By Sam Coles:
The Max Payne series is something that I hold close to my
heart with their dark and twisting stories coupled with fun and satisfying
gameplay. Max Payne 1 and 2 came out two years between each other and remedy
soon started working on a third instalment, however they were met with budget
restraints due to the poor sales of Max Payne 2. Max Payne 3 was originally
slated for a 2009 release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 but got delayed and we didn’t
hear anything about the game until late 2011 around the same time GTA V was
announced. Max Payne 3 eventually came out in May of 2012 and it was great,
however there are a lot of people in the gaming community that don’t seem to
like this game and I don’t understand why.
Max Payne 3 takes place after 9 years after the second game
and we see Max at his lowest as he is drinking more and popping painkillers
constantly. He now works as private security for a wealthy family in Sao Paulo
Brazil who are being targeted by favela gangs and private military groups who
have kidnapped your boss’s wife. You travel across Sao Paulo tracking her down unravelling
a conspiracy of human trafficking where political figures make money from
harvesting organs, you also have flash segments where you’re back in New York.
This game has a very dark story not as dark as the other games but it is still
very grim and is not for the faint of heart. I like this story as you see Max as
a completely broken man at the start of the game but as you progress you see
him reform himself as he stops drinking and repents his sins.
The gameplay is easily the best in the series because the
shooting mechanics are incredible the controls are so tight with excellent
animation. You really feel the weight and age of Max in this game as he slowly
dives through the air with dual pistols before he hits floor at full force. Yes
they did ditch the mechanic of being able to carry all your weapons as you can
only carry two pistols and a two handed weapon. However this system works fine
as it makes you adapt to the situation as you have to ditch certain weapons to accommodate
for the situation.
The presentation in this game is beautiful considering it
came out on the Xbox 360 and PS3 5 years ago it has excellent character models
with fantastic animation. The environments look amazing with the dirty slums of
the favela to the rain soaked docks where you can see the rain drops running
down Max’s face. This game is extremely detailed with the violence as well
because when you kill the final enemy in the room it will follow the bullet
similar to Sniper Elite and show the holes the bullet leaves and you can keep
firing until your magazine is empty. It’s so graphic with the violence and
almost believable coupled with the animations when you shoot enemies in certain
places as they will react appropriately as they will limp or crawl on the floor
when they’re mortally wounded.
The only problem I had with this game is that it has frame
rate problems (on console anyway) as it tends to drop below 30 fps during in
game cutscenes, however it doesn’t during the pre-rendered scenes.
Max Payne 3 is a great game and I don’t understand the hate
behind it, yes it is a simpler story but it is still an engaging game in all
departments with beautiful graphics, great gameplay and dark and twisted story.
You can grab this game for super cheap price these days if you’re playing on
console get the PS3 version as it is on one disc unlike the two disc version on
360.
No comments:
Post a Comment