Max Payne 3 Review

It has been nine years since the last Max Payne game and this time around development has been handed over to Rockstar Vancouver who previously worked on Bully. It is very clear from the word go that Max Payne 3 is a very different game than its predecessors, showing more of a resemblance to the recent Kane and Lynch series than either of the two previous Max Payne games. Gone is the comic book noir atmosphere and quirky self aware humor. Instead Rockstar opts to tell an disturbingly dark and mature story about a man at the end of his rope desperately grasping for some semblance of meaning to his life and in that is where the game succeeds the most. 

Few games better document the journey of a tortured drug addled alcoholic. Straight away the game is seeped in pulpy noir atmosphere and the Michael Mann/Tony Scott mash-up inspiration makes for an intoxicating experience. Rockstar is nothing if not bold, and Max Payne 3 is as bold as you can make a traditional third person shooter; yes that statement was meant to be underhanded and it’s what keeps Max Payne from reaching truly exceptional heights. Behind the impeccable level of graphical detail and master class storytelling and characterizations is just another third-person cover based shooter. That’s not to say the gameplay or the mechanics are bad they just aren’t very interesting anymore. The shoot dodge that made the original Max Payne unique at the time is now negated by a surprisingly brutal difficulty that forces you to activate slow-mo from behind cover and simply pick off enemies from a distance without any panache. I can count the number of times I leapt through the air guns blazing between my fingers, their just aren’t any moments that require or even allow that kind of play-style.

The game oozes atmosphere and the visual flair taken verbatim from any number of Tony Scott films is slick though sometimes overused. It’s appropriate when the action is chaotic but out of place when Max is simply walking through a favela in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The way the screen cuts into squares for transitions or splashes keywords across the screen all add to the unique visual style only a Rockstar game can provide. Max’s voice actor is also of the high caliber typical of Rockstar games with gruff and self-deprecating monologues mixed in among the shots of brown liquor and painkillers. The game does a fantastic job really selling the fact that Max Payne is a horrible piece of shit that has had horribly shitty things happen to him. Yet his compulsion to help the helpless and do good for the sake of some karmic equilibrium for the things he has done makes him an incredibly compelling character.

Max Payne 3 is another in a long line of impeccable Rockstar games. They simply know exactly how to deliver the best experience for whatever that particular game happens to be. The level of detail is unrivaled from broken glass to individually rendered bullets, everything in this game is of the highest quality including voice performances and even the synth-rock soundtrack which is fantastic. Max Payne 3 is undoubtedly one of the most all around well made third-person shooters. Yet every time you find yourself in another shootout amid the roughly 8-10 hour campaign no matter how incredible the set-pieces or varied the environments, you realize the mechanics simply aren’t anywhere near as engaging as the story, atmosphere or even Max himself.

(4 out of 5)