Max Payne 3 Review

[maninahat]

I was actually quite disappointed in the game.
Sometimes his internal monologues were hilarious because they just reminded me of something a 14 year old kid would say when they discover the 'emo' fashion. Very pretentious.

Ha ha, have you played the previous games? You get such gems as:
"The sun went down with practiced bravado. Twilight crawled across the sky, laden with foreboding."

What does that even mean?

Does Max Payne 3 have less of the hammy, hardboiled metaphors? Or are they back with a vengeance? It always came across as amateurish - that people felt "well its a neo-noir story, it must have the endless monologuing!" No it doesn't. This isn't a book, and in a visual medium, visuals should tell the story. I don't need Deckard explaining everything to me in Blade Runner, whatever the producers might have thought.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, if it's not noir style it's just not for me. Quite frankly, those cut-scenes look abysmal.

And you know the best thing about them? YOU CAN'T SKIP THEM!!! The game loads at a snail's pace, and by the time you can finally skip the cutscene it would've only lasted a few more seconds anyway.

This game is just badly made, it's an absolute mess. I've heard one reviewer say it's basically GTA with Bullet Time, and that's about right, including the bad controls and bad cover mechanics.

Rockstar should be ashamed of themselves for putting something this broken on the market.

You know, i was kind of worried about this myself. IMO Rockstar has never really nailed the shooting mechanics in any game they've made, so I was incredibly wary of MP3. Thanks for confirming my fears! I'll probably stay well clear of this one.

The shoot-outs can actually be a real blast once the game finally gives you the reigns, it's just that everything else is extremely mediocre and annoying.

I was actually quite disappointed in the game.
Sometimes his internal monologues were hilarious because they just reminded me of something a 14 year old kid would say when they discover the 'emo' fashion. Very pretentious.

Ha ha, have you played the previous games? You get such gems as:
"The sun went down with practiced bravado. Twilight crawled across the sky, laden with foreboding."

What does that even mean?

This is actually fun sounding dialoge in that over the top Sin City sort of way. Max Payne 3 on the other hand is, as Nantucket mentioned, just whiny and bitchy. You could have a drinking game everytime Max says something about shallow rich people. You'd think that with age Max would gain an old man's mentality, but it seems all the booze and painkillers regressed his mind to that of a know-it-all teenager.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Max Payne 3 Review

Drunken time manipulation has never been so fun.

Read Full Article

You wrote: "Max Payne 3 finds Max where one usually finds Max: eyes down at the floor of a bar with a drink in his hand and ten more in his stomach."

The player has never found Max Payne like that. The only bars he was in in the first 2 games got shot up and he didn't have a drink first.

CAPTCHA: that hurts.

How fitting. This damn game hurts.

 

[Frybird]

I miss Sam Lake's writing.

It's not genius, and half of the time quite awful, but as it turns out, it was what Max Payne makes Max Payne.
The Nordic Mythology References, the self-awareness, the corny metaphors and overall the feeling that the story constantly is on the edge between goofy parody and compelling heavy handed drama. It was pastice, sort of what Tarantino does in most of his movies, imitating styles to thier extreme and embracing all the tropes and cliches to make a working story out of it.
Well rounded presentation aside, Max Payne 3 comes off as an average, predictable action thriller. In terms of storys in games, it may still be above many others, but it still comes off as a disappointment.

Two Chapters in, i sadly have to agree with Nantucket and Shinji.
In an obvious effort to make Max's monologues less weird and (endearingly) bad, it instead becomes drenched in constant, sometimes uncalled for bitterness and cynicism that makes Max sound like a whiny douche, and overall the story loses it's certain charm.
Oh, and it doesn't help that most of the supporting characters seem rather to belong in a GTA Game (i was surprised how much you see a distinct Houser writing style) than in Max Paynes.

But well, the shooting is fun and well made, so it's hardly a complete failure.

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

I was actually quite disappointed in the game.
Sometimes his internal monologues were hilarious because they just reminded me of something a 14 year old kid would say when they discover the 'emo' fashion. Very pretentious.

