

Each encounter with a group of enemies ends with a bullet cam, showing your final, fatal bullet soaring through the air and striking its target in grisly detail, and giving you the option to pump excessive, unnecessary ordnance into the poor bastard. Bullets visibly tear through bodies, leaving holes that spurt blood as your enemies die. This is partially due to the game's unflinching violence. Regardless of the option you choose, shooting in Max Payne 3 feels terrific.

#MAX PAYNE 3 GAMESTOP FREE#
Three aiming options for the campaign let you customize the gunplay to your liking: hard lock takes much of the challenge out of things, snapping on to the nearest enemy soft lock sticks to enemies once you've got them in your sights and free aim leaves it all up to you. Though some things may have changed for Max Payne, one thing that hasn't changed is his ability to blow bad guys away by the hundreds. And it's not all tropical locations and bad Hawaiian shirts for Max Payne here a few great flashbacks that take place in Hoboken, New Jersey, reflect the snowy weather and urban atmosphere of earlier Max Payne games, as well as Max's previous fashion sensibilities, and connect his new life with his old one. Nightclubs throb with dance music and light shows children play soccer in the favelas run-down hotels are packed with leftover junk from their earlier days of luxury. The locales Max has to gun his way into or out of are alive with authenticity and detail. Max Payne 3 has far more sunlight and color than earlier Max Payne games, but the menaces Max faces here are at least as dark as those he's faced before. Also from below, the front, the back, and the sides. Subtle touches throughout the game make Max seem convincingly alive, such as the complex look that crosses over his face at the start of one stage when bloodshed seems inevitable it's as if he dreads what's coming, but does his best to mentally prepare himself for it. The writing is terrific Max's world-weary wit is as bone-dry as ever, and as he ruminates on things like loyalty and loss, much of what he says has the sound of hard-earned wisdom. James McCaffrey does an excellent job reprising his role as Max, bringing a wider range of emotions to a character who has previously often been one-note. But in moments of disarming honesty, he reveals to Max a depth that lies beneath the facade he presents to the world.Ĭutscenes use multiple moving panels to pay homage to the graphic-novel-style storytelling of previous games without feeling beholden to it, and the considered use of blurring and other visual effects echo Max's state of mind, perhaps making you feel as if you're the one who has been hitting the bottle a little too hard. You might be tempted to write off Marcelo, the youngest brother in the wealthy Branco dynasty Max is hired to protect, as the shallow playboy he often appears to be. Other characters, too, reveal a surprising humanity. Max reveals a complexity here not seen in earlier games, as he hits rock bottom and must either stay there or face his demons head-on and make himself anew.


It's hard to stay ambivalent once you see the horrors being suffered by the innocent here, and you'll likely want to see Max's quest for vengeance through to its conclusion just as badly as he does. Though the details of the plot add up to your typical story of conspiracy and corruption, of the rich and powerful preying on the poor and helpless to become even more rich and powerful, the writing, acting, and presentation elevate this tale well above a boilerplate video game crime story. Fleeing his New York life to take a job working security for a wealthy family in Sao Paulo, the hard-drinkin', pill-poppin' Max finds that his demons come along for the ride. It's a truth Max Payne knows better than anyone. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's
