I really wanted to like this game, especially after paying $60 for it on Steam. The inability to skip the cut scenes pretty much kills any likelihood of ever replaying any of the campaign. As someone else pointed out, you can't even exit the game while a cut scene is going (which is the majority of your gameplay time). The environments are tiny and the action is highly scripted. Don't expect to be able to get creative with your tactics here - everything has to go according to script or you'll be doing it over.

The voice acting is fine, but the dialog is campy and never really sells the whole "noir" thing it's going for. I thought the investment they made in getting the character to consistently aim in the specified direction regardless of his position/movement doesn't really pay off. It just makes him seem a bit ridiculous as he contorts himself to keep his weapon pointed where you're aiming even though you're not firing. I hadn't played the previous Max Payne games, so I was intrigued by the bullet time concept. It works OK, but there are too many cases where you have to use it. The cover system doesn't work very well because there's no good way to move from cover to cover. The environments aren't big enough to flank your enemies anyway. The whole "jump dodge" thing looked cool in the previews, but seems a bit ridiculous in actual gameplay since you inevitably end up rolling around on the ground to shoot at the remaining bad guys.

Overall, I regret spending $60 on this game. Since you can really only play through it once, It might be worth $20 if you wait for it to get discounted. Personally, I'll be steering clear of the Max Payne series. I'm much more interested in gameplay mechanics than in storyline. Hopefully Hit Man Absolution will be more compelling in that regard.… Expand

The problem with Max Payne 3 is, that it is not Max Payne. Cover: Max Payne doesn't need cover. The bullet time IS his cover. Taking cover is also way more effective than bullet time due to the narrow environments. Effects: the Kane & Lynch aesthetic is terribly distracting. Controls: clunky and unresponsive. Graphics: ok, but nothing special, the animations are awful especially in multiplayer. The 16 player matches are a clusterf* because of bad player spawn placement.… Expand

It's hard to spoil that kind of game - the recipe is simple and all one needs to do for a successful sequel is to follow it to the letter - but Rockstar managed to screw it up just fine. Boring story, boring gameplay, boring dialogue, and no graphic novels. Oh, and shaky camera. How novel! Yawn.

The first thing that comes out it you is a lengthy cinematic. It keeps going, and going, and going... eh? yes, still going. No, you can't skip it. For extra fun, you can't even quit the damn game while it's playing, either - the only button you have is to pause it (thanks for that! no, seriously, after the first 2 minutes of that intro I went and made some tea so I could have something to do while watching the rest of it).

While we're at it, the camera just drives me nuts. I understand that all the shaking and the occasional visual glitch effect is intended to convey the perma-drunken state of the player character, but WTF? I GOT IT ALREADY, NOW STOP IT, MY HEAD HURTS!

Dialogue... they tried real hard to copy the gritty wittiness of the original Max Payne, and failed just as hard. Max goes for irony in every second line he speaks, but it's all pretty stale and shallow, and gets boring very quick. The rest of his talk is mostly bitter complaining about how bad things are and how much worse they're going to be. Again, very repetitive, pointless and annoying. Practically no real essence in those lines, overall.

Whew, now that the cinematic is over, I can haz some slo-mo pistol headshots and stuff? Yup... for about one minute. Then it's another two-minute unskippable cinematic. Then another minute of action... and so it goes. What's worse yet, the whole purpose of those periods of no control seems to place Max in precisely the point where he (you!) will have the hardest time dealing with oncoming waves of enemies. Like, say, kicking the door into the room chock full of bad guys, and running to the most wimpy piece of furniture that can still be used for cover - standing in precisely such a location that enemies running in through any door will get a convenient shot should Max peek out. For extra fun, regardless of which gun you were using when the cinematic started, by the end of it Max will always be holding the pistol, even if it ends with a bunch of guns with shotguns barging into the room right ahead of him. Have fun practicing those pistol headshots, you'll have about a second before they unload...

As a result, unlike the original game, where judicious use of bullet time and careful approaches made it possible to progress through the game without being hurt at all, here you're guaranteed to soak damage - it's impossible to avoid being shot when you're stuck in "cover" where all you can do is peek out left or right, and there are five guys with submachine guns and shotguns all shooting at you when you do that. Hope you can get to the next batch of painkillers fast enough. Oh, but not to worry - when you reload from checkpoint, your damage is conveniently reset to zero (on "average" difficulty, at least). So in practice the sole purpose of painkillers is to get you from checkpoint to checkpoint - except that you don't know where the checkpoints are, since there's no indication that you're at one (though any cinematic is guaranteed to have one at the end).

Overall, given that most of the charm of the original game was in the well-executed noir graphic novel style, which seems to be mostly abandoned here (and the remaining elements, poorly done), I don't see much point - the gameplay alone is certainly not enticing.… Expand

Really Rockstar? Let's cut through the chase. Why are video game sales down so much? This game is a shining example of the problems with the video game industry in every way. (1) LONG LOADING TIMES. Who wants to sit through endless dialogs which are predictable and campy at best (ok, some of the campiness is expected, after all, it's Max Payne) ... When first starting the game you might be lucky to actually start playing the da** game a half hour later, I kid you not! There is no way to skip the cut-scenes! Unacceptable in every way.

(2) FORCING USERS TO CREATE AN ONLINE ACCOUNT. This fact alone has done me in, I'm sick and tired of every game publisher deciding (mostly through greed) to force purchasers of a game to create an online account. Are you kidding me? Twitter integration, and randomly forcing that down our throats at start up too? Has the game industry gone completely insane? Do you really think a game player wants all of this bs? Most people who want to play a game do it for relaxation and FUN. Hello, MCFly are you listening? Why do you think the casual game market is crushing large productions? Who the he** wants to wads through screen after screen of pure bs before even being able to play? When I want to play a game, I'd like to be able to start playing it before the sun has to come back up again! (3) Doesn't support a modern computer. I have a pro mac 17" top-of-line laster year laptop running bootcamp. I can play diabolo 3, Skyrim and everything else JUST FINE. This da** game, does not run in anything other than 1024x768, and then it doesn't even work. The graphics card I have is a 512meg Radeon HD 6750M I believe. All I have to say to Rock Star is ... I can't type what I want to! Ridiculous is an understatement. I'm done with the pinball joke of the heavy-weight productions titles of the video game industry. Really, goodbye Rockstar, EA and you other jokes of a company who worry more about keeping yourself employed and making a profit instead of thinking about THE USER EXPERIENCE.

off to all of them!… Expand

First of i have to say I have not tried the multi-player, I'm a single player kind of person, and in that I found the game play massively annoying, yes the game looks good, yes the environments are well done, yes the animations are brilliant and the story is deep, although the "I feel sorry for myself" drunk routine gets tedious. And I can even forgive the obvious console port issues. But the constant cut scenes totaly mess up the game play. The game constantly takes control away from you and forces you into a situation you would not normally jump into. For example, up ahead is a room full of guys trying to kill you, as you approach, the game goes to a cut scene, pushes you into the center of the room, and then "over to you", lucky on 3 screens you notice the transition back to you, otherwise your dead before you know it and you "oh was i back in control again". But seriously how many gamers run into the center of a room, and wait for people to start shooting before they start shooting back. And for good measure after every cut scene Max's weapon always goes back to the handgun, never mind if it actually has ammo or in most cases not, or if you already holding an epic auto shotgun. Once or twice I could forgive where it helps the story along, but literally every 10 to 15 minutes, bang cut scene, your not in control anymore. I so wanted to finish the game and explore the story. But I play games to enjoy them, not to feel irritated and frustrated by them.… Expand

You cannot skip cut scenes. I started on the hardest available setting and died almost instantly. I went to restart and I had to watch the whole thing again. Every 5 minutes you get a new cutscene. It is not a game, its a film. The trouble is, if I wanted a film, id buy a film. This is not a game, therefor it cannot be reviewed as one.