Ha ha, have you played the previous games? You get such gems as:
"The sun went down with practiced bravado. Twilight crawled across the sky, laden with foreboding."

What does that even mean?

Does Max Payne 3 have less of the hammy, hardboiled metaphors? Or are they back with a vengeance? It always came across as amateurish - that people felt "well its a neo-noir story, it must have the endless monologuing!" No it doesn't. This isn't a book, and in a visual medium, visuals should tell the story. I don't need Deckard explaining everything to me in Blade Runner, whatever the producers might have thought.

I have played the previous games but it has been years since I have.
Max Payne 3 is full of hammy metaphors. There is a scene where he's just in his apartment spouting them nonsensically. I understand why he is brooding and depressed but knock off the poetics for just five minutes.

 

[saintchristopher]

frankly if I hadn't enjoyed the script so much I wouldn't have played this game for more than a night. the gameplay never, ever changes. The only thing that makes this remarkable at all is how good James McCaffrey is as Max himself.

 

[AgentCooper]

I was actually quite disappointed in the game.
Sometimes his internal monologues were hilarious because they just reminded me of something a 14 year old kid would say when they discover the 'emo' fashion. Very pretentious.

Ha ha, have you played the previous games? You get such gems as:
"The sun went down with practiced bravado. Twilight crawled across the sky, laden with foreboding."

What does that even mean?

Does Max Payne 3 have less of the hammy, hardboiled metaphors? Or are they back with a vengeance? It always came across as amateurish - that people felt "well its a neo-noir story, it must have the endless monologuing!" No it doesn't. This isn't a book, and in a visual medium, visuals should tell the story. I don't need Deckard explaining everything to me in Blade Runner, whatever the producers might have thought.

I have played the previous games but it has been years since I have.
Max Payne 3 is full of hammy metaphors. There is a scene where he's just in his apartment spouting them nonsensically. I understand why he is brooding and depressed but knock off the poetics for just five minutes.

I think the monologues get better when the story progresses and it feels like there is a better reason for it. I know some of the dialogue made the chapters better near the end when you finally found out what was really going on. I will admit in early chapters the narration could have been cut in half or really just silent levels.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Wow... those cutscenes look like they would give me a headache.

I was apprehensive when this game was announced and this review has made me even more so. The clips where Max was spouting his usual metaphor heavy, pesamistic monologues amongst the bright colours of Sao Paulo were just laughable. Honestly, the two don't look like they fit.

In Max Payne 1 and 2 the city of New York was a character in itself and I LOVED that because both Max and his home were as dark, despairing and downtrodden (woo aliteration!) as each other. It was a perfect fit. I miss the old setting not because I am a fanboy with entitlement issues but because it was a major part of what made the games great for me.

If anyone has played the game and can convince me otherwise, please, be my guest.

The past is a gaping hole. You try to run from it, but the more you run, the deeper it grows behind you, its edges yawning at your heels.

I love you right now. That's my favourite line from the original games. Along with:

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."

 

[AgentCooper]

Wow... those cutscenes look like they would give me a headache.

I was apprehensive when this game was announced and this review has made me even more so. The clips where Max was spouting his usual metaphor heavy, pesamistic monologues amongst the bright colours of Sao Paulo were just laughable. Honestly, the two don't look like they fit.

In Max Payne 1 and 2 the city of New York was a character in itself and I LOVED that because both Max and his home were as dark, despairing and downtrodden (woo aliteration!) as each other. It was a perfect fit. I miss the old setting not because I am a fanboy with entitlement issues but because it was a major part of what made the games great for me.

If anyone has played the game and can convince me otherwise, please, be my guest.

The past is a gaping hole. You try to run from it, but the more you run, the deeper it grows behind you, its edges yawning at your heels.

I love you right now. That's my favourite line from the original games. Along with:

"The past is a puzzle, like a broken mirror. As you piece it together, you cut yourself, your image keeps shifting. And you change with it. It could destroy you, drive you mad. It could set you free."

The game does have flashbacks to New Jersey and most of sao Paulo takes place in the slums mostly. The game plays off of Max in the "fish out of water" and stupid American stereotype in Sao Paulo.

