All I have to say is...worth the wait. Real Score: 9.4
My biggest concern going into Max Payne was the change of scenery. No longer does the dark noir story taking place in the dark, snowy, and seedy streets of New York City, but in the sunny yet seedier streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Luckily though Rockstar knew what they were getting themselves into and the story and setting work perfectly. The story does a great job of advancing Max's story line while doing a great job at filling the gamer in on the incidents that happened since Max Payne 2.
The gameplay in Max Payne 3 is exactly as fans remember it. Anyone who has played the previous games on the original Xbox console will find themselves for the most part knowing exactly what to do right away. On the higher difficulties the game does a great job at providing old school thrills, as the game doesn't have regenerating health. The game's health still revolve around taking pain killers found around the game's levels, requiring the player to choose when they want to take them. The game does provide a last stand mode that will automatically take painkillers for you if you have them, but I often found relying on last stand too much to be a rather deadly mistake.
The game is satisfyingly long as well. It will take you well over ten hours to complete Max's adventure, and then when you do complete it you unlock New York Minute, which requires you to race against the clock, gaining time by getting headshots and performing other deadly acts. This is a very fun, challenging, and intense mode, that only really suffers during the few "sniping escort" sections that are found in the earlier levels of the game. In New York Minute if you die or in some situations the person you are protecting dies you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the level, this makes the few escort sections a bit annoying, but they still make for intense white knuckle moments.
The series's signature move "bullet time" is here once again, and it is just as fun as it was in the original games, although it could be argued that it isn't as useful. It could have been because I was playing on a higher difficulty, but it seemed like in the earlier games, going into bullet time was essentially a free pass for ten seconds, you were almost untouchable. In this game however it didn't seem like the case. You can die in bullet time, which took quite a while to get used to.
One of Max Payne 3's biggest innovations in the gameplay is the way that the game uses cutscenes as loading screens, meaning that the game seamlessly transfers from cutscene to gameplay. This of course takes a few times to get used to, since the game can start abruptly at times with multiple enemies coming for you. Let's hope that this is something that many developers notice and begin implementing in their games. It really helps enrich the cinematic quality of the game.
The graphics in Max Payne 3 are simply put amazing. The character models are fantastic and the game's locals are immensely detailed. Another big innovation is the fact that every bullet in the game is individually rendered. This makes for some insanely gory and fun shootouts, and the death cams that appear at the end of some of the bigger fights are immensely satisfying thanks to this.
When it comes to soundtracks Rockstar have never been slouches, and Max Payne is no different. Fans of the series have come to expect a certain cinematic quality to the voice overs and the sound effects in the game and of course this game is no different. The biggest and best thing about the sound in this game is the soundtrack. Los Angles based indie rock band Health provide the beautiful soundtrack to the game. Much like the 2011 film Drive, the subtle electronic soundtrack beautifully orchestrates the in your face violence.
Multiplayer is also a new addition to the Max Payne series, and like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto 4 before it, Rockstar do a great job at offering a large and unique multiplayer offering without taking away from the single player offering. It seems like a lot of games these days would rather focus on the multiplayer portion while letting the single player portion suffer. Max Payne 3 is the perfect example of how games can still have highly original multiplayer (check out Gang Wars) and still deliver of the single player front.
Max Payne 3 is a must play for anyone who is a fan of action games. In a world where so many of the big budget action games sacrifice story and character development for giant action set pieces and competitive multiplayer it's so refreshing to find a game that does all of those things well. Near the end I actually found myself not wanting to continue playing because I simply didn't want the adventure to come to an end, and when I did complete it, I loaded up New York Minute and started all over again.
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Value: 9
Fun Factor: 9