Listen Closely, (actually read carefully). IF Anyone, gives a game a 10 this is suspect, add to this the PC gameplay was pulled off Youtube Prior to launch. The game (single player is do able in a single sitting). Unless you love multiplayer, there appears to be little replayability. I recommend letting them fix some of the PC centric issues prior to you $59.00 US, plus 25$ something for a DISCOUNT on the upcoming DLC..

buyer be aware.… Expand

Is the shooting fun? Yes. Are the graphics nice? Yes! Do I wish I could play for more than 30 seconds without being interrupted by cutscenes? YES! When I am playing, it is enjoyable, I think, but the action comes in such short bursts between cutscenes I can't get involved in the game. It's a perpetual game of "just the tip," never letting me go too long on my own. The first two Max Payne games perfectly melded gameplay and storytelling, whereas this does so incredibly clunkily. I am taken totally out of the game, and can't enjoy what I think is actually pretty good gameplay. Not to mention the visual "style" of the cutscenes is so blatantly trying to be "cool" it makes me literally nauseous. The saving grace is that the multiplayer is quite robust and enjoyable (and not interrupted by cutscenes!), so I think that's where I'll be spending my $60 worth of time.… Expand

There are so many cutscenes that the game feels more like a movie. The game takes control away from you throughout the entire game. You get about 3 minutes of playtime and then another cutscene. In addition, the plot is terrible. Its another "damsel in distress" but you dont care about the people you are trying to save at all. In fact, they seem to do their best to make you NOT like these people. The cheesy camera effects were really annoying and the combat system is clunky and doesnt feel right. The cover system is pretty bad - it feels a lot like the shooting from L.A Noire. Basically, theres not much variance in the gameplay AT ALL. All there is to do is shoot guys the same exact way except in a different setting with tons of cutscenes in between. There just isnt ever anything different. Its insane how many cutscenes there are.… Expand

I've played about 5 hours worth at this point, and here's my initial impression: PROS: Visually, it's a very pretty game. The physics are good, the killcams are sweet, and the graphics are amazing. That's it. CONS: I'd just like to start by saying that I'm a HUGE fan of the Max Payne series. It might actually be my favorite. So, I REALLY had my hopes up for this one. Maybe this is a personal problem on my end, but I was under the impression that I bought a GAME, not a damned MOVIE. Having a cut scene after every minor firefight isn't fun, it just slows down the pace of the game. Making most of them un-skippable is just torture. This is made even worse by the fact that every out-of-game cut scene is rendered at lower quality than the game itself.

On that note, my initial impressions that I made 2 years ago when I saw the first screenshots were correct: This is not Max Payne. This is **** Man on Fire. Which would be fine, a Man on Fire game sounds fun. Except this game is not called Man on Fire. It's **** Max Payne 3. Having every cut scene look like a segment from a Tony Scott film is NOT **** noir. Also, I'm not deaf, I don't need random subtitles flying at me every 10 seconds for two words of unimportant dialogue.

The controls on PC are a horrible mess, because this is an obvious console port. A **** flywheel for weapon selection? Are you serious? A flywheel that doesn't even WORK half the time? Max also changes the camera position randomly, bullet-dives into random objects far too often, goes prone for no damned reason when I press crouch... ugh. Add mouse accel into the mix, and it's just God damned unplayable.

I'm taking a break and coming at it again tomorrow. I'm only up the the part where Rockstar decided they wanted to try and make a Splinter Cell game, so maybe it's just that the beginning isn't that good. But my hopes have been thoroughly crushed.

Remedy, I miss you. Come back, please.… Expand

A big expensive movie with sometimes a couple of fights.
Impossible to save your progression as wished or as needed, it's btw a console game.
Max dies every 30 seconds, nearly impossible to accurately aim, even with laser help.
This game is exhausting and upset me. When you just start to feal immersed, a cut scene ruins the experience.
50 â

As a fan of the series I couldn't wait to get my hands on this beast, but I was soon frustrated by a couple of things: The limited control over the main character and unskippable cutscenes for example take away a lot of freedom from the player. The only way to exit a cutscene is to ALT+F4 out of it, because you can only pause and continue. Whilst the gameplay itself didn't lose charm the levels are small and the fights are heavily scripted. The cover system causes problems because it doesn't always work. If you don't mind a heavy consolized game and like playing with controllers instead of keyboards you might want to get it for PC, else wait for a Steam deal.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is very big, im guessing they thought that would make up for how awful it is, but all it does is make it boring all the way through.... I have 200+ steam games and many other big name games. There are only a select few I dont beat, those titles are ussually indie games, but max payne is among them. Max Payne 3 has Horrible characters, bad ideas, generic weapons, numerous eye flashing rave party cutscenes and a giant language barrier. Stop flashing unimportant words all throughtout cutscenes I get it he said "I'll have a drink" I dont need it shooting thru the scene. This just screams bad designers filling space for their crappy little cutscene effect. You'd think this game was made for spain or mexico, you won't enjoy a second of it if you dont speak spanish. Even multiplayer ranks are all in spanish... this is cool why? sorry but I dont understand a $%*ing word and therfore have 0 interest in multiplayer now. can't wait to rank up so I can google what my next rank will be. Max payne kills THOUSANDS of innocent people and doesnt even figure out who hes killing? He walks away from 50 gun fights killing fully body armored guys and everyone treats him like **** in the scene? This game feels like duke nukem, overhyped, linear, limited weapons, semi destructable objects and a D bag main character who says random quirky 1 liners over and over. This is a console port, the gun select is AWFUL. good luck pulling out that gun you just grabbed in less than 5 seconds, heres a hint you wont be able to. Max payne the D bag who kills everyone for fun WOO! I was drunk I didn't know what was going on so I killed everyone.... huh? Yea I won't be letting you finish your story Max, You giant cry baby, I mix painkillers and alcohol, I destroy my liver!! But my trusty sidekick says "You can always get a new one" like its not a big deal. Trust me, it is a big deal. If he really drank and took that many painkillers he would be dead by now. You don't get a new liver if you drink, they take you off the donor list.… Expand

Max Payne 3 is essentially Duck Hunt 2012 with swearing and long cut scenes. A good-looking, well-optimized game that follows this basic formula: cut scene, pop-up shooting gallery, cut-scene, follow arrows to pop-up shooting gallery, LOOOOONG cut scene, long shooting gallery, cut scene, end chapter, looooong cut scene of Max drinking and puking. Due to the save point system, for the long shooting galleries you will have to start from square one if you die. And if you are playing on hard, you will die a lot. Still, the game is not really challenging, just frustrating and one-dimensional. I would give it a 6/10, but the game refused to load until an hour later of searching and trying methods from forums I fixed the problem. The exact same thing happened to me with LA Noire as well. Rockstar needs to beta-test their PC games more thoroughly and I need to stop buying new release PC Rockstar games. I would buy this on sale for $20 as a fun, quick way to spend a few hours before you get bored, but at $60 it is a shiny ripoff.… Expand

I'll preface this review by saying I only care for single player gaming, so I've not tried the multiplayer and I don't care if that is supposed to be a game's redeeming feature. I'm all about the single player experience.

And on that score, I'm disappointed by Max Payne 3.
As a product, it's bloated (4 DVDs? Really?), wrapped up in far too much DRM and requirements to jump through hoops - why do I have to click through page after page of EULA? Why do I have to sign up to idiotic ideas like the "social club" when all I'm interested in is the single player game? As for game play - Why is it so full of bugs? funny freezes/pauses, poor controls, un-skippable and over-acted cut-scenes that appear all too often and are concealing really really appalling load times do not a pleasant gaming experience make, Rockstar.

Once you look past that, you will get to experience an average shooter, that's quite nice looking and a bit too much tied to rails for my liking. There are some nice touches, like the player only being able to carry a few guns and having to drop some if you want to do things like dual-wield guns - this is both handled nicely and realistically and brings a touch of thought to how you play the game.

But... I'm not sure it's actually a Max Payne game. Sure, someone's stuck the name "Max Payne" onto the player's character, and its clearly the Max Payne character's voice in the cut scenes, but the actual game doesn't *feel* like Max Payne to me.

