Max Payne 3 is a superb gaming experience that should not be passed up by anyone, it is a must own game.
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar Studios Vancouver
Platform: Xbox 360
Rated: Mature
Released: May 15, 2012
Visuals:
The visuals for Max Payne 3 are absolutely stunning and the new art direction was great to look at with some of the old noir/comic book style with what made the original a cult classic in the gaming world. And now the visuals for this third installment of the series was a visual masterpiece and even with said the game did have some minor issues in some parts of the game with the frame rate and this is a bit typical for R* game but it happens but like I mentioned you will find that these minor issues are just minor and main happen when the action gets too frantic but the detail and the art style of this game is simply great and if you have this game I would recommending you to install the game to the hard-drive so the issues are just simply minor and if the game is not installed the issues are probably worse like freezing and this did not happen to me when it was installed and regardless the game runs pretty smoothly and you the player will still enjoy this game regardless even if you are a fan or not.
So enough of the minor issues and on to the detail and I'll start with Max's new look and I for one as for every one else that were fans of the first and seeing the new direction that R* was going through with a drunken head shaved bald ex-cop and I have to say that the new look is not bad the detail to the main character Max is what most of us thought he would look like in the next gen world and the detail to him was near perfect of what I thought he would look like after what he went through in the last two games and as you play-through this game from the beginning to end you see the transformation that he will go through this game and you will see him as the good old Max Payne of old and see him change to the new look with his shaved head and I don't know about most of you but a lot of people are shaving their heads bald now a days it's supposed to make the person look rugged and just simply put the detail to Max is great.
So now the detail to the new look of the art direction and the detail of the environment and the local of Sao Paulo, Brazil I hoped I spelled that right and you go all over other parts of Brazil and with that said you are probably wanting to know if the this game stayed true to it's roots with that comic book/noir art style and to answer your question well it does in most parts of the and in fact R* Vancouver and a few guys from Remedy improve's upon it while keeping true to the original style by having it be comic/noir style with motion going on and it worked together perfectly. So in general for the visuals for this game are summed up in one word and that is that they are just plain perfect to look at.
Audio:
The audio for Max Payne 3 is just plain amazing from the voice over work and I'm pretty sure they got the same guy who did the narrative for the original two games in the series and for fans of the series you might get the same feeling and for others you might just learn to love it or at least just like the voice over work of Max Payne and it's not just the voice work of Payne him self the voice over work for the entire cast was just excellent and they hit cue's and mark's with ease and they were just plain superb with their lines and really brought the characters to life in this game and now you have the sound track/ musical score and that you will enjoy listening to the music as you blow hole's through all the bad guys in this game.
The sounds of the weapons are beautifully sounding as you shoot all the guns in this game from all the pistols, to the shotguns, to the sub-machine guns and assault rifles and even the rocket launcher's every weapon sounded perfect. I will mention right now that it could have just been me but their were a couple song on this games sound track I personally did not like about two songs I found them to be a little annoying, but that is just me I'm sure most of you will not have any issues with any of the songs on this games wonderful sound track/ musical score. So in short for this games audio is that it's great to hear and it really helps set the tone of this game's brilliant sound track and voice over work and sound effects are all part of what made this game sound just perfect.
Gameplay:
Singleplayer:
The Singleplayer for Max Payne 3 is just a fun, amazing and a pretty perfect game to play from the gun play and story to the bullet time and for most of us who have played the first two games in the series you know what happened up to this point, but for any new players that might be a little lost on why or how Max has gotten himself into this predicament and maybe I'll do my best in catching some of you people up. So for Max Payne, the tragedies took loved one years ago and that was his wife and daughter and those wounds have yet to heal and that they refuse to let him go. so now after tracking those who murdered his wife and taking down the corrupt politicians in City Hall and now fast forward a bit and now Max is no longer a cop, he is close to washed up and addicted to painkillers, Max takes on a job in Sao Paulo, Brazil protecting the family of wealthy real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco, in an effort to finally to find a way out of his troubled past. But as events spiral out of his control, Max Payne finds himself alone on the streets of an unfamiliar city, desperately searching for answers and the truth and fighting for a way out of a nightmare that does not seem to want to end for him.
Now you got the gameplay and gun play for this game which made this game series for what it his and for what we all loved about the series and that was the bullet time which does makes it return in this installment and it has been a while for me with the last games but in this game you have to build up the bullet time gauge with getting multiple kills or head shots to build it up quickly and you can use Max's bullet time in almost any situation from jumping in mid air to your front, left to right or even backwards and when you are laying on the ground you can twist turn from you back to you front or from your front to your back in a 360 degree motion. The gun play/gameplay plays like a third person shooter with cover and don't stay behind the the cove for to long as the cover can and will break away or even be chipped at these elements make for a pretty great gameplay/ gun play mechanics and I think their was a part were you had to sneak around a bit but this kind game it is basically useless I guess that why I think I don't remember it to much. So in short for Max Payne 3 is that it's single player is phenomenal.
Online:
The for Max Payne 3 is quite impressive and I was one of those guys that were skeptic about it in the first place and when heard about it because I was a bit scared of the game have a free roam thing I personally found it boring in GTA 4 and in RDR even though they had some thing like quests in that free roam where you could go chasing after gang hide outs for xp to help you level up, but enough about that this Max Payne 3. So this game offers you two options at the start and as you level up you unlock other modes and weapons and stuff like that and I'll tell you about them now, so the game starts you off with training modes which is you you have death match and team death match which is reserved for players new to the on-line of Max Payne, so the rest of the modes are Death match and Team Death match, Payne Killer and this one is pretty cool this is a game type that is co-operative and competitive play and here the first player to make a kill and the first player to get killed become Max Payne and Raul Passos. Those two players must work together to kill as many of the other players as possible and also try to stay alive and the remaining players that shoot them down will become them and so on and so on which is a cool mode and fun. Then you have Large Death match and Large Team Death match and you have Death match variants which is a mixture of gang wars and individual match types.
So you but last but not least the new mode called Gang Wars and in gang wars is a mode that takes key events from the single player campaign and uses them as jump-offs for on-line match's with shifting objectives which are all linked by a shared story thread and with you and you gang to complete multiple objectives and with each objective forms part of a larger branching story arc that will change dynamically based on the outcome in each round. So basically their is a lot of stuff in this game's on-line component and it is just fitting that there is a lot to choose from once you get going and unlock everything as you gain xp. So in short the on-line experience is fun and great and their is something for everybody in this package.
Overall:
The overall for Max Payne 3 is simple it is worth every little pretty penny from the near perfect visuals, to the superb audio an amazing single player experience that will be remembered for a while and a on-line component that has something for everyone. Oh and I know I'm a bit late with this review but if you are interested in checking this game out you owe it to your self to own the is great game it is worth it so go out and get this. I had my doubt's in R* Vancouver but you guys did a perfect job keep up the great work.