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Max Payne 3 Review


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Max Payne 3 was one of the games I had most looked forward to in 2012. The first two games were wonderful works of art in all aspects, and many fans, myself included had been dying for a third installment of the series. However, my life had its priorities in 2012, and unfortunately Max Payne 3 was not among the top ones. I purchased the game via the STEAM sale at the end of 2013 in hopes I could relive some of the wonderful days I spent playing through a story about a character many shooter fans knew and loved.
 
But before I talk about Max Payne 3, I want to talk a little bit about the company I bought it from; STEAM.
 
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STEAM is a magnificent idea. Introduced in 2003, it serves as a digital distribution platform for games and other software, a means of chat and voice communication and a multiplayer hub. STEAM itself faced heavy criticism upon release, much like Origin is facing now, however over time it proved itself to be a clever piece of software, and it now beloved by millions, due in no small part to built in anti-cheat measures and events such as their holiday sales. Which leads me to my gripe with STEAM.
 
I had purchased the game, only to find out that there were not enough serial keys available for the game. Okay, I get that. The Christmas holiday sale has got to be the biggest one all year, and nobody could have anticipated the exact number of people who would purchase a copy within the same time frame. No big deal. So I submitted a support ticket to STEAM, only to get back a generic reply saying they will give us keys when they arrive, followed with a link to the news section of the STEAM website. The ticket was closed. Worse yet, STEAM has absolutely no phone support. E-ticket only. I re-opened it, and asked for an ETA since it had been 6 days without me being able to play the game. The ticket was, again; closed without saying anything.
 
This enraged me. I took to the STEAM forums for another solution, whilst penning an angry reply to the ticket I had just re-opened for the 2nd time. As I wrote in that I demanded my money back (which more than likely wouldn't have happened), I found out that this issue had been going on since October, long before the Christmas holiday sale and both STEAM and Rockstar games were well aware of this and had no solution in place. Luckily, another post I found was by an average gamer, who had a slightly complicated, but viable solution for the problem. He said that despite what STEAM reps may say, they don't order keys by themselves, that, rather, the game is sold with the key already in it. And you can access this by creating a text file inside the game directory, launching the game without using the STEAM link, and then with STEAM open, use the 'Show CD Key' button which you can then enter in manually to make the game function.
 
After I tested this and confirmed that it worked, I yet again wrote back angrily to STEAM, informing them of how unhappy I was with their lack of customer service and linked them the forum thread, buried underneath dozens of other topics about the same problem so they could better serve other customers in the future (also known as doing their job). So, about a week after I had initially purchased the game, I was finally able to play it and beat it so I could sit here and write this article for you all. Now that I got all of that out of my system, back to Max Payne 3.
 
Story:
 
Max has lived a really hard life. How he has managed to cope with getting up in the morning is beyond me. I don't think I'd have the strength to deal with what had happened to him. In the first game, he had been working undercover as a D.E.A. agent in New York, when his wife and infant daughter had just been murdered by a couple of junkies on a synthetic drug called 'V'. It turned out that this drug was actually manufactured by a seemingly legitimate corporation, which had ties with government officials and corrupt police officers who wanted him dead. Max fought his way through hell and back to discover the truth and take revenge on those who ruined his life.
 
In the second game, after retiring from the D.E.A., he had returned to his old detective job at the N.Y.P.D. looking to initially solve what was supposed to be a fishy murder case. This turned out to yet again be a much larger even that swallowed him up, and forced him to work his way through New Yorks scariest areas fighting mobsters and taking out hired guns all the way until he found that a personal friend and supposedly ex-Russian Mob boss had betrayed him. Max put an end to it in a way only he could, by taking his enemies out in action-movie fashion and solving the case all at once, though not without having yet another woman close to him taken away by a gun shot.
 
In Max Payne 3, you fast forward ahead by what seems like either a few months or possibly a few years. Max is still obviously deeply depressed by his past troubles and is attempting to escape them by going after a "fresh start" in another country (Brazil), working as a body guard instead of a member of law enforcement. While how he originally got to Sao Palo is a mystery at the beginning of the game, things quickly start to become clear as you play through the game's current events and periodic flash backs which explain the back story better than I could ever write it. The bottom line is that Max hasn't escaped his troubles. He merely brought them with him to a place with palm trees and sunshine.
 
