Support NeoGAF

[Randy Monk]

I loved this game. The gunplay was great and the dialogue coming out of Max was piss funny.

“I was a dumb American in a place where dumb Americans were less popular than the clap.”

“When you’re stuck in a foreign country and don’t know the words for “reverse charges” and you’re in some lonely skin joint in the middle of some poor slum and just had every last cent robbed from you and you call yourself a bodyguard then you know you’re a loser."

 

[Lyng]

Its fine of you don't think of it as a Max Payne game. It's a good generic shooter with a terrible story and horrible voice acting. Then again it's a Rockstar game so no surprise there.

 

[SolidChamp]

I loved this game. The gunplay was great and the dialogue coming out of Max was piss funny.

“I was a dumb American in a place where dumb Americans were less popular than the clap.”

“When you’re stuck in a foreign country and don’t know the words for “reverse charges” and you’re in some lonely skin joint in the middle of some poor slum and just had every last cent robbed from you and you call yourself a bodyguard then you know you’re a loser."

Max's dialogue totally makes the game, for me.

So, so good.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

Fantastic gunplay and one of the best soundtracks of this gen. I think I played through it 4 times or so. You choreograph your own John Woo movie while playing, it's bloody awesome.

 

[MYE]

4/10?

lol

edit: Loved this game so I disagree

 

[FloatingDivider]

I agree with some of this I disagree with some of this. I personally think MP3 is a pretty kickass third person shooter but I was bothered by some of the stuff the OP mentions as well. Specifically the non-skippable prententious highlight-marker ridley scott epilepsy warning lacking cutscenes -- I didn't think the story was great but I enjoyed the shooting enough to want to do it again but the cutscenes stop me dead in my tracks.

Now on to the subject of euphoria, I'm a big fan of that physics engine honestly. I bought backbreaker the euphoria football game -- even though it was super difficult to get in my country -- just to see it in action some more. Unfortunately the engine does respond sluggishly to input because it simulates some degree of inertia, which I honestly don't mind, it's the fact that they haven't figured out a way to get the self righting to happen in a sensible way that bothers me. It happens in all the rockstar games, it happens in backbreaker etc, after the physics simulated ragdolling is done they have one animation for getting up that is completly context insensitive doesn't respond to input and takes a good second to play - that is the death of a game about diving to the ground honestly.

I liked the combat in mp3 -- but diving into some cover and having to watch the animation play to get up to a fully standing position when I just want to crawl into waist high cover is dumb. That's if I don't hit the cover so max doesn't do the midair swimmers tuck that completly kills all of your momentum. That's my main gripe with mp3 and euphoria driven games right now that there is no way to interrupt animations, it's like the principal thing they try to fix in sports games and it needs to be fixed here. Especially because the animations in mp3 are slower than they tend to be for other third person shooters.

 

[SpyGuy239]

Max Payne 3 was a great game. The animation and gunplay is one of the best I've had fun with for a few years now. Sorry OP but that's just your opinion.

 

[codhand]

if i hated games with unhelpful AI, i would have a different hobby.

 

[stargateheaven]

I agree.

I even hated the way you could only dive. Can he not slide or ANYTHING? i was expecting more from the bullet time mode..
like stranglehold.

 

[Dick Justice]

Rockstars cover system and the game play becomes a schizophrenic act of juggling between the legacy mechanic of dive and slow down time to cover and stop and pop. This is dissonance and thus makes the scenarios frustrating whenever an encounter is failed.

I've played plenty of third person shooters that use a competent cover system that works... This one does not. See my above post where I address the quandary of having a cover system vs not having.

Your suggestion that I "missed the idea" suggests that I wasn't playing as perfectly as the developers intended, which in itself, is poor design.


I appreciate the advice! I have found my encounters much more successful whenever I have taken this approach, however, the game sometime requires it and it becomes frustrating.

Yeah, the sections that require cover suck. But when you get used to running and gunning, it turns into one of the generation's best shooters, IMO.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Max Payne 3 was a lot of fun if you're in the mood to just shoot people in a game

 

[KalBalboa]

Max Payne 3 continues to be an amazingly well-made shooter for me. It's in my top ten of this generation, easily.

I love how most bumps for this thread continue to be from those who contradict the OP.

 

[FourMyle]

Max Payne 3 was great.

Yep. Very enjoyable game.

 

[TnK]

I loved it as much as I loved Max Paynes 1 and 2. I even replayed 1 and 2 prior to 3 on purpose to make sure if it is like the older games or not. Ended up being a blast like the older games.

