Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Boring"

It is the third title in the Max Payne franchise and was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in May 2012 and for Microsoft Windows in June. Development is led by Rockstar Vancouver in collaboration with the New England, London and Toronto studios.

This is the first game in the series that was not developed by Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment and not written by series creator Sam Lake.The lead writer of Max Payne 3 was Dan Houser, who was also the writer of Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto IV and Bully.Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Max Payne 3 features a similar over-the-shoulder camera as its predecessors, with the addition of a cover mechanic, while also retaining much of the same run-and-gun style of gameplay. Max Payne 3 also marks the return of bullet-time in action sequences, for which the franchise is notable. In bullet-time it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail. New to the series is a "Last Stand" mechanic, which gives the player a grace period after losing all health during which time the player may kill the enemy that wounded them in order to continue playing, however this mechanic is only usable if the player has one or more bottles of painkillers in their possession.

Max Payne 3 retains the shoot-dodge mechanic from the previous games in the series. Players are able to stay grounded after a dive, which enables them to shoot 360 degrees around. Rockstar has blended physics and animation, so that when a player dives, they do so appropriately according to their surroundings. Through advanced use of the Euphoria dynamic animation engine, shooting and killing enemies in Max Payne 3 will look noticeably more realistic than in any preceding Rockstar game.

New to the series are cinematic action movements, interactive cutscenes which transition seamlessly into continuing gameplay. Moreover there are no loading screens across gameplay and cut scenes.The game's online multiplayer features maps and modes that dynamically change within a match, as well as reward, ranking and clan systems.

Max Payne 3 will let players form private crews with friends, or join public crews. Players can be a member of up to five at the same time, and completing tasks as a crew will gain XP points for the player. Among the crew features promised are persistent Feuds, that see the player scrapping with opposing gangs who've killed someone on the team. Social Club integration connect play across multiple titles, starting with Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto V. By playing both games multiplayer "crews" that the player set up in one will be carried over to the other.According to Rockstar's Sam Houser, it was their intention on starting a new chapter of Max Payne's life with the game. "This is Max as we've never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever." Since the last game, the press release states Max has left New York City behind and has "drifted from bad to worse." The press release then goes on to say Max has been double-crossed in this new city and he is searching for the truth and a way out.The game is set in São Paulo, Brazil, eight years after the events of the second game.Max Payne now works in executive protection for the wealthy Rodrigo Branco and his family in the hopes of escaping the memories of his troubled past. When a street gang kidnaps Rodrigo's wife, Max is pulled into a conspiracy of shadowy, warring factions threading every aspect of São Paulo society in a deadly web that threatens to engulf everyone and everything around him.The game was originally scheduled for release in late 2009. However, it was pushed back to 2010 alongside several other Take-Two Interactive franchises in order to "benefit from having more development time." In June 2010, the game was again pushed back to 2011. On December 21, it was not present on the 2011-2012 calendar year, and was pushed back again. The game was still in development and not canceled or indefinitely halted when Rockstar released two new screenshots for the game. On September 8, 2011 Rockstar announced a March 2012 release date for the game, with a debut trailer released on September 14. In January 2012, Take-Two delayed the game by two months from its original March release date to May 2012. The publisher said the decision's been made to "ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality."
The debut trailer was released on September 14, 2011.Responding to criticism regarding the decision to abandon the film noir theme of the previous games in the series, the writer for the series, Sam Lake, responded by commenting that the game would "maintain its dark and gritty origins" and that fans of the series would be "in for a surprise."Remedy boss Oskari Hakkinen praised Rockstar's take on the series, and said Max Payne 3 looks "brilliant".

Rockstar conducted research to ensure that the vibe, culture, police, weapons and every element of São Paulo is as authentic as possible. The research team visited São Paulo several times and went to lengths researching the local gangs, police and special forces, including each group's choice of equipment and firearms.

In a November 2011 interview, Dan Houser of Rockstar Games said that despite what the general public might think, Rockstar likes to "spend a bit of time" at the end of projects before deciding what to do next. "Basically we have been meaning to start [Max Payne 3] for a while, but we have limited bandwidth and limited studios, and more games to make than we've started. So suddenly it was a good slot," Houser said, explaining why it took eight years to follow up Max Payne 2. "Also, contrary to a lot of people, we like to take a little bit of time at the end of a game before starting a sequel, so we can wait for the excitement or disappointment and everything else of the experience to shake down and really see what we should do in the next game."

In March 2012, it was confirmed that the PC version of the game will feature DirectX 11 and stereoscopic 3D rendering. The PC version of Max Payne 3 is shipped on four DVDs and the Xbox 360 version on two discs due to the disc size limit; however, the PS3 version ships on one Blu-ray Disc.According to Take-Two Interactive, Max Payne 3 shipped approximately 3 million units in its first week. As of June 2012, the game has sold 440,000 units in the United States. I did not like this game very much but it has good rating by the public and that is 84.67%.