Maximum Payne in the butt
To start off, the graphics are fine. Nothing special apart from some silly trippy static effects that they have overindulged on, just like our hero overindulging every chance he gets on an alcoholic beverage known as Kong, which will either give you a headache or possible give you a seizure.
Music and sound is pretty much as expected, nothing really worth mentioning.
Game play, now this is where it gets better! Being from the Rockstar stable I was expecting the same shooting mechanics as to be found in GTA4, and I wasn't wrong. Only these have been somewhat refined and added to with such mechanics as you would expect from a Max Payne game. The diving through the air in bullet time with twin Uzi's is still a glorious ability and never gets old.
The cover mechanics, however, still need more refinement as often I felt like I was stuck to my cover like a magnet, unable to stand or crouch when I wanted to and when released from the cover often unintentional made to stand up as ten heavies shot their lead loads all over my face.
What is great is the game offering you the choice of how the shooting mechanics work, to some degree. With the option to go more or less freehand shooting or have the game give you a hand with auto aim. Me being a hard boiled shooter fan chose the least amount of help and the hardest difficulty. I have found it somewhat challenging but not as hard as I would have liked. As is the norm with most games nowadays there are a couple of difficulty levels locked until you play through the game, giving it a reason to play through again, as does the finding of golden gun part collectables and completing certain challenges.
Now lets talk about the cutscenes. The story itself is pretty standard fair seeing our drunken hero employed to protect a wealthy, possible criminal, family in South America. Things quickly go belly up and Max has to start filling the bad guys with vast amounts of hot lead.
The cut scenes are pretty annoying in that a) they are often way too long b) with often not anything of importance happening c) with that silly effect I previously mentioned over used d) and most importantly they are nearly always unskippable. I could probably forgive a,b and c if d wasn't a problem...but it is and for that reason the overall score I'm giving this games is a lot lower then it should be.
This isn't the only problem. There are also numerous times when you find yourself locked in a slow stroll from point A to point B whilst listening to the voice-over narrative and nothing happening. It seems like a pretty good idea for the story progression but feels ultimately annoying and wasteful. I mean if it was a skippable cut scene....
The thing is, most of these stories are pretty much garbage. Yes the first game had some pretty great twists and turns, but I'm not expecting the same from this game and I would rather skip a cut scene where all that is happening is Max drinking Kong and talking about how terrible his life is. I'm sorry, but sometimes all I want to do is play the game! Funny that. And being forced to sit through many long and boring minutes of drab dialogue and crappy avatar acting is laborious.
The writing in most games is not, as yet, on par with other media, and it often feels forced and unimaginative. Max Payne 3 is no different and it suffers greatly because of it. Now if only you could skip all the bad stuff and get on with the good stuff!