This... Is... The Payne Killer: The Max Payne 3 Review

It says a lot about Rockstar that the only reason I don't like one of their games is because I don't like playing the bad guy. Yes, I don't play Grand Theft Auto for it's story, only to create chaos. But, it also says something about them when every one of their games is released as a buggy mess. I still cannot play Red Dead Redemption without John Marston trying to ride off into the sunset, and getting stuck in an invisible wall. They weren't always like this, as I remembered my days playing the first two Max Payne games. As I started to play the third, I thought it would hold up. Then, I learned my lesson.

The story is actually pretty damned good. Max is hired to be a body guard to a rich Brazilian family, and ultimately fails at saving the wife of the rich business man. He goes on a rampage of death and redemption from his alcohol and painkiller abuse to save her, which goes terribly wrong. While one has to wonder how Max always gets involved in these mad conspiracies, the game delivers a hard, gritty story that does keep the player interested. It protects itself from cliches by throwing in elements of the darker crimes that have not been explored in the previous games, and fit the setting. By the end of the game, though, you realize that you've played this game before, as it is pretty much the first two games combined. That's not a bad thing.

Where Rockstar seemed to have dropped the ball was the actual gameplay. What starts off as a Max Payne game has you taking cover in the second third of the game constantly. Shoot dodging becomes ineffective, as you'll die in three hits (at most) on Medium difficulty. The challenge would be welcome, if it weren't more due to bad enemy placement, cheap deaths, and the Last Man Standing mode being incredibly ineffective. In  practice, Last Man Standing gives you one last chance to kill a guy before you die so Max can take some painkillers and heal. The problem comes from the fact that this depends on your view, and not Max's. I died countless times shooting at an enemy that Max was looking at, and that my cursor was over, but could not hit because a little bit of a wall was in my view. This is the same wall Max was using for cover, that the bad guy shot him through because he just happened to be hiding on the other side, out of my view.

There is also the instances where you clear a room, but die when you try to progress because either A: there are bad guys in the next room that kill you as soon as you even shoot dodge in it, or B: the game didn't spawn the right number of guys, so when you try to progress, another guy spawns and kills the person you're protecting.

The game gets truly cheap in the last third of the game. Every enemy takes roughly five to twenty hits to kill, even with head shots. For a game that is trying to be more realistic, this is terrible. I can understand with the guys wearing helmets taking at least one extra shot, but pumping the same, unarmored guy with round after round to no avail, when he can kill you in three hits is not what the series is about. Throw in some terrible boss battles with guys in full body armor (that you have to blindfire on because all of their bullets hit you even when you're in cover), and you have something that is overly frustrating, and, lets face it, disappointing.
The last level especially is fueled by these moments, as well as one of the most droning, depressing songs they could put in the game. This is what it sounds like when you can't afford Poets of the Fall.

The game does look good, though. Instead of going for a graphic novel feel, Rockstar uses traditional cut scenes, and has certain words pop up on screen. These do spoil the story a lot if you pay attention to them, but it doesn't matter in the long run. Characters react to bullets in realistic, and sometimes hilarious, way. Even in the slums, you're left looking around at the details in awe. But, again, questionable choices, such as Golden Guns, come up, and you're left to wonder if Rockstar wanted this to be Max Payne, or not.

What it comes down to is that Max Payne 3 is a good action game, at least 2/3rds the way through, but not a good Max Payne game. While the story is very well done, and excellent, the game itself is marred by way too many moments of "What were they thinking?" and "What do you want me to do?" If you're expecting to play guns blazing, you will be disappointed, but if you want another cover based game, mixed with a little stunt work, this is your game... or 2/3rds of it.

Overall: B-

+ Great story
+ Action packed
+ Visually appealing
- Cheap placement of enemies
- Bulletsponges
- Not Max Payne
- Terrible soundtrack
- Did I mention the bullet sponges?