What's the consensus on Max Payne 3?

[Parsifarka]

Worse than MP1, better than MP2.

You're so fucking sick.

 

[Cadmus]

I liked it. The shooting is buttery smooth, perfectly made. Some retards here think it's a cover based pop-a-mole but you can run and gun as you please and I think it's a better/more effective way to play the game, you just have the option to stay in a cover with an animation to it instead of sticking your face to a wall like in the old Max Paynes (where you also took cover pretty often if you care to remember the games correctly).

Gameplay-wise I think it's amazing, as a bonus the AI is pretty good and the game can be fucking hard which cannot be said about MP1 or MP2. If you call it a corridor shooter then please point me to those big sprawling levels of Max Payne 1 or 2. It's pretty much like it's always been - movie inspired setpieces.

There's tons of cutscenes that pretend they can be skipped but it doesn't work for some reason I don't know what's up with that. I got used to them and to their crazy effects but I understand why some don't like them.
Then there's the change in atmosphere which eh it depends on your taste, I didn't mind it but the flashbacks in New York were the best parts so obviously it could have been better.

It had some weird bugs for me and I had to restart some areas but maybe if you actually buy your copy it doesn't happen.
I recommend it, it's not like there's a ton of these games and the shooting is one of the best I played.

 

[sullynathan]

I liked it. The shooting is buttery smooth, perfectly made. Some retards here think it's a cover based pop-a-mole but you can run and gun as you please and I think it's a better/more effective way to play the game, you just have the option to stay in a cover with an animation to it instead of sticking your face to a wall like in the old Max Paynes (where you also took cover pretty often if you care to remember the games correctly).

Gameplay-wise I think it's amazing, as a bonus the AI is pretty good and the game can be fucking hard which cannot be said about MP1 or MP2. If you call it a corridor shooter then please point me to those big sprawling levels of Max Payne 1 or 2. It's pretty much like it's always been - movie inspired setpieces.

There's tons of cutscenes that pretend they can be skipped but it doesn't work for some reason I don't know what's up with that. I got used to them and to their crazy effects but I understand why some don't like them.
Then there's the change in atmosphere which eh it depends on your taste, I didn't mind it but the flashbacks in New York were the best parts so obviously it could have been better.

It had some weird bugs for me and I had to restart some areas but maybe if you actually buy your copy it doesn't happen.
I recommend it, it's not like there's a ton of these games and the shooting is one of the best I played.

I think the cutscenes mask loading times, sort of like how mass effect elevators masked loading times. A bunch of games do this.


Codex hates cutscenes and uses that logic to hate good gameplay.

 

[Cadmus]

I liked it. The shooting is buttery smooth, perfectly made. Some retards here think it's a cover based pop-a-mole but you can run and gun as you please and I think it's a better/more effective way to play the game, you just have the option to stay in a cover with an animation to it instead of sticking your face to a wall like in the old Max Paynes (where you also took cover pretty often if you care to remember the games correctly).

Gameplay-wise I think it's amazing, as a bonus the AI is pretty good and the game can be fucking hard which cannot be said about MP1 or MP2. If you call it a corridor shooter then please point me to those big sprawling levels of Max Payne 1 or 2. It's pretty much like it's always been - movie inspired setpieces.

There's tons of cutscenes that pretend they can be skipped but it doesn't work for some reason I don't know what's up with that. I got used to them and to their crazy effects but I understand why some don't like them.
Then there's the change in atmosphere which eh it depends on your taste, I didn't mind it but the flashbacks in New York were the best parts so obviously it could have been better.

It had some weird bugs for me and I had to restart some areas but maybe if you actually buy your copy it doesn't happen.
I recommend it, it's not like there's a ton of these games and the shooting is one of the best I played.

I think the cutscenes mask loading times, sort of like how mass effect elevators masked loading times. A bunch of games do this.


Codex hates cutscenes and uses that logic to hate good gameplay.

I'm sure they mask some loading but I also think there's something fucked up because the loading should be long done sometimes yet you're unable to skip the cutscene.

EDIT: also don't come to codex asking for advice on anything else than cRPGs

 

[Jick Magger]

Gameplay-wise it's definitely a worthy entry in the series. Movement and gunplay are silky smooth, and gunning down dirty BRs is more satisfying than ever. A lot of people exaggerate how the game is popeamole because there's a cover mechanic in it now, but save for maybe two or three areas in the entire game, trying to survive a gunfight by exclusively sticking to cover will get you killed quickly.

I'd say the biggest points of contention are the tone and the story. The game swaps the hard-noir of the second game (I would include the first game, but that's honestly more of an indecisive parody of the noir genre, while the second is a more-or-less straight example), for a more neo-noir style reminiscent of Man On Fire, which obviously rubbed a lot of people who liked the tone of the second game the wrong way.

