Max Payne 3 - Discuss!

As Mackenstein says, trial and error bro...it may not seem 'fair' in this age of indestructible player characters where you have ample time to adjust to some unexpected challenge but that's how it was in ye olde days. I'm over the moon at getting my arse blown away because I went too gung ho. I actually have had to abandon all the bad habits I've picked up from modern shooters since the first health regen system appeared in Call of Duty 2. Just take it easy, use the cover system(here's irony, cover system actually is a positive in this context) when you first enter a room and take time to look around. You'll find that you die unexpectedly a lot less often.

 

I've been busy playing this for the past few days. Better story than the first few games, no LULZ. Captain Baseball Bat Boy is confined to the TV where he belongs. Characters are written seriously and are believable. Cutscenes aren't comic books but they are still artistically done with good camera work. Guy who voices Max is excellent.

I tried playing on hard mode but it was just too unforgiving, I kept dying in almost every fight. The AI is the best I've seen in a shooter since FEAR. Had to knock the difficulty down to normal just to stand a chance. It is really satisfying when you manage to complete a level, as it should be.

I liked the new setting, I don't think I've played a game set in Brazil before, it feels new and different. There's still flashback levels set in New York though, probably to appease the whiners. The game feels really loyal to the previous two games, Max's narration is spot on and there's no health regen bullshit. You still have to find painkillers to heal up, and the bullet time counter only recharges when you kill enemies, like before (so you can't just sit still and wait for it to recharge all by itself). And so far everything just seems to go wrong for Max, I never could quite feel sorry for him before because of all the LULZ, but Rockstar have done things right here.

 

Everyone should watch City of God and Tropa de Elite before playing Max Payne 3

 

The TV shows are lulzy as fuck,...nice touch there. Haven't seen Lords and Ladies though...

Yeah, I initially scoffed at their description of the 'Normal' difficulty("a challenge, yeah right!") and went straight to hard: what an eye opener. I fled like a pussy back to normal though I will go to hard eventually as no doubt I'll be replaying this over and over from time to time. Maybe it just sems hard cause of the spoonfed tripe for kiddies we've been fed over the years, but even so it's a huge step up in difficulty from what passes for 'normal' these days. To think that there's a level above 'challenging' too! o_O

 

I'm in Chapter 10 now, Hard difficulty. My main complaints would be - too many custscenes, Max talks too much. Seriously Rockstar, if you can't come up with anything particularly witty for Max to say during certain moments, just keep him silent, let the scene speak for itself. For all the wishing he was dead the fucker resists dying quite a lot. Writing is ok for the most part, just overdone. Another annoyance with cutscenes - they switch selected weapon to pistol. I hope they'll have it in them to fix this with a patch. Also, it kinda sucks that Max doesn't get to use grenades and molotovs this time, plenty of situations where those would've been useful. Still, shooting is very satisfying.
Other than that - loving this shit. Save for some minor differences it's a Max Payne game through and through. More challenging than first games, on Hard at least, with two more unlockable difficulties to go. Fuck yes. Encounter design is quite unfair to the player a lot of times - I approve. Trial and error gameplay is definitely true to the series. This is still a game where it's fun to die, just like the first two. Game also has a strong atmosphere even though it doesn't match first two games in this department. It's still a good sequel and the best TPS in fucking years. Thank you Rockstar.

 

What changes with going from normal to hard? You already die in 3-4 shots on normal.

 

It can actualy recharge from zero to full without killing anyone. Hide behind object in fight and see yourself.

 

This fucking thing is still a bit of a mystery to me. I noticed it recharging too couple of times when in cover, but most of the time it doesn't work like that. So maybe it was still recharging from enemies I killed before, I dunno. It's kind of weird, but it's still better than constant bullet time regen in MP2. That made it piss easy on any difficulty.

Anyway, just finished the game for the first time. Sure was a great ride to me. I'll repeat it on "Hardcore" and "Old School", no doubt.

 

Its not a mystery why it recharges. It recharges when you are being shot at (while in cover too - it doesnt matter if bullet hit your or not). Each bullet shot adds some time so if you meet like 3 enemies with SMGs, bullet time will go extra-fast.


So you probably can always kill enemies in bullet-time - if you just wait long enough (in some situations you need to go fast).

 

Depending on difficulty I think it only recharges on its own to a certain degree. like how if you're near death the health goes back below the head after a bit

 

+ Runs great on my E8500, gtx 260 and 4 gigs of ram with high (or very high) settings, dx10 (although on 1280x1024)
+ Shooting feels fun, every kill can be a blast
+ Story maybe isn't the best thing since dragon age 2 but it certainly isn't bad or something I'd view as a con
+ Is funny and depressing at times.
+ A lot of nice little touches here and there. A lot of love has been put into this game.

- Too easy. I played this on hard and found it too easy. I think its because of two things: popamole and the automatic "saving throws" when you receive a fatal wound but you have a painkiller.
- Altough the cutscenes are very good, properly scripted and voiced, they quickly start to break the immersion (I hate that word) and you just have to wait it through.

All in all, very good game. Should be far less popamole and more trial and error.

 

STILL LOADING

 

Let me guess - you have target-assist mode on?

 

A lot of this sounds promising, I just hate all the talk of cutscenes. Really goes to show you how gameplay is getting replaced. FFS, it shouldn't be that way. Ah well, I'll probably pick it up when it goes on sale.

 

More like loading screens are replaced with cutscenes. Amount of gameplay is no lesser than in previous games, if not larger. MP3 doesn't have entire levels built around non-action, like MP1 and MP2 did.

 

No platforming on blood trails with screaming baby.

Yeah the cutscenes are basically MP3's elevator

 

Well, that is good to hear, but do cutscenes really interrupt gameplay a lot like some people are saying?

I didn't mind so much the non combat vignette's in MP2 like in the police station, but those obstacle courses at Mona's fun house and the dreams in MP1? NO THANKS so good to hear they're gone.

 

Zero platforming, though there's lots of terrain to use to your advantage, one thing they fucking nailed was level design. The cutscenes are kinda heavy in the first bits of the game but after the stage is set it slows down with the hot beef cutscene injection and there's a lot more voice over while you play.

The game is pretty long too, as far as actual gameplay goes.

If you enjoyed either of the previous MP games you'll like it, I honestly think it's a step up overall.

 

No, free aim but if someone was raised on quake and cs then popping headshots one after another, without slow motion, is not a problem. I think thats also why I didn't notice a complaint people often bring: that it takes too many bullets to bring a guy down unless you shoot for the head

 

That's one thing I love about the free aim playlist online, nobody whining about headshots, cuz everyone is going for them.

One thing I fucking HATE is that bullshit adrenaline booster preorder.

People launching intuition 3 and 3 painkillers straight out the gate.

 

So is not THAT bad after all? I might try the demo after all. Any reason why the game is so fucking heavy, by the way?

 

1080p cutscenes, I guess.

The gameplay is good, some classic maxu paynu with added pop-a-mole but it's fun and challenging (on hard). While it's no more noir the game still has character. Also seems to optimized good, dunno why they posted those monstrous system reqs.

 

Considering that you don't need slow-mo bar for shootdodging there is no difference lol.

Does not compute.

Overall it's a piece of wobbly console shit that has nothing to do with Max Payne.

 

I have hard time figuring something out:

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What was Max brought to brazil in the first place? Was he really supposed just to protect the family? What about the kidnappings in chapter 1 and 2? Were they planned by Victor or it really was just the commando sombra working on their own, without any involvment from Victor or UFE? When did Max become the guy to put all blame on? When Rodrigo was assassinated? That was the plan? To assassinate him and put blame on Max?