I loved the first two Max Payne games so I really wanted to love this too, but I can't. If it was presented as a first person shooter in its own right instead of claiming the Max Payne heritage and getting it wrong then I might be happier to accept the game on its own terms - and for all the faults there is an average FPS with good graphics here.… Expand

I wanted a new chapter in the Max Payne story, but all I got is a generic grade B TPS. The Good: As everyone agrees, the graphics, physics and whateverics are great. And that's about it. The Bad: Triggers! Triggers everywhere!!! You open that door - three guys SPAWN behind you. Blam, reload. You kill that last guy - congratulations! Cutscene! Reinforcements arrive, take your women, raze your village and fart in your general direction. Ok, cutscene is over - you're in the middle of the room, hidden behind the flimsiest object around. Oh, and you're holding a pistol. Enjoy the epic gunfight. Speaking of cutscenes - there's more than enough of them (unskippable, to boot) to confuse you for the entire game. "Why am I doing that?!", "Errr, shouldn't I be shooting him instead of staring?", "Why am I not moving? Oh, cutscene over, right. Better press something.", "Goodness gracious! Why did I just lock the door behind myself right after I wandered outside in plain view of six mooks?". And if you're still willing to endure all that for the sake of good plot and characters - you don't get either. The plot is largely non-existent and amounts to "Where shall I kill today? Ah, right - in ". The characters around you give you no reason to care about them, they are there just to give you a reason for killing more brazilians. And there's one important aesop - it's ok to heavily drink on the job. No one seems to care, least of all Max himself. You drank two bottles of whiskey? No problem, your aim is steady as always.
Maybe I'm too hard on the game. But it would've looked SO MUCH BETTER under the name "GTA: Sao Paulo" or, for lack of carjacking, "Brazilian Shooter 3D".… Expand

Things I've forgot to mention - a lot of times you will be placed in the middle of firefight behind the cover which only protect you from enemies in front of you, while other enemies will come at you from everywhere.
Also, that stupid "kill the guy who shot you" camera is useless most of the times - the enemy is behind the cover or you out of ammo. Whats even worse - you can't load from the last checkpoint during this moments. So you have to sit through all of this, then get the chance to load the game.
The game has no straight rhythm - you will be constantly slowed down by unskippable cutscene. Sometimes you're in the berserk mode after good action, you killed all the enemies and want to kill more, you rush into another room and... cutscene. What the hell?!
Oh, and that stupid video effects! All this shaky camera, light flashes, double vision, words coming out on the screen - it may be appropriate in the beginning of the game, but NOT all the time! Also, I don't remember getting hit this much, or having to restart the checkpoint in original Max Payne.
One more thing - no grenades! Enemies has them, but you don't. And I don't see any excuse for this. Why, Rockstar, why?
Two years of disappointment - first Duke Nukem, and now this. I wonder how Hitman will turn out? But I'm almost convinced now that it's going to be bad. It's a trend.… Expand

Very disappointing game play. Too many movies. Overall much worse game than previous MP1,2. Game just isnt fun to play. Not worth the money. Very sory for missed chance.

Thank god, I bought it from Steam summer sale. I've always been a fan of Rockstar. I fell bad for writing this but I am really disappointed. I finished MassEffect3 Ext.Cut recently. Then, started to play Max Payne 3. First of all, I liked the cutscenes in the begining chapters. Later, it is getting annoying because at every door, max looks behind the door and says something meaningless and stars to shoot everyone. The story is really cheap and easily predictable. The game itself is, "I'm sure my time is running out" let shoot more bad guys, "I feel my luck is running out", lets shoot more bad guys especially, in the daylight at sao paulo. Why max has to be shooting bad guys in the daylight most of the time?. The final chapters are a little bit darker, I enjoyed a little. Multiplayer is an effort but after I finished campaign, I was too bored to play multilplayer that much. I liked the animations but it has some flaws. Sensitivity is too low even in highest setting. The game could be better. I think, Rockstar is too focused on GTA V. Conclusion, I am still looking forward to GTAV. Please do not give us cheap games while you are developing bigger games and using the Max Payne title to sell it.… Expand

While the game stays somewhat true to the original Max Payne play style, RockStar

It's a decent Tps but the problem is it's meant to be played with 360 and ps3 controllers. This means MP3 will feature a cover system to give you time aiming from behind your cover, OP moves like the shootdodge, Overshoulderview from gears of war to mess with your spatial awarness, zooming and slowing down to get 100% accuracy with whatever weapon like in cod, free camera for goons who can't turn the camera fast enough to aim. It's all stuff that doesn't belong to max payne games. I played it merely because there's no good tps exclusive on pc other than old games like Legions Overdrive, some mods, Gunz and the first Max Payne games. You can go on and play it but i think i'll go back playing the kung fu mod.… Expand

Not a Max Payne sequel, and barely even a game. Just know that going in, and wait for a major price drop, and you might not feel cheated. It's a good action movie broken up by some very short, bland and clunky gameplay sequences. The movie itself, while cliched, is actually pretty good. The gameplay, though, just barely amounts to just another cover shooter.

This game is pure garbage. Tbh thats all, but i try to explain something.
This is pretty much an interactive movie, you see 1 min of movie, then you got a 1 min shooting stage, if you pass it you go to the next movie and so on.
If you die and need to redo a stage you will have to see again and again a short intro movie, and you cant skip it.
Also, if you have to redo a session, the game will switch the weapon you are using with the standard pistol every time.
Game is all on rails, you have zero freedom, its all heavily scripted, so there is absolutley no replayability, also the game is scripted in a manner that wanna be hollywood movie, so you must play rambo always, you cant choose to sneak or do something different.
The game is a console port, as usual for Rockstar , not so bad as they did with gta IV, but still its not a good job, beside the graphic which imo is not so important, the problem is about mouse movement, which is for some reason clunky, it feels glued to the screen sometimes, very fast in game, very slow in the menus and super slow in bullet time... its quite bad and even tryin to change settings there is a bad feeling about it, any pc fps is 1000 times better.
I can add also that the cover system plus the bullet time system adds a layer of gameplay wich is not really needed imo, and its not developed so good, max cant cover in many situations due to irregular surfaces, and / or cant detach so easily from some others.
At the end i really hope that developers will return to develop games where GAMEPLAY is the core, not those kind of hollywood wannabe interactive movies.
I give it a score of 2 cause the voice acting, the movie direction and photography are good, but as this is a game, i want a game not a movie.… Expand

It's just another generic shooter with the Max Payne name slapped on it to sell copies. Poor sequel to the excellent MP and MP2. Cutscenes and cover, cutscenes and cover. Blah. Skippable.

Ok, now I would like to know, why this game called "Max Payne 3"? Rockstar Games got a fantastic chance to create a superb action game... and a great responsibility not to fail Max Payne IP. Maybe (just maybe - Max is too slow and clunky) they made a good action game, but miserably failed MP series. Plain and boring storyline, irritating weapon system, useless and undeveloped cover system. Where is original Max Payne gone? I miss it.
Burn in hell, Rockstar Games, really.… Expand

Most of the reviews take up same points as I think so read them but some examples:

-Short gameplay sequences are broken up with long cut scenes which you cant skip
-You shot someone in the head but the bulletcam/cutsceen show you shooting them in the groin
- For a game which has so many cutscenes, it often will provide a sidekick nearby which /*constantly*/ will be telling you to get a move on.
-The game also has a habit of switching your main rifle or shotgun to a sidearm
-Often after a short cut-scene, you will be placed in a compromised position facing multiple enemies. I loved the first Max games but this I managed to play for 45 min before unsinstall.… Expand

too manyy cutscenes spoil the fps
bullettime is interesting addition, however:
"max is too old" is the excuse for you not being as awesome as before, so diving bullettime isn't really that useful here :(
lazy effort rockstar, lazy effort.

The graphics are amazing! Unfortunately, the game itself is a huge disappointment. The first Max Payne was great, and the second was amazing. I've gone back and played them both again and again, but since I finally finished this one, I doubt I'll ever touch it again.

