Welcome back,

I hope it has been more than a week as I write this, that I've posted a Max Payne Review. (It has not.)

Let's get into it, as I do have a lot to say about the game, especially as some parts of this have been written as I played.

Huh context?

Yeah, context.

Max Payne 3 was released 9 years after 2.

That is a big technological and cultural gap between games.

Why am I bringing this up?

Mainly to just showcase how much has changed since then, especially in the gaming industry.

To keep things short and not go on a tangent, games were now expected to be bigger and better.

So Max Payne 3 could not just be Max Payne, but PS3.

And instead of being developed by Remedy Entertainment, it has now been developed by Rockstar.

Due to Remedy selling the IP to Take Two/Rockstar after Max Payne 1, and the deal was that they'd make the sequel and that would be it for Remedy.

With Rockstar being free to do whatever they want after the sequel.

Which benefits it a lot in certain ways, but also to its detriment.

 

Stop being pretentious! Get to the gameplay!

Ok fine.

Oh wait, I can’t.

 

Technical Problems

Max Payne 3 is affected by pre GTA-V PC Port Rockstar.

This game refuses to scale correctly on top of other problems in just getting it boot through Steam.

Yes, Max Payne ½ did require a lot to get working/functional, they were made for Windows XP 20 years ago.

I can forgive that, but it’s 2012 now, how are we still making buggy PC Ports?

At least we are playing the game, so let’s actually get into the gameplay.

 

It’s about time!

Bullet Time has been improved, like almost on the same level as MP1.

Everything looks cooler, is just super smooth, fire-rates are faster in it and thankfully they revived the Sawed Off Shotgun by having it auto-reload, even in mid-Bullet Time.

Yes, the other weapons do auto-reload when you go into Bullet Time, though I think Dual-Wield Weapons don’t always?

And you can even finally end a dodge quickly by just pressing the Bullet Time button to bring time back to normal, which I tried in 1/2, and couldn't do.

As well, guns are really smooth and have that classic Rockstar polish.

 

Bad Gameplay Decisions Stacked

And the classic Rockstar frustrations.

Now I am a big fan of Rockstar Games, I love the Red Dead Series, GTA IV-V and Bully.

The Red Dead Series has the most realism out of their franchises (excluding Revolver) and it fits with those games.

But Max doesn't do well with realism, which is what Rockstar likes to put in their games, especially after IV.

Less instant response to inputs, more delays and possibly one of their biggest sins with this game, cover shooting.

 

Gears of War and its consequences have been a disaster for Max Payne

I can handle Max slowly turning his arm to shoot the enemy, when he'd just turn his upper body instead in 1/2.

But I cannot handle how Cover Shooting is in the game and emphasized so hard, like almost hard as MP2 emphasizes Mona and Max's relationship.

As well they also added ADS, in MP1/2, you just aimed the crosshair at the enemy and shot.

You can still do that, but for them to be more accurate, you need to actually aim down your sights.

In addition to the needless realism, Max if he dodges and hits a wall will ragdoll. As well he does also take a while to get up from the ground compared to the other games, so failing to kill an enemy before you hit the ground will reward you with death by that enemy shooting you repeatedly.

 

Along with this, Enemies now have the reaction time of the AI in MP1 and the AI of GTA IV, combining into an extremely frustrating AI to fight back against.

I should also mention, I wasn’t exactly aware of this for a lot of my playthrough, but Max takes locational damage the same as Enemies. Meaning if you have Full HP and get shot in the head, you will genuinely just straight up die.

I am not kidding, I thought it was cause I was low, but then it happened when I was full HP around the end of Part 2/beginning of Part 3, here is a clip.

It’s even worse since as mentioned before, in bullet time, your fire-rate increases, but your enemies' too and they have Dead Man's Trigger for some reason.

So when you shoot them, they start firing all over the place, making dodging while up close almost useless when you just jump into them and have no way to stop it.

Now just watching Max jump and die by the bullets from a Man he just killed.

Max Payne 2 had a basic version of this feature, but it was nowhere as egregious as it is in this game.

 

This is also further emphasized by the fact that Quick-Saves have been removed.

Now when you die, you get pushed back to a checkpoint that completely restarts whatever encounter you just cleared.

Quick-Saving made a lot of frustrating encounters in MP ½ less frustrating because I could instantly retry them and use a different strategy. In MP3, restarting means having to wait a second or two for the game to reload the encounter and sometimes wait for the 5 second context cutscene to actually play.

While there is an argument to be made about not designing these games to be frustrating and not having to depend on Quick Saves, at least they gave you the tools, Max Payne 3 replaces them with less effective ones and continues to be frustrating.

There have been a lot of times I just felt nothing at all because I’d die a lot in one section playing my way, then eventually giving up and playing the way it seems like Rockstar wants you to play.

Cover and shoot.

