Max Payne was the first game to use the Matrix’s famous bullet-time effect nearly eleven years ago. Since then there has been a second Payne and numerous other games that have used this feature. The ability to slow time to exact your art has always been a fan favorite. For the first time in just over eight years Max is back, and old dog has learned a few new tricks.
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After toying with a refreshingly simple menu for a few minutes I dove into the campaign. The first thing I notice is the very well-constructed soundtrack, opening with Max’s theme, immediately recognizable to any returning fan. The scene opens in Max’s Sao Paolo apartment with our hero Max, voiced again by James McCaffrey and now a private security guard, reminiscing and drinking.
After about five minutes of this, and a damn good five minutes if I do say, Max’s world is suddenly thrown into violent disarray. As soon as I gained control I was run through a few very quick exercises to familiarize you with the controls.
Unlike a lot of shooters however, this interface is worked in with gameplay and the prompts that come up don’t take away from the action. In fact, Rockstar uses this device to show the potential of the title. In the first five minutes I was diving over booths, jumping from cover, and performing gritty, close-quarters kills like I was a hardened veteran.
I was even given the opportunity to slow the speed of my bullets, or let loose a few extra, during a new animation that triggers when I made the final kill in a room. Nothing like an opportunity to take out pent up rage on some pour soul as his lifeless body falls to the ground. Wasting bullets never felt so good.
Without a doubt, Max Payne is back with a vengeance; taking on the corrupt underworld of Sao Paolo in an effort to rescue the wife of his current client. With the help of an old friend-turned-partner and the occasional propane accessory, the aged, washed up cop is just as lethal as he ever was.
Diving around with agility rivaled only by Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher, no room is too tough to take on. Whether I choose to shoot-dodge through a window into a court yard full of thugs or fire from cover, I rarely felt like I couldn’t handle a situation and when I did begin to worry I would simply throw back some pain pills, buck up, and dive back out into the fray, an automatic pistol in one hand and a .38 special in the other. Max certainly remembers how to bring the pain (yes that was intended).
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A radial dial holds your weapons at the ready for you and Max can carry a total of three different guns; two side arms and a rifle of some sort. Max is a private security guard so he isn’t decked out with all the latest gear. Instead our hero makes due with what he’s wearing, meaning an AK-47 that you find along the way will only be with you as long as you use it. Sounds typical right? Just think Halo: Reach mounted machine gun, but Max puts a nice twist on carrying weapons.
So let’s say you’re laying down a punishing stream of covering fire and you decide that you want to use one of your sidearms. Max will hold the rifle off to the side while drawing his pistol. Reloading then prompts him to cradle the rifle under his arm and swap magazines with both hands free.
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One of the nicest things about this Max Payne 3 is the absence of loading screens, and by absence I don’t mean there are so few you don’t recognize them. The campaign literally has no load screens at all. Though the concept isn’t new; Max utilizes the cutscenes, which there are plenty of, to load each new section of gameplay. A novel idea no doubt, but when applied it makes any story inherently cohesive.
Playing Max Payne 3 is like playing a movie; the narrative arc is so seamlessly weaved into playable action that no cutscene is unexpected. I often found myself staring at a motionless Payne before realizing that I was supposed to move him.
Multiplayer in Max’s world is fast, cutthroat, and bloody fun. Shoot-dodging and bullet-time have been
Beyond customizing your classes Max Payne gives the player the ability to customize their specific soldier. I had a hard time prying myself away from the personalization screen. Constantly changing outfits, glasses, armor and hats was shamefully fun (fabulous!).
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Sadly, because I picked up my copy from Redbox I only got the first disk, restricting me to just the first half of the story. However in four hours of play time not only had the story drawn me in but I couldn’t stop thinking, “This is so damn fun!” New mechanics, better graphics, fluid and visceral gunplay, and storytelling unmatched in the genre makes Max Payne 3 an absolute treat.
Maybe shooting grenades and rockets out of the air is unrealistic but in the grand scheme of things it’s really not that big a deal. With a dynamite multiplayer, rife with customization, and an arcade mode that adds a score to the way you kick ass, and this title justifies its price. By the way, in one run of arcade mode on Chapter VII, I am ranked 2nd in the world. Damn that feels good!
The new Max is no departure from his old self. In fact the old man aged like his scotch, and on the way he got more bada