Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

It's been a long while since Max Payne graced the screens, spewing out monologues and shooting people in slow-motion. That was 11-13 years ago, and while the first two games are highly regarded and well-remembered, it's taken a long while before Max Payne 3 came to life. Remedy, the original developers, moved on to create Alan Wake, and it wasn't until 2009 before Max Payne 3 was finally revealed to be in development. Then it disappeared again for a year or two, before it appeared again in 2011… so it's had its share of rocky development. Now that it's out, has it been the 9 years wait worth? (9 years from MP2's release).

Story
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Max Payne 3 takes place 9 years after Max Payne 2. After having resigned from the NYPD, Max has become a wreck, becoming addicted to alcohol and painkillers. He's also left America, in favor of São Paulo, Brazil. Here, he now works as part of a private security for the Bronco family, a wealthy family. Unfortunately, the family becomes the target for a gang, known as "Comando Sombra," and they kidnap one of the family members: Fabiana. With Max caught in the middle of it, he now has to rescued Fabiana, before it's too late.

If there's one thing, we might as well get out of the way; it's that the writing isn't as sharp as the previous games. The writing literally bathed in metaphors and one lines, and here it's more about one-liners and Max's thoughts. That being said though, the writing is still pretty solid (for the most part) and there are still a lot of metaphors; they're just in the environments instead. One instance of this is a level that revolves around a burning building, that's crumbling down, a metaphor for the hell that Max is in. The story might not have that noir feeling that the previous games had, but it creates a character study around Max, which works surprisingly well.

Whenever the character study will be received well however, is up to the player. Personally, I like Max and feel sympathy with him (and he does have some great lines as well), but he talks an awful lot about how he's depressed or want to just give up and have a drink. Like a real depression, this will be annoying to some, and intriguing and sympathetic to others One problem the story has for everyone, is the final chapter, where the writing becomes less sharp than previously, and the ending is a bit disappointing… though not to the point of Mass Effect 3. Even with these problems though, it's a good and a surprisingly deep and mature story that tries to handle things a bit differently than in the typical video game.

9.0

Gameplay
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A 9 year absence has barely managed to change Max Payne's gameplay. The game plays almost exactly as you remember the first two games to be. It's a third person shooter, where Max can use bullet time (slow motion) to gain an advantage over his enemies. The game also avoids using regenerative health, so you're still reliant on those old painkillers to save your bacon. In a world where almost every game lets you restore health by sitting in cover, this is a very good thing. That's not to say that the game ignores everything that has become part of video games, however. The game now has a cover system, similar to every other action game out there. Iron sight aiming has also been introduced, so aiming has become more precise than in the previous games. And, when you are shoot dodging, you can stay on the ground and fire away, until you decide to get up. It's a fun feature that makes you feel cool when you've cleared a rooms worth of people, just by lying on your back.

For a Rockstar game, Max Payne 3 is incredibly linear. There's hidden gun parts and clues (that flesh out certain parts of the story) that can be found hidden in the environment, but that's all the exploration you get. All you do is move forward and shoot whichever bad guy decides to stand in your way. Rarely, you might come to an on rails section, and there are even one or two bits where you have to do some sniping. But beyond that, you just shoot at (almost) everything that moves. Surprisingly, the game never feels dragged out, or boring, at all. There are multiple factors to this, mind you. One of these factors is bullet time. It just looks and feels awesome, when you run with a handgun and a machine gun at the same time, clearing a while room. At times there's even kill cams, which makes the game all the more fun. The enemies are far from a pushover as well they'll use cover, try to flank you, and later on they'll have some heavy amour on them. Then there are the small details. Shoot dodge over some stairs, and you'll see a Max that slides down stairs. It looks painful, but it's incredibly awesome.

The game is challenging. Bullet time might give you an advantage, but if you don't use it in a thoughtful manner, and you just run into everything, you'll get shot down pretty quickly. At the same time, the AI makes it impossible for Max to stay behind cover all the time. It's also pretty easy to die, because you can take everything from very little damage, to a lot of damage, just from one bullet. Getting shot by a shotgun at close range is essentially a death sentence. Thankfully, the same thing also happens to the enemies, and it's all somewhat remedied by Last Stand. Die with a leftover Painkiller, and you can pop back to life, should you manage to shoot the guy who "killed you." It'll save you a lot, though there are moments where the killing shot might come from enemies behind cover, and in those cases you are screwed. Bullet time can't always save you as well, as it can get interrupted if you… say, shoot dodge into the wall or an object.

