Max Payne 3 review

[EvilBoris]

As I head towards the last section of the game on Hard, I'm being faced with Call of Duty 2 on Veteran levels of difficulty.

I take back one thing I said about the game about the use of cover, later on it really is essential. Although I don't feel the series suffers as a result of it's inclusion, it just shows that they have brought the game into 2012.

[Golgo]

Fun MP, but they could do with speeding up those intermission times just a fraction!

http://i.imgur.com/YDmfu.jpg

Never mind that, though. Check out the super-cute favela laydee wot I made!!! Her name is Rita.

ps.: forgot how to embed images.

[Golgo]

Well, finished campaign now (normal difficulty, soft-aim assist). Thoroughly enjoyed it for what it is: slightly too self-serious, high production value action blockbuster. The two things that really impressed me most were the amazingly lifelike character physics, especially in response to bullet shots, and the extraordinary world detail. But as one reviewer said, it's like watching all the Die Hard films back-to-back, and while that may be fun it's not something you should want to do twice. Don't think multiplayer has enough to recommend it for the long haul (unless you want to stump up for the SEVEN dlc packs between now and Autumn!), especially given ever-lengthier matchmaking times, loads and intermissions (2-3 minutes on a good day, sometimes a lot more...see picture link above!). Don't understand why it takes so long seeing as there's only 3 modes and six maps. Anyway, I'll pooter about in it for another few days then lob for credit.

[rmoxon]

But as one reviewer said, it's like watching all the Die Hard films back-to-back, and while that may be fun it's not something you should want to do twice.

Watching the Die Hard films back to back is somthing I enjoy doing quite often actually...

....doubt I will ever play this game again though, once was definitely enough. Beyond the sometimes frustrating gameplay elements I also found it to be quite a buggy game. It froze up on me more than once and there were a few instances when I got stuck inside scenery and had to rest my 360. There was also one bit where a cut scene didn't trigger when I entered a door and so I walked through the rest of the level with no enemies spawning and eventually all the scenery disappeared and Max fell through the floor.

As I said in the original post in this thread, it's hard to believe that they bothered to play test this much.

[Golgo]

^ funny you say that, rmoxon, but it freezes like hell on my PS3 slim. Done a few hard resets. Fan goes bat**** crazy when the game's been on a while.

[nonny]

Load times are down to about 1m 30 for me but it is weird. I notice they released a second patch yesterday but no idea what it did?

I finished it yesterday, medium on free aim. Loved it and thought the few final levels were great. I'll go back for the golden guns and. cheevs but not sure about trying the higher difficulties unless I go soft aim.

Tried soft aim in MP. Lord that is pants. Really didn't like it at all yet most people seem to be playing that and not free aim? To me free aim isn't too hard at all and is how it should be played.

Anyway... Really love the game. For what it is it does it exceptionally well. My review score of 9 stands.

[saturn-gamer]

Soft lock is the first option and thus considered default by the average MP3 gamers I think.

[Golgo]

Soft lock is pants as it locks you to body shots, and in a bullet sponge type game that gets you nowhere fast.

[NecronomiconUK]

Massive fan of the original Max Payne games and very concerned about the direction Rockstar were going with this. Recently completed and I was really impressed, enjoyed the presentation massively. I liked the somewhat old school feel that was a result of the non recharging health, even on normal I found the challenge just about right. Multiplayer is a good fun although I do wish I had more people to enjoy it with, when you're working with a vaguely coordinated team you really can tear the opposition apart.

[EvilBoris]

Tried soft aim in MP. Lord that is pants. Really didn't like it at all yet most people seem to be playing that and not free aim? To me free aim isn't too hard at all and is how it should be played.

Free Aim all the way, It's a piece of piss to aim really.

[nonny]

Yep MP works alot better with friends and chat. When you have that modes like gang wars and Payne killer become incredibly good fun. With a bunch of randoms it's much more hit and miss.

