Max Payne 3

I loved the original Max Payne. I love, love, LOVED, Max Payne 2. The uniquely gritty third person shooter experience drenched in a film noir veil hides a tale of deep loss, regret, and consequence that, as far as the genre is concerned, remains unmatched.

Max Payne 3 had received a LOT of flak, saying that it had strayed too far from its brothers and walked with very pretty, but uncomfortably conformist crowd. And where I DO agree that this is essentially a total GTA V redux to some, to me, I was completely satisfied, and here’s why:

Where it can be argued that Max Payne is fun for two things, story and bullet time, in Max Payne 3, I genuinely forget that I even have the option for bullet time to begin with. The game stands firmly on two feet as a slow-motionless action experience, ESPECIALLY in the harder modes. The shootouts are tenacious, unforgiving, and very multitask reliant. You’d have to run for different sets of cover as bullets chip away at your current one, you’d have to blind fire as you run just to get enemies to stop firing at you long enough for you to seek shelter where there more often than not isn’t. From highly trained mercenaries to Sao Paulo street gangs, there’s a gun fight for everybody here.

Max is a gun for hire in Sao Paulo, he left his disgustingly sad and dark past behind him and is looking (or trying to, with a lot of alcohol) (And pills) (He's not really looking) to set his sights to a less depressing future, currently at the employ of a high end Brazilian family that’s under a media microscope that makes it a target for local gangs and opportunists, it isn’t long before trouble finds Max and he is thrown in the chaotic maelstrom of Brazilian street justice and dirty politics, the fight takes you from crowded nightclubs to the trenches of the Sao Paulo slums, and god damn, if it isn’t a visually beautiful experience throughout.

Max as usual narrates a lot of his experience as the game progresses, and I enjoyed how comfortable Rockstar was with making a bit of fun of its own game by really cranking up the clichés to the extent that you could almost hear the droll sarcasm in Max’s voice as he delivers once cheesy line after the other. And as a fan of the series, I’d laugh along with it as I would with an old friend that I’ve grown comfortable with. But the excellent voice acting isn’t exclusive to Max, the game is a well enriched cinematic experience with a very linear, but solid storyline to keep you pushing forward.

I DO have complaints though, FIRST, the multiplayer servers as I write this review are dead, unfortunately, they weren’t too alive even at their most crowded. Rockstar received much scrutiny for its pretty ambitious efforts in bringing multiplayer to Payne, but it ultimately fell flat on its face, and they migrated their efforts to the now hypercrowded GTA V servers.

SECOND there exists in each level golden parts for guns that can only be collected in that level, at times these gun parts are glitched and  inaccessible, which is very stressful to achievement whores like me, and I bring that stress home to my wife. You’re ruining my life, Rockstar.

On a serious note, I cannot recommend this game enough for anyone that likes a game where you can shoot people in the most satisfying bullettime events in video game history since that abortion of a Gamecube game, Dead to Rights. I can’t say I loved the story as much as Max Payne 2, but I can very safely say, I loved Max Payne 3.