 

Max Pain for playing like Max Payne

All of these decisions combine in a way that actively punishes the Player for playing how they would in Max Payne ½, aggressive, bruteforce and constantly pushing just like how Max keeps pushing to find the truth.

At some point, the game felt less like Max Payne and more like Linear GTA with a bit of Max Payne Paint on it.

Frustrating when the game randomly throws you a great level that lets you express yourself a lot and feels like Max Payne. The potential is there, the fun is there, but it’s hidden by really bad gameplay design decisions that stack on top of each other exponentially.

 

At least the Level Navigation is good right?

Yeah well, they've been mostly solved actually!

With the caveat of exploration being neutered.

Though at least I'm not spending several minutes trying to figure out where I need to go or do, cause the game won't explain it or did not show it well.

Again though, designed for cover shooting, so it's really annoying for dodging when you just jump into walls.

As well, Levels are also designed openly, but still small?

And also, enemies blend in with the environment.

 

How about the story?

The story is great, it's really fun and interesting.

The new characters are great, I know the new writers must've been either annoyed or thankful that all the important characters were killed in 2.

They're more interesting and have a little more depth than the older characters.

Raul Pessos is a very fun and interesting character especially with some reveals later in the story, his actor does really well at portraying him the same, even after those reveals.

Max is also his most expressive here, actually having more emotion in not only his actions, but also his voice. Even if sometimes it does feel out of character and the dialogue can be a bit too edgy for Max.

Either way, I do think this is one of McCaffery’s best performances in the series and I’m glad they didn’t replace him. No one can replace him as Max Payne.

 

What’s the catch?

Though unfortunately, I have a lot of problems with the story as well.

Let’s begin this with the fact that, yes it is a good story. It’s just not a good Max Payne story.

It's not even an Action Noir now, it's just Action.

The isolation, the calmer and yet over the top tone of the previous games, just gone.

Max Payne 2 was bordering on Romance Action, but it at least had Noir aspects, all of that is just gone here.

Comics? Gone, though I think the cutscenes try to take notes from it?

Which does work, having panels appear and text of what they just said being emphasized is cool.

What isn't cool is all of these effects appearing in cutscenes, it feels like someone who just found glitching effects on some marketplace and just slapped it everywhere.

 

Irresponsibility & Cutscene Hell

I despise the one variation of the effects where it constantly flickers.

Honestly during those moments, I did not listen or understand what they were saying cause the effects were just so distracting and at times painful to my eyes. Plus the strobe lights in the beginning of the game.

To the point I thought "Did they actually playtest this? Who genuinely let this pass?"

It’s just irresponsible to add all of these effects and not add an option to lessen or outright remove them, especially when they happen constantly in cutscenes or randomly during gameplay when Max is having his intermonologue.

As well, cutscenes aren’t sparse or that spaced out, the first hour of the game is just "Walk here, kill guys for 2 minutes, 4 Minute Cutscene, Repeat"

Slowing down the pace of the game a lot and a lot of them could be cut down or spaced out way more.

 

New Place and Too Many Setpieces

Another thing is that the game takes place all over São Paulo and not NYC.

I probably should mention the basic plot, Max is no longer a Detective in NYC, now he’s a bodyguard for rich people in Brazil.

This decision seems to have been made because Rockstar released GTA IV, which took place in a fictional version of NYC. And they most likely didn’t want 3 to feel like a rehash of ½ and get GTA IV comparisons.

Still, I am a little mixed on the idea. As the point of Max is that he's trapped in the city that brings up painful memories he can’t escape.

As well half the tone comes from Max being in the city during the night, it's hard to make a Noir in a tropical and sunny place like São Paulo.

 

One final problem I have are the set pieces, goddamn does this game have so many especially in the early game:

It's just one after the other, Club Shootout, Helicopter Shootout, Hanging from Helicopter Shootout, Boat Shootout, HQ Shootout, HQ on fire shootout.

And the game just stacks them, with the only resting time being cutscenes and 2 sections of the game not having as much spectacle.

It just gets tiring after a while and lessens their impact.

 

No Mystery Here.

Max Payne 3 really likes to go against the noir genre a lot, and it doesn’t just stop in the writing, it happens visually.

The game taking place in Sunny Brazil kills a lot of the tone, there’s a reason why both previous games took place in NYC at Night, it provided a lot to the tone.

 

Max Payne has always been a “dark and gritty” series, but 3 throws all of that out the window visually at least.

Strange as this is the darkest game in the series and probably one of Rockstar’s darkest games.

Human Trafficking, Organ Harvesting & Selling, Reference of Minor Prostitution, Kidnapping, Mass Murder, Political Violence, and implication of Sexual Assault.

Most of these are directly mentioned, some of the darker ones like the organ selling and human trafficking being shown directly with no sugarcoating or hiding by the game.

 

The question of why they moved the location, changed the visuals to be brighter probably has to do with GTA and flexing.

At the same time, GTA V was in development and Max Payne 3 obviously was a testing ground for a lot of what is in that game.

