Never played three.
One and two were amazing.
For me part 1 and 2 wrapped up the story.
For I think the whole. Shaved head, beard generic character look didn’t work for Max. plus in screen shots it just looked like another cover shooter.
Then it had the whole bright look of things which made me think this isn’t very max Payne.
All that made me less interested in playing.
if I get the chance is it worth playing?
It IS worth playing, for a lot of people the changes are too drastic BUT the game is Non-Linear and later in the game (around half way point and near the end) you get the back story levels which is more in line with what people "expect" of Max Payne:
And then right near the end (one of the last three levels) you get the connecting point of the story where Max abandons any hope he had remaining and gives into the lifestyle that leads him to Brazil, which is also one of the best levels in the game, Panema:
Promotion and advertising for this game did a good job of hiding most of the content and only focusing on the "extreme" parts that was bald and bearded Max in the slums of Brazil but the actual game itself jumps back and forth over the course of a few years and in those parts Max is written slightly different so it appears he's losing sanity and hope if you follow the events chronologically,
It IS still very different in tone, the lack of nightmares and the comic panels were missed (especially as the story has two good points for Nightmares too) and a lot of the sanity loss and drugged up/alcoholic parts takes HEAVY influence from Tony Scott's Man On Fire (seriously, the entire Brazil arc is just a rip off of this movie with some parts changed slightly):
In the end though, it's still one of the best third person shooters around, controls are amazing and don't worry about it being a "cover based shooter" as the higher difficulty levels force you out of cover and enemies flank you a LOT so it plays better as the run and gun style the original two were.
