Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

I was quite excited about this game going into it. It's been a long time since we last saw Max so I was hoping that Rockstar would pull out another great game. Unfortunately, I do not feel that it quite lived up to the hype as seen in a range of high scores it has been given.

One of the best facets of this game is the gritty landscape that you play in. You are mostly in Brazil and the developers did a fine job of making believable environments complete with a variety of NPCs, ambient sounds, destructible world, etc. This is one of the better parts of the game even though you don't really have much chance to enjoy it due to the fast, action pace of the game which is also, certainly, one of the highlights.

It might be said that this is a game that you will either love or hate. The combat system can be quite fun though it must be known that you are going to die a lot. A LOT! In fact, frustrating portions of the game come when you just beat down a bunch of baddies only to walk up the stairs and some random straggler will pop out and cap you dead in a second requiring a restart of the checkpoint. Too, there are some scenes where you will walk in and be dead within a second or two before you even have a chance to truly survey your surroundings. As a result, in a number of instance the game can become a bit of trial and error as you try to figure out the best strategy for a given fire fight. Key sequences at the end of chapters specifically tend to ramp up the challenge which results in an enhanced version of the trial and error scheme. By the end of the game you do find yourself getting into a groove but the battles also continue to grow in intensity. As a result, the difficulty of this game is all over the place. It will either play like a normal game or you'll feel that the game has cheated you simply to make you restart a section.

The combat mechanics are usually quite fun despite a limited array of weapons and the like. The new cover system is not as useful as one would think as you find in other games. Partially because of the destructible environment, covers typically just allow you a few seconds to consider your options before you jump out and take care of the bad guys. Sure, in some instances the cover is truly there to help but, more often than not, using it alone and peeking out to make a kill is not the best approach to taking down all the baddies in a given segment.

Through the course of game play I did run into a variety of glitches that did make the game less than fun. More than once my reticule disappeared so I had no idea where I was shooting. Too, my character would sometimes pop in and out of cover for no reason which would often result in a near instant death and required a repeat of a section. This happened enough that it made certain parts of the game quite frustrating. In another instance where you're given unlimited ammo as you take out a ton of bad guys from the end of a bus, I took down every guy but one only to find that my gun wouldn't reload at all. This actually happened more than once and there, again, I was forced to restart the checkpoint.

This game just isn't near as fun as the original and has lost some of its edge. Indeed they tried but the formula they put together for the game was just so basic when you boil it down. They could have done more than simply have a cut scene followed by a fight scene pasted together over and over again. The game begins to feel too linear with virtually no possibility to genuinely explore or flesh out the story beyond the cut scenes let alone the different beautiful environments that put you in. Even though they added clues to find in attempt to provide small details to the story, in general you don't find any use to finding these as they don't provide anything of substance either to the story or to the overall game play.

I committed to playing this game in its entirety simply because I've long been a fan of the lead character. Though I generally enjoyed the game I can imagine that many will get bored quickly and put it down never to finish. Either that or they'll get annoyed at the disjointed difficulty that shows up throughout the course of the game.