The story is most likely the greatest thing about any Max Payne  game. It is told in a film noir fashion, narrated by Max's deep voice laced with dark sarcasm about the events unfolding around him. Visually, in the last two games this involved using comic strips for lengthy dialogue, as you'd see in a graphic novel. As opposed to cut scenes. The style was unique, and I (along with millions of others) loved it. Max Payne 3 does away with this, but replaces it with stylized cut scenes with rapid camera-cut stills and important phrases in the dialogue highlighted on screen. As I've said in previous reviews, I think the mark of a great game, or for that matter any great movie, TV show or book is when the person penning the story can make you feel emotion for the lead character. Max Payne games have always done this, and Max Payne 3 is no exception. I found myself constantly saying to myself: "Poor Max." He deserves a break. When he's angry, I'm angry. When he's sad, I feel bad for him, when he makes a dark wisecrack, I have a slight chuckle along with him. The story in this game is the best I've played through in a long time.
 
Score: 10/10
 
Graphics:
 
This game had been in development for years and years, with many people either doubting its existence in the first place, and other thinking it may be vaporware that will die off eventually and never be released. But like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Duke Nukem Forever before it, Max Payne 3 rose out of the chaos that is game development limbo and made a spectacular release in 2012 that raised the bar for 3rd person action games. From what I had read, Max Payne 3 had ended up with its graphics engine being re-done completely due to its age by the time the game was near completion from a story, voicing and playing standpoint. As such, the game uses the same engine that Grand Theft Auto V does. Due to this, the graphics, while not spectacular, are modern, and don't let you down visually compared to other games with similar development troubles. Max Payne 3 has phenomenal character modeling, and lifelike, well through out environments. The art design is fantastic. Tropical sunsets, ragged, downtrodden slums, accurate clothing style on the civilians and bad guys alike. The textures however, and lack of blood, not so much.
 
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"The game itself is extremely violent, more so than previous Max Payne games even."
 
The game itself is extremely violent, more so than previous Max Payne games even. Bullet holes and exit wounds will go through enemies faces, blood splatter is present and you'll even see physical dismemberment in some scenarios. It earns its 'M for Mature' rating in spades. This is nearly on par with 'Solider of Fortune' violence. If we're going for realistic gore, I don't feel as though there's enough blood when a sniper's bullet takes someones face off, and you don't see any bruising when a bullet penetrates bare skin on any of the enemies. Only Max himself. He's certainly the most important character, but some simple texture changes could have made that happen. The textures on the environments themselves are hit or miss too. This is really where the age of the game engine shows the most. That all being said, the frame rate was very good, even at 16X FSAA. I don't play any other games  with that FSAA level in multiplayer due to lack of FPS stability, but Max Payne can handle it. This will come as good news for people who are looking forward to a GTA V PC release, but aren't sure if their computer will handle it properly or not.
 
Score 8/10
 
Sound:
 
I expected to immediately hear the classic theme of Max Payne 1 & 2 as soon as the game loaded in, and to have it in every cut scene. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was not the case. You'll hear plenty of ambient tropical music since this is set in South America, but for soundtrack music you'll have a lot of pulse pounding electronic music, mixed with variants of the Max Payne 2 theme every once in a blue moon. The developers gave proper attention to the music which means a lot to me. Whoever they hired to compose the soundtrack knows what they're doing.
 
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"Public transportation isn't dead. Just these goons in the combat gear."
 
Max's dialogue is brilliant as always, and the supporting protagonists never really sound "stupid" unless they're intended to for storyline reasons. Enemy AI voicing is almost entirely in Portugese (as this is Brazil) so I can't understand most of it since I only speak some Spanish, which is a little different, and there are no subtitles in most cases. But I suspect they are mostly saying the same few phrases as usual. Luckily you won't notice it due to the constant threat of being killed by flanking enemies. The classic "bullet time" sounds are back, are the weapon fire rings out at about the same volume and punch as in Max Payne 1 & 2. They have done away with many of the weapons from those games, and have replaced them with more military grade hardware instead... apart from the odd pistol with a plastic bottle as a silencer you'll be using.
 
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"Military grade hardware... apart from the odd pistol with a plastic bottle as a silencer you'll be using."
 
Score 8/10
 
Gameplay & Lasting Appeal:
 
Max Payne's formula hasn't changed a whole lot. You have a third person view, you dive around corners and behind cover while slo-mo killing your opponents, chomp on painkillers to keep yourself going, and try not to get jumped by too many people at once. And that's okay, because many Max Payne fans likely aren't too hardcore, meaning that they haven't touched the games in years and will likely miss the old combat. They have made some changes to the game though which I welcome such as a new cover system, very similar to that in... you guessed it, Grand Theft Auto. This is coupled with doing away with the 'jump' command, opting for a button to leap over objects instead. They have also introduced basic mele takedowns, similar to those you'd find in Hitman: Absolution or Deus Ex: Human Revolution which I'm happy to see. This allows you to get "free weapons" if you're running low on ammo (provided you can get close to someone without being seen and then shot to death) and makes for a cool, quick cut scene. The art design of the cutscenes have gone to more of a fast, cutty movie effect, like you'd see in films like 'Man on Fire', as opposed to the old comic strip method found in the first two games.
 