My biggest complaint is that you can no longer save your game. You have to get to a "checkpoint." Having to repeat the same parts countless times gets frustrating pretty quickly, and takes all the fun out of it. Apparently these software companies think that gamers everywhere are saying, "You know what I really hate? Being able to save my game whenever I want to!" Granted, it's not nearly as bad as Far Cry, where I was stuck at the same checkpoint for two weeks, but it's quite frustrating. The controls are a royal pain. I got used to them after awhile, but that doesn't mean I liked it, especially not being able to jump. And for some reason, Max can only carry a couple guns at a time now.

I loved the cutscenes in Max Payne 1 & 2, and thought there should have been more of them. But this one has way too many. And it's not always obvious when the cutscene ends and you're back in the action. I got killed this way quite a few times. And as several other people mention, after some cutscenes, it insists on switching you to that stupid pistol, regardless of which weapon you were using before the cutscene.

Before you can even play a single player game, you have to sign up for an online account. You read that right. An online account. For a single player game. What is the point of this?

There is a particularly annoying bug in this game, where sometimes it will pause itself for no reason. Last I heard, the company had no plans to fix this, because they "can't recreate the problem." The storylines in the first two games were interesting, full of plot twists, and memorable characters. I kept playing because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. This one, it got to the point where the only reason I kept playing was to be done with it. The characters are so uninteresting that I kept forgetting who was who as the story progressed. I even lost interest in the story itself after awhile. Max being in South America just seems wrong. The flashback scenes from before he left the USA were a little better, but it still wasn't the same. And it never really explained how Max got to where he "wasn't a cop anymore." At the beginning of the second game, it went into a decent amount of detail about the events the happened between the first and second game, but there was none of that in this one. None of the characters from the first two games were in this one, other than a couple of passing references. I know, most of the characters had been killed off, but there were a few that survived, and a few that sounded like they may have survived.

After the second game, I was hoping for a third one. Sadly, it turned out to be a huge disappointment, and I'm sorry I wasted $60 on it.… Expand

The good things about this game is the bullet time and the voice acting in the single player campaign. The rest is downhill from there. Mostly though there are a lot of little annoying things that destroys the gameplay. For me the most negative of them all is the constant screen distortions going on. This may be a intended part of the artistic side of the game, and it is a great effect when Max gets shot or is drunk. But when it is constant even when Max is just fine, it only annoys. Also this screen flickering takes a toll on your eyes if you are playing more than a hour. Other little things that mess up the game is the cover system, which is really dull and stupid. There is no cover to cover mechanism, the is no sprint that works and its easier to get shot when you pop out from cover than when you are not using it at all (i.e. just use bullet time instead). The guns are another annoyance. there is almost no difference between the guns when it comes to distance and damage. It is just as easy/hard to get a one bullet headshot kill on vast distances whether you use a pistol or a rifle. Also there are no access to explosive secondaries like grenades, Molotov **** etc. in the single player. The story is fine, but the constant narrative about how Max is just a drunk old fart about to die, gets old pretty fast, and does not harmonize with what is actually going on in the game. Which is Max behaving like a bad ass commando mowing down hordes of gangsters. This constant negative focus removes the sense of any character progress for Max. Quite unlike the previous Max games when you started in the gutter and fought your way to the penthouse of a corporate skyscraper.… Expand

My review is based on the PC version, NOT any console version!
As a long time fan of the Max Payne series I have to say how disapointed I am by this drivel rockstar have seen fit to release. Lazy console port would sum this game up in short, but it would be unfair to label it thus without explaining why.
Visuals first: Well, not too bad, But for a PC game I expect far more. I would have liked more graphical options. I would have liked to see some emotion in the faces of the characters, they all look so wooden. Everywhere you go or look just seems a little too empty. This is supposed to be a gritty dark game but it reminds me of the latest Duke Nukem in the way it looks.
Storyline/acting: Not too bad as a story, sort of, but the acting is awful. Not hammy awful, just really crap awful. Even worse than Mark Wahlberg was in the film...If that is at all possible!
Gameplay: Poor really. Too many interrupting cut-scenes. The cover system causes more problems and makes you just as vulnerable as standing out in the open waving a big "shoot me" flag. Many times I have been killed because an enemy flanked me while I was in cover and as I have turned to try and shoot them the camera has flipped around and I have ended up facing completely the wrong way. The camera need to see through pillars and walls when you are in cover and you turn, not whizz round disorientating you like it does now.
There seems to be lots of weapons in this game, the only problem I have with the weaponry is that the targeting reticule is tiny and it can be hard to figure out where you are aiming in the heat of battle. I would have liked the option to have a cross-hair or larger, more visible aiming point. (unless there is one in the options menu somewhere that I have overlooked)? Controls: It feels like moving through quicksand sometimes. Camera placing issues aside, it feels hard to accurately target your enemies. The movement of your character seems sluggish and there also seems to be some form of inertia when you try and stop behind pillars or wall ends. I found myself overshooting and then over compensating on many occasions, not good when under heavy fire.
Reliability: I'm not sure which Max Payne 3 some people are playing, but I have had many problems running this game. Several crashes. Screen lockups, jittering and stuttering. Running slow and then skipping to my death scene for no apparent reason (and yes all drivers are up to date, it's the game not my computer).
Overall: If you can get this game cheap (I paid £8 for it) then it is worth all of the 4 points I have given it, and It might be worth persevering with. As for full price? I wouldn't waste your money...Unless some seriously good patches come out to correct the shonky camera, control, crash and bug issues.… Expand

A game that tries to be a movie accompanied with console-port performance and controls while forcing us character story down our throats with a plunger. Nothing more to be said about this one than STAY AWAY. Watch walkthroughs if you want to know how everything plays out as an old fan instead of flushing your money down the sink.

The game is complete junk, did anyone test the mouse movement? The mouse acceleration is horrible. The mouse sensitivity becomes super slow during most actions. The enemies models are too small, which makes the game feel wrong and unrewarding. The pacing of the game was a joke too. The only good thing was almost every object in the game was destroyable and a few good lines of dialogue.

80 % cut-scenes and 20 % gameplay. Please, I wanted a game not a movie. Definitely not a true sequel to Max Payne 1 and 2. I expected better from a game which was soo much anticipated.

The game has a FAIRLY solid single player, gets dull around the 6 hour mark as you've already done everything by that time and the long unskippable cutscenes will probably begin to grind on you by then. It's enjoyable through out most of it and that makes this game worth a rental or a buy when it's dropped at least half in price. The multiplayer is what really ruins this game though, if you can't do it right, then don't do it at all. The clunky controls, the bad camera angles, the awful feedback from the weapons and the terrible map design just make this a horrible experience. The plus side is there is plenty of customization items and equipment to unlock, but I can't see people staying around long enough to see most of them. I would have rated this game higher had it been single player only, but I don't believe in overlooking something because it wasn't in the previous games in this series. I know people will probably disagree with my opinion as we're still in the hype phase of this game, which explains the 10/10 ratings.… Expand

Every 5 minutes you get a new cut scene. It is not a game, its a film. The trouble is, if I wanted a film, id buy a film. This is not a game, therefor it cannot be reviewed as one. Boring story, boring game play, boring dialogue, Oh, and shaky camera. How novel! Yawn

I have to agree with wilddeer. I've played the first two Max Paynes and all I can say is this is nothing like the first two max paynes. The game starts with a 10 minute movie and then after shooting at people for about 5 minutes I get another 10 minute cut-seen. Which wouldn't be bad except after the cut-seen max always finds the dumbest place to stop and hide behind. Can't hind behind the steel counter, lets hide behind the 3 pieces of luggage in the middle of the airport. The other part I like about the game is the horrible computer A.I. it's always aiming at you (even through walls) and always knows where your at. I really love when after you kill the first wave and the 2nd wave magically appears and you have people shooting you in the back and since your health gets shot off so quickly since the computer always hits you and always hits you in the face. So here is the basic rundown of the game. First, 10 minute cut-seen, max then hides behind the dumbest object he can find and the shooting begins. You can either a) wait until your slow-mo bar fills up so you can actually kill somebody or b) try shoot at one of the 5-6 guys shooting at you at the same time at which point you get shot in the face. After the fight max always has some silly comment, which after hearing about him drinking or being screwed over for the umpteenth time you get to a point where you don't care. So in a nutshell, cut-seen, shootout, max **** cut-seen, shootout, max **** Fun......… Expand