Story-wise I'd say the biggest flaw is Max himself. Despite being a nigh-unstoppable killing machine in the gameplay, in the cutscenes he's a barely-functioning wreck who stumbles from scene-to-scene like a bumbling buffoon. His narration is probably the weakest there is as well, as he spends the majority of the time wallowing in self-pity, even after his big character moment of going sober. Also a lot harder to feel sympathy for him and his dead family since he's supposedly reconciled their deaths at least twice already, and he hasn't even really got a shitty life to complain about anymore, since he's managed to both avoid going to jail for murdering around a thousand people and landed a cushy job standing around while staring at trophy wives and barely-legals. That and he spends almost every waking moment feeling sorry for himself.

And yeah the unskippable cutscenes do kill replayability, as you're forcibly subjected to the mediocre-at-best story each time you replay.

 

[sullynathan]

I'm sure they mask some loading but I also think there's something fucked up because the loading should be long done sometimes yet you're unable to skip the cutscene.

EDIT: also don't come to codex asking for advice on anything else than cRPGs

yeah, this made no sense to me either. Sometimes it says "Press A to skip cutscene" then when you try to it says "still loading" which is weird and other times my cutscenes start getting blurry and shit, maybe it was a problem with my pirated copy.

Story-wise I'd say the biggest flaw is Max himself. Despite being a nigh-unstoppable killing machine in the gameplay, in the cutscenes he's a barely-functioning wreck who stumbles from scene-to-scene like a bumbling buffoon. His narration is probably the weakest there is as well, as he spends the majority of the time wallowing in self-pity, even after his big character moment of going sober. Also a lot harder to feel sympathy for him and his dead family since he's supposedly reconciled their deaths at least twice already, and he hasn't even really got a shitty life to complain about anymore, since he's managed to both avoid going to jail for murdering around a thousand people and landed a cushy job standing around while staring at trophy wives and barely-legals. That and he spends almost every waking moment feeling sorry for himself.

And yeah the unskippable cutscenes do kill replayability, as you're forcibly subjected to the mediocre-at-best story each time you replay.

max was incredibly condescending throughout the whole game, that I agree with and the narration does get out of hand.

 

[Multidirectional]

I'm sure they mask some loading but I also think there's something fucked up because the loading should be long done sometimes yet you're unable to skip the cutscene.

EDIT: also don't come to codex asking for advice on anything else than cRPGs

yeah, this made no sense to me either. Sometimes it says "Press A to skip cutscene" then when you try to it says "still loading" which is weird

Something is definitely fucked there considering this is a game with fairly small levels built on same fucking engine that powered GTA IV and V, games with huge detailed maps that didn't even have loading when you entered buildings. They just overdid it with making it into a cinematic experience, even the marketing campaign for MP3 repeated "cinematic" ad infinitum (is that latin or some shit, god i hope i look smart now).

 

[adrix89]

Max Payne has always been defined by his badass coat and his constipated face.
While Max Payne 2 changed the awesome face in favor of a more detective style and the coat is not that good I'll give it a pass for having awesome reloading animations and banging that chick.
Max Payne 3 is obviously a abomination to any true fan, the coat is gone and the protagonist is just imported from Splinter Cell.

 

[sullynathan]

what?

 

[Cadmus]

what?

he's a moron, that's what

 

[adrix89]

what?

he's a moron, that's what

The badass coat is the embodiment of gunz blazing gameplay.
Look what happened once the coat was removed. Same old popamole shit.

 

[sullynathan]

$5 on steam right now. All three max payne games for $10 right now

 

[Adon]

Solid gameplay with what is generally a mediocre story. What really hurts it, as other have mentioned before, is all that cinematic nonsense (i.e. forcing Max to walk slow) and the frequency of cutscenes at certain points. It's not exaggeration that there is at least one part I remember where there is a cutscene, you regain control to move forward for a bit just to get another cutscene. Otherwise there's some genuine improvements over the Remedy games, and is flat out one of the better TPS to come out in the last few years.

Story-wise, I think one of the main problems I had wasn't necessarily that the change of tone veered away from the Remedy games, but that it didn't seem to fully commit to it. A lot of Max's lines are a pale imitation of previous games, and never quite fits with the story they're trying to tell. Doesn't help that there are flashbacks that take place in New Jersey where it looks a lot more typical noir. And like Jick Magger said, Max as a character just kills any real involvement or investment into what I think is an uninteresting plot to begin with. I once heard the justification for Max still not being over his dead family being that he lies to himself as he kind of did at the end of MP1. But I think you could really only get away with that once and that already happened so here it just ends up feeling hokey.

Spent way more hours online than I should've, but once you get past the god awful beginning hurdle of being at a disadvantage against higher level players, it's not bad.

