Gameitall It has been 9 years since The Fall of Max Payne, a game that while Critically acclaimed; it was a commercial flop. With the old team gone to work on darker shores, and the property belonging to 2K games and Rockstar, it was time for Max to make a comeback and once again kill his way to the top.
The game take place in real time, 9 years after the last game, Max has retired from the force and joined a new friend as a bodyguard for the rich Branco family in São Paulo Brazil. Constantly drunk and high off of pain-killers; things go bad to worst for our disgruntle ex-cop, as he gets caught in a kidnapping of his bosses trophy wife. Max goes on another revenge trip to save another girl the only way he knows how, one bullet at a time.
Max hasn’t changed much in terms of combat, with a few extra new bells and whistles such as the ability to go into cover and do a “Last Stand” moment, the game is strictly a run and gun experience. Even with the new mechanics the game remains true to it’s roots by staying difficult and keeping a health bar instead of sucking your thumbs waiting for your health to heal.
Like the previous games, every level is a bullet festival. Prompting you to keep moving and using your given abilities of bullet-time and Shoot-Dodge ability. One wrong move and you will die; and it will happen a lot, Rockstar has done something to ease the game so that it doesn’t get completely fustrating though some of the easier difficulties, after dying at least 3 to 4 time on the same area, Max will gain an extra painkiller bottle, which could be used to start a last man standing trigger that allows you to shoot and kill the enemy who last shot you at the cost of only half the health restored. Last Man Standing only works for a limited amount of time and depends on if you have pain killers on you and ammo in your gun.
Another great feature is the beautiful and awesomely disturbing Last Bullet cam. An upgrade of a feature from the previous games, when clearing out a room, on the last kill an cinematic of the bullet leaving Max’s gun, with the camera following the bullet into your target. This is a great way to show off the Euphoria ragdoll engine as each kill feels different and brutal.
Rockstar has gone out of it’s way to make this one of the best looking game of the year so far. While São Paulo is not the dark city like New York in the winter, this really gets to show off more of the environments, from the extravagant Brazilian Nightclubs to the slums, everything about the game is well made.
Cinematics are a big part this time around as they got rid of the comic book feel. The filters use make it feel like a Tony Scott movie; for the story they’re pushing for Max Payne 3, it works well. While I admit at first it was annoying to have CCTV burn in for some effects, but it does grow on you and gives the game it’s own style.
The new multiplayer mode feels similar to the previous Rockstar multiplayers like GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, one new feature is the Gang wars which allows you to make a gang of your friends, similar to Clan base battles. It’s fast paced and actually a lot of fun.
There are a few negative stand points of the game, some of the controls are sometimes heavy, and it feels like everyone in the game is an expert marksman in the single player campaign, while some guns just don’t feel like they have much power as they should. Unskippable cinematic makes playing the game just to shoot things a pain, even though there is an Arcade mode (similar to Bulletstorm where you get more points depending on how you kill) that is supposed to by pass this.
A big thing that annoyed me was the Deathmatch mode in Multiplayer and it’s more of a personal flare for me. That being the size of the maps and not having more randomly placed spawn points, one a couple of the maps I’ve played I noticed a high amount of people attacking at the spawn point; as most people point out, Campers. Good multiplayer level design is supposed to make it much more difficult for campers; when these same maps were played in team based matches, things were a little better.
Aside from multiplayer, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of replay value, as most of the collectables can be picked up on your first go, unlocking the Arcade mode and it’s New York Minute mode just brings new challenge maps. With how the game is set up, I’m not expecting any Story driven DLC, Rockstar has confirmed that 7 pieces of DLC including Maps will be provided for Multiplayer.
Still, Max Payne is not a title that should be passed up, it is another solid title from Rockstar and brings Max into a new age, if a sequel happens, we can only hope we’re not another 9 year wait away.
MAX PAYNE 3 – 8 out of 10.
Pros: One of the best looking games this year (so far), Great Multiplayer, Gripping story, Solid controls.
Cons: High Difficulty curve, Cinematic are long and the filters take some getting used to, Some issues with Deathmatch modes on multiplayer.