That said, the difficulty isn't always fair. Grenades and Molotov cocktails are instant kills, and you don't have the option to use them. Nor can you throw back thrown grenades, which is a puzzling omission. While the game never becomes boring, it would be nice to see some different tricks, rather than just throwing enemies at you. Especially near the end of the game, where it feels like you have to fend off something that resembles an entire army. It doesn't help that they can take a lot of abuse either (though there's nothing a good head shot will fix). What's really annoying though, is when you are knocked down, or lying on the ground, following a shoot dodge, and have to get behind the cover, as Max will stand up briefly, then go back down behind the cover. It never killed me, but it did cost me some health. Finally, the controls aren't bad, but they do take some time to get used too.

Another flawed point, are the surprisingly long cut-scenes. They don't appear at the, play for 5 minutes and then watch for 10 minutes variety, like in Metal Gear Solid. That being said, they do come frequently, and most of them can't be skipped. This is because they replace all of the loading screens. It's impressive that you never see a loading screen, if you play through the game in long intervals, but it's annoying if you are replaying a section and just want to get past the levels quickly. At least, there's level select and even a checkpoint select. The game doesn't escape a few bugs as well. The game can crash (though that never happened to me in single player, I have seen it happen for some people), and at one point it even failed to load a cut-scene, leaving me to explore environments I weren't supposed to, which ended up crashing my game.

The game should take around 8-12 hours to complete, and after that you can replay it in various difficulties (including old-school, which removes last stand), and modes, such as score attack and New York Minute, where you have to complete the levels within a time limit. There's even a mode where you have to complete the whole game, within a time limit. there's plenty of things to do, after the credits have rolled.

9.0

Multiplayer
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On top of that, there's also a surprisingly fun multiplayer. It's your typical multiplayer fare, with team deathmatch, Gang Wars, which is a combination of deathmatch, capture the flag, conquest and a few others, and Payne Killer, where everyone goes after the player, who plays as Max or his friend Passos. What's surprising is how entertaining it is. The game's mechanics works excellent, and bullet-time surprisingly works as well. It affects the players that are in your range of sight, and no one else. Another good thing is that if you are caught on the wrong end of the bullet time spectrum, you still have a decent chance of killing someone. That said, it takes far too long to level up and unlock new stuff, so it can feel a bit too much like a grind. Another problem, are online issues. At times, loading a match or even respawning can take ages. At one point, I even missed out a round in Gang Wars, that's how bad it can get. It also crashed on me a few times, which is incredibly annoying.

8.5

Graphic & Sounds
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The game generally looks good. The game itself looks great as it is, especially the character models, and the animation are, hands down, some of the most realistic animations ever seen in a video game. At times, it can almost feel like you're watching a real movie, rather than playing a game. That being said, the environments might look good and all, but certain parts have a habit of popping up so suddenly. The frame rate is fine for the most part, but there are times where it bogs down. The cut-scenes (And game itself) has this weird, alcoholic effect to it, and random sentences and words also pops up on the screen from time to time. The point of this, is probably to have the player try to see things from Max's drunk and addicted perspective, and as the game progresses, these effects gradually appears less and less. Personally, I find the style great, but it can be a bit annoying for some players.

The sound however is excellent. Rockstar really knows how to create a realistic and excellent atmosphere that makes you feel like you were there yourself. An early highlight is a Brazilian nightclub, which almost feels like your right besides Max. The voice acting is great, and James McCaffrey fortunately returns to voice Max. The music is done by an American Rock Noise band, called Health, and their score is excellent. The sound design is excellent, though there might be a few short instances where the sound doesn't mesh with the picture.

9.5

Overall
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Like Max himself, Max Payne 3 has a few issues, but they aren't enough to detract the game from being what it is. It feels like a natural evolvement for the series, and while it may have lost the noir feeling, it does still feel like a Max Payne game, and it's gotten some things that are quite unusual for a video game. I can't promise that everyone will like it; as seen on the various forums where there's a huge divided opinion on the game, but if you ask me, I'd say that Max Payne 3 is an excellent game, and a strong contender for game of the year, 2012.