Payne killer is a funny one because you swap teams so often. I had a private lobby setup playing just that with 5 mates the other night and it was honestly some of the most fun I've had in a shooter for ages. I also notice that if you have less than 5 it removes Passos from the equation so the teams are always somewhat balanced. Really just a great mode to play with your mates.

[EvilBoris]

finished it on Hard last night, no real trouble for the last couple of missions.

Went back to easier settings to grab some cheevs I missed and was suprised that it wasn't much easier, you just get more slow mo.

[nonny]

Really? I was sort of avoiding hard but maybe I'll revisit it for the achievements now I know the levels. I notice the highest difficulty is old school but I have no idea what restriction that puts on you. I am guessing it's nasty?

I've been going back through on easy getting all the bullet-time achievements that crop up in the campaign as well as getting the clues and golden guns. Done about 5 chapters so far and it isnt that heavy going. For the bullet time ones you can actually jump straight to the specific checkpoints and just repeat until you get it.

I may actually give the New York Minute mode a run through now as well. I watched a few YT videos of it in action and it actually looks pretty decent.

Had a marathon 4 hour session on MP last night to round it off as the Mrs was revising. I'm up to Rank 20 and it really opens up once you get past Rank 10-15 as you tend to stick to the weapons you like the most. I had a couple of Gang War rounds where I (for once) actually placed in the top 1-2. The more I play multiplayer the more I enjoy it though there are a few minor bugs they can patch to fix it up a little.

I've since crumbled and picked up the season pass for DLC given there are 7 packs coming over the next 6 months. I can actually see me playing this long term alongside BF3 for a bit of variety. Plus I note there is a co-op mode coming as well which I thought was absent in the campaign given for most of it you have Passos along for the ride? Could be good.

[nonny]

Seems google is my friend:

http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/34161/rockstar-game-tips-difficulty-settings-getting-started-in-max-pa.html

Difficulty settings: The Max Payne 3 Story can be played at five difficulty settings that can be adjusted on the fly and provide varying levels of challenge as follows:

Easy: Increased Health and Bullet Time? Rewards. A satisfying challenge
Medium: Moderate Health and Bullet Time Rewards. A stiff challenge
Hard: Low Health and Bullet Time Rewards. A real test
Hardcore: Minimal Health and Bullet Time rewards. Very challenging
Old School: Last Man Standing is disabled.

Medium is the default setting for all - so you can start the game and decide from there on the fly whether you'd like to adjust your difficulty for more of a challenge or an easier go as you play.

Easy and Medium settings feature dynamic difficulty which provides access to extra painkillers to help you pass particular parts of the game if you've died repeatedly. On Easy and Medium settings, when you die at a checkpoint, you restart the checkpoint with at least one full magazine of ammo in each gun (except grenade launchers) and the number of painkillers that you started with. For every three times you die at a checkpoint, you get one extra painkiller. So if you started a checkpoint with 2 painkillers, and died 3 times, on each subsequent retry of that checkpoint, you'd start with 3 painkillers. If you died 3 more times (6 total), you'd start with 4 painkillers on each subsequent restart. On Easy and Medium, this can continue until you are respawning with a full 9 painkillers.

On the Hard setting, there is also dynamic difficulty however it is intentionally much more limited to ensure a tougher go. On Hard, if you die 5 times, you will get a bonus painkiller on subsequent respawns, and if you've died 10 times, you can get one more. However, it will never give you bonus painkillers that make your total go above 2. So if you started a checkpoint with 1 painkiller and died 5 times, you'd start with 2; but if you died 5 more times (10 total), you would not get an extra - you would continue to respawn with 2. Likewise, if you start a checkpoint with 3 painkillers, you would never get a bonus painkiller in Hard mode.

Hardcore and Old School modes are unlocked by beating the Story on Hard difficulty.

[SuperBeatBoy]

I'm suprised that no one is talking about this now. Maybe i'm just late to the party, playing through the pc version at the moment on my GTX 680. Amazing game. Just uploading some clips of it i captured, will post later.

EDIT: Video clips