Max Payne 3: A Baldie with a Mission.

In the age of sequels, there are few games that gamble in being something new and different.  This is one of those games. Oh wait, I guess this is the third one.  Well, uh, ok, it was new for me.  I’ve never played any of the Max Payne games before this one.  I don’t really remember why - maybe I was busy fighting the Great Mighty Poo in Conker’s Bad Fur Day.  Anyways, the reason why I bought this game was it was mad cheap during Steam’s Summer Sale.  If you are a PC gamer, and you have no idea what I am talking about give me all your dollars, so I can spend them on those cuh-razy sales!!!  And the other reason why I was remotely interested in this shootan’ game was because I watched a video for the multiplayer and in which Rockstar devised a way to actually use a bullet time (slow-down) ability in multiplayer.  That blew my mind away.  I had to get it!  It was only thirty internet credz!

Max, you're a goddamn hero AND American.

Max Payne 3.  This game is exactly how all non-sci-fi shooters should be handled:  Crisp graphics, intriguing, gut-wrenching, heart-pumping story, and simple yet complex gameplay.  It has it all!  Looking back at it, the whole package of MP3 might even best Mass Effect 3!  Holy crap!  The main evidence is the story.  It is told in gritty noir fashion; Max Payne narrates what’s going on and what he’s thinking in each scene – even in the cut-scenes.  The cut-scenes play out like an actual graphic novel; scenes are in a panel, and are fuzzed and distorted. This is brilliant!  You are delivered story while you’re busy walking around or shooting dudes in the head.  I love it.  Max Payne’s callused, cynical outlook on everything is what makes him a convincing character.  Max Payne, like many action stars, have a troubled past (!  I almost wish Max Payne was a movie character because he would be a perfect fit for Expendables 3. ).  Apparently he got into some deep shit in NYC, and lost his wife and daughter.  The story goes that Max is picked up by an old ‘friend’ named Passos in New York to work as a body guard for some rich dude in South America.  Max is reluctant at first, but jumps at the job when he realizes all the free booze he’d get.  The cool thing about how the campaign plays out is it goes forwards and it will sometimes take you back to when Max was in New York and in between that.  It’s a great way to break up the tension, and get a look at the whole picture. Without giving away too much of the story, Max is tasked with retrieving the rich dude’s trophy wife from some truly terrible dudes –Lebowski much?  The thugs in Sao Paulo, Brazil are brutal.  I never want to visit that place.  You witness some horrifying stuff towards the middle and end of the game. The engrossing factor of the story is that Max starts a ripple in the pond, but the more he dives deeper everything crashes down on him.  It is crazy!  You experience Max as he tries to deal with the craziness – he shaves his head and wears an awful Hawaiian shirt.  Everything becomes this HUGE conspiracy, and Max is in the center of it.  You feel bad for him for being so oblivious to some stuff, but at the same time you feel inexplicably proud of him when you complete the game.  He got through some serious shit with all limbs intact.  

Gameplay speaking, this game is almost too simple.  The game plays as a third-person, over the shoulder shooter.  You move around, take cover, shoot guns, and use bullet time to get an edge on your enemies.  You get pain killers to get more health, different weapons, and yadda yadda.  It’s in these small things that you treasure.  It’s the strategy in, oh do I want to use an assault rifle or use those two smgs? It’s crazy how things play out differently based on what you use and how you use it.  That sounds rather arbitrary, but there’s really tough parts in the game where you really have to think about how you’re going to storm in that room guns a blazin’.  A new feature to the series is last stand; when you have painkillers on you and your killed you are granted a brief opportunity to kill that person.  If you succeed than you are revived and continue fighting.  This plays in to what I was talking about earlier; you debate about using painkiller before walking into a room or go in with half health hoping that painkiller will revive you.  Stuff like that is what made the gameplay a bit more involving.   There are several amazing set-pieces in this game, most of them involve you on a vehicle of some sort, and without spoiling it spice up the gameplay.  I must admit I beat this game in the course of several weeks because I couldn’t play the single player sessions for longer than two hours – it’s too intense!  There’s some parts in the game where the difficulty spikes like crazy, and I ragequit’d.  

I have to mention how stunning the soundtrack is for this game.  It’s composed by the noise rock group known as HEALTH.  Some of the music is just ambient eerie electronic that is used subtly during some of the few low key moments in the game.  There’s heavier music going on during the action sequences.  The best comes in during the latter half of the game (THE BEST HALF!) when they play unnerving music while Max is drowning in his problems.  It’s so fitting it makes me wish that HEALTH composed music for action movies.

Prepare to do this.. a lot.

MP3 mutiplayaaaaa! Okay, so this is pretty phenomenal multiplayer.  It’s not like Rockstar’s stupid Red Dead multi.  First off, you play as any of the gangs, cops, or organizations you see in this game.  And you get to completely customize the looks of your character – they offer more the more you play.  For example; I created a hipster Brazilian.  So like COD, this game features loadouts where you put together sets of weapons, armor, and perks.  This game sets it self aside with the burst feature.  You earn burst in the game to use different abilities; you can see everyone on the map, slow down time(!!!!!), do more damage, and ect. You have more of it and regenerates faster based on your weight; (Yeah! The game knows how fat you are! Lulz!) all the equipment and guns weigh your burst regen down. They have a lot of noob friendly modes which are more than welcome – you can get outclassed rather easily in this game.  After you reach a certain rank you’re not allowed to play in ‘em anymore. Those noob friendly modes are a heaven-send because high level dudes rape you vigorously if you are not prepared.  It actually takes quite a while to get any type of weapon with attachments at a decent level, so keep that in mind.  The multiplayer is extremely fast-paced and the matches fly by if you’re not paying attention.  There’s several crazy game modes that I liked.  One of them is called Payne Killer, where you and some other player are Max and Passos.  Those two have the best stuff, and have to fend off the rest of the players.  People become Max when they kill him.  It’s anarchy!  And fun!  Gang Wars is probably my favorite.  It takes two teams (gangs), and they go up against each other in five different objectives.  Whoever wins the most objectives take the game.  It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to make the green.  There’s also Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch.   I ended up enjoying the multiplayer a lot more than I intended; it helps that there’s so much stuff to unlock!  The bullet time actually works in multiplayer, and it’s pretty awesome.

Overall Max Payne 3 is a Grade A game.  If you have a hankerin for a shooting game with a brain, pick it up.  I loved it and I never played any of the other games in the series.