Max Payne 3 Review

 At first, I had pretty mixed feelings about Max Payne 3. I felt the story wasn't as strong as the first two, less noir and more straight-out action: like Die Hard featuring Max Payne. This added to the gameplay though, with many wonderful action scenes and the gameplay featuring more duck-and-cover, pop up and whack a mole than bullet dodge to bullet dodge like the first two games.

I think since I played it on Hard, I had a deeper appreciation for the gameplay. On Hard, the game doesn't auto aim for you. There is a center dot that's white which is your aiming cursor in the game. A lot of the time it felt like duck hunt: trying to hit that target way in the distance. This was combined with the ducking behind cover, and popping out to get a precise shot in; or waiting for the right moment to bulletdodge and shoot at hopefully three or so heads to down three enemies. If the enemies weren't hit precisely in the head (especially as the game went on and enemies were more and more armored) one would prepare to be pretty SOL.

Other times, the level would open with an action scene of Max jumping down a crane--slow-mo would ensue and you'd have to precisely aim and shoot a bunch of bad guys with utter precision. Or you'd be riding on a train with a train going the other way on the other track, hitting enemies precisely from there; it really gives a sense of being the action hero and kicking ass that was exhilarating. If played on a lower difficulty, I just don't think I would have had the same experience.

The story became a bit better and tied itself together better. At first, I was really not so sure that I could see Max randomly running off to Brazil to play bodyguard for some celebrities. But by the end, the psychological ramifications of Max's decisions held genuine weight that his character deserved. In the absence of Mona, his dead wife, Max honed in on protecting the female celebrity. He had a need to still be on the beat as a cop now that he was retired.

This was also neatly tied together in a cohesive manner because of flashback scenes that explained how it was Max came to leave Brazil, and what happened there leading up to the incident of the celebrities being captured.

Clues reappear like in the first two games, but again, the story is not as engrossing. I didn't really care too much for the characters I was trying to save. I felt like I enjoyed the flashback levels more than the levels proper. Well, at least some of the time. By near the end of the game, it was just your typical find the head bad guy and nail him but without the noir embellish of a cop gone rogue, of a designer drug and how it surrounded the death of Max's child and wife. It just wasn't as good of a story, but it did get better--as I have said.

I felt like especially memorable was the last 1/4th of the game. These were especially challenging levels and by this point the best twists in the story reveal themselves. Especially the last level, which takes place at an airport. The first chapter took place in a baggage claim and was full of tight-knit fighting where enemies often had the advantage above. I still don't know how I managed to conquer this level and finally move on. It took me a ridiculous amount of tries and was nearly giving up.

Next, we move to the airport terminals proper. A wide, spread out, huge area with enemies often way ahead in the distance. It brought back memories of Die Hard 2, and the contrast between baggage claim versus the terminals was brilliant and especially challenging. The final boss battle was very gritting and high octane intense. Without ruining too much, the ending scene was very fun to play.

While I will always adore and love the noir style of the first two games more, as I warmed up to the game and took it for what it is--I grew to love it and appreciate it far more than I thought. Now that it's been kind of simmering in my brain for a while, I think it stands the test and is a really great game in its own kind of way. At worst though this makes Max a more stereotypical action hero, and I feel cheapens the noir Max we all know and love. However it is what it is; despite still some mixed feelings, in the end it was a heck of a fun ride.

When I was on the rooftop levels, where the rooftop was crumbling and the building fall to ruin sometimes the sound would cut out. This was my only technical qualm with the game. It was only a brief annoyance but it was a noteworthy nuisance, unfortunately.

The new gameplay mechanic of entering bullet time when Max is about to die and having to down the enemy who is about to kill you to use a painkiller to heal was better on paper than execution. I cannot tell how many times I was not able to find the bitch who was killing me, due to the angling of Max or that a wall was in the way blocking my shot. Or, if my weapon ran out of ammo, I was not able to shoot and kill the bitch. While sometimes fun ultimately the reality of this gameplay addition was frustrating to say the least and I could have done without it.

It was truly a feeling of accomplishment to beat this one on Hard, and it added a lot of nuance to the gameplay which made it even more of a joy to play. Which was surprising. It isn't always that I feel a Hard mode adds nuance and extra skill to a game in a way that makes it feel more like you are the action hero, kicking ass and being a bad ass.

8.5/10.