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"A movie effect like you'd see in films like 'Man on Fire'.
 
The most important thing that has been altered however, is what a Max Payne product IS. Max Payne, very similar to a game such as Elder Scrolls, has always been a single player, story driven experience. Multiplayer was avoided due to both net coding reasons and the balance of Max Payne "abilities". Somehow, the developers came to an agreement that worked for them and we now have a third person shooter that's NOT Gears of War that people might play the hell out of until the next Max Payne is out. I however, am not one of those people.
 
Max Payne 3, like many modern console shooters (and all recent Rockstar games that I can remember) operates off of shared public servers and a "smart" matchmaking system. No dedicated servers here. This relies on having a decent amount of people online at once, and the number of folks playing this year is most definitely down from last year, and that trend will continue as time goes on and new games come out. What really bothers me the most about Max Payne 3's multiplayer though is the balance. Max Payne 3, like most other modern shooters, unfortunately has a big fat leveling system. And in the case of Max Payne 3, this has huge repercussions for new players. This means that a level 60 player who has a rocket launcher can run around the map one-shotting people repeatedly while a level 2 player has to make due with an old fashioned AK-47 and a revolver at a distance. Head shots are NOT lethal in many cases and the weapons lack proper punch. Even if an old AK-47 is horribly inaccurate compared to a more composed rifle like an M4A1 carbine, the bullets are huge and can take you down very quickly, especially with body armor only fit against hand guns. Only a few shots should do the trick, especially when aiming down the sights.
 
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"This means that a level 60 player who has a rocket launcher can run around the map one-shotting people repeatedly while a level 2 player has to make due with an old fashioned AK-47 and a revolver at a distance."
 
Instead, in this game, people with rocket launchers and dual uzi setups run around the roof tops or scaffolding on the sides of the map, fast firing or one-shotting people from above. In my first two games alone, my average life span was 20 seconds (which is an actual metric the game shows you after the round is over). I scored no kills at all the first game, and went 5 - 19 in my second game. My team also lost on both occasions by at least double the score. In games such as Battlefield 3 or 4, my average kill/death ratio is nearly 2 to 1 (meaning an average score would be 40 kills and 20 deaths after a full round) and my win/loss was in the top 1% of the world across all platforms.
 
I am aware that with only a hand full of games under my belt, it's not fair of me to say that the multiplayer sucks. And it's not. And I don't even think it sucks. I think it's a good idea for Rockstar to continue with multiplayer in future Max Payne games, and that the formula is correctly laid out, but it needs some modifying before it's just right. The biggest problems here are the inaccuracy of starter weapons, the extremely steep leveling procedure (it would take months for an average person to reach a high rank) and equally steep learning curve. Despite sharing the same game engine as Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne 3 doesn't play like it. The single player replays would be the only thing keeping me coming back.
 
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"They have also introduced basic mele takedowns, similar to those you'd find in Hitman: Absolution or Deus Ex: Human Revolution."
 
Score 7/10
 
Overall 8.2/10
 
The good:
 
-Classic 3rd person action as only a Max Payne game can deliver.
-Brilliant story writing and voice acting to match.
-Wonderful environmental design.
-Great soundtrack.
-An attempt at multiplayer to try and keep the game's lifespan stretched out long enough to keep people happy until a 4th game comes out.
 
The bad:
 
-Repetitive gameplay with linear levels.
-Dated graphics.
-Took too long to come out for what you actually get.
-Bad support from Rockstar/STEAM for any troubles you may run into since they're busy dealing with their botched GTA V multiplayer.
-Botched multiplayer here too.
 
***Note: All screenshots taken by me, max settings, 1080p.***
Edited by unr3al

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Beautiful review!

I'm one of the people that actually still haven't bought Max Payne 3 (simply cuz i wasn't sure) But i think it's time to do that now

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Twitter: @taximan_5 - PSN: Sheriff_Taxi - Xbox Live: taximan5 - Steam: taximan5 - Social Club: Sheriff_Taxi

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This reminds me that I need to beat this game. Especially since it's taking up 30 GB...

What chapter in the game are you on?

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I played Max Payne one time. Don't remember if it was 1 or 2. But I absolutely loved it.

Then I lost the cd ;(

Digital download, sir. Just not from STEAM for now...

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  • 2 weeks later...

You were that lucky. There are tons of threads on the STEAM forum complaining about that issue.

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As said above, I think it's about time I get this game. Nice review, as always. 

Thanks, I'll have more in the works when I get some more free time. I haven't played a video game in days.

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