MP3 offers an underwhelming experience at best, and no replay value.
- Decent graphics
- Nice scenery
- Good voiceover
Cons:
- Repetitive game play
- Constrictive game play
- No sense of accomplishment
- Repetitive cut scenes
- Underdeveloped, predictable story
- One-dimensional characters
Here are a few facts about the game.
- The third installment of MP does not improve on anything except maybe graphics.
- The game opens with an extremely long and annoying cut scene. In fact there is very little game play in the first hour of the game, which is quite frustrating. I almost gave up playing.
- The cut scenes, which are a major part of the game, are extremely repetitive – Max Payne is either drinking or pondering upon his bad luck and short life expectancy. His monolog actually starts to repeat itself after a while, using similar sentences. After you've seen the first several cut scenes, you have basically seen them all.
- The game play, which only consists of running, hiding, and shooting, is repetitive, has no depth, and requires no skill or intellect. After you play the game for a couple of hours, you will have seen everything there is to see in the entire game. That would've been fine if the game play and game mechanics were fun. Unfortunately that is not the case. Since the game progresses in a very narrow-path fashion, it gives the player no room to move or maneuver, and no opportunity to approach a situation from different angles. The process can be summed up as: move forward, stop and hide, shoot. Repeat process.
- The "bullet time" or slow motion is nicely done. No surprises there.
- The weapon arsenal is lacking. The weapons choice in the game is poor – there are guns, shotguns and automatic rifles. That's it! Even though there are a few models of each type, they only differ in the way they look. There is no difference in feel or functionality. Also, there is no customization whatsoever. There are no grenades or flashbangs, or any other extras that would allow for a more tactical approach. This is disappointing.
- The storyline is extremely linear and predictable, and struggles to keep the player interested. There is also no character development to speak of.
- The overall experience was underwhelming, as I struggled to finish the game even once. It has no replay value whatsoever.