Max Payne 3 - Discuss!

[Turisas]

Yeah it was pretty fun:

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Didn't like it.

 

[sser]

5/10.

Gameplay-wise, I think Stranglehold is a superior action-shoot'em-up but that's probably just me. Max Payne 3 is a more brutal, visceral experience, but it's not as fun.

The story is kinda meh. I like the way it is delivered -- flashbacks and present -- but everything in between, which is cutscene after cutscene, is really annoying.

Some of the set-pieces are annoying as fuck and suffer from extremely gimmicky, circa 1990s gameplay mechanics.

Runs really well on PC, that's for sure. It's also a very pretty game. Nice graphics, nice animations, nice artwork.

An average game overall, but a decent shooter, I guess.

 

[Surf Solar]

It's a good game, I had tons of fun with it. Albeit it is a bit heavy on the cutscene side at the beginning of the game, it gets better afterwards (some people seem to forget that there were pretty lengthy "cutscenes" every odd minute in MP2 too, not even mentioning those fucking blurry "nightmare" levels). Aside from maybe 1-2 occassions you are never really forced to use the popamole cover at all. You can play it just like the other Max Payne games with insane shoot dodges, bullet time et cetera. Voice acting, animations and such are superb. Story is nothing to to write home about, then again I didn't "feel" much for the story in MP1/2 too. Weapons do feel a bit same-y, but I used mostly the pistol(s) anyway (I tend to be most accurate with them). Graphics are nice.

 

[Morgoth]

Definitely get it. Best goddaymn 3rd person shooter for a very long time.

 

[Kane]

Codex mostly liked it, Skyway didn't like it because Max's hair was different.

june may have ended but i cant stop brofisting MHC

 

[Multidirectional]

It's a great game. Not even overdone cutscenes can change that. Story is on par with previous games, which means mediocre. I do prefer atmosphere of first two games though.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

It's really good.

I don't understand all the crying over the cutscenes, it is Rockstar for fucks sake, you know you're getting story-driven games from them. Anyone who played the GTA games and RDR and came to this expecting a Doom clone where you just shoot stuff is a fucking retard.

I wasn't a big fan of the overdone effects during the cutscenes though, they mostly served as a distraction, sometimes they actually hurt my eyes, but everything else was great. I especially liked the hard difficulty actually being hard, and the enemy AI is some of the best I've seen since F.E.A.R.

 

[Steve]

It's really good.

I don't understand all the crying over the cutscenes, it is Rockstar for fucks sake, you know you're getting story-driven games from them. Anyone who played the GTA games and RDR and came to this expecting a Doom clone where you just shoot stuff is a fucking retard.

I wasn't a big fan of the overdone effects during the cutscenes though, they mostly served as a distraction, sometimes they actually hurt my eyes, but everything else was great. I especially liked the hard difficulty actually being hard, and the enemy AI is some of the best I've seen since F.E.A.R.

The problem is that they cant be skipped which hurts the replay value, I'd probably replay the game on a new unlocked difficulty but I cant be bothered to watch Man on Fire all over again.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Yeah, they should have made them able to be skipped once you've completed the game.

 

[felipepepe]

They ARE skippable, but only after the game loaded on the background...

 

[Haba]

So... Gave MP3 a go.

Holy fuck, piracy has become a chore those days! I almost bought the game just because not removing it from inventory was so much hassle.

Glad I didn't cave in.

This is a very shitty Max Payne game, or in fact, not not-a-Max Payne-at-all. I'm having zero fun with gunplay. The story is tripe, filled with forced cutscenes where protagonist fucks up (whereas the same would never happen if the player had control). The story is tripe, the characters, Max included, are shit (yeah, I get it - you drink booze and take pills. STOP FUCKING POINTING IT OUT FFS!).

But there is one interesting thing about this game.

You can kill whomever without any visible consequences. The strippers at the strip club, the favela denizens... Most memorably being the time when BOPE raids the favelas. You can shoot unarmed gang members, wounded gang members, BOPE officers who will never return fire... and an old lady at her home.

There is no "mission failed" or "game over" screen if you do so. Max doesn't give a shit.

