Max Payne 3 review

[EvilBoris]

I just saw what you meant, I didn't dare start skipping cutscenes, the game would be over in 35 minutes.

[Atticus]

Really liking this. Never played any of the previous Max Payne games before but a couple of positive reviews caught my attention this week. The production is fantastic; locations, voice acting, the much-used screen fx ... everything adds together to make it slick and polished and cinematic. Like the gratuitous room clearing final shots too

[nonny]

I don't mind lengthy cutscenes IF they're well done, immerse you in the story and keep you engrossed. So far I havent found them too intrusive and I feel the starting levels are just warming up for the bigger gun fights later in the game? I dunno it's too early to tell.

Played four hours of multi last night and it's pretty damn good. Good enough for me to not realise four hours had gone by. The main thing that clicked for me in multi was sticking with free aim and getting better at aiming in general. This is exactly like the single player so the reticule is tiny and you have to work for your kills. Call me old fashioned but I really like that. It doesn't hand hold you in the slightest and every kill is an achievement. It was the same in previous MP games so they haven't changed it here.

If you've played RDR without aiming assist you'll be right at home here except the levels are tighter, movement seems a bit more smooth and the gunplay is more refined. You have to get 100 kills in rookie playlists before it opens up the other game modes such as gang wars and the larger 16 player TDM. That stuff is insane.

What I'm really liking are the bursts. These are the perks you can use when your adrenaline hits a certain level. I've been playing mainly with trigger happy which gives you more bullet damage for 20 seconds at level 1 or a bigger nastier gun at level 2. On the wide open levels it's lethal. The other bursts offer similar upgrades but I note that like COD other equipment counters or nullifies these effects.

You earn XP for all sorts of things and you can loot bodies and get streaks to earn cash which you use to buy weapons. It's basically very, very similar to black ops in that respect.

All up I am pleasantly surprised by the multi in this. It's reminiscent of past rock star efforts by definitely the best so far and the modern guns, tighter controls and bullet time aspects just seem to fit into multi more than anything. In short it's not jus a tacked on after thought.

Oh and to those having a hard time with the reticule. I think it can be changed slightly in the options. At least I believe I saw some option to alter it?

[rmoxon]

Played this some more now. I'm not sure what evil boris is on about by saying its easy but this game is unfairly hard, even on normal.

All I can say is that it's a good job that Max Payne lives in a world that is full of magically healing pain killers because it's also full of enemies that have pin point accuracy, despite the fact that even with the help of an auto lock on Max himself can't seem to shoot straight (maybe its the drugs). There's also less ammo laying around than in a survival horror game, which makes no sense, as you basically kill an entire army of armed bad guys at every location you visit.

Then there's that reticle... The tiny pathetic white speck in the middle of the screen that you're suppose to aim with... Ok.. I have it pointed at a persons head after using bullet time for 20 seconds in order to achieve it... So I shot him... Oh wait, no I didn't, bullet time deactivated and by the time I'd pulled the trigger his beady little head had ducked out of the way of my sorry excuse for an aiming sight......ok then... I think I will headbutt the wall now.....

Hang on a sec, I'll just switch to my shotgun and blast him 5 times in the chest, surely that will kill him.... there you go, look at him fly down the stairs like a pathetic rag doll..... oh wait... hes getting back up... what is he a Terminator?... here 5 more shotgun shells... surley hes dead now.....no?.... ok.... the wall it is then.

[dvdx2]

ok - put a few hours into it; both single and multiplayer, well its the single player is......max payne, with nicer production values, physics and graphics. If you enjoyed the first two, you should enjoy this. The story is decent, with the same gritty narative/graphic novel style (only cut scenes now intergrate into the gameplay, as opposed to the comic book slides of the original games).

The multi player is a turkey shoot, usually spawning and getting blown to pieces within seconds; clunky controls and pretty soulless. Its like a worse version of uncharted multiplayer and about as fun as piles, (i should know as i've had them recently) ;-)

I think i'll leave it for the kiddies/COD crew. A quick clock then a trade, if early impressions are anything to go by.

[teddymeow]

I'm enjoying the single player. The cutscenes do a good job of pulling you into Max's world and are done in a way that shows Max is really at the edge of a precipice waiting to fall in.

I have just got to the

->Open Spoiler<-

Football stadium

but have played further at work and there's a good

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flashback with Max shooting Guido douchebags in NY

.

I can see why its a bit of a Marmite game but as someone who didn't like GTAIV or RDR I'm liking this. Weird.