This is not a game at least not a full price one. Many games for iPhones and Android have more gameplay to offer! It is an interactive movie and should probably be reviewed in the movie section. Yes graphics are great but gameplay and story??? Ridiculous attempt and it feels so forced. 3 out of 10 for the graphic effort from Rockstar but as a game I wasted my money as it is fun for 10 mins (and it does not feel like you actually play more than this overall anyway) but then remains dull and just plain stupid. Warning!!!
ONLY BUY THIS IF YOUR IQ IS WELL BELOW AVERAGE OR YOU WISH TO EMPTY YOUR BRAIN FOR A WHILE!… Expand

Giving a score this low to max payne was incredibly hard for me and really depressing. There are just too many problems: the combat controls are terrible (most likely due to it being a **** console port), the shoot dodge system ends up causing more deaths than it saves due to the absurdly long time it takes to get up again, the cover system has the standard sticky-glue type thing where you attach yourself to cover, except that a lot of the cover is destructible so you just end up turning into an immobile target, the game is basically a movie with small linear corridors and billions of quick time events, bullet time runs out so fast its barely enough to get a couple shots off, and I could go on and on and on about the mechanics, but whats really important, as max payne fans know, is the story. The game has always been a semi-interactive story in which the player acts out the fatalistic actions of a man who knows hes going to die. The first game was so over the top that it was memorable. Rockstar tried to capture that spirit, but just ended up with a bland story with a main character who to me just came across as an arse. If the story was good, I could of forgiven everything else, but since the story is horrificly bad, it is hardly worth playing.… Expand

Ultimately enjoyable, no doubt. Had it been named "Run down bodyguard on a rampage" or "Man On Fire" then I couldn't fault it more than the horrendous decision to not be able to skip cutscenes, and the troublesome bulletime dodging. But this is a Max Payne game. Kudos for getting the right voice actor, kudos for trying to bring back the Noir. Trying is just not enough, when ultimately it fails to deliver the most important aspect of the Max Payne story experience. There are a few cases where the old Max pops up and I truly feel for him, but overall Max is reduced to a reluctant killer. Max was never reluctant to dish out righteous justice. Heck he even killed his only good friend in the name of justice.
So ultimately, if you want to cash in on the brand name, you have to deliver on that name. And to me Rockstar certainly didn't.… Expand

35 gigs of harddrive space required. That's all that needs to be said. Purchased through Steam and downloaded on a 25mbps connection took 3 full days to install, because Steam's download service is so slow (I wasn't even using my bandwidth for anything else). For 35 gigs of space this should have been the best game ever - it wasn't.

There is no option for FOV. There is no option to turn off acceleration. It looks to me like the game is just another port. I dont like covering system. Environment is too small for bullettime. Story is not that good. Cutscenes are pain in the butt.

Pretty and polished, but extremely frustrating. The devs seem to think "challenge" and "frustrate" are synonymous. They are not. Other reviews have already talked about the constant cutscenes, switching to pistol, shooting in the back etc, so I'll leave that and say THIS GAME IS A RAIL SHOOTER. There is absolutely no freedom - even in the manner you clear the waves of attackers - everything is scripted and you must respond as required or die and try again. This is Dragon's Lair with a gun.… Expand

TOO MUCH CUT SCENE, but the few places were there is game play it is good, you feel his age, and it is not helping him. Biggest complain is the cut scene thing.

I played the PC version of this game. The graphics are very good for the PC version, but the game is very tedious and boring. The dialog is boring (a group of guys with fake accents), the story is boring (dude meets spoiled rich girl, dude tries to save spoiled rich girl), the shooting mechanics are boring (all weapons sound almost the same and handle the same). Apparently it is possible to kill guys at long range with 1 shotgun blast :(. I first tried medium difficulty and then I lowered the difficulty to easy, muted the volume so I could finish it and toss it in the trash can. I tried single player and multi-player. Both are extremely boring. The fact that cut-scenes cannot be skipped is a joke. They are the most boring part of the game. The game would be more interesting without them. This game is not worth $60, and also not worth $30. There is a good chance that this game will be in the bargain bin in 6 months for $20 with no multi-player community to speak of.

I seems that Rockstar tried to emulate call of duty in 3rd person. I can honestly say that this game gets my vote for the most disappointing game of 2012 so far. I am giving the game a 4 out of 10 simply because of the graphics. The game has nothing else going for it.… Expand

Firstly to the haters.If anyone of you havent experienced or played max payne game before then to be literal YOU WONT LIKE THIS A BIT because max payne games have always been linear and in service of narrative cinematics while retaining dark atmosphere.I have been playing max payne since its original release 2001 and still do with lots of awesome mods created by fans specially for Max Payne 2.Max Payne 3 didnt feel like a max payne game at all to be honest and die hard fans might agree with that.ITS JUST A LINEAR AND OVERSCRIPTED GTA IV TO BE SPECIFIC.NOIR STYLE,DREAM SEQUENCES,DARK ATMOSPHERE,FEELING OFMAX PAYNE CHARACTER ALL ARE GONE.in the first two games we actually felt the resonance of the tensed situations and feel of a max as a character.To be specific Max Payne 3 is a sheer disappointment.Remedy will regret the loss of such iconic character by rockstar and its GTA fanbase.PROS:Terrific voice acting and level design,,great shoot outs CONS:Not in any way feels like a max payne game.even the story is cliched with predictable outcome,no dream sequences,no character feeling,Mona Sax is completely forgotten in the latest installment.Overall IF I WERE NEW TO MP SERIES THEN I WOULD HAVE RATED IT 9 BUT AS A DIE HARD FAN OF THE SERIES FOR A DECADE I AM DISAPPOINTED.SAME THING HAPPENED TO SPLINTER CELL SERIES WHEN CONVICTION WAS RELEASED AND NOW MAX PAYNE.START WORRYING ABOUT 47… Expand

Cutscene loading time was annoying. Story was stupid and dull. All depth has been removed from Max as a character. The final kill is awful little kid **** (at least you can turn it off by playing the game on its hardest setting). Most of the gameplay, however, is **** perfected. Best 3rd person shooter in existence(only for the raw shooting experience). If you dont agree youre probably a noob. Youre probably like a woman driver. Something just didnt click. If any of the above drawbacks stopped you from repeatedly enjoying this game time and time again, you just suck.… Expand

This could be a 9/10 or even a 10/10 score, but I decided to make it a 2, since my gameplay experience (with the latest NVIDIA drivers and the first patch installed) was pretty much like this: bug, bug, bug, crash, freeze, freeze, bug, crash, crash, freeze, bug. Judging by the infrequent and inefficient patching it seems that the developers dropped the testing stage completely when they rushed to release the game on time. ROCKSTAR QUALITY/STABILITY/TESTING/BUGTRACKING GUYS SHOULD CONSIDER PERFORMING SEPUKKU!… Expand

Summary: Rockstar, in its latest breathless desperate attempt to come across as a trendy auteur filmmaker, has once again completely spoiled what could have been a pretty good game.
Pros: Refreshing protagonist, fun gunfights, colorful level design.
Cons: Abysmal save system, overlong unskippable cutscenes (the 'you can't skip them because you're loading' cop-out is false, since the levels will load in seconds when you start from a checkpoint), unremittingly linear progression that means any clue or collectible missed past a checkpoint requires sitting through another long unskippable cutscene you've already seen once or twice before (you will want to beat your head against a desk at this), pretentious and overdone 'film effect' interjections seemingly trying harder to emulate 'b-movie made for cable cop action movie' than film noir, *constant* interjection of headache-inducing RGB-split video effect, plainly stupid text overlays of bad dialog meant to add impact but really only getting in the way.… Expand

