Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Solid"

Max Payne 3 makes shooting bad people fun. The shooting is nearly pinpoint and you can see everything from shooting the enemies from the head to all their limbs and torso. It is very satisfying to kill people in this game and it doesn't get old throughout the campaign. You will be forced to jump out of buildings and vehicles and other obstructions while you use "Adrenaline" to slow down time and shoot the bad guys exactly where you want to. Yes this is fictional but it's a staple of the Max Payne series. The game is lacking in some areas of the gameplay however. The fact that you cannot use grenades in the single player is a little upsetting, and I also feel that there is literally nothing else to do in the single player campaign outside of finding golden gun parts and clues(which contribute nothing but count towards the achievements and add to the story, they do not affect the outcome of the story in anyway). Game feels way too linear for a 3rd person game in this day and age and for a Rockstar game, I wonder if this would have been better suited as an open world game or something similar to L.A Noire. There are also really no stealth mechanics to the game which might have suited Max Payne. There are some glitches and you would think that with such a linear and narrow focus on gunplay that the gunplay itself would be nearly flawless but this is not the case. Environment objects in cover constantly get in the way of your aim and the adrenaline jumping mechanic is pretty useless in my opinion.

But Rockstar wanted to make sure you were never bored throughout the campaign. The story itself is your typical gang/bad guy fare centered around a secret operation(not necessarily drugs in this story's case) that Max Payne doesn't necessarily seek out. He is originally hired to protect a rich family, their business, and the leader's children. Overall the story keeps you pretty interested throughout with great voice acting from every character. Cutscenes are riddled with a slideshow-like presentation and important phrases/words are highlighted when someone says them. It's a fun take on your typical cutscenes but it does get a little tiresome. The story is mainly bogged down by Max Payne himself, who can relate to a 15 year old girl with self-esteem issues in this case. He is constantly complaining about his alcohol and painkiller addiction and likes to plead for his own death when he puts himself in dangerous situations.

The game looks great and environments blow up to great detail and you have to wonder if this is the engine that GTAV will be running on. I do see a noticeable difference in graphics when it comes to multiplayer however and even some animations seem to be a bit buggy multiplayer. This puts a huge damper on multiplayer for me personally. Multiplayer comes off as really deep with it giving you many customization options on how your character looks as well as loadouts(guns and perks). There really isn't much here that hasn't been done before and matches can be fun at times but the experience you get is not very unique and it's still a bit buggy for a Rockstar game.

I highly recommend that you get this game if you want satisfying gunplay and story. There isn't much in the way of exploration as it's a very linear game and the gameplay itself is very shallow but for what it does offer, Rockstar is successful. Do not get this game mainly for the multiplayer. That's all I will say.