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What's the consensus on Max Payne 3?

Vibalist

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I was looking for a bit of casualfaggotry to waste my limited time on and stumbled across Max Payne 3 on Steam. I was wondering what the Codex thinks of it? Is it as good as the first two? Is it worth the 20 euro it's currently sitting at? Or should I pass?
 

Tytus

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I was looking for a bit of casualfaggotry to waste my limited time on and stumbled across Max Payne 3 on Steam. I was wondering what the Codex thinks of it? Is it as good as the first two? Is it worth the 20 euro it's currently sitting at? Or should I pass?

You should pass.

The game is just awful. Max Payne was never strong in the story department, but it had that feel to it. Noire identity that made shooting faceless mooks fun. Well this time it's entirely gone.

Even worse the cool gun play from 1 and 2 is just gone. And instead you get wave after wave of really bad programmed AI.

Also the Social Club DRM forced you is just atrocious.

Would love to say more, but it was years since I played. I remember that I was disappointed and I only wanted some nice mindless MP fun.

Wait till it's 5 eurobucks or something. It's not worth more.
 

Hoaxmetal

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Forgettable story/presentation but solid shooty bits, fun MP that sadly had too many problems because of wonky Social Club. I'd say it's worth it if they fixed the MP.

As I said the shooty bits were fun but in SP they were cockblocked by 100 cutscenes and in MP by server issues.
 

sexbad?

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Unlike the first two, the writing and story aren't garbage, but that isn't enough to save it from the unskippable cutscenes that often show things as trivial as people walking to the other side of a room.

However, the shooting is just excellent pretty much throughout. I recommend getting it on the cheap and playing it for as long as you can stomach the cutscenes, because during that time you'll probably still enjoy the kickass gunfights. I've seen it before at $2.50 or something on Nuuvem, and it's definitely worth a try at that price.
 

ZagorTeNej

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Dec 10, 2012
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I was looking for a bit of casualfaggotry to waste my limited time on and stumbled across Max Payne 3 on Steam. I was wondering what the Codex thinks of it? Is it as good as the first two? Is it worth the 20 euro it's currently sitting at? Or should I pass?

-It's a complete departure from the noir style of first two games but it doesn't mean it isn't atmospheric in a different way, the locations in the game feel very authentic (it's set in Brazil) and characters aren't one-dimensional (for the most part).

-There are no actual levels in the game, you're moving from one movie-like setpiece to another, it is very much like your average AAA game in that regard. In addition it has un-skippable cutscenes, I mean you have the option to skip them but it nearly never works so usually you'll have to sit through the whole cutscene (maybe they're loading screens actually? I have no idea).

-Shooting/gameplay I enjoyed quite a bit, it's probably the only game I've seen that successfully managed to fuse cover (popamole) mechanics and old-school run and gun action, you can switch freely between both styles and it doesn't feel forced one way or the other.


Overall, I feel the game is an example of a wasted potential. Very good shooting mechanics and decent story feels wasted on a game that falls in the same trap as many modern titles in that it's trying too hard to be a movie instead of fully playing to the strengths of the medium.
 

markec

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The gameplay is 5 minutes of shooting followed by 10 minutes of cutscenes. So your enjoyment depends how much you like watching movies instead of playing games.
 
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It's quite good. Interpretation of "What makes noir" decidedly American but I quite like the more brutish approach. Gunplay is solid, graphics look nice, SP campaign def. worth a run-through. MP is a lot of fun, but last I checked (which was quite some time ago mind you) it was completely dead. Real shame, game def. deserved more positive attention.

The gameplay is 5 minutes of shooting followed by 10 minutes of cutscenes. So your enjoyment depends how much you like watching movies instead of playing games.

Certainly not how I remember it. Some levels were pretty big and essentially devoid of cutscenes and Rockstar did do a good job of blending the cinematics in with the gameplay in a way that didn't feel jarring. It certainly can't compare to MGS games where you're always in danger of stepping on a pressure plate that'll open up a 2-hour miniseries.

As Zagor said, you're moving from one movie-set piece to another, so the cutscenes are there to set you up to feel like you've just taken control of the hero in an action movie and to have a larger variety of locations still feel coherent in terms of story. MP1&2 were comparatively more homogeneous in level design, with predominately abandoned buildings dominating iirc, and the story followed Max in a sort of real-time format from Initial Event to Final Conclusion. MP3 does a fair bit of time-jumping, one minute you're fighting terrorasts at a football stadium in Brazil, the next you're in New York fighting mobsters. I always considered the MP games to be more style over substance anyway, so this narrative approach fits like a glove.
 
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DeepOcean

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Nov 8, 2012
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Depends, the Max Paine games were always linear but Max Paine 3 has the habit of fucking destroying the flow of gameplay with fucking long cutscenes, you have a little shoot out and then cutscene, shoot out, cutscene, shoot out cutscene, you can't walk by yourself more than a few minutes without a cutscene and the cutscenes are mostly pointless, I couldn't count the amount of times I had to watch mooks entering on scene or Max talking some boring depressing non sense on damn cutscenes. The gunplay is okay and fun enough if you don't play on the last difficulty mode you can play it as old Max Paines. It is worthy a buy if you aren't annoyed by constant cutscenes getting in the way of gameplay and aren't annoyed by the lack of the american noir feel.
 

markec

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It its 3 hours of cutscenes and I finished the game in 7 hours according to Steam (thats with reloading and exploring the maps).

