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motbob
United States12546 Posts
Max Payne 3
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar Vancouver
Platforms: Xbox/PS3/PC/SNES
This review probably makes more sense if you’ve read other reviews of the game.
When did this game series start taking itself so damn seriously? Are the bigwigs at Rockstar aware that the very name of the game they’re releasing is ridiculous on its face? "Max Payne." That name’s a relic of a bygone era, a time when developers could name their games something slightly off-the-wall without being overruled by the publisher or the stockholders. Yep, those times are long gone. Max Payne 3 is as serious as you can get, serious in its tone, serious in its storyline, serious about selling every copy it possibly can.
Rockstar has produced something miraculous here, a game that should be trash but somehow isn’t. Think of the restrictions they were under. Here, we have a game series that fits the PC like a glove. But porting the game to consoles is a necessity in today’s industry, so onto consoles it goes. The feeling of busting a door down, switching on Bullet Time, and weaving a dance of death through a crowd of enemies was the highlight of Max Payne 1 and 2. But that particular mechanic doesn’t work so well without a mouse, so it takes a backseat to a new cover system that dominates every fight. The noir-style storytelling and comic panels of Max Payne 1 and 2 set those games apart from other shooters and gave the developers the freedom to tell a story that was deeper than most. But it’s hard to read comics on a TV screen, and film noir doesn’t exactly scream “mainstream.” Both of these aspects of the prequels were reduced to shadows of their former selves in Max Payne 3, replaced by a Hollywood action movie tone and dozens of cutscenes connecting the game’s gunfights within levels.
Those cutscenes are a sore point for many gamers. Totalbiscuit actually hated them so much that he made a video explaining his point of view regarding the use of cutscenes in games and additionally explaining why he feels that Max Payne 3 fails as a game because of cutscenes’ constant use. Yet I very much doubt that the constant breaks in the action are there by choice. The RAM problems with current-gen consoles are, by now, fairly well-known. Game developers are finding it harder and harder to deal with a pitiful 512 MB of RAM as games grow in complexity. It would be unacceptable for Max Payne 3 to be a stream of constant loading screens, so cutscenes give the game time to load the next area. It’s an elegant solution to a technical problem brought on by the fact the game had to be on consoles. Of course, the cutscenes themselves are stunning, with top-of-the-line motion capture and voice acting. This is a Rockstar game, after all.
So we have this bevy of restrictions brought on by Rockstar’s desire for the profit that consolization brings. By all rights, this should have doomed the game to mediocrity. It’s certainly not a Max Payne game anymore; the tone is too different, the world is too shallow (because what point is there in crafting a world with intricate details if console gamers just shuffle past them?) and the gameplay works on an entirely different basis of mechanics. I loved Max Payne 2, but Max Payne 3 is completely different. Does that mean I hate this new game?
No. No, I don’t. I don’t think I could find it in my heart to hate it even if Rockstar gave Max a cheery disposition and an Alcoholics Anonymous token in his pants pocket. This game is just too refined. The writing is spot-on (even if the overall story isn’t). None of the darkly humorous jokes miss their mark. As mentioned, the cutscenes are engaging and wonderfully produced. The weapons are designed so that they cater to different playstyles without being massively overpowered one way or the other (at least, on the PC version). The “Last Man Standing” mechanic makes the combat surprisingly deep on harder difficulties, since figuring out how to maximize the invincibility you get can help you get through seemingly impossible gunfights.
Speaking of harder difficulties, do yourself a favor and play the game on Hard your first time through. You’ll die. A lot. But that’s the price you pay for some level of strategic depth; on medium, it’s easy to just blaze through everything without much regard for your own survival.
There are a lot of flaws in Max Payne 3. The story’s obviously just a vehicle to get Max to kill a lot of different types of people; there’s no real depth to it, and apparently a lot of reviewers were confused by it. Last Man Standing has technical problems (protip: you can press H to switch the camera if you can’t see the enemy, but the game doesn’t tell you this!) and the game world, as I mentioned, is pretty shallow. But the level of refinement that this game has undergone is evident in every gunfight in every environment, and in my opinion the strengths of this game far outweigh its weaknesses.
Mass Effect 2 might be the greatest game of its generation, a sequel which flawlessly “consolized” itself by introducing plenty of dumb, heart-pumping action while not sacrificing the depth of the world it took place in and the characters which appeared. Max Payne 3 doesn’t pull off the transition to the console era quite as well, but it comes darn close.
