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Max Payne 3: Max is a man with the worst luck in the world, even though it does make for one of my favourite game series ever.
These days, he’s a gun for hire, and one that’s addicted to painkillers, and in São Paulo, Brazil, protecting the family of wealthy real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco, but as is that way for Mr Payne, everything goes wrong for him and he’s soon dodging bullets from baddies, using the unsurpassable features of Bullet Time (causing everything to slow down, giving you more time to react) and Shootdodge (jump through the air, twisting about while returning fire).
For myself, I just play single-player campaigns – and this one spreads out over 14 chapters – but for those who enjoy going online, the multiplayer features maps and modes that dynamically change within a match, as well as reward, ranking and clan systems. You can also form private crews with friends, or join public crews. Players can be a member of up to five at the same time, and completing tasks as a crew will gain XP points for the player.
There are also persistent Feuds, that see the player scrapping with opposing gangs who’ve killed someone on the team, while Social Club integration connects play across multiple titles, starting with Max Payne 3 and the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto V. By playing both games multiplayer “crews” that the player set up in one will be carried over to the other.
Some downsides to the game:
- Loading times: It takes an age to get back to the main menu, and the same goes for loading in a new level. Yes, there are graphic novel-type screens during this process, but when you’ve seen them before you just want to get to where you’re going.
- Gameplay-wise it’s a pain at the times when you get shot and have just killed a baddie in order to stay alive – which I’ll explain in a moment – as often you’re trapped in the thick of it, lying on the ground and there’s no easy way to scoot to the side to take cover. Max really can be rather a wally when it comes to trying to move him during tricky situations.
- Also, the game is way too hard on ‘hard’. Okay, so you expect hard, but this is bloody impossible and borders on just driving me up the wall, taking the disc out of the Xbox and putting the game back on the shelf. I ended up restarting the game on ‘medium’ and selecting ‘soft lock’ which means it occasionally locks onto baddies, since ‘free aim’ means you’re waving the gun about all over the place and wasting bullets instead of killing baddies. Which doesn’t look at all cool. And neither does getting your head blown off. Well, actually it does, but it doesn’t help you progress through the game.
And on the plus side:
- Despite going from one room to the next, and so on, it doesn’t feel linear as there are bad guys all over the place, so there’s plenty of ways to clear each area. This is especially the case if you put it on ‘hard’ and it takes several attempts to get to the next checkpoint.
- Also, as you’re about to die, everything slows down, pointing you in the direction of the baddie who shot you. It gives you a chance to fire back and kill him. Get it right and you’ll be treated to a stylish ‘Final kill-cam’ shot of him buying the farm and you’ll regain some of your energy. Oh, as well as staying alive.
- Despite any problems with moving about, the dark and engaging storyline and atmosphere pull you through and, in a lot of ways, this is like playing John Woo’s Stranglehold. Yes, that did come out a few years ago, but my god, it’s still one of the benchmarks for an awesome action experience. Why did they never make a sequel to that?!
Overall, Max is back and while it’s taken nine long years, it is most certainly a welcome return. I just hope he doesn’t leave it so long next time.
Rockstar have announced that through the year, seven downloadable add-on packs will be released via PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Players will be able to purchase DLC packs individually or get all add-on content at a discounted rate (over 35%) by purchasing a “Rockstar Pass”. Also, they released a free bonus downloadable multiplayer pack called “Gorilla Warfare”. The pack includes a Gorilla Mask, which gives extra adrenaline for melee kills from behind, the Lucky Coin, which gives extra cash when looting bodies, and the Booby Trap, an item that booby traps corpse so that it explodes when looted.
This review features footage from the first three levels of the game, but you can find more footage by visiting my DVDfeverGames Youtube channel for many more gaming videos.
Important info:
- Publisher: Rockstar Games
- Price: £34.99 (Xbox 360, PS3), £27.99 (PC)
- Players: 1, online multiplayer: 2-16
- HDTV options: 720p/1080i/1080p
- Features: game-content download
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GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
10 10 7 10 |
| OVERALL | 9 |
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.