In today's gaming environment, that's incline. However small it happens to be, in the case of this POS.

 

[Cadmus]

So... Gave MP3 a go.

Holy fuck, piracy has become a chore those days! I almost bought the game just because not removing it from inventory was so much hassle.

Glad I didn't cave in.

This is a very shitty Max Payne game, or in fact, not not-a-Max Payne-at-all. I'm having zero fun with gunplay. The story is tripe, filled with forced cutscenes where protagonist fucks up (whereas the same would never happen if the player had control). The story is tripe, the characters, Max included, are shit (yeah, I get it - you drink booze and take pills. STOP FUCKING POINTING IT OUT FFS!).

But there is one interesting thing about this game.

You can kill whomever without any visible consequences. The strippers at the strip club, the favela denizens... Most memorably being the time when BOPE raids the favelas. You can shoot unarmed gang members, wounded gang members, BOPE officers who will never return fire... and an old lady at her home.

There is no "mission failed" or "game over" screen if you do so. Max doesn't give a shit.

In today's gaming environment, that's incline. However small it happens to be, in the case of this POS.

I wanted to say I don't understand this sentiment but after thinking about it, I do. I still loved Max Payne 3, didn't go to sleep and finished it in like 3 days. I haven't played such a great game in years. It was a thrill and I felt young again.

I have played both Max Paynes extensively, like 5 times each game, they were amazing at the time and the second one still plays great. This is an intro so that you understand I'm a fan.
I think it MP3 came out around the time Hitman Absoluteshit came out, so I was really scared they would fuck up like with Hitman, my favourite series of all time.

Max Payne has always been about these things:
1) perfect, fun, responsive gunplay AND ripping off The Matrix

The problem is, The Matrix has become almost irrelevant, I tried to watch it again and was BORED, it's a horrible case of "Seinfield isn't funny". It has been done worse and so many times, that I can imagine a person watching it now for the first time and falling asleep during the action sequences.

2) perfect noir atmosphere, provided by Max's narration, graphics, weapons available, the environments, music, the whole nine yards. the game was tight
3) bullshit story with memorable characters and funny little dialogues, using cliche setpieces in a fun way while also supporting the noir atmosphere

I don't think I understood any of the stories in the games, they were horribly communicated, but I remember Lem and Mona and Vinnie

4) cutting edge graphical representation (or at least the 1st game was, but the 2nd was still beautiful at the time and has aged great) and subtle yet memorable music

The problem is, I don't remember much of MP3, I only played it once exactly because of the problems you described

What I remember, it did 1 and 4 just as good as MP1 and MP2. The meat of the game, the gunplay was smooth as baby's bottom. When the previews showed the cover mechanics, I thought that was it, but surprisingly, the game was played better without relying on the cover too much, it was merely a nice flavour.


The aiming, the controls (while more complicated), the character movement, it was all great, responsive, not consolified at all. I don't have words to describe it any better, it was perfect and it was what made the game so much fun to play after having tried some dudebro shooters and feeling disgusted with the genre and especially after the horrible fucking failure that was the new Hitman. Possibly, you could say I liked it because there had been nothing as good on the market for a long time. Pure awesome shooter tailored for PC and with all the fun flavour of MP game.

There are many problems with the game but there were many problems with the old ones as well.
Shitty fucking nightmare segments were replaced by shitty fucking turret sections, and I abhor them but there weren't that many, so fuck it.
The story was even more confused lump of shit and Max got himself fucked over too much, yeah, I agree. I don't remember him being so much of a white knight from the first games but, call it a character development.
I didn't mind the insane cut scenes with over-done effects, after a while. I didn't think the pacing was that bad because the narration was interesting and atmospheric and I long had wanted more of it since I played the first games.
The voice actor makes Max Payne what it is and separates it from a generic shooter.

Another great thing was how much they improved the game mechanics. It's not like cover by itself is bad, you actually take cover in all games and if they allow you to use a reliable (which this one almost was) way to stick to walls when you would just stand there and stare at the walls, it's better than nothing. The game just have to not be built around it. What I also liked was that the cover was not the traditional bullshitfucking thing where the character becomes unhittable when in the cover even when it's OBVIOUS the character box doesn't match the cover box and their head is sticking out (see Massfucking Effect). It was perfectly possible to get hit even when in cover and popping moles was hard to do. I like the cover mechanics in this game because they were done pretty much as they should be - another option that might SOMETIMES be useful.

