I have a rule of playing game series in order. Starting from 1 and going up to whatever number the last one released is. So I would like to get the point across that even though I have owned the previous Max Payne games for several years now I have never even touched them, making Max Payne 3 the first game in the franchise I have played. Though you would think this makes the review unreliable because I wont get certain back story points, there is no need to fret as Max Payne 3 does something absolutely marvellous with its story.
So fourteen years have passed since whatever the fuck happened in Max Payne 2 and Max is older, fatter and drunker. Yes the years haven’t been kind to old Max, now an alcoholic that is also addicted to painkillers, has a beer belly larger than Homer Simpson and a pretty fucking awesome beard. Anyway, after being offered a job by long time buddy (apparently) Raul Passos he is now based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as a bodyguard for the wealthy Branco family. The Branco's consist of Rodrigo the real estate agent, Victor the politician and Marcelo the fucking idiot. Anyway, Max has become close to the family over the short time he has been working for them, saving their lives multiple times supposedly (mainly Marcelo) and being a generally OK guy. One night the Branco's are holding a big party when it is attacked by a gang from the nearby slums, Rodrigo's wife Fabiana is kidnapped and Max must hunt down the people responsible for her capture and get her back home safely so he can get a hefty paycheck to drink away. However as what should be a firstly easy job turns out to actually run deeper than just a simple kidnapping and the Branco's are slowly picked off one by one Max must fight for his own survival and take on Sao Paulo's gangs, corrupt police force and his own personal battles or die trying.
Max Payne 3 is not a game for kids, Rockstar have yet again delivered a superbly written, tense and well paced story that is extremely brutal, violent, funny and shows some of the most harrowing scenes of poverty, torture and human rights abuse I have ever witnessed. The game is extremely graphic in its violence with wounds being shown in full detail from the tiniest bullet wound up to entire limbs being ripped off people. Jugular veins spurt blood over walls and heads cave in at the force of a shotgun blast. Max Payne 3 is one of the best examples of gratuitous violence out there and at times you cant help but feel so elated that a game this violent was let through censorship. However though this violence is epic in every sense of the word, most of it takes place in cutscenes; the game probably has enough cutscenes to make a summer blockbuster film with and they are just as good as blockbuster films. Though the gameplay only ever takes place in gunfights and the cutscenes are essentially just things to take you from fight to fight, and they can sometimes feel unnecessary and intrusive it is the best design choice the game has made. In sacrificing potentially unnecessary gameplay, Rockstar have crafted one of the tightest storylines in modern gaming and is one that just cannot be missed.
So gameplay is what you would expect from a third person shooter. Good movement mechanics, plenty of cover, good ways to effectively avoid gunfire and of course tight and incredibly satisfying shooting mechanics. However there are a few gripes I have with the gameplay; the game is built in the same engine as GTA IV, therefore it means that the character control can occasionally be a bit off and slow, also the cover system has a bit of a habit of not actually putting you in cover unless you press the button five times and are facing exactly the right direction. However when the gameplay just flows and decides to have a few minutes of doing exactly what you want it to, Max Payne 3 becomes one of the most competent third person shooters on the market. There isn’t much of a variety of weapons and for most of the game I had the same setup of 9mm Pistol, Uzi & either an AK-47 or Commando assault rifle. Other guns such as shotguns & grenade launchers are available but I just never found myself in a situation that count be dealt with semi-automatic weaponry. Environments are incredibly linear, a series of corridors followed by a room and more corridors, no mulitple pathways and very little variation on how you will play the game on another playthrough compared to the first, however this is acceptable due to the fact it just enhances the story.
A.I in Max Payne 3 is just fantastic, every enemy is out to kill and will ruthlessly fight you to the bitter end, however they are smart. They will flank, group together, destroy cover, wait for you to pop up out of cover before they do and so on, this makes gunfights so nail bitingly tense that concentration and conservation are key. Conservation of what? you might say, and to that I answer Bullet Time. Max Payne is the franchise that first introduced Bullet Time, the tool that slows time down for you to line up your shots and pull of some pretty sick room clearing moves in the process. Though Bullet Time is now an overused and cheap mechanic in many gaming franchises, Max Payne still makes it feel necessary and worthy of its place. Bullet dodge is a great feature where you can dive across a room in bullet time until you hit the ground, a daring tactic that could end with either a lot of dead enemies or a lot of dead you depending on how good a jump you get, how many you kill and where you land. Environments are destructible and litter the rooms, one memorable fight is in a set of office cubicles. Flimsy parting walls everywhere, scattered amongst dead bodies and bullet casings, success only happened after a few retries though due to my cover being completely obliterated as I hug it meaning near instant death, disgrace and many many swear words being thrown towards the TV screen as I retry and retry over and over again.
Presentation is something that Max Payne 3 takes very seriously. Everything looks the way it does for a reason and everything looks beautiful...even the things that aren’t meant to. There is a lot of orange, brown and muddy greens in Max Payne 3, mainly because the game spends most of the time in the grimey shanty towns surrounding the main city, to get the message across that this is a poor place. Everything is made of rusting metal or broken plastics, streets are muddy and the sides of pathways are overgrown jungles. However the main city, in contrast, is full of greys, blues and blacks during the daytime and flooded with bright neon colours at night. Character models are excellent, the way characters move is extremely realistic and conveys emotions well, perhaps not as well as games such as Rage & Half-Life 2 but its still above par for what is the standard.
Audio in Max Payne 3 is great too, with mixes of drum & bass, dubstep, South American folk music and a fantastic compositional soundtrack, sound is used to compliment the game not just be an accessory on the side of the visuals. Voice acting is fantastic with some great performances from every cast member, however Max's voice can seem to feel a little irritating after a few hours when all he does is give a depressed narration of every situation he is in.
Guns have a real kick to them and even small details like footstep noises and rustling leaves have had a lot of attention put into them, Max Payne 3 is a very impressive game for audio/visual standards.
So...I guess this is the end of the review. What else can I say besides that Max Payne 3 is the best summer blockbuster I ever played. It meets expectations and surpasses them in every area. Yes cutscnes can feel intrusive at times but this is just a small price to pay for what is perhaps one of the tightest and satisfying action game narratives in recent gaming history. Its brutal, funny, shocking and bloody good fun to play. Max Payne 3 is a must buy for action game and 3rd person shooter fans, this title cannot be missed!
Max Payne 3: 10/10
+Amazing Story
+Bullet Time
+Gunfights
+Max fucking Payne!