 

[Derelict Frog]

Well, if it's not noir style it's just not for me. Quite frankly, those cut-scenes look abysmal.

And you know the best thing about them? YOU CAN'T SKIP THEM!!! The game loads at a snail's pace, and by the time you can finally skip the cutscene it would've only lasted a few more seconds anyway.

This game is just badly made, it's an absolute mess. I've heard one reviewer say it's basically GTA with Bullet Time, and that's about right, including the bad controls and bad cover mechanics.

Rockstar should be ashamed of themselves for putting something this broken on the market.

You know, i was kind of worried about this myself. IMO Rockstar has never really nailed the shooting mechanics in any game they've made, so I was incredibly wary of MP3. Thanks for confirming my fears! I'll probably stay well clear of this one.

Seems weird that you'd immediately decide not to buy a game based on this one random guy who played it, and not the stellar review under which your comment resides...

Also people keep seeming to equate noir with darkness and New York. Having completed Max Payne 1 and 2 there I can outright say that if it weren't for the game specifically saying that you were in New York you would have had no idea that you were there. It could have been any big city at night really. Apart from meaning black in French, noir doesn't have to be set at night. It's just a descriptor for a piece of work that emphasises sex and cynicism.

 

[Weaver]

Well, if it's not noir style it's just not for me. Quite frankly, those cut-scenes look abysmal.

And you know the best thing about them? YOU CAN'T SKIP THEM!!! The game loads at a snail's pace, and by the time you can finally skip the cutscene it would've only lasted a few more seconds anyway.

This game is just badly made, it's an absolute mess. I've heard one reviewer say it's basically GTA with Bullet Time, and that's about right, including the bad controls and bad cover mechanics.

Rockstar should be ashamed of themselves for putting something this broken on the market.

You know, i was kind of worried about this myself. IMO Rockstar has never really nailed the shooting mechanics in any game they've made, so I was incredibly wary of MP3. Thanks for confirming my fears! I'll probably stay well clear of this one.

Seems weird that you'd immediately decide not to buy a game based on this one random guy who played it, and not the stellar review under which your comment resides...

Also people keep seeming to equate noir with darkness and New York. Having completed Max Payne 1 and 2 there I can outright say that if it weren't for the game specifically saying that you were in New York you would have had no idea that you were there. It could have been any big city at night really. Apart from meaning black in French, noir doesn't have to be set at night. It's just a descriptor for a piece of work that emphasises sex and cynicism.

Well, to say he's a random guy is false. He's been on here for about 3 years (and 4 myself). You kind of get to know people's opinions and tastes if you hang around somewhere for that long.

In reality though, I really just generally dislike Rockstar games almost every time, so that's what was really keeping me away. It's just that I truly enjoyed MP1 and 2 so I had a small iota of hope for 3. It just looks like an all the way different game in a style that just doesn't give with me. The game really just looks very "rockstar" in my eyes and, personally, that's not a good thing.

 

[Shadeovblack]

The past is a gaping hole. You try to run from it, but the more you run, the deeper it grows behind you, its edges yawning at your heels.

The metaphors. The similes. Two companions as reliable and true to the Max Payne series as a pair of Desert Eagles and a lifetime's prescription of painkillers. Gone. There's a bullet-shaped hole where the metaphors should be, and Rockstar are the ones fingering the trigger. Seeing the third game, it's like kissing your love goodbye, only to find she's already dead.

Looking back, you see the graphic novel cutscenes, the noir tropes... like a doomed romance, you only get the full picture in hindsight. The way the serious clashes with the surreal, the over-the-top meets the understated. You realise how the developers used the absurd to underscore the emotional content... and like any doomed romance, you finally realise just how they broke your heart. Mona, Vinnie, Vlad, Woden... they're all dead. And where you once had the memory of them, now all you've got is a drunken void where your memories should be. A gaping hole, growing deeper behind you.

