Another healthy dose of drugs, booze and bullets from Rockstar. A brilliantly refined third person shooting experience.
The story shows us an aging Max; A Max still hell bent on drinking himself to death accompanied by a heavy dose of pills. He doesn't care about life anymore. He's lost his place in the world, trying to find a reason to continue. This is an adult game for adult gamers. As the player you can feel Max's loss, his anger, his cynicism towards the world. This kind of deep character study doesn't happen a lot and it works well here.
The narrative itself jumps forwards and backwards through flashbacks and the result isn't as chaotic as it sounds. It's a lengthy story that is well told if a little hazy. There are twists and turns, lots of blood, drink and drugs resulting in a typically solid single player experience from Rockstar. All their usual tropes are here including the larger than life characters, the dark humour and the societal themes often depicting the seedier aspects of modern day civilisation. Admittedly this is a tale that won't be for everyone. It isn't necessarily pulsating throughout and doesn't perhaps get the adrenaline pumping during its set peice moments in the same vain that an 'Uncharted' game would, but if you're looking for a gritty tale of revenge and survival then this is for you.
Max Payne 3 is the most refined third person shooting experience I've ever played. The shooting mechanics are so smooth, as is character movement with a lot of time clearly taken to give Max a full range of realistic movement. Bullet time, a staple in the Payne series, has indeed returned and it's awesome. Diving out of cover in slow motion, firing a flurry of bullets into an unsuspecting goon is satisfying as is jumping off a balcony and firing a beautifully placed shot into a helpless victim. The mechanic is well balanced with bullet time restricted to an adrenaline meter just so every gun fight doesn't play out into an hour long affair. There are problems. The games' difficulty spike is erratic thanks to a realistic if somewhat frustrating approach to bullet damage. It won't take many bullets to put Max out of his drunken misery meaning that players are forced to fight smart. Cover plays an important part here, far more than I was anticipating in a Max Payne game. Gun fights are therefore often tactical with players forced to use bullet time wisely with later fights in particular proving to be a challenge. Whilst max can jump around firing bullets in his typically cavalier approach in the first couple of levels, enemies later become smarter and better armoured often trying to flank in any given opportunity. Some might find this perplexing at first as I did. Why give us the ability to dive and shoot like Neo on speed then make it totally redundant later on? That's when you realise that this is a different beast to its predecessors. One that requires an element of thinking towards gun fights providing an often rewarding challenge. There's nothing more satisfying than taking out a room of heavily kitted thugs whilst mixing it up with cover and sideways, dual wielding diving.
Multiplayer is a first for the franchise and Rockstar has made a clear attempt to improve on its previous multiplayer experiences in 'GTA IV' and 'Red Dead Redemption'. Max's full range of movement is all present, as is the sublime gun mechanics. The now industry standard class load outs are also here with guns and equipment available to purchase using in-game money earned after matches. There is an impressive repertoire of weaponry in the game giving players a lot of incentive to keep playing. Rank progression is the name of the game with the better, more exotic weaponry and equipment available in later levels. There is also a 'Burst' system, similar to 'Call of Duty's kill streaks. The more kills and assists you get the higher the burst bar goes. You can activate your burst at any given time and the higher the bar the better the ability that is activated. The system works fine but there are questions over balance issues with the different abilities. However there is a lot of meat to chew and a lot of depth with an impressive array of abilities and bursts to try out. Bullet time is also accounted for. How may you ask? When a player activates bullet time any player in line of sight is also dragged into slow-mo. It works well and doesn't intrude games at every given time like most feared or indeed could have done. From what I've played rank progression takes some time which serves to encourage a lengthy stay with Max's multiplayer offering.
Max Payne 3 is a great third person shooter. It offers an engaging, dark, blood thirsty story accompanied with satisfyingly addictive shooting mechanics. Some might find it a tedious affair with the gameplay often reduced to rooms full of enemies. Some may lament the lack of grand scale set piece moments and I'm sure there'll be some who will grow tired of Max's sarcastic quips however; Rockstar has done a decent job pacing the campaign and it's a worthwhile foray into the world of a beleaguered Max struggling to find his purpose. The multiplayer offering is solid with a community that I'm sure will have legs. There are plenty of challenges to do in single player and multiplayer as well as a time based mode in which you are timed and scored as you play through the 10-12 hour campaign. It all equates to a brilliant package that shouldn't be missed by fans of the series nor newcomers looking for a stellar third person shooting experience.