Michael’s Bullet Time, more cinematic and scripted sequences, better cover system and I think as a way to just flex how capable RAGE was with graphics, animations, VFX and just how much can happen on and off the screen.

It’s harder to do that when the setting is darker, the game is more slowly paced and doesn’t have a lot happening. And yeah the GTA IV thing does also apply to why they did this.

 

So, what does Max Payne 3 do well then?

Well, the thing is Max Payne 3 does a lot well. It's frustrating me that I’m criticizing it so much.

When Max Payne 3 lets you play Max Payne, it feels great.

And unfortunately that the most prominent example comes literally at the end of the game.

In the Airport Shootout, the music begins and all the enemies are clearly visible and aren’t sniping me instantly.

I run out, dodge and take out a few guys, the vocals kick in.

I keep dodging around and taking guys out, above and on the same floor as me.

My heart is pounding and even when I’m nearly about to die, I dive one more time and take out the last two enemies as the bullet cam kicks in.

The music now quiets down.

That is Max Payne at its prime.

My question is, was this accidental?

There was no way that they just all of a sudden figured out what Max Payne is and how to make a section where the game isn’t actively fighting you.

It felt like they just realized that they screwed up “a bit” and then just made this section to “even it out”.

 

Another thing MP3 does well is with its ending and final boss.

They are super sick set pieces and I will say, it was pretty satisfying when the Police Chief was blown up by his own grenade. I didn’t shoot him, I just let him suffer. (Totally didn’t just miss out by waiting for Max to finish his monologue)

As for Victor, Max letting him go and then it actually leading to Victor being arrested and then “killing himself” (reminds me of someone else) was also satisfying.

After the crimes against humanity they committed (Human Trafficking, Dark Market Organ Selling, Kidnapping/Murdering People, etc.) they deserved it.

But here’s the catch. I only enjoyed this ending/final boss because I wasn’t playing Max Payne now, it was back to Linear GTA.

And I didn’t want to ruin the ending for myself, so I just played how the game obviously wanted me to play. Getting into cover and shooting.

Even in the end, I didn’t dodge; I didn't play Max Payne. By that point, I already learned I would be penalized hard for trying to play it.

 

Is there anything else you didn’t mention you might like/dislike?

Yeah, here’s a quick list of what I did and didn’t like, that I either forgot to mention or couldn’t find a place to fit them in.

Like:

Dislikes:

 

Does it live up to Max Payne 1?

It’s hard to answer that.

What Max Payne and Max Payne 3 are trying to do, is so extremely different, it's like trying to compare Terraria and Minecraft.

Sure both are similar, but Terraria focuses on Boss Fights and Progression, while Minecraft focuses on Building and Creativiness.

Max Payne focuses on Isolation, Mystery and is a tighter Noir story.

Max Payne 3 focuses on spectacle, polish with an ambitious story.

 

They just can't be compared one to one.

So what I can say is that at times Max Payne 3 does surpass Max Payne 1, but often does fall short or just not at all.

 

Goodbye Max Payne

And well, here we are.

The end of the series.

It’s a little bittersweet, I really did grow to love Max over the course of these 3 games.

But there’s two things I need to answer.

 

Is Max Payne 3 a good game?

Yes.

It’s a great game with a great story that has even better characters than the rest of the series. But it’s a bad Max Payne game.

And that leads to my final answer

 

What is Max Payne 3 trying to be and who is it for?

Max Payne 3 isn’t trying to be a sequel to Max Payne 1 or even 2.

It’s not even trying to be just a Max Payne game.

At best it’s Max Payne Modernized, at its average It’s an action game with a ton of spectacle and realism that has Max Payne.

 

It’s not a game just for fans, it’s not a game just for newcomers or people who enjoy Rockstar’s more cinematic and action heavy games. But it sure does lean hard into them.

Adding GTA Mechanics like Cover System, ADS and then adding realism on top with the mechanics.

Adding it just in case people coming from their other games don’t like dodging, in case someone wants to play it more like GTA, in case if someone came in expecting it to be a linear GTA.

That’s where it fails.

Max Payne 3 is afraid to be Max Payne, so it begins being Linear GTA with Max Payne.

 

This game left me conflicted, it showed me what it can do when it’s confident, and what it can’t when it’s afraid.

…Now what?

Not sure. But, I am sure that this series, for all its ups and downs did have a better ending than some.

And for that, I am grateful.

Not every series needs to constantly continue with new additions.

Some are allowed to end and that’s something Rockstar seems to have understood.

This game took me 10.5 hours to complete and it seems like Rockstar also understands that not every game of theirs has to be 20-40 hours long.

For all the shit I gave them, those are the one of the few things Rockstar seems to at least understand about Max Payne.

There’s a lot more I want to say about this game, that I’m not really sure how to put into words and this post is already like 12 pages, so I’ll have to end it here.

With that,

Thank you for reading.