The worst game i have ever played..... I am a huge fan of Max Payne but with this one it is **** now. Thanks Rockstar..... I did buy the first Max Payne for my tablet 100 times better than this garbage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This game is once again a proof that you cannot rely on critic reviews to buy games.
This game is apart from a brilliant graphics extremely bad.
This was my first Max Payne game so I cannot compare to the previous versions but the story line is bad, the narration is bad, the game evolution is bad, the game features are bad, the aiming is bad, the enemies suck, there is no challenge even in the hardest available level.
In a couple of words, I didn't like this game, it was boring and 12 hours long (for 60… Expand

What drivel! It is everything I should have expected from a shooter made by Rockstar. The cut scenes are EVERYWHERE, interrupting the game play every few seconds so there is no flow to the game. I have never had problems with epilepsy but these cut scenes make me want to vomit, with all the "artsy" blurring and fading in and out. I understand that the protagonist is in a perpetual state of intoxication, but you don't need to make me vomit as well. The weapon selection is pure crap and is obviously a port from the console version. I will have my 2 handed weapon selected when, yes, another cut scene interrupts. I am now released back into the action with my pistol selected instead of my more powerful primary and if I roll my mouse wheel the wrong direction, I drop my 2 handed weapon all together leaving me exposed in a firefight without my main weapon. Of course the painkillers are your friend, you WILL take a lot of damage, but they are scarce and not readily available. The controls are awful and clunky. The aiming recital disappears when not in use so when you enter a firefight you will need to fire off around before you can even attempt to aim. I don't like Rockstar to begin with, but after destroying one of my favorite classic games, I downright hate them. Save your money for a worthwhile game, this one is awful.… Expand

The story is good, but there are WAY TOO MANY CUTSCENES. The cutscenes start right in the middle of a gunfight. They are annoying. What's worse is there are cutescenes where you are forced to control Max. I dont play these games to control someone who's forced to crawl on the ground, slow as hell.

After trying to play the Multiplayer for like 3 hours, I got about 10 minutes of actual playing out of this. I get kicked out midgame, I get kicked out right when it is loading, or I spent like 15 minutes in the **** loading screen before the game tells me that the host apparently could not be found. Multiplayer is just unbearable for me at this stage and the campaign is long beaten. 3 points for a meh campaign (short and repeatitive but nice story), 0 points for the god awful multplayer.… Expand

Really dated gameplay that would be no more than a minigame mechanic in a modern GTA. Obviously Rockstar were staying true to the original and its sequel, but the endless cutscenes, frustrating controls, repetitive gameplay and stupid storyline left me regretting buying this. Critics must be getting some great swag from of Rockstar, because if anyone else published this, it would be panned as out-of-it's-time.… Expand

Too many unskippable cut scenes break any sort of rhythm the game might otherwise have achieved. You'll rarely have more than one or two fight sequences between cinematics, so you start about a third of the battles in a stupid position with the wrong weapon equipped wondering if you've got control yet.

I gave up after a few hours. Maybe there are things in the later parts of the story or the multilayer that redeem it, but I quit when i was forced to do the second sniper mini-game only half way through chapter 3. I loved the first game and would replay sections over and over so i could get the perfect head shot or diving uzi spray. But i can't face this. Yes it looks lovely and it certainly has a plot, but this game has more in common with Resident Evil 5 or Time Crisis than the original Max Payne and as a gamer that likes to get really immersed in a game, playing this felt like I was at my mates house taking it in turns to play one life each on Call of Duty. I think it could be modded into something playable, but Rockstar have put so much emphasis on polish and style that i've uninstalled it until someone independent makes a patch.… Expand

I have been playing shooters on pc since Doom and Wolfenstine 3D and I must say the mouse aiming is just plain retarded. It just feels wrong like when you move it jumps 10 pixels at a time. Absolutely disappointed with rockstar on this one. I am so glad I only paid $14 with steam sale! I was a huge fan of MP 1 & 2. In multiplayer on any pc shooter "soft aim lock" should not even be an option this is not xbox360 us pc gamers do not need any type of auto-aim, then again with the retarded mouse movement maybe we do on this one.....… Expand

I gave it a 4/10 because I kept getting stuck in cover, so it was unplayable. I couldn't get further than the football stadium. Also, the normal level is quite difficult, you die all the time, then all those cut scenes are annoying. I did want to like it though.

Max Payne 3 can't decide whether it's a game or movie. It does both elements exceptionally well, but switches between them every 10 to 30 seconds. The first hour is pretty fun, but after that you'll come to loathe every unskippable cutscene or bulletcam sequence.

You will have to constantly battle the game for control. Half the time you can't tell whether you're in control or in a cutscene, because running, jumping and bullet time get disabled for no apparent reason, Max walks along a set path regardless of the direction you're looking, or the camera forces you to look at something.

To make matters worse, despite the constant theme of urgency, every level contains collectable pieces of "Golden Guns" that you have to explore every corner to find. As accidentally triggered cutscenes have a habit of blocking off visited locations, this quickly becomes tedious.

In short, this game is exceedingly frustrating. If Rockstar released a DLC that removed all the cutscenes, I'd buy it in a heartbeat; but until then, I regret paying money for this junk.… Expand

Probably the worst game released in the last 5 years. It's like they decided to take a dump on the previous titles and make some quick cash. Rockstar should be ashamed of themselves for putting out this crap.

I've played 1 and 2, and both were fun, challenging and had a good story to them. This, is basically a movie and that can be great, but it is so one-sided shoot-em up that it is a bore. Once you've shot your first 1500 bodies, the grind begins to set in.

What happened to the surprising and challenging puzzles? There is ONE thing in this game and that is shooting, all others have been removed. The story is so-so, but passable, but really the challenge is gone. Point, click, push left-mouse button, at times, you use space for picking them off easy. Boring.… Expand

Cutscene, shooting gallery, bulletime. Rinse and repeat. The story was average, and so was the game play, and the fact that if you couldn't get past one point you could just restart it with full health and a couple extra painkillers really bugged the hell out of me, it took away the challenge.
The one redeeming feature is that it's not a terrible PC port.

If you want to play GTA4 without cars and without open world - Max Payne 3 is for you. If you want good old Max Payne - don't bother. This is another game. Almost nothing in common. It is something like Kain & Linch, but shorter and with looooonger loadings/cutscenes.
I can't say it's bad. It's almost OK. It is interesting that the main character is old drunk, and at least a first half of story is pretty solid average action movie scenario (don't know about other half). But you'll get something about 1 hour of real gameplay for a singleplayer, I think. And game mechanic is total crap for PC version.… Expand

It's a beautiful interactive movie. But when I want to play a game, I want to actually PLAY the game -- not watch it. A great game for the "I don't want to think for myself" generation.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Max Payne 3 is the best Rockstar game I have seen released, so far. I finished the game in 12hours with 7 Golden Weapons Achieved! 9/10 Graphics! 9/10 Story! 9/10 Game play! Never seen A Loading screen.… Expand

Look at all the fake reviews giving 10. Tells you all you need to know. This Is Rubbish. Ancient GTA3 engine used to create one long cutscene. You're barely involved in playing this game, you just click through. They've dumped the atmosphere of previous games in the series totally. Rockstar even managed to botch the bullet time and dodging. As with all previous games based on this engine, the graphics are glitchy and choppy and the physics are buggy as hell. Also you need to sign up to their useless drm system and be connected all the time to play. Rockstar and Ubisoft love this crap. This is a poor console port that should be avoided.… Expand

Looks good, but the controls are dreadful (way too often you try and change to the rifle and end up throwing it away and pulling out a second pistol instead) and the checkpoint system is infuriating. A really promising game, let down by being an appalling and very sloppy console port. With decent controls and a quicksave feature, it could have been brilliant. But it isn't.

