Honestly, the most fun gunplay in any game, period. Max himself can be too talkative, and depressing, but the game fun as hell.

amazing game and graphics

lost count how many times I've played this, its like a movie

Better than the originals change my mind. :)

crazy how a HEALTH album came with a free game

Need games to be made like this in 2024. Not woke SBI crap. I mean seriously though, this game is fricking awesome!

So, so good. He's a 10 but his cut scenes are mid and unskippable. Please, please give us a fourth and final game.

Complaints first: Yes, the cut scenes are both frequent and largely unskippable. Yes, the level design can be quite linear and annoyingly arbitrary. Yes, Max feels MUCH slower in this game than he used to. And, yes, it barely feels like a Max Payne game at times. However, I don't care. The feeling this game gives you while you're slow-mo diving through a hail of gunfire and spraying two Uzis is unparalleled.

I love the Max Payne series and this one has, by far, the best gameplay. Equally effective as either a tactical shooter or as a run-and-gun, it feels slower and more deliberate than the first two games. Makes sense, Max is no spring chicken by this point. He has to clamber to his feet instead of a kip up, and his "sprint" is a joke. You also have to pick and choose with weapons this time, as our guy can only carry three at once. However, the shootdodge feels like it gives you a longer time spent in mid-air, which is good since the game prioritizes accuracy MUCH more than it used to. There's also a cover system now, which I suppose was inevitable.

These changes mean it does feel tonally different to its predecessors, but I consider this a necessary piece of what makes it unique, and this is by far the most unique of the Max Payne series. Mostly because it doesn't take place in a comically overdone "film noir" version of New York City. In fact, it's not very "film noir" at all if I had to guess. Instead, it takes place in Sao Paolo, Brazil, which is almost the opposite of NYC. Bright and sunny instead of dark and raining, to put a blunt edge on its aesthetic. It's like Rockstar wanted to distance Max from NYC as much as possible. Even the two flashback chapters take place in New Jersey, but they are still great and never left me with the feeling of "I've seen this before". In any case, it proves that a Max Payne-style game can take place almost anywhere, and in this game it does.

The levels themselves are incredible, and I personally have never found them particularly linear. Max Payne 3 is still a graphically impressive game even today. And you can run everything on ultra-high since it's a twelve year old game at this point. Sprawling favelas, pristine, marble-floored banks, grungy dockside garages, abandoned luxury hotels, international airports, you name it. This game has a ton of variety in its level design. Even the flashbacks tread new ground whilst still providing callbacks to the first two games. A graveyard at night while it's snowing is very Max Payne, indeed. You can also find clues and golden gun parts, which add extra replay value. Max's voice actor, James Caffrey, delivers some pretty good monologues and one-liners when you find clues or painkillers.

The story does its job well enough, but leaves a bit to be desired in terms of a quality narrative. It's bombastic and way over the top but nonetheless a fitting end to our hero's journey. After what starts off as a kidnapping plot gone wrong, Max finds himself embroiled in an organ-trafficking ring, of all things, and realizes far too late that he's being set up as a fall guy for it. Rich banker's brother wants to be mayor, uses blood money to finance his political campaigns, hires corrupt cops to frame Max for everything. Why they thought they'd be able to frame a guy who has killed over 1,200 criminals and gotten away with it is beyond me, and it's pretty far-fetched that an ex-detective wouldn't be able to figure things out sooner than he does. So it's more of a crazy action movie than film noir. It's the only game in the series not written by Sam Lake, which explains a lot. His work in the series was hallmarked by a thin, shimmering, almost dreamlike quality. The first two games were well-known for their dream sequences, of which there are none to be found in the third.

The game's overall aesthetic is one of sadness, loss, and isolation. Cut scenes flicker with glitch effects, as if they are in time with Max having spasms of pain. The color shift during shootdodge is a jaundiced yellow instead of the gold-tinted hues of old. Painkillers seem less effective, too. Max has become a full-blown alcoholic by this point and he looks terrible. In the opening scene, he drinks two bottles of whiskey, smashes a photo of his dead ex-wife and child, cries, and goes to bed. So, a pretty sad dude. In retrospect, it leaves me with the impression of "one last chance to do something right". A desperate, broken man clinging to a life that has long since passed him by. James Caffrey was unbelievable in his portrayal of Max Payne this time around, even performing many of his own stunts.

Also, there are 1,400 killable enemies in this game. One thousand four hundred. That's more than twice how many the first two games COMBINED have. Let that sink in. I think Max needs to be prosecuted for war crimes at this point.

In summation, Max Payne 3 is an immensely enjoyable game with some flaws. Sick gameplay, killer soundtrack, insane level variety and attention to detail, and some serious replayability are more than enough to make up for its peculiar shortcomings. Being as tonally different as it is to the first two, it's no small wonder this game sold as horribly as it did upon release. Rockstar dumped about 100 million bucks into this thing, and they never really got close to making it back. Due to these unfortunate circumstances, it's pretty unlikely we'll ever get a fourth game in the series. That along with James Caffrey's death has all but sealed its fate. Fingers crossed, though. Looking forward to the remakes of 1 and 2.

Max Payne 3

First off - don't put an opening cinematic before the main menu. I don't want to have the game boot up with ♥♥♥♥ settings and blow my ears off without any option to fix things before I start immersing myself, it will leave a bad taste in people's mouth. Secondly don't make most of the cutscenes unskippable in the actual game, it ruins any potential replay value motivation and will turn off people who don't care about the story.

The movement in MP3 is extremely clunky compared to the first two games, I'm impressed that they've made such a big step back after almost a decade. Your inputs feel sluggish & when you sprint you move like a fat kid running on sand, that is if you're not blinded by all the horrific visual effects constantly distorting the screen.

Had to turn this off after an hour because it hurt my eyes to look at for any longer period. Easily the worst in the series, with 2 being the best by quite a long way.

Score - DNF

Update 2024 - finally finished this earlier this year. I still stand by what I said, the same is bad. 4/10 if I'm being generous

Beware before buying the game i bought the game long time ago but does not work anymore due too keys rock star does not recognize the purchase i made through steam.Money lost and steam will not help me

Look, this game does not contain the same magic sauce that Max Payne and Max Payne 2 dripped with. This series desperately needs Remedy back and Remedy mustn't ever sell it's franchises again. Other than the fact that this Rockstar release doesn't stand up to any of Remedy's masterpieces, it plays OK - like a Max Payne DLC for GTA.