out. Those jumpscares were fun and exciting.

[20140126 Assumed Post Edit][20190630 Edit]

20140127:
Today I played the next level, Broken Wings. At this point in the game, the shotgun shells become standard and I basically use the shotgun as my primary weapon. Though for long-ranged shots the handgun should still be the weapon of choice.

I also learned while playing today that the aiming reticle changes color based on the enemy's health. The colors are green, yellow, orange, and red.

After playing a while, I begin to learn the precise number of shots required to take down various enemies. For example, most enemies that look human take one hit from the shotgun and two from the handgun.

The big monsters (your melee pulls their eye out) take about two hits from your shotgun (depending on how far they are from you) and I think a full ten from your handgun. While you can unload the handgun quickly, you'll have to wait for the reload time. On the other hand, the shotgun has spread damage and great for when a big wave is coming your way.

Note that it is possible for enemies to take damage from other enemy attacks. In particular, the bombs carried by the screaming enemies, the missiles fired by the missile enemies, and the bolas thrown by the bone enemies will all do friendly fire damage.