The story is great. So are the graphics. But unfortunately the gameplay isn't. I can't tell you in words, how f** frustrating it is to restart the game from a checkpoint that is set at the beginning at the level. The other bad thing is that you can't skip most of the cutscenes.
And why do people and even professional magazines tend to rate a game by the quality of a conversion. When I play a PC game it's either good or bad and not well converted or bad converted. This one just is not as perfect as tests say. Sorry.… Expand

Frustrating, annoying and disappointing. Only giving three points because of great graphics and atmosphere. Other than that this game is an absolute rubbish. Such a great potential this game had was wasted by making it into some unplayable movie. Not only that, everything was heavily scripted, there were unrealistic hordes of enemies coming from everywhere, many action scenes were ridiculous and could be compared to some B-class video movies of 80's etc. Couldn't wait to finish playing and uninstalling it. What happened to the gaming industry and who are they making these games for? Don't buy, it's a waste of money and time.… Expand

The first playthrough was epic - fantastic gameplay and engaging story. However, subsequent playthroughs were frustrating due to the extremely long cutscenes. Multiplayer is mediocre. This game could be worth it if it were under $15.

Where to begin.

I know

In a word: disappointed. I’m a massive fan of the first two games and still play through them every now and them, but I have no intension of replaying Max’s latest adventure. Graphically the game is very good, but completely devoid of the noir that made the previous games so atmospheric. And where is the humour and the constant movie and TV references? It’s like it takes itself too seriouseriously in a vain attempt to come across as “gritty”. The graphic novels have been replaced by lengthy and unskippable animated cutscenes that quickly become tiresome. And the story is dull and instantly forgettable. I managed to complete the game in two afternoons (for which I paid £30, so not good value for money). The action seems to have evolved into something more resembling COD and they have implemented a cover system that is crucial to survival. You spend most of the game crouched behind walls, popping out every now and then to take headshots. Bullet time is no longer centre stage gone are the dynamic and insanely fun fire fights of the previous games. The multiplayer is nothing special. It’s basically a 3rd person COD, with similar gamemodes, and a similar experience and perks system. The bullet time function is clumsy and doesn’t really work as all players in line of sight enter the mode with you when activated. In fact the multiplayer is already pretty much dead. After the dullness and dumbed-down experience of LA Noire and the mediocrity that was GTA IV, I strongly suspect that Rockstar has lost their way. It’s like they’ve forgotten what used to make their games so good.… Expand

Juego de pasillos donde los enemigos van saliendo por oleadas, no te da nada más, ni puedes hacer nada más, imposible salirte del guión establecido, todo marcado con checkpoints, muero, reinicio, muero, reinicio, avanzo 10 metros, otra oleada, historia clásica.

I'm giving this game a zero because there are so many frustrating things about the playing experience that make me not want to play. I almost clicked uninstall just now but I'm going to wait and give it one more chance. My hopes are not high.

The story is really pretty decent and intriguing; I'd say the only thing that's kept me in the game this far. The actual game play and mechanics are abysmal and the game is wrought with bugs. I've had the same essential PC hardware for over 2 years (video card and processor, etc) and this is the first game that has ever caused a blue screen/crash. Approximately one out of every 5 times I take cover I get stuck in cover, cannot move, cannot peak out, aim or shoot and I have to wait until they shoot me to near death for it to animate me out or just restart the check point. It's bad enough that I mostly have to avoid the cover system.

Moving is awkward, clunky and slow. Mouse control/sensitivity is out of control. Luckily I have a mouse with a hardware button to adjust the DPI or I would not have been able to play this game at all. Aiming is still very clunky and predicting where your aim will go when leaving cover is nearly impossible.

There is an art style applied to the MANY cut scenes that you will want to hit someone for after the first 5 minutes. It looks like a VHF channel with signal problems on an old CRT television and they do it CONSTANTLY. Also the game will pull you out of actual game play into unskippable cut scenes without warning simply for stepping somewhere on the map. This often means you cannot go back to where you were before the cut scene which also means you can't collect items such as guns or ammo from enemies you just killed. Also fantastic is that your weapon selection is constantly changed FOR you during cut scenes and otherwise. Had dual pistols equipped? Maybe an assault rifle? Not anymore, now you just have one lousy pistol equipped and they've dumped you into a fire fight with a dozen bad guys. Enjoy that weapon switching too because it takes so long that you'll most likely get shot up while waiting for it or maybe even die. Overall there is a very low attention to detail in this game. Inconsistencies between scenes and cut scenes (can't keep track of what gun you're carrying). Very little player control and when you are in control it's just not very fun. What happens when you're in cover and you get shot close to death? You go into slow mo mode with a chance to kill the bad guy who shot you. This means you lose bullet time and you do an in place sideways dive of sorts so that you end up out of cover lying on your side. So even if you're able to win that little battle Max is so slow to get back up you'll probably just die again before you can get back to cover.

I REALLY can't believe that anyone play tested this and said "Yes, this is a fun game to play". It's a really embarrassingly bad game mechanically which ruins a pretty decent story experience.

P.S. Don't think that your game play actions have any actual effect on the outcome of events. The story and events are set in stone so you can fight your ass off for an hour and kill dozens or hundreds of bad guys only to have the entire purpose of your fighting undone in a 90 second cut-scene where suddenly you're powerless. Yay 1990's gaming!… Expand

I'm so happy I got this on the steam sale. Max Payne 3 is one of those games that make you clear one area, and after this you move on to the next. If you get killed, you have to start over again. Sometimes the 'areas' turn out to be much larger than one would have thought and after completing a challenging part of a level, you move on, looking around (more about this in a second) only to get shot and restart something that you already did. I know there are people that like this kind of thing: if that's you, you might like the game. But that's not the only shortcoming of the game.

I normally love games with a good story. Max Payne attempted to be cinematic, but it failed miserably. The way they created his character is just cheesy. You've got an ex-cop, who's a pill-popping alcoholic, who takes a bottle of pain killers and chases them down with a bottle of vodka or whiskey or whatever is his poison. All that Max does is complain about being a failure, monotonously. His wise-cracks are just like he is as a character: miserable and predictable. And, always banging on the same drum, ultimately boring. I know that sometimes protagonists of video games are supposed to be stereotypical, but its hard to find something less enthralling than a whining alcoholic. Other characters aren't much better. There also is a small technical plot hole. If you're bent on finding somebody, and time is of the essence, the game should encourage you to charge, or at least try to get to your goal ASAP. But it doesn't. Oh no. It does everything to discourage you, it even award you for not doing so. You have to find clues and parts of golden weapons as bonus objectives (remember when bonus objectives were a real part of games that made you do a level 5 or 6 times to get everything right?) Here its just the opposite. You have to canvas entire areas looking for something that might be a clue, or a weapon part. Which can be ludicrously hidden at times. Again, this isn't something new, and games such as Black had this.

The game also has too much cliches. You have the favellas bit (Fear 3, Modern Warfare 2), escaping a burning building (EVERYTHING last year)... What it lacks is innovation. And being fun.… Expand

Hahaha notice that all the reviews which give this game a 10 are posted 1-4th of June 2012, just when the game was released. I guess rockstar (wisely) didn't trust real gamers to write positive reviews.

Since the reviews wont tell you what you get with this game, I will: it's a bad console port. One can't change the controls, it is 100% corridor shooter, gameplay is run & gun for two minutes followed by a long cutscene, rinse and repeat.
Graphics are fairly poor, gameplay is worse the handholding is so heavy and the cutscenes so frequent it's effectively a slightly interactive movie. Oh yeah, and it REQUIRES that you register online for a "social" account before you can play.

Possibly the most disappointing game I've played in two years. Really sad to see how far the Max Payne franchise has fallen.… Expand

i installed the game and right after the next start i couldnt log in anymore with the credentials i have just created and that work online on the website. no reaction from support even after 2 days. this is just no fun at all. one pays high dollar for a single player game and gets: nothing at all.

