The third installment in the series takes no chances, and tells a tale so expertly-written, it's worth playing again
The game is from Rockstar, the company that doesn't often put its name on a half-assed product. Given that I have played both other games in the series (I have the Remedy original on my phone), I had high hopes for the third installment, and I was a bit apprehensive even in the face of the glowing PC reviews on MetaCritic. Max Payne in Brazil? Sounds a bit funky... oh well, let's dive in.
So basically, the story finds Max in kind of a bad place in his life. Still mourning the death of his wife and daughter (the opening of the first game), he has become a raging alcoholic and has also developed a dangerous painkiller addiction. He has relocated to Sao Paolo, Brazil to work as a bodyguard to a rich family. You may know that Sao Paolo is one of those places forsaken by all goodness in the world. It's a place practically bursting with crime and corruption, and it actually makes a pitch-perfect setting for this game. Max is running protection detail at a party when someone attempts to kidnap the wife of his employer. He saves her like a boss, and a few days later, another attempt is made, and this time the paramilitary thugs make off with her. Thus starts an adventure that takes Max Payne from glitzy high-rise parties and nightclubs through office buildings and back alleys, landing him in the famous Sao Paolo favellas and beyond. What he discovers is a conspiracy going all the way to the top of the very society he was sworn to protect, and nobody can truly be trusted. It's a fabulous setup that's executed with startling perfection. Rockstar is a developer known for their storytelling, and they are true to form here.
The game itself looks unbelievable, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Even with its amazing visuals, it's relatively light on GPU usage, but you'll still need a halfway decent card to get this monster of a game off the ground. A DX11 card is HIGHLY recommended here. The DX11 water effects and lighting are real standouts. I'm playing with a Sapphire OC 7850 on ultra settings in 1080p, and the game pops off the screen with a lifelike flare that you don't see very often. The world moves and breathes in a way you don't see too often, and that's largely due to the graphics. One great additional thing that this game does that I have never seen before involves the graphics options. When you are fiddling with the graphics options in the game, a small box in the lower left hand corner displays your current and maximum GPU memory usage. This is a handy tool if your card has limited memory. You can tweak all the settings to fit your memory quota. I'm playing on a 2GB card, so I don't have that problem with this game in particular, but I would like to see more games incorporate this feature in the future.
The game plays exceptionally well whether you are using mouse and keyboard controls or a gamepad. I actually preferred the gamepad for this game because I'm used to playing the other games in the series on console, and I felt it fitting in a way. The game has a weight and heft to it I rarely feel in games. Guns look and feel heavy when they shoot, and the bullets are actually modeled objects that fire when hit by actual hammers in the guns and then the casings are actually ejected by the gun. You can see all this happen in slow motion when you kill the last man standing in a group. The camera zooms in on the bullet and the curved reflections in slow motion look frighteningly real. Then you see the bullet literally tear your enemy's mouth open and leave a huge exit wound on the back of his head that plumes outward, actually changing the shape of the model's head. Yes. This game is unfathomably gruesome. The gore is handled to perfectly sickening effect, presented in the most realistic fashion I have ever seen in any game on any console. No giblets and nondescript meat parts flying around. Headshots disfigure enemies, blowing their eyes and ears off. The shooting feels powerful, and you feel equally at the mercy of that power. Dying is pretty easy to do in this game, but there are plenty of weapons to keep you going.
The game handles weapons in a way that is both novel and genius. Max can carry two one-handed weapons and a two-handed weapon at the same time. That is his limit. You can switch to dual-wielding your one-handed weapons at any time, but you will drop your two-handed weapon. This is genius. Max carries the two-handed weapon in his left hand when you have a one-handed weapon equipped, which is exactly what a person would actually do. When you reload your weapon or switch to your other one-handed gun, Max tucks your two-handed weapon under his shoulder to complete the action. It feels real and improvised, like he does it out of habit. Little things in this game have that kind of feel too them. It works amazingly well.
The voice acting is another standout. The narrator (the same voice actor who has played Max Payne in games past) reprises his role as the rough and tumble ex-cop. The narration and commentary are devilishly cynical and feel very character-appropriate. There are no bad performances from anyone in the game. The Portuguese-speaking enemies sounds furious and angry, whooping and yelling insults at you, and the cutscenes- while numerous- are directed with such attention to auditory detail that you feel like you're watching an expertly crafted movie at times.
In the end, this game is a delightful distraction. The main campaign will last you 10-14 hours on the first playthrough, which actually felt pretty long by today's standards. There is plenty of reason to play through again, because the game is executed with such precision and grace, it's worth experiencing over again. There is also a multiplayer mode with your typical team deathmatch and some cool variants, but it's not the main attraction here (although it's pretty fun for the most part). It's about the adventure and the messed up life of one ex cop who just can't seem to get a break.
This is a great one. I highly recommend it. Available on Steam now. Get it. Be happy.