 
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hmm i haven't played max payne since the original, i think the first one was enough for me D: Also hasn't max payne always taken itself overly seriously?
lastly what do you mean by consolized? ported to console? original max payne at least was on console and PC iirc (played it on my PS2)
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Max payne 3 was incredible
however
For some funny reason, this game makes me want to play max payne 1 like no other
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Thanks for the review!
I'm still scared to pick it up myself after seeing Total Biscuits review, mostly because I'd love to see Max Payne 3 and not "Generic Awesome Rockstar Game 11" but I think I'll give it a shot soon.
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China6329 Posts
Max Payne 3 is one of the best shooters I've played for the past 5 years, hands down.
Also great review, 5/5.
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I did myself the huge misfortune of watching a play through of the first couple hours or so on uoutube while waiting for the Pc version to come out. I've never played a MP game before this one, but it definitely made me want to go back and try out the previous two games.
Also, the final chapter is pretty damn awesome (the whole game is good), but the music and atmosphere is matches so well and you feel like such a badass.
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Awesome write up - I've been considering getting it for a while. 5/5!
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Personally loved it, the start was a tad-bit annoying for me. The last few chapters were very well done imo. 5/5!
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On June 20 2012 11:01 motbob wrote:
Max Payne 3
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar Vancouver
Platforms: Xbox/PS3/PC/SNES
SNES? ;D
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On June 20 2012 14:27 Brett wrote:Show nested quote +On June 20 2012 11:01 motbob wrote:
Max Payne 3
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar Vancouver
Platforms: Xbox/PS3/PC/SNES
SNES? ;D
I think he was just joking (though you may have picked up on that anyway) 
Hm, I guess I was one of the few who didn't like the game. It was entertaining enough I guess, but overall I just didn't think it was all that fun.
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I have only played the first 30-60 minutes, I suppose, but with the cutscenes you never know. I just wanted to ask if Rockstar were serious with all the magical text underlining Max's narration?
"Here they were, trying to run away (RUN AWAY) from their guilt (GUILT), while I was just trying to have a burger (BURGER!) and a soda (SODA!!). Of course, I'd forgotten, mayor Bloomberg took that away from me too (TOO)."
The one thing that kept Max Payne afloat as a narrative was its self-effacement, the fact it was ironically aware of itself and of its nature as a work of noir fiction, a genre which is typically ironic. Max can't even take his own crusade seriously even as he perpetuates the cycle of violence - which is an excellent mirror for the player, because, you know, you're engaging in an act of Rambo-esque improbability. If Max Payne were a real human being he'd stop thinking about the women who died on him and start reflecting on the acts of mass murder he fatalistically continues to commit.
The fact that Max Payne 3 marches on obliviously is a fact of some worry. I don't know. I get the feeling Rockstar are starting to think they're too cool for the room.
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Max payne 3 is the only shooter i was shocked by the amount of people I kill. Like seriously, you go to a police station and just murder rooms full of swat O.o Game is nice as a game but seriously dumb at times as anything else. And the cutsecenes could really use a ability to skip them :/
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The porting to consoles is not a bad part ... if you would release a proper PC version! Not skipping the cut-scenes because of background loading is something for low-RAM consoles and not for (even my not-)High-End-PCs!
Aside from that I really liked the game. Like you propose: I played it on hard the first time. Yes, I did fu*** die a lot! Some scenes are sometimes incredible frustrating! One scene I never manged to get through... I just jumped around and hit the check-point Also I somehow "missed" a checkpoint, wandered on and fell through the floor and had to restart ... definitely something I have to check out more for speedrunning this game... 
The most annoying part is NOW, after I played through the first time. Because now I wanted to beat the game on the hardest setting and... it doesn't save anymore! I play 1-2h and go back to the main menu. Already, without leaving the game completely, if I try to "continue" the "continue" is grey and can't be used! The game is damn long, I don't have time to play through the whole game (on hardest setting without "last man standing"...). Anyone else has this problem? And how the heck can I fix this?
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I died a lot even on medium, though that might be related to me disabling all the helping stuff in the config (auto-aim, slow down aiming near enemies, etc.)
Max Payne 3 is definitely fun, though i wouldn't put it above MP1&2, i just miss the comic cutscenes and the flair of the previous games too much.
