Old school perfection.
Graphics have plenty of detail giving off a high quality ambience of a modern day DOOM 1+2 or DUKE NUKEM 3D with the delicious immersive variety of UNREAL TOURNAMENT style city maps that are very big making me feel am actually in these environments. Sound effects and music enhance the excellent immersive qualities of the landscapes visual realism with creepy sound effects warning the player something is out there waiting for a victim. Using my V-moda LP headphones i could actually feel a bumpy thud as i ran into a wall when trying to avoid persuing enemies. Music has a nice middle east sound which is very well done along with some gloomy scary ambient pieces. I especially like the death filled dense atmosphere of the loading screen music.
Level design is buetiful with plenty of indoor and outdoor areas that feel real making combat much more adrenaline stimulating and frightening. There are some nice puzzle type setups where i had to figure out the best path to get past many weapon heavy areas aswell as enemies who have some interesting tactics giving them a sense of intelligence. Environments are very interactive with enemies crashing through walls and the player able to smash their way into closed up areas with such weapons as a sledge hammer or missle launcher.
Weapons look great making for some exciting graphical eye candy. I even came across two different types of shotguns each with their own advantages and disadvantages like rate of fire, amount of ammo reloading and amount of damage they do. Many times i have gotten overconfident finding a powerful weapon only to find myself gunned down instantly by enemy machine gun fire in believable fashion unlike many other shooters where the player and enemies are bullet sponges even when not protected by armor. When wearing armor in SERIOUS SAM 3 it keeps the player alive long enough to find some cover before it is shredded away which is a great touch.
Enemies look fantastic from the gross one eyed monstrousities whose eyes the player can rip out in melee mode and the humongous heavily armored scorpion giants to the sexually provacative with plenty of crotch shot appeal flying bird women the alien invaders of SERIOUS SAM 3 keep the player worked up and wanting to play just one more level to see what new horror will show up.
Some action packed classics from previous SERIOUS SAM games make an appearance such as headless exploding enemies which are used well and dont feel tired and old in their implementation while complimenting all the new monstrous fiends from outer space.
SERIOUS SAM 3 Buy it! Play it! Relish the retro flexing sexy with heart pounding thrills!