The third installment of Croteam’s Serious Sam franchise is about to become a lot more immersive. Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE hits Steam today.
Croteam’s passion for virtual reality is rivaled by few developers. For proof of that statement, take a gander at the independent developer’s VR catalog. At E3 2016, Croteam revealed its first virtual reality title, a VR-exclusive installment of the long-running Serious Sam series called Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope. Following the fall launch of The Last Hope, Croteam started releasing VR rebuilds of its back catalog. Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter hit Steam in March, Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter came out in April, and The Talos Principle VR made its debut in October.
Serious Sam 3: BFE is the last game Croteam said it would convert to VR this year. The developer sent out a tweet today confirming that Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE would be available on Steam on November 9.
Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE is a complete VR port of the “pancake” (for "flat," or normal screen) version of Serious Sam 3: BFE. Everything from the original release made its way to the VR game. In fact, you can play the multiplayer modes with players who aren’t in VR. The Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Last Man Standing, Last Team Standing, and Instant Kill modes all support cross play between VR and “pancake” players. The original release of Serious Sam 3: BFE featured split-screen multiplayer support. Croteam didn’t say anything about asymmetric local multiplayer in the release notes. The VR version of the game likely doesn’t support multiple players on one PC.
Just like the other Serious Sam VR ports, Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE features multiple locomotion options including teleport, instant teleport, blink teleport, and full locomotion with and without comfort mode. You get full control in the options to choose the locomotion method you prefer.
Croteam said that Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE would be available today, but the developer hasn’t announced the price, and it isn’t accepting pre-orders. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE, you can put it in your Steam wishlist now so you'll receive a notification when the title goes on sale in the morning. Croteam is keeping the price close to its chest, but for previous Serious Sam VR releases, Croteam offered discounts to anyone who already owns Serious Sam games with deeper discounts for every Croteam title in the Steam library.
Next Up; Serious Sam 4
With the release of Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE, Croteam doesn't have any more games to port to VR (in April it revealed that it doesn't plan to port Serious Sam 2 to VR), which means it can put its entire development team to work on the next installment of the Serious Sam franchise. Croteam hasn't said much about Serious Sam 4, other than to acknowledge that it's in development, but a Steam user who goes by noam 2000 uncovered an easter egg in Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope that suggests that Serious Sam 4 could land in December.
The screenshot shows a list of "Patented" dates stamped into the side of the Tommy Gun in Serious Same VR: The Last Hope. The dates include March 21, 2001; February 2, 2002; October 11, 2005; November 22, 2011; October 9, 2016; and December 7, 2017. To most people, those dates wouldn't mean much, but avid fans of the series may notice that all but the last one correspond to each of the major Serious Sam installments, including Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Serious Sam: The Second Encoutner, Serious Sam 2, Serious Sam 3: BFE, and Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope. December 7, 2017 presumably denotes the release date for Serious Sam 4.