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You're right about playing on hard :p
it's really satisfying to finally get through that incredibly hard fight, which is probably what I enjoy most about the game.
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It was definitely a good game. Rockstar did a great job making it playable on computer; I think one of the best features was the "lock-on" style of aiming vs free aim. So if you're on a console and you have trouble aiming with a tiny joystick you can just use the lock-on system to make things playable, but for computer users it doesn't sacrifice the difficulty of the game because you can free aim with a mouse.
The story actually was a bit confusing to me near the end; I was trying to find out how your friend "Raul" (I think?) fit into the story. After playing it a second time I had time to digest all the information and it makes sense now. But I like that...games should be difficult to understand (at least I like it that way), it makes things way more interesting and not just a linear shooting experience.
In terms of difficulty I was pleased at how challenging it could be at parts (like fighting from the back of the bus against dozens of enemies on last man standing!). But generally its all about taking things slow, and not opting to shoot from cover which is actually quite dangerous. The best way to kill enemies is to use the "H" key as motbob said, and shoot them from around a corner. You just need to find that corner; else try to use bullet time to pick off one enemy at a time and hopefully you catch the people who try to rush you first . By the way...I love that tactic. Made combat more challenging when I have to watch out for people trying to flank me or just running straight for me with guns blazing. Died quite a few times to that
On June 20 2012 18:43 Geisterkarle wrote:
The most annoying part is NOW, after I played through the first time. Because now I wanted to beat the game on the hardest setting and... it doesn't save anymore! I play 1-2h and go back to the main menu. Already, without leaving the game completely, if I try to "continue" the "continue" is grey and can't be used! The game is damn long, I don't have time to play through the whole game (on hardest setting without "last man standing"...). Anyone else has this problem? And how the heck can I fix this?
You might know this already but just in case you don't you can at least go into the option that lets you replay a certain chapter, depending on how far in the game you made it. So even if continue isn't working, you can at least restart a level rather than the whole game. After that the game continues as normal, so...its better than nothing!
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the best way to kil enemies is to use the H key....... W T F ... maybe thats why felt it was so hard.
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Can't wait to pick up this bad boy on my SNES.
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It is a good game
wish they hadnt called it max payne tho
Its really nto a max payne game imo.
I found myself picking bad guys oine at a time ... max payne is ALL about pickign the crappiest weapons you can find running into a room diving and seeing how many head shots you can get before hitting the ground.
as there are only ever 3-4 bad guys now you cant really do that.
And yeah the best way to beat the game IS to change the camera view .... thats fucked up. really fucked up.
I died a lot on hardest starting difficulty ... but so much of that was retarded camera angles ... or starting positions.
The number of times you start taking cover behind what can only be described as a single bamboo cane in a vase is amazing - or a large sheet of tissue paper.
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Finished it on the hardest difficulty, dunno if that's "hard" or if there's another one, sometimes incredibly frustrating, sometimes just hard and rewarding if you can pull it off. First time I heard about changing camera angles LOL, I guess I would've been through a lot faster knowing this.
As for the game itself, it's a pretty cool shooter, even though I despise the consoly "cover behind anything, even things a retard could shoot through will make you invincible!". At least the enemies were smart enough to walk up to you if you hid too long and if you couldn't kill them before reaching you, you'd take a lot of pain. But it got repetitive pretty fast imo. It's been a long time since I've played part 1 and 2, probably around 6+ years, but from what I remember, those games never felt repetitive, I even played them through multiple times, which I usually don't with single player games.
As sb else said, the highlighting of words in cutscenes was ranging from just dumb to unintentionally funny. To what I believe the OP and most other posters want to adress, the feeling wasn't the same. 9/10 times you'd be in lighted places, completely different from the predecessors, oh man the construction yard scene from, I think, part 2.
The story was pretty terrible in my opinion, at the start I was still having faith, but most things were just too obvious. The action itself was well scripted and written, some scenes had some real flair to them, but again the vast majority was just repetitive and lacking in atmosphere.
TLDR: I think MP3 is a well designed and written shooter, which I found to be pretty challenging on hardest difficulty at many points. Though it could be the, probably caused by being a console port, horrible camera angles that make it hard. I've finished it, didn't think it was bad, but most likely will never touch it again. Brb, downloading MP1+2.
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EPT![[image loading]](/staff/motbob/maxpayne320751920.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iMcH5.jpg)