Playing Max Payne 3, thinking about death is unavoidable. It's a weight chained to your ankles, a pocket full of stones dragging you into the sea. The death of the dream sequences. The death of the meta-TV shows. The death of the femme-fatale. Every sly wink and knowing nod made to the gamer, replaced with a scowl and a flip of the bird. It's like watching your own funeral, except it's not you in the casket, but a bloated old man with a shaved head and a terrible taste in shirts. Looking around, you see how things have changed. You're no longer a pastiche of noir cliches, but a character from Miami Vice. Where you once saw symbols in everything around you, painted onto the world like cave paintings, like hidden clues, now you see cheap moralising and Sunday morning preaching. Where you once saw the snows of the Fimbulwinter, and the beginnings of Ragnarok itself, now there's just the heat of a Brazilian summer's evening.

Metaphors. Similes. Metafiction. This is what I see when I look back. These moments, blinding as snow, they kill you, change you. You die and live again, remade.

Thank you, that's all I need to know to make my decision.

 

[TheNaut131]

I was just about to make a thread about those stupid fucking cutscenes. I couldn't care less about Max's monologues in this game, because I can barely process what he's saying due to those stupid fucking flashes and those goddamn floating texts and-FOR THE LOVE OF MIGRAINE MEDICINE THOSE FUCKING CUTSCENES ARE ANNOYING!

I remember back when they were releasing those trailers for the aspects of the game, guns, bullet time, etc, etc. One of them was about storytelling and I believe the man speaking said:

"With Max Payne 3, Rockstar has tried to make a uniquely cinematic action game that uses a series of presentation innovations to move the game seamlessly from cutscene to gunplay"

Yes,they tried...and failed miserably. It's unique in the fact that it's the only game to ever give me a migraine without actually having to play it. Oh and here's another one:

"The game transitions gameplay to cutscenes using a range of cinematic editing techniques, without ever showing a loading screen"

Yes, instead you just put up a bunch of flickering lights and made everything disorienting, even when Max was simply walking down a fucking street or casual talking to someone in a completely lit area! Seriously Rockstar, there are easier ways to hide a cutscene. And besides, I'm pretty sure there's a loading icon in the upper left hand corner of the screen at times. There goes your "smooth" transitions.

In fact, that entire trailer displays mostly everything that's wrong with Max Payne 3. The "cinematics," the "Noir graphic style," and well, most of what I'm listing has already been stated here.

Spoiler: Here's the trailer in case anyones interested.

 

[Metalrocks]

since i have to wait for the pc version, from what i read here is, that the cut scenes are bad (which i have to admit, they do look annoying and irritating) and that the story is not as good as the previous 2 games.
but the game play/shooting as such is really good.

am i reading it correctly here?

 

[Mike Kayatta]

since i have to wait for the pc version, from what i read here is, that the cut scenes are bad (which i have to admit, they do look annoying and irritating) and that the story is not as good as the previous 2 games.
but the game play/shooting as such is really good.

am i reading it correctly here?

I'd say you are, but honestly, the story isn't so much worse as it is different (though for many MP fans different will = worse, regardless). It's been a long time since people last played as Max, and Rockstar did its best to make a sequel where you wouldn't have to know anything about 1 or 2 to enjoy it. That may disappoint a lot of folks who wanted to see the original narrative line continue, but 2 did wrap most things up, and it's not like those stories have been retconned.

 

[Metalrocks]

since i have to wait for the pc version, from what i read here is, that the cut scenes are bad (which i have to admit, they do look annoying and irritating) and that the story is not as good as the previous 2 games.
but the game play/shooting as such is really good.

am i reading it correctly here?

I'd say you are, but honestly, the story isn't so much worse as it is different (though for many MP fans different will = worse, regardless). It's been a long time since people last played as Max, and Rockstar did its best to make a sequel where you wouldn't have to know anything about 1 or 2 to enjoy it. That may disappoint a lot of folks who wanted to see the original narrative line continue, but 2 did wrap most things up, and it's not like those stories have been retconned.

ok, thanks for the reply. i guess i will figure it out my self. have nothing else really to play so i might as well get it as long the game play is good and the story makes sense.

 

[dragonswarrior]

The past is a gaping hole. You try to run from it, but the more you run, the deeper it grows behind you, its edges yawning at your heels.

