It has been nearly a decade since we last saw our brooding, bullet-dodging friend Max Payne. We last left him in the burning ruins of a mansion, cradling the body of a woman who had promised to kill him, piling more pathos onto his already full plate. So, what has the gritty metaphor-spewing buddy been doing all these years? As it turns out, becoming an expert on looking through life through the bottom of a glass. But more on that later.
Rockstar Games set out to revive their shoot ‘em up noir franchise, and in an age of remaking or rebooting any franchise that has even the slightest chance of turning a dollar due to nostalgia, it is refreshing to actually find a game that succeeds in capturing the magic that made the old games great. Fans of the first two “Max Payne” games will enjoy the continuing misfortunes of Max Payne, and newcomers to the franchise will have an excellent introduction into his dark world. But enough fan-gushing. Gushing is boring.
“Max Payne 3” is a third-person shooter that at first glance seems quite familiar to anyone who has played a similar type of game in the past five years. Waves of nameless, faceless mooks swarm you, and it is up to you to put all manner of holes in them in your never ending quest at finding interesting ways at ventilating people. You seek cover, pop out to squeeze off a few rounds, and keep doing it until all the bad men go bye-bye. But what sets this game aside from the billion and a half other third person shooters is how it handles the Max Payne-specific gameplay elements. Returning is the signature “bullet-time” that made the series famous, slightly tweaked to handle smoother in this generation of consoles. Movement is deliberate, lifelike, and despite Max handling somewhat slower due to his advancing years, you still feel like a righteous badass when you dive off of a ledge to pop many caps into thug-ass. And unlike most other third-person shooters, you do NOT regenerate health when you take cover. In fact, the only way in which to regain health is to take a few bottles of painkillers, making extended firefights that much more challenging. Remember kids, fight smarter, not harder. Controls and targeting are very intuitive, and the only real complaint I have with them is the bizarre way that weapons with vision enhancements like scopes and laser sights actually make shooting MORE difficult.
Aside from the gameplay variances unique to the franchise, it is the story that turns this game from an average game into an excellent one. “Max Payne 3”, like its predecessors, oozes a rich noir world that is hard for most game developers to achieve, especially when the genre has fallen out of favor. It has to balance being realistic enough to achieve verisimilitude, and still be able to pull off Sam Spade-esque lines like, “I stood out in this place like a street walker in a monastery,” without sounding goofy. One might think that the major change of setting from the previous games, which took place in the grittier parts of New York and New Jersey respectively, might lessen the noir tone. But the game manages to keep the tropes of a hard-boiled mystery in the sunny city of São Paulo, Brazil. In fact, people with an eye for cinema might recognize a similar presentation style in “Max Payne 3” that was present in the film “Man on Fire”. The Tony Scott style jump cuts, important bits of narration subtitled, and the slightly off kilter angles of the camera really help bring you into Max’s disjointed world-view. However, while interesting for most of the game, sometime Rockstar took that storytelling device a bit far in places, and it was often nausea inducing. I don’t recall if the game warns people with epilepsy to stay away from this one, but if they don’t, I will.
Rich atmosphere and unique gun battles aside, the game also offers some online multiplayer, though this was clearly a tacked on afterthought, and it really does not enhance the game in any fashion, nor encourage any replay value. In fact, if I had one complaint about this game, it is that despite how enjoyable it is, it really feels more like a really good rental. Once the mystery is solved, there really is no incentive to replay the game. The multiplayer is lackluster, even for fans of such things, and the other content offered besides campaign are things like time trials and such. So, unless you are a serious fan of the “Max Payne” series, I cannot recommend this for a long-time purchase. Rent it for a week, and remember it fondly, but do not shell out the full 60 bucks.
“Max Payne 3” asks us a question: does a man who has less than nothing still have value, to himself or others? The game doesn’t answer this question, and it is up to the player to do this misanthropic philosophizing while they shoot bad guys in the face. So, y’know…it’s awesome. The old school “Max Payne” feel is brought back and updated, giving those who focus on the story a treat, as well as giving the action fans enough bodies to satisfy their trigger finger. A few wonky issues with weapons, and a general lack of online goodness are the only real things that mar an otherwise impressive game.
Final Score: 7/10
Final Thought: Playing “Max Payne 3” is like waking up after a night of binge drinking after you have been sober for years, and not regretting a second of it.