What I hated though was how they fucking forced you to the worst imaginable cover right from the cutscene, that sucked ass and made some segments much harder just because of this.

I liked how Max would dive and hit the wall and fall like an idiot instead of half clipping through the wall and hovering on the spot.

The characters were shitty and unlikable, I hated the fucking spanish asshole who was obviously not trustworthy from the beginning (or I'm just a racist, I don't know)

I liked how the character changed his appearance, I liked the change of scenery but I still wish they had spent more time in NY, whatever, it didn't break the game.
There was tons of atmosphere to be had, it just wasn't very noir, but the previous games aren't going away, you can still play them perfectly fine and this one expands on them in mostly good ways.

The difficulty was also just right, it wasn't hard really, but it was hard in the kind of old school (at least for me) way, where you had a limited time to execute lots of actions correctly, jump and headshot everyone and it had a nice curve of mastery where if you got really good, the game was almost easy but it required precision and perfection and you weren't allowed to sit behind a cover and pop moles as you pleased.

I wanna replay it and I don't dread the turret sections as much as I dreaded the dream sequences and nothing happening sequences from MP1 and MP2.
I'm sure I'll remember more things later and add them.

 

[SoupNazi]

The only way to play Max Payne 3 is as a drinking game: sip from a glass of scotch whenever Max mentions drinking or popping pills, drink the entire shot whenever Max takes a pill or drinks. You'll think it's the best game in the world after about 10 minutes.

 

[MasPingon]

I still loved Max Payne 3, didn't go to sleep and finished it in like 3 days. I haven't played such a great game in years.

The problem is, I don't remember much of MP3

The key to understand.

 

[Cadmus]

I still loved Max Payne 3, didn't go to sleep and finished it in like 3 days. I haven't played such a great game in years.

The problem is, I don't remember much of MP3

The key to understand.

Maybe. I don't know, but I can say I very much enjoyed playing the game and it doesn't happen to me much, I don't think I've finished an FPS in the last 5-6 years..? Maybe more, I don't remember what came out.
I only tried to talk about what I remember.
I just think people were automatically expecting the game to suck because "hurr durr Max shaved his head and Brazil" and it went by without due praise of the good aspects.

 

[MasPingon]

I can't tell much about good aspects of the game, because it didn't let me play much. If I wanted to watch bad 90's action movie I would pick The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren. It has more in common with Max Payne then this Rockstar's impostor.

 

[Telengard]

I have to wholly agree with Haba. The story was crap. Constantly reliant on Max suddenly being dumb. And not even boozed and drugged out dumb, but shockingly, mind-numblingly moronic. The whole plot gets told to you right at the beginning, at the party, even down to the "twists". And you think, okay, boozed out Max will figure it out eventually. But no, he never figures it all out, ever. But it gets worse. Because then they go back in time, and show that he was actually even dumber than he seemed. But even more than just dumb, he had to "forget" every cop instinct he ever had, and even basic cop knowledge, just so the plot could progress as it was made.

And more generally, the story was reliant on multiple coincidences, the characters not keeping their personalities from one scene to another, and everyone being dumb as bricks (even the ones who weren't drugged out). But even beyond all that, they never even gave Max a real motivation for doing anything that he does. Just had him bumbling around randomly for no reason. Making him into just a dumb plot device to keep the game going from one scene to the next.

So, since it's become a cutscene game, you constantly have to sit through long piles of crap cutscenes just to get to the shooty bits. Which was a real drag. And then, even those shooty parts were disappointing. Particularly boss fights against generic nobodies. No memorable enemies to kill. Ever. Then the regular combats were just basic cover-based enemies sitting in their mole holes.

All of that is why it's so forgettable. Because there is no substance to any of it to remember. No characters. No personality. No aggressive action. It's all just vanilla. A dumb summer blockbuster cotton-candy thrill ride. All flash, no style or substance.