The metaphors. The similes. Two companions as reliable and true to the Max Payne series as a pair of Desert Eagles and a lifetime's prescription of painkillers. Gone. There's a bullet-shaped hole where the metaphors should be, and Rockstar are the ones fingering the trigger. Seeing the third game, it's like kissing your love goodbye, only to find she's already dead.

Looking back, you see the graphic novel cutscenes, the noir tropes... like a doomed romance, you only get the full picture in hindsight. The way the serious clashes with the surreal, the over-the-top meets the understated. You realise how the developers used the absurd to underscore the emotional content... and like any doomed romance, you finally realise just how they broke your heart. Mona, Vinnie, Vlad, Woden... they're all dead. And where you once had the memory of them, now all you've got is a drunken void where your memories should be. A gaping hole, growing deeper behind you.

Playing Max Payne 3, thinking about death is unavoidable. It's a weight chained to your ankles, a pocket full of stones dragging you into the sea. The death of the dream sequences. The death of the meta-TV shows. The death of the femme-fatale. Every sly wink and knowing nod made to the gamer, replaced with a scowl and a flip of the bird. It's like watching your own funeral, except it's not you in the casket, but a bloated old man with a shaved head and a terrible taste in shirts. Looking around, you see how things have changed. You're no longer a pastiche of noir cliches, but a character from Miami Vice. Where you once saw symbols in everything around you, painted onto the world like cave paintings, like hidden clues, now you see cheap moralising and Sunday morning preaching. Where you once saw the snows of the Fimbulwinter, and the beginnings of Ragnarok itself, now there's just the heat of a Brazilian summer's evening.

Metaphors. Similes. Metafiction. This is what I see when I look back. These moments, blinding as snow, they kill you, change you. You die and live again, remade.

Okay. No one has quoted you yet to tell you how awesome that was.

That Was Awesome.

That is all.

 

[Mysterious Druid]

I actually think the difficulty was one of the games' biggest problems. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a challenge, but I was kind of expecting a game where you'd be able to go guns blazing without getting killed in half a nanosecond. If Max was given more health, I'd have enjoyed it a lot more.

Or maybe I'm just a filthy casual.

 

[Namehere]

I have to say, I was kind of gripped by the review. Think I might take a look at this one at some point. Not the deepest story ever but then it is an action game and I find new ways of telling old stories just as interesting as new stories. I know that because I enjoy Fringe. LOL

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

1. The cutscenes look bad, yes the previous 1-2 comicstyle cutscenes were much better than this seizure inducing mess

2.The setting and story lacks inspiration and is completely generic. The environment reminds me too much of Dead Island, another not-very-good kind of game

3.Max is no longer the max we once knew yet he tries to act as if he was and talks as if he was. Yet it doesnt seem to work much considering the situation he is in has completely changed

4.No signs of flashbacks or any kind of connection to the previous titles other than: oh look its max payne again.
So...what about the unanswered questions and plotthreads from the other games?
lol, hell if i know :3

1. Sure, they are hard to look at sometimes. I wish there would be an option to turn of doublevision and flickering. I guess that someone is going to change it in the pc version.

2. Maybe you should play the game instead of judging a couple of screenshots. There are way more settings than in the previous two games. MP2 is boring compared to MP3 (yay, another construction site).
The story isn`t bad either i liked it. The previous stories weren`t better just with more mythology and symbolism.

3. Just play the game.

4. ...and again just play the game, rent it and serious what unanswered questions and plotthreads (the only thing comming to my mind is the MP2 hard ending, but i`m glad that Rockstar didn`t got in any further since it was Remedys story back then).

I can`t understand the cutscene complaining going on here, use chapter select/checkpoint 2 and you don`t have to watch the first lengthy cinematic. After completing the level go back to the menu and use chapter select for the next one and checkpoint 2. The loading takes 25-30sec. The big advantage of this loading system is that there`s no wait after you die, you start at your last checkpoint. In this game you can die alot depending on the difficulty and i`m glad that i can restart right again.
Haters gonna hate and i love this game.