[rmoxon]

I can see why its a bit of a Marmite game but as someone who didn't like GTAIV or RDR I'm liking this. Weird.

Well its nothing like those two games so that's probably why .

[Team Andromeda]

Loving this , much better than the 2nd game while not quite being a patch of the 1st game . Takes a while to get going, but when it starts its just fantastic brainless easy to play fun and action , just love the final shot kills too (and how you can continue to pump them with lead)

[Herbalizer]

This doens't feel like Max Payne, I feel like i'm playing Uncharted with a Max Payne skin especially

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the scene in the boat when you are gunning down all the other boats

i'm still really enjoying it, but it's going to get traded when I've clocked the SP.

[rmoxon]

It's the reliance on cover, which to be honest is very un max Payne like, that makes this play different to other games.

Having played the first two again before going back to this I will say that they have nailed the tone, and the character, and of course you can do all the slow motion stuff just like in the other two games. In the previous instalments though, max was basically a machine, the action was inspired by John woo movies, where characters don't seem to even contemplate using cover, going in all guns blazing and taking out everyone like a one man army. As over the top as this game is it is also more grounded into reality, run around without using cover and you will die.

As for where it stacks up in comparison to the first two games... Well the first game has aged very poorly and is no longer a very good game, however the second game in the series is an absolubte classic, they simply improved every asspect of the original game with it. I don't think this is quite up the with the second game to be honest, it's just not as well designed in terms of gameplay, mainly becuase it's so unfair most of the time, and making it (a bit) more realistic doesn't seem to have made it more fun unfortunately.

[charlesr]

Added a poll for you.

[crocky-chocky]

Dare I say it, rmoxon, I don't think Payne 3 is unfair. You're just expected to learn enemy placements and anticipate the moments that usually get you on your first few attempts. I died absolutely loads of times on the

->Open Spoiler<-

pier

section, fr'instance, but when I actually did it, I did so with majestic style and 3 painkillers left.

That's good game design, I think.

One trick of Max's that I thought would be turd but is actually brilliant, is staying on the floor after a dive. It really seems to genuinely confuse enemies and draw them out of cover. Being able to shoot under tables is also awesome.

I forget the name of the place, but my favourite sequence so far is the area just after Max shaves his do. The detail was just astounding and the environment is just so thoughtfully set out. I love the choreographed slo-moments too.

[rmoxon]

Dare I say it, rmoxon, I don't think Payne 3 is unfair. You're just expected to learn enemy placements and anticipate the moments that usually get you on your first few attempts. I died absolutely loads of times on the

->Open Spoiler<-

pier

section, fr'instance, but when I actually did it, I did so with majestic style and 3 painkillers left.

That's good game design, I think.

One trick of Max's that I thought would be turd but is actually brilliant, is staying on the floor after a dive. It really seems to genuinely confuse enemies and draw them out of cover. Being able to shoot under tables is also awesome.

I forget the name of the place, but my favourite sequence so far is the area just after Max shaves his do. The detail was just astounding and the environment is just so thoughtfully set out. I love the choreographed slo-moments too.

Ok, so you think trial and error is acceptable in a fast paced shooter that is aiming for a slick and flowing cinematic experience?

Anyway the unfairness is not due to enemy placements... It's due to an aiming reticle that is virtually impossible to see, enemies that seem to randomly require anything from 1 to 100 bullets to kill and the fact when out of bullet time they take even more bullets to kill still (which doesn't even make any sense). The only way to get through the game and not run out of ammo is to go for head shots, but headshots are insanely hard to achieve becuase your cursor is tiny and enemies are usually far away (yet they themselfs have brilliant accuracy of course).

If you think all that is fair then I'm happy for you but for me, and a few others it seems, it's a very unfair game.

[JSR]

Ok, so you think trial and error is acceptable in a fast paced shooter that is aiming for a slick and flowing cinematic experience?

Good line.

And I agree with you; the same thing is a large part of what made Stranglehold such a mess. Without being able to handle each situation with instinct and on-the-fly decisions, much of the cinematic element is lost.

[Team Andromeda]

. It's due to an aiming reticle that is virtually impossible to see, enemies that seem to randomly require anything from 1 to 100 bullets to kill and the fact when out of bullet time they take even more bullets to kill still (which doesn't even make any sense).

I agree with you (more so on the ammo) but tbh the aiming reticle was bloody tiny in the very 1st game .