 

[Eyeball]

As previously stated, they wanted to make a game about shootdodging in a Brazilian slum town. They had this Max Payne license lying around not doing anything, so they just stuck Max in there for no goddamn motherfucking reason whatsoever, making him look more out of place than a giraffe on the North Pole.

 

[chestburster]

3) bullshit story with memorable characters and funny little dialogues, using cliche setpieces in a fun way while also supporting the noir atmosphere
I don't think I understood any of the stories in the games,

And you call yourself a "fan." Your opinion just becomes irrelevant after that sentence.

 

[chestburster]

I can't tell much about good aspects of the game, because it didn't let me play much. If I wanted to watch bad 90's action movie I would pick The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren. It has more in common with Max Payne then this Rockstar's impostor.

Exactly. Max Payne 1/2 are parodies of bad noir films. Max Payne 3 is just bad.

 

[sexbad?]

3) bullshit story with memorable characters and funny little dialogues, using cliche setpieces in a fun way while also supporting the noir atmosphere
I don't think I understood any of the stories in the games,

And you call yourself a "fan." Your opinion just becomes irrelevant after that sentence.

I'd rather not be a fan than lack the faculty to say a game's crap writing is crap.

 

[Jick Magger]

Exactly. Max Payne 1/2 are parodies of bad noir films. Max Payne 3 is just bad.

Not really, MP2 was more-or-less a straight example of film noir, with a couple of light comedic elements poking fun at the first game strewn about. MP1 constantly skirted between being a parody of noir, and playing its cliches completely straight.

 

[Cadmus]

3) bullshit story with memorable characters and funny little dialogues, using cliche setpieces in a fun way while also supporting the noir atmosphere
I don't think I understood any of the stories in the games,

And you call yourself a "fan." Your opinion just becomes irrelevant after that sentence.

The stories were a goddamn clusterfuck filled with bullshit like satan worshippers on crack and super secret-gangwar-weapon-captain-Baseball-bat-boy-costume, what do you like about them? It was convoluted and all over the place. A proper noir story would be a murder or crime mystery with a twist, not this.

I didn't care about any of that, so I guess that's why I didn't mind MP3 being even worse.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

3) bullshit story with memorable characters and funny little dialogues, using cliche setpieces in a fun way while also supporting the noir atmosphere
I don't think I understood any of the stories in the games,

And you call yourself a "fan." Your opinion just becomes irrelevant after that sentence.

The stories were a goddamn clusterfuck filled with bullshit like satan worshippers on crack and super secret-gangwar-weapon-captain-Baseball-bat-boy-costume, what do you like about them? It was convoluted and all over the place. A proper noir story would be a murder or crime mystery with a twist, not this.

I didn't care about any of that, so I guess that's why I didn't mind MP3 being even worse.

This. I recently replayed MP1 and the writing was cheesy as fuck. Remedy is not a fucking Tolstoy, they made Alan Wake and MP1 was a constant stream of "look Norse mythology reference, clever huh? Huh??!!" Max Payne's monologues are of the same "Just as I was trying to figure out what's going on, and whiskey flowed around me like unsettled river under the moonlight sky, and all those gangsters and policemen died like flies around me as I was smashed out of my fucking mind, I realized Raul Passos is not the person he seemed to be".

MP3 story and writing sucked donkey balls but who the fuck cares anyway. The thing regarding the setting is that 1) seems they did their homework to present BRBR and São Paulo's favelas believably, at least relatively for a work of fiction, and 2) tried their best to make it a Noir-esque setting despite the lack of obvious cliches like detectives in trenchcoats, midnight, rain etc., which for most people equal Noir and only those. (Nobody cares to see films like Key Largo anyway, only Maltese Falcon is noir!!). You may argue it isn't a very tasteful Noir but it is there.

What mattered for me is the combat that was fun as fuck. Well, as long as the game didn't force me into popamole in some places due to shit balance, and you could just go all bollocks with some fun shit like RPD. It was incredibly fun, in a bloody, "squishy" way. The story was Retardo and very meh, but I think Ill replay it again, just for the gameplay.