I've held off on commenting about this campaign for a while now, mostly because I don't want to come off as offensive to the developer. I have a lot of respect to modders and custom campaign developers. However, from a design perspective, this entry is very weak and ultimately disapointing and it needs to be said.

First off, I'll mention the pros. This is among one of the best looking custom campaigns for Serious Sam out of all of the games. It also makes decent use of music, varying set pieces and locations while maintaining a good sense of cohesion. Very few technical issues were found as well (though I did notice some sloppy texturing here and there). Also a lot of credit has to go to the sheer massiveness of the play areas. It is simply amazing to see the SE3 pulling this all off with a steady frame rate.

But that's where the positives end for me. The actual experience of playing this campaign is a bore. The first glaring flaw I noticed was weak enemy placement. The campaign throws wave after wave of weak enemies at you in small sets, with a slow spawning time. This helps the player avoid getting overwhelmed but it is extremely tedious. It's got a lot of Gnarly moments of disposible enemies like Gnaars and Hoppers being spawned in the hundreds and it takes ages to saw through them and it requires no thought, skill or talent at all. It's repetitive.

This leads to another issue, being stuck in one location for far too long. The campaign has such a slow pace that the spectacle of the locations wears off quickly. I spent way too much time, running around in the same area/room, picking items up that were scattered far apart and flicking switches which spawned a few enemies miles away. Sam just doesn't run fast enough for areas this large. Back tracking to pick up items that were left behind only adds to the monotonous game play.

Additionally, the levels are simply too long. Even on single player, it's a real chore to play. I had to stop several times and return to the first level a day later simply due to burn out. It hardly feels like you are making any progress. This is made 10x worse in co-op where you cannot save and have to complete the entire level all at once. I don't know who has the patience for that but I sure don't. It's not a problem of the campaign's length, it's that there are no natural stopping points in which to exit the campaign and return later.

And finally, there are some really annoying sections that weren't thought out very well. Terribly awkward enemies are thrown in there that just don't feel satisfying or challenging to fight, or situations where death becomes way too easy. The 2nd level is a real mess here and it's were I completely gave up. The water tower room is amongst one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a First Person Shooter.

In the end, I just couldn't find anything worth while in the game play. It just doesn't feel fun and doesn't quite work out well but it is pretty close. A great foundation for what could become the best custom campaign SS has ever seen. That is, if the developer feels it needs improvements.

I have to give credit where it's due, I can see the love and dedication that went into this mod and I admire that but I also hope that this critcism won't be pushed to the side and ignored. Hopefully this can be a good learning experience and more work can be put into this to perfect it but as of writing this, I cannot recommend this campaign.

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Author's Note: Apparently the word limit is too short to post this in the comments, so I know not many people will get around to reading this before subscribing but either way, I can't cut this review any shorter. It would be great if there was an official review system for workshop items...