 

[Dexter]

It's shit, I couldn't even bother with it after a few missions. That football stadium level got to be one of the most "interactive movie" experiences in any shooter whatsoever and it got nothing to do with May Payne 1+2. At times it didn't even let you walk left or right and it cuts to a fucking cutscenes every few seconds and doesn't seem to want to stop, if you think you might enjoy this shit, then go ahead:

 

[GewuerzKahn]

Watching this video remembers me how awesome the gunplay and choice of music is.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Recently watching a Quantum Break's LP got me thinking of Max Payne 3, because I mistakenly thought it has the same developer and engine, and I found this thread, and I see lots of uninformed shit written here on the Max Payne games.

As a result I'm planning to spend 5-6 hours some time soon replaying Max Payne 3. I played through the first Max Payne back when my PC was under its minimum specs, disliked both the writing and the gameplay. I was really hooked on actual noir novels back then (Chandler and Hammett) and MP felt more like a parody than like something true to the noir style. Also, anyone who says MP had good AI should get their head checked. The "noir style" was way overdone, badly written and the plot was that of an action movie with a 3.5 imdb score.

You just don't get to mix nordic mythology references with a badly written noir story set in New York + "they killed his wife and now he went postal on their crime empire"* plot, and achieve a better result.
*(read with a Trailer Narrator voice)

Max Payne 2 featured a vastly improved script (with an enlarged writing department if I remember correctly) and graphics, the noir style was done right this time, the out of place nordic references were removed (as far as I recall), and Max Payne both looked and sounded better. It was still an interactive movie with shooting scenes but it was a way better interactive movie with shooting scenes. If that's your type of thing, it's good. Otherwise, obviously, it's not, no argument there. It was also significantly shorter, even with the bigger writing team.

Max Payne 3 is an even better movie, story-wise. The new location is great and I think it's a pretty realistic depiction of Brazil from the richest to the poorest parts of society, touching realistically on that society's problems. And that's the beauty of it - "touching" does not mean "preaching its agenda". This is exactly what noir is about - showing you the corrupt world as it is, through the eyes of a character who, in some way, does not belong to this world. This is the most noir game of the three. Of course, MP3 falls into the same trap as most games-turned-interactive movies (Quantum Break included) - the actual shooting, the only "game" part of the game, is the least engaging part of the game.

Finally, "gunplay is bad" in MP3? Niggas, do you find GTAV's gunplay bad? Because that's the same engine

I could go into a lot more detail, but I don't know if its worth it, and I'll be replaying it anyway.

 

[sullynathan]

the fuck, the shooting in MP3 is godlike. The best TPS of the last gen and should be remade for this gen with the ability to jump, carry all weapons and skip all cutscenes.

 

[Multidirectional]

I would just hope for Max Payne 4 that improves the bad and keeps the good stuff from MP3.

 

[orcinator]

It's been forever since I played any of the MP games but I think MP3 made slowmo a lot slower than the previous games and also made you invincible, in addition there wasn't much of a delay between dives unlike MP1 where there was a brief moment of vulnerability (though MP1 could be abused in different ways). I know I beat the airport level by just diving forward like a flopping fish.

 

[Atlantico]

Lots of consoletards here.

 

[sullynathan]

fuck off, you're just mad about your deficiencies with a controller.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Welcome to RPGConsoleDex, ©EActivision/DICESqueenix.

This forum is equipped with THE FUCKING LAWS OF PHYSICS. Don't turn off your machine while posting, and remember to breathe in, wait a short time and breathe out.

 

[Major Malfunction]

It's been forever since I played any of the MP games but I think MP3 made slowmo a lot slower than the previous games and also made you invincible, in addition there wasn't much of a delay between dives unlike MP1 where there was a brief moment of vulnerability (though MP1 could be abused in different ways). I know I beat the airport level by just diving forward like a flopping fish.

MP3 has these "slowmo" shooting gallery sections in which you are invincible, although doing poorly makes the subsequent scenario more difficult to survive. Regular bullet time and diving, on the other hand, does not make you invincible; I distinctly remember dying while diving, sometimes quite hilariously. There's also a short delay period before and after taking a dive where you are more vulnerable as a stationary target.

the fuck, the shooting in MP3 is godlike. The best TPS of the last gen and should be remade for this gen with the ability to jump, carry all weapons and skip all cutscenes.

Is it last gen already? I think it's still current-gen honestly, no remake necessary. Boot it up and see if anyone's playing MP.

 

[sullynathan]

Last time I played, I found 16 players quickly but I didn't play multiplayer. It came out on Xbox 360 & PS3 so it's last gen.

 

[orcinator]

Regular bullet time and diving, on the other hand, does not make you invincible; I distinctly remember dying while diving, sometimes quite hilariously.

I think I saw someone post a video of the contrary but fuck if I can find it so eh.

There's also a short delay period before and after taking a dive where you are more vulnerable as a stationary target.

I know it was much shorter than MP1, which made it much easier to just keep doing it.

Would replay the game someday and try analyzing the gameplay more closely but I really don't want to watch the bad Man on Fire ripoff again.