This is one of those games which could be pure awesomeness but developer obviously tried too hard and - FAILED. Graphics is good. Even gameplay is good. But... There are animated sequences all over the game. You can hardly play for 1-2 minutes without be interupted with animated sequence. Game is soo linear that even moving from 1 room to another is animated sequence. AI is terrible. AND WORSE and most annoying thing is that when you die you are always returned on checkpoint BEFORE animated sequence which usually cannot be skipped. So each time you die you are forced to watch same sequence again. Without this things which make this game unplayable game would probably be 9 or 10!… Expand

I spend half an hour on registering to this Rocstar Game Club only to find out our beloved dark, noir, gritty Max Payne is now bright, happy, brazilian partyman with a love for uncotrollable screen effects that burned my retinas.

got this in a sale and it won't link with my steam account so because of the DRM I can't play it so I have no choice but to rate this game a zero but I am willing to change my review if the problem is fixed

So disappointed. The biggest problems are technical, it's pretty much a craps shoot as to whether you will get it to run (Didn't run properly on my gamer PC, did run on gamer laptop at much reduced settings). So if you get over the technical, what do you get in the game? Cut scenes that make the Metal Gear Solid series look brief and uninspiring game play when you do get the chance to interact. nil points.… Expand

I just hope anyone from Rockstar Games is reading this: it's about your GTA engine. DO NOT EVER attempt to make a game where a protagonist has to shoot ridiculous heaploads of enemies and where the plot kind of depends on that process. Your engine really kills the narrative. It just plain sucks for games like that. It is just not suited for games with a decent story at all. Stick to your GTA stuff (it is really good). THANKS A BUNCH!… Expand

this has nothing to do with the original Max Payne 1 and 2. it's basically a bundle of cutscenes with occasional shooting. it's really embarrassing to call this thing a game. a game is something i would like to play, not to watch.

It's gunfest, body count nonsense from Rockstar, who persist with the stupity of their lounge and ruin a good story with inept, unsubtle game design, excessive cutscenes and game play that even on easy (yes I am rubbish, but I should still be able to enjoy a game without having to retry staged fight scenes 10 times before I luck in and complete them) can be difficult and irritating. The default reticle, a small whit dot, is notable by it's invisibilty and seems to be in the wrong place compared to Max and his guns which makes aiming very difficult.

All in all a very disappointing experience compared to the first two games.… Expand

I own all 3 max payne and I absolutely loved the first two games. I've went through both of them many times. The action was awesome and the shooting was very satisfying, combined to a nice story and cool ambiance, I had a blast playing them. It is very different for max payne 3 as the list of irritating stuff stacks sky high.

A major annoyance is that you get cutscenes all the time... and by all the time I mean ALL THE TIME. It totally destroys immersion and annihilates all chances for the game to build any pace at all. Most of the cutscenes could be removed out of the game and it wouldn't change the story at all (especially since like 50% of the cutscenes are max drinking and falling asleep. Yeah ok, we get it...)

Speaking of redundant cutscenes, max payne was quite the bad ass in other games and you could sympathize with him but when they make you run around the world to save tasteless characters (the dumb blonde and all the brazilian family), you understand that it's to make up for his past but at some point you start wondering why he even gives a damn anymore...

Something that started pissing me off early in game too is the fact that every time you run out of health, the game slows down so you can get a "saving shot" off. At first it's a cool feature but it gets annoying ultra fast as the levels get more crowded: later on, most of the time you can't even get that shot off because there is something in the way or you just can't aim at the target at all. Forget it if you're using a grenade launcher, the grenades are so slow they can't even detonate in time, making the GL way too risky to even use. Oh and what makes this even more of a pain in the ass is that when you're in slow mode and you know you're doomed, the "restart at last checkpoint" option in the menu is unaccessible, so you have to suffer through the entire thing before you can do anything.

Another thing that ruined it for me is that it seems the AI has way too good aiming sometimes. They don't even know you're there and the next nanosecond you get headshot. I don't know how many times this happened. Not only that but it seems like when you use the UZZIs in automatic mode, you shoot all over the place but the AI seems to be able to snipe a fly a thousand yards away with them. Now the cover system is pretty good but it's often entirely negated due to the "encounter" pattern that is always the same: you ALWAYS end up in a big open area, a wave of baddies spawn and then you're pinned down by like 10 dudes. Not only it's about impossible to avoid getting hit a few times but the second you think "yay I'm safe, let's leave cover to get ammo and painkillers" WRONG! As soon as you get far away enough from cover, a second wave spawns in your face. Also, sometimes you try to get cover without the cover system (by cutting angles with most enemies so you can get them into view one by one) but max payne's aiming angle is so awkward that often you get shot by targets you can't even see. Most firefights are so frustrating that it takes the fun out of shooting stuff up... That's saying a lot.

Another few minor annoyances that sounded the alarm the very first seconds I opened the game for the first time: when you get in the game it says press enter to continue at the bottom of the screen... but when you press enter, it does nothing. You have to click the text... Speaking of which, have the people doing the port played a computer game in the last 10 year? Seriously, who uses enter anymore to navigate menus? Well for max payne 3 they decided to do it all the time. Also, for some reason, the mouse is ultra slow in the menus (menus only) for a reason I ignore. Minor stuff you'll tell me... Of course, but it just adds frustration on top of all the other issues.

Add very bland stages with very little variation to that and a bunch of glitches all over the place (from bugged cutscenes that you can't skip so you have to ALT+F4 out to weird convulsing ragdolls) you have a game that has disaster written all over it. I pretty much always finish the games I buy even if I find them tedious but I uninstalled this one about 75% through. I only paid 10$ for it during a steam sale and I still feel ripped off.… Expand

Fell asleep after playing two hours. Shoot cut scene, shoot cut scene nothing else. Avoid this game if you have no insomnia. Can't believe how this game get a 8+ score.

This is NOT Max Payne, this is John McClain in Die Hard The Interactive Movie. Plagiarism.
Max Payne used to be a fast paced shooter with lots of enemies. In Max Payne 3 you always sit behind cover. Makes bullet time kind of useless,max payne? Bullet Time??? Bullet Time also used to be different. With different, i mean better, and more fluent. So gameplaywise this game sucks.
Storywise this games is also Give Max Payne back to Remedy, Prickstar f...ups, k thank you.… Expand

Absolutely horrible. If I didn't have a digital version I'd set the box on fire. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a Max Payne game because it says Max Payne in the title that is a lie. Instead of dancing around bullets doing cool shoot-dodge moves and slow motion fun this is instead yet another Generic Third Person Cover Shooter. Should you dare to exit cover and play the game like MAX PAYNE you will be shot full of holes in an instant. Instead, the slow motion is there so you can hide in cover, activate slow motion, get an easy headshot, and repeat over and over for the entire game. You are forced to play the game in the most boring way possible to succeed, as the fun arcade action of the originals is completely gone.… Expand

I'm not only complaining because this Max Payne doesn't feel any similar to the previous games that made him famous and appreciated. I'm complaining because behind a weak and predictable storyline, it doesn't let you enjoy the game with continuous cut-scenes and automated movements. It feels like Time Crysis!! Aim, shoot, change position. Aim, shoot, change position. VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED!

Shoot all the baddies, cut-scene. Wash, rinse, repeat. Over and over and over again. And don't you dare hang around any longer than necessary, you'll get a rhetorical remark every 30 seconds to remind you that you have to press this button, walk through that door. No, you're not allowed to think for a second. Just shoot the baddies and follow the linear story.

Good:
+ Graphics
+ Max is back
+ Painkillers

Bad:
- Game-play
- Overdone and overused blurry effect
- No puzzles
- Never let's you think
- Linear
- Okay-ish story

Ugly:
:( Max always pops out his handgun after a cut-scene, even when you had a rifle
:( Camera is sometimes very bad, which makes you unable to kill a baddie sometimes
:( Very bad AI… Expand

I give it a big goose egg (0). I shouldn't have to go into all my modem settings just to get the game that I bought to work.
I have no other problems with online games unless I try to activate this game on "Rockstar Social".
It's absolutely ludicrous.
I've observed other people with this problem as well.
Rockstar can kiss my ass because I will not buy another game from them with this horrible service.… Expand