 

[TheSeks]

Max Payne 3 was a lot of fun if you're in the mood to just shoot people in a game

Too bad they go out of their way to ruin the "fun of shooting people"/your mood with those stupid unskippable story bits.

 

[iBuzz7S]

Great game. Cutscenes are a POS which need a button to be skipped!

 

[Sakujou]

Havent read the op, but did it save for later. Its good when someone is doing some effort for the opening a thread with such a post.
Better be a good rant.

About the game:i played it with 25-30fps, i fucking hate pcs, and also the new console-ish game design choices were shit.

Loved the first two max payne games, third one was just a big mess with all those cutscenes which were worthless.

Loved the setting but thats it.

A pc game without quick load and quick save sucks really.

I play only on consoles so i thought i get the superior pc version.... But the pc of my sister, she bought it last year, wasnt strong enough to cap 30fps

 

[SniperHunter]

I played it for 2 hours before abandoning it. Great graphics on pc, but thats all i liked.

 

[questionmark]

A good game on it's own rights. A disappointment as far as Max Payne games go.

 

[udiie]

One of my favorite games last year. Gameplay is a masterpiece.

 

[Robot Pants]

Rockstar's best game this entire gen.
Red Dead is close but Max Payne 3 nudges it out.

 

[void666]

I agree with OP about everything. But i don't hate the game.

 

[Fried Food]

none of your knocks really bothered me

 

[Concept17]

Agreed. Terrible game.

I guess if you don't call it a 'game' and call it 'forced rectal insertion' then you could call it good, or even great.

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

OP points out some mechanics I hated about it. But the one thing I hated the most was how, on harder difficulties the AI would basically bum rush me everytime I had to reload. Either take out all 10 guys with one magazine or it's death.

 

[jond76]

Huh, strange to see the hate. I enjoyed this. I actually finished it too, which says something because I barely finish anything anymore. Solid shooter mechanic with slick presentation.

Opinions. Weird stuff.

 

[antitrop]

The story didn't rope me in, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I think it's a good game that just wasn't for me.

I didn't like the presentation, the characters, the dialogue, or the story (despite being a huge fan of MP1 and 2), but the gameplay is rock-solid polished as fuck. Wish all that other stuff didn't get in the way, though.

 

[MrPing1000]

Max Payne 3 isn't utterly shit.

But it's so so far behind Max Payne 2.

It was Remedy's baby and should have remained so.

 

[Grinchy]

I love the OP because I couldn't quite explain why I hated this game so much. I got it for $15 (plus $5 for a useless season pass) and I could never play more than a couple hours. I'd put in 15-20 minutes, get so utterly bored, then try again another day. What a soulless piece of shit it is. The gunplay is just barely competent and then everything else sucks.

 

[zerokoolpsx]

Alright game, but its disappointing for being Max Payne.

 

[Barryman]

I didn't much care for it either. The story lacked everything that made Max Payne interesting. Ditto for the gameplay.

 

[nded]

MP3 Max controlled like an older, slower version of himself, which I guess is the point? It wasn't a bad game, but I think I still enjoy the first two more.

 

[Cloudy]

I gave up playing this game cos the damn reticle was way too small on my 32inch tv. Maybe I'll retry it on the 46 one day. Game was pretty dry based on what I played though (Up to the club shootout)

 

[Zoned]

Rockstar's best game this entire gen.
Red Dead is close but Max Payne 3 nudges it out.

This man speaks the truth.

 

[soultron]

I gave up playing this game cos the damn reticle was way too small on my 32inch tv. Maybe I'll retry it on the 46 one day. Game was pretty dry based on what I played though (Up to the club shootout)

protip: go into the options menu and change the reticule to weapon-specific if it's not on by default. Some weapon types have larger reticules but pistols will always be the white dot.

 

[heiyu]

i like 1 and 2 and i also thought 3 was crap. every "gamer" i know tells me it was the best in the series. then again i loved NieR and everyone hated it. maybe im just broken

 

[citizensyndrome]

Max Payne 3 was my first experience w/ the franchise, so I don't have much insight into the MP lore... that being said, I did enjoy MP3. It came off as a "so bad it's good" late 80s, early 90s action film. I ate up the atrocious dialogue and the coked out latin atmosphere. It's not at all the type of game I'll revisit, but I have recommended it to friends.

 

[GoodMorningPluto]

Funny, I just started my first playthrough of MP3. While I do agree with some of the statements from OP (like the overall sluggishness of Max), I think top-notch gunplay really makes it up.

