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

Absolutely superb game. beautifully optimised for PC with loads of lovely DX11 goodness added. Wonderful looking game and every bit the Max Payne I wanted it to be. If you liked the first two you must get this.

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.

Best game out in the last six months of 2012. Amazing gameplay, nice graphics, unique optimization, not bad multiplayer. This game everyone should to try! Good job Rockstar.

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

Outstandingly good PC implementation. DX11 and multi-monitor (widescreen) support is great. Runs well and looks awesome. Really enjoying the storyline and gameplay. This is a good day for PC gaming, congratulations Rockstar for delivering a game worthy for the PC platform!

After I finished the game, I tried to play it one more time....
...but then....
..... I got frustrated like hell..
because I had to watch the long cutscenes again and again..
I tried to skip them but I couldnt skip them most of the time

As a big fan of the original Max Payne games and Rockstar games in general, I had high hopes for the latest incarnation. The game does live up to some of its promises. Graphics are excellent, supporting DX11 and runs smoothly at full settings on a year old rig. The storyline is well written, although somewhat hackneyed at times.

However, the single player game is fraught with annoyances which get in the way of the journey. Short gameplay sequences are broken up with long cut scenes, which are almost entirely unskippable. The game claims the game is 'still loading' for the nearly 10 minute scenes between levels. This is despite a save game loading in less than 10 seconds. This is not a problem on the first play through a level, but is a major problem if you are into replaying chapters for collectibles.

The game frequently takes control, or slows you down just to open a door, in places that could easily have been played out in real time. To make matters worse, the game often will take control and move you through a door (while locks behind you inexplicably) before you have had time to search the level for hidden collectibles. In one sequence that comes to mind, the game makes you walk slowly though an area which has no enemies, yet there is no reason why you can't run.

Often after a short cut-scene, you will be placed in a compromised position facing multiple enemies. The game also has a habit of switching your main rifle or shotgun to a sidearm at the same time to make life more awkward at the same time. Max also seems to have forgotten how to sling a shoulder weapon, as he must drop any large weapons to dual wield his sidearms. While this may be a tip to realism (nobody in Max Payne 3 can't afford a $5 sling it seems), it removes the old ability of being able to choose a weapon at will that was present in the original titles.

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. Often they will run off and get killed while you search for clues or gun parts.

To make matters worse, i have twice now been forced to replay sections because the game has mysteriously forgotton the progress I had made in the game. I believe this is because I 'continued' a previous game by using 'chapter select' to replay the chapter before the one I was on and just playing on. Be warned, if you do this the game will not unlock chapters properly. Make sure you finish the entire game before replaying any chapters.

Overall, the graphics are good, and gameplay is often well done, but the game seems intent on constantly reminding you that it is in control and it will make you play the game how it wants, not how you want. Giving you more control would have made this a 7, but the game provides just too many frustrations. The Rockstar QA team must have gone on holiday for this release...… Expand

Max Payne 1 and 2 were linear - completely linear. Mission one came before mission two and there were not that many routes in each mission. At a tactical level (how to clear a room) there is LOTS of choice - but like all the other MP games - it's linear. Controls are excellent, graphics are not up to much (cartoony - maybe a fraction better than Red Dead Redemption on the PS3 - but the PS3 is a 6 year old system using graphics hardware from the mid 2000's. Butr that's the end of my probelms. The game play very well indeed. The cut scenes are often but most ore not that long - but like I said at the top - this is the same as all the other MP games. This is MP3 NOT GTA Brazil. If it's standard Rockstar game mechanics you are after you might me a little dissapointed. Me? I love it… Expand

This is a re-review. My last review I have it a 0 because it would not work due to Social Club malfunctioning. Great story, narration, cinematic feel, solid gameplay, excellent optimization for PC. 15 hour story. Works well with 360 controller or M/KB. Rockstar Social Club is potentially annoying when it doesn't work. As others have mentioned, the cover system can be a bit annoying but it's not a big deal and it still works well. I crashed maybe 6-7 times. There is a little bit of static in the audio, which annoyed me after a while. The multiplayer is a bit generic but still fun. Overall I must say this game is fantastic, it's just a shame it gave me so many problems.… Expand

played on PC too this .. game .. its running fine on the PC version too ... Else everything is as same as with me at PS3 ... Tried to play in it as R* is bit weak on PC ........ Its fine

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

Signed up to metacritic just to be able to write a reveiw for this fantastic game, the performance is absolutly perfect, was worried about performance issues since rockstar have a bad history with pc ports etc happy to report that this game runs perfectly!! im so so happy.
Not only does it run perfectly but the controls are superb, this game has me looking forward to GTA 5 in a big way now.
Can easily see myself playing through this game a number of times its just that damn good, multiplayer is fantastic and will keep me playing for years to come, cant stress enough to anyone out there who is in two minds about getting this game dont be!! u wont be disapointed, not only is it a fantastic game but it also sets the standard for future thrid person games. Rockstar im **** loving you right now.... good job !!!!!… 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

I am rather confused with this title as I thought I bought a game and not a movie? When I get to play the game its good but its truely annoying when you sit watching cutscenes which never end and suddenly transition into the typical Max Payne jump, and you go oh gosh I am supposed to play now.

This game made a big fuss before its release. And after it is released I waited about a month to buy it until I checked the success well, then I bought it. I run the game and I started to play. At first I've found nothing interesting. I said maybe it's just the beginning, the game will improve in the next chapter. so I played for another hour. Still nothing, nothing impressing or new, nothing unique. I finally realised that the whole game is big failure. Rockstar earned large profits from this game due to the older versions, but also lost the confidence of many fans. That's my own opinion, and I totally disagree with critics. I do not know what really impressed them in this toy.… Expand

First of all, to the person complaining that they thought they bought a "game and not a movie" you are a burger. Plain and simple you are a burger. This game is amazing I cannot remember the last time I put a game on and was just like holy freaking **** The graphics are outstanding, the voice quality could use a little work but besides for that this game is perfect.

The bullet time works great, the melee is freaking awesome , when you shoot someone in this game you feel as if you actually shot someone.… Expand

Pure epicness! Can't believe that Rockstar did such a good jon with the PC version of this! It's incredibly well optimization PLEASE GO BUY IT NOW! Its Too Amazing!

I am really loving the game so far, i'm only 1 and a half hours in, and it runs pretty nice on my system, not at max, but nice. The only thing that pretty much ruins a lot of the experience for me right now, are the effects for the use of alcohol and painkillers given in the the cut scenes, even though the cut scenes don't bother me at all, i think they are a valuable asset to the game so far, and i really enjoy the game right now. (I've actually pressed alt+tab to write this message XD ) It's only just these effects that, tire my eyes. could someone please make an on / off option for that ? I would really appreciate that very much !… Expand

Nice graphics, nice cutscenes, very good voice-acting, but the shooting somehow lacks and the situations seem artifical and set up. All in all, half-way through, it begins to become boring and veeeery predictable.

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

Max Payne is always been one of my most favourite franchises and this sequel is the best of the picking, with slick visuals, great shootouts and SLOW MOTION. You will have a lot of fun and with absence of loading screens it brings a breath of fresh air to cinematic games. With about 12 hours single player and a ton of replayability as well as two arcade type modes you won't get bored on your own. If you do then you have multi-player which is amazingly fun and challenging. There is not regenerative health in the single player and it is hard so if you are expecting a call of duty, look elsewhere.… Expand