Worst of all many of them is just Max narrating obvious stuff that cold have been showed without taking control out of player hands.
 

Sodafish

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Cutscene: The Game

Not only that, but after every cutscene it switches your weapon to the crappy 9mm pistol without fail, regardless of what you had equipped when it started. There are several moments where this actually really fucks you up as you stand no chance whatsoever without a better weapon, and while you're changing them out you lose half your health from their full auto pewpews.

Turd/10
 
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It's a fun game but neverending cutscenes hurt replayability. Still worth a playthrough. I hope they'll make Max Payne 4 with skippable cutscenes.
 
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It its 3 hours of cutscenes and I finished the game in 7 hours according to Steam (thats with reloading and exploring the maps).

Worst of all many of them is just Max narrating obvious stuff that cold have been showed without taking control out of player hands.


Well, to be fair that vid includes a lot of gameplay.
 

Robert Jarzebina

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Horrible game, avoid. Long cutscenes but the worst is bad combat mechanics - popamole and cover based.
 

typical user

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Gameplay wise it is boring. You don't see any interesting places like drug dealers warehouses, nightmare levels or subway tunnels. Story is about shooting Brazilians who kidnapped someone, then killed them, then local police is corrupt then another plot twist. Mixed with cutscenes where Max drinks scotch or whiskey and eats his pills. It's not worth even watching. I don't know how, but first Max Payne and the only I played was more entertaining. And those awful filters that make you feel having hang-over. I have to say they made me feel like drunk man with shot liver but it is all over the screen it makes me want vomit. That's not how games should be played.
 

Atlantico

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Max Payne 3 is definitely in the skip it category. More than anything, it's the gameplay that disappoints. Each level is a 5 minute ride through a cover based corridor shooter. The setting and atmosphere didn't have to turn out badly, but that also happened.

Max Payne. A cover based corridor shooter. Oh dear. With a time limit in most corridors, so there is no time to explore or consider strategies, the game funnels the player through a predetermined corridor at a frantic pace. Keep a lookout for those golden weapon collectables!! We can call that gameplay. Right? Sure!

Yet, exploring isn't a thing in Max Payne 3, because the cinematics don't allow it. You need to be in position, otherwise you'll miss the movie! The game is so confused.

And it's so cinematic you'd be forgiven to conclude that the gameplay was, in fact, an afterthought. Which it probably was.

Sadly this game also drops the self-referencing Nordic mythology/Die Hard/film-noir setting and style. This time we're working for the mega rich of Rio. You know, people we care about and can relate to. And this is unironic, Max is working for mega-rich Río scum and avenging them, there's no twist, nothing. The evil police killed your cokehead wards. Revenge! Such motivation! Such drama!

Overall:
Highs: The few moments when the game slows down, and allows the player to have agency. This damning with faint praise.
Lows: Setting, plot, how they treat poor Max. He did not deserve this.

Gameplay:
Pros: Makes one appreciate better games? I don't know.
Cons: This is a consoletard popamole cover based shooter, made at the darkest age of PC games, when studios were convinced that the future and present of games was the xbox360 and the ps3.

The game tried to capture Man on Fire, but failed. Should have stuck to the original formula closer.

I played the single player game only, because I have a life.
 
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sullynathan

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Its a great game albeit with too many cutscenes and scripted parts compared to its predecessors. The gameplay is really solid (when you actually get to play) and its one of the best third person shooters out there.

The game is really difficult though. Codexians will hate it because it is "popamole" or has cover based shooting, but damn it is the best cover based shooting you can find and you can still technically play it like run and gun

I really feel like the reason why there are so many cutscenes was because R* tried to hide loading screens behind them and thats why you couldn't skip most cutscenes. Shit, where are modders when you need them? They spend time fixing Bethesda's games yet they can't mod the ability to skip cutscenes.

.

If you don't like cutscene madness, just buy it when it is really cheap, it's been on sale for like $5 before.


or pick it up from KAT

Even worse the cool gun play from 1 and 2 is just gone. And instead you get wave after wave of really bad programmed AI.

Eh the AI was better in MP3 than its predecessors plus it has the cool physics shit where you shoot them and flail around. There are only waves in like one level.
 
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Naveen

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
"Is it as good as the first two?"

No.

"Is it worth the 20 euro it's currently sitting at? Or should I pass?"


Mmmmh, I'm not sure, but if you play it, ignore all the cutscenes, story, and plot, and install it in a language you don't understand. The game will improve.

Also, don't use any covers or try to turn the game into a popamole cover-based shooter even if you think the game wants to be played like that. It's a trap.

Run, jump, and dodge all the time, only use covers for reloading, then the game can be fun. On the other hand, Max Payne is so depressing and angsty it's sometimes painful to watch. Something like this:

*Max Payne jumps from a balcony, headshots five goons while falling. Gets up and kills ten elite paramilitary troopers.*

Me: "Holy shit, I'm awesome!"
Max Payne: "My life is so worthless. I'm not good at anything. Why do I keep trying?"
 

Metro

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The shooting segments are arguably worse than the first two and, yes, unskippable cutscenes. Not a 'great game' by any stretch of the imagination.
 

kazgar

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Apr 23, 2008
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That it's a video game set in Brazil and follows on from the first two games in the Max Payne series.
 

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