Full Review for Max Payne 3 by Skaliex

Introduction

Max Payne is a former cop who tries to forget about his past. Following the death of his wife and child, he became addicted to alcohol and painkillers. He is asked to go to Brazil to protect a rich family. However, everything goes wrong and Max has to save the day.

The story is good although it's a little bit cliche. The player feels close to the character because it's Max himself who tells the story. This is a very linear game, the player cannot take any decision. It feels like watching a movie where you play the action scenes instead of watching them. Something great is that the story contains many flashbacks where Payne tells us about things that happened prior to going to Brazil.

Graphics

Graphics are amazing. There are a lot of details in the background and the colors are bright. This is a beautiful game. I particularly loved the chapters in Brazil slums, it looked real and I felt like I was in another country than mine during that time. The faces also looked great. Since it’s not an open-world game, they were able to work a lot on the graphics and it shows.

Sound

I love the fact that Max Payne is the one telling the story. This is an amazing performance by the voice actor James McCaffrey. Another thing I like is the use of Portuguese since it’s the language spoken in Brazil. Portuguese is not translated even for the player, you can hear Max saying “No comprende”.

Gameplay

Max Payne 3 has a great gameplay, it is a third-person shooter. When Max is about to die but you still have at least one life, the game becomes in slow motion and you have a last chance to kill the guy who shot you last. If you succeed, you don’t die, but you still lose a life.
Also, when you kill the last guy in a room, you see the bullet hit him in slow motion. It’s really satisfying.
The game also contains many slow motion parts where you have to shoot as many guys as possible.
You can choose to turn on auto-aim or not. I chose soft-lock and I loved it. It’s very smooth. The camera is great.
In Max Payne 3, you can take cover very easily. It’s not one of those games where you want to take cover behind something and end up behind something else close to where you wanted. You really control where you want to hide. It can make the difference between life and death.
There is a perfect number of checkpoints. You never have to start a long part all over again because you died. It doesn’t mean it’s easy though. Max Payne 3 is challenging and you have to use some strategies if you want to stay alive.
I found the beginning of the game slow and not engaging. There are too many cutscenes. It helps us to understand the story, but I felt like I wasn’t playing enough. Fortunately, it lasts only the first few chapters as there are less cutscenes later in the game.
Near the end of the game, there is a pretty hard fight against many enemies. You have to kill them all and then exit the room, but there is a glitch. Sometimes, you can’t open the door and therefore, you’re stuck there. I searched a way to open the door for maybe 15 minutes but there was no way to get out. So I had to start the fight all over again. It was frustrating.

Lastability

The game lasts long enough.
There is so much action, you never get bored. Of course, it can feels repetitive because from the beginning until the end, you shoot enemies, not much else. However, since some chapters are in Brazil and some others are in the USA, the environment changes constantly and it never feels the same.
However, besides playing at a hardest difficulty level, there is no reason to play the single player story a second time.

Overall

Max Payne 3 is a great game. The gameplay is very smooth which makes it very fun to play. It is not a unique game, you can find other games similar but they probably won’t be as smooth as this one. I recommend this game to everyone who likes third-person shooter games because you will have a good time!

Final Score: 86%