 

[Lord Phol]

Well it's bad in the regard that it ruined many other shooters for me because of its smooth and fun gunplay. The piece of shit tomb raider reboot for example, can't touch that after having played max payne 3.

 

[v1oz]

I'm half way through and enjoying it a lot. You do get used to the controls you just have to learn them. But in general I'm not a bag fan of the slow sluggish controls in all Rockstar games I've played that includes Red Dead Redemption and GTA4. Their controls are not as tight and precise as you'd get in traditional Japanese action games from the likes of Capcom, Treasure, Platinum, Nintendo for example.

 

[Sheroking]

It's progression and narrative are nowhere near as good as the first two good games (which hurts because the narrative was the best thing about 1 and 2), but I feel like it's shooting mechanics, animation and visual style make up for a lot of it.

I had no problems playing through the entire game. I won't do that if I'm not enjoying it.

 

[ElectronicOldMen]

As someone who would rank MP1 and 2 as up in my favourite games of all time, I actually enjoyed 3 a lot more than I was expecting to given what I'd heard before going in. Sure, it's a very drastic change of tone from the previous games, it's not nearly as well written and doesn't have as interesting characters and plot, but god damn does it play well, easily the best in the series. It has a pretty fantastic visual style and cinematography, too, whoch I really enjoyed.

Man, I would kill for an HD remake of the first two with MP3's gunplay, animations and cover system. Going back to them is really hard at the moment.

 

[QaaQer]

late to the thread party...

Good OP.

Max Payne was one of the games that started me down the road of actively scorning 98% of reviews. Yes it has it's pluses and minuses, but the huge glaring defects you described were not mentioned in the vast majority of reviews. And the fanboys/marketing-types on forums were even worse. Even the RPS review was misleading.

So when GTAV came out and people were wad-ulating all over it and it had zero effect on me, I knew my transformation to cynic wrt gaming hype was complete.

 

[slapnuts]

Bad? Absolutely not.

Flawed? Problematic? Sure.

I agree...with most good or great games..they always have their weaknesses and flaws

 

[-Deimos]

I liked it.

 

[cripterion]

Can only agree with the unskippable cut-scenes but everything else was great for me. I really enjoyed the game.

 

[Heimbeck]

Well it's bad in the regard that it ruined many other shooters for me because of its smooth and fun gunplay. The piece of shit tomb raider reboot for example, can't touch that after having played max payne 3.

Agreed MP3 shooting is fantastic, really hoping that they make another one but I doubt it

 

[QaaQer]

.

bwhahaha. love your avatar.

 

[KorrZ]

I don't think Max Payne 3 is an outright bad game. The actual core gameplay of aiming a gun and shooting people is solid, maybe some of the best. It's just a shame that everything else, cover system, bullet-time, story, characters, bullshit bullet sponge armored enemies, non-stop unskippable cut scenes ruin the game.

I had never played the Max Payne series before 3. Once I finished 3 I went back and played the first 2 and it's amazing how much better Max Payne 1 & 2 are. Plz 2K - let Remedy make Max Payne 4. Leave Rockstar with open world games that they're good at, they have no fucking clue how to make a linear third person shooter.

 

[Robot Pants]

I don't think Max Payne 3 is an outright bad game. The actual core gameplay of aiming a gun and shooting people is solid, maybe some of the best. It's just a shame that everything else, cover system, bullet-time, story, characters, bullshit bullet sponge armored enemies, non-stop unskippable cut scenes ruin the game.

I had never played the Max Payne series before 3. Once I finished 3 I went back and played the first 2 and it's amazing how much better Max Payne 1 & 2 are. Plz 2K - let Remedy make Max Payne 4. Leave Rockstar with open world games that they're good at, they have no fucking clue how to make a linear third person shooter.

In my opinion they are better at it than open world.
Max Payne 3 is the only game rockstar has had (maybe ever, but definitely this gen) that stayed consistently engaging the entire time through. Whether you enjoyed what the story was about (I did) the presentation was so solid. Not like GTA V that fizzles out very quickly and then just throws you into missions where the characters just say "ok, we will do this now"
Red Dead was pretty amazing all the way through but did suffer from some filler areas. see: Mexico. A place , however, I enjoyed more than most it seems, but it did drag a bit. But that comes with the territory of open world games I suppose.
The cutscenes in Max Payne 3 did need to be skip able, cause they can get VERY annoying on multiple playthroughs, but other than that the game was amazing.