Reviews// Max Payne 3

There's also a slow motion dive you can perform when things get hairy. It's not spectacularly helpful, as controlling your direction's a bit awkward. The game will periodically throw you into a free-wheeling, airborne slo-mo manoeuvre – these are less awkward and a fair amount of fun. They also serve to break up long sections of play that can start to get a bit repetitive and/or full-on.

Rounding out the use of bullet time is a mechanic that sometimes enables you, when badly wounded, to put a bullet in the chap who just shot you. If you get this right, you'll be allowed to live. Given that the first few times this occurs you have no idea what's happening to you, the exact bloke who shot you is often difficult to locate and the controls are (deliberately, I assume) not very responsive, this isn't one of the game's stand-out features.

Taking cover is also fairly important, though not to the point that you'll become a lead-ridden lump of meat the moment you step out from it. It's just as well, really, as the cover system isn't particularly well developed. With cover-to-cover mechanics now pretty standard in third-person shooters like Gears of War and even Uncharted, their absence in Max Payne 3 feels like a bit of an omission.

There's the occasional feeling that you're playing one of the open world games that are Rockstar's stock-in-trade, only without the actual open world. For the most part, however, the action's tight and controlled enough that you don't feel you're missing half a game.

While there's little in Max Payne 3's action to make it the real stand-out title you might expect from such a well-hyped release, it does do its thing very well. The action's fast, hard and for the most part polished. There's a real visceral thrill to much of it and it's easy to start feeling like Bruce Willis invading a skyscraper.

Between the glitz of Sao Paulo's elite clubs and high-rise buildings, the murk of a New York seen in flashback and the grime of the favelas, there's enough variation to keep things interesting, too.

The game features a few bits and bobs to keep you coming back. Primary among these is the multiplayer. It's a little early to be passing judgement on that, but I will say that, while it doesn't feel essential to the game, there seems to be enough depth there to add some value.

There's also an arcade mode that challenges you to replay sections of the game, maxing (yeah, 'maxing') out your score with multipliers and trying to climb the leaderboards.

All that said, though, how much you're going to enjoy Max Payne 3 will really depend on how well you get along with the story. There's a lot of story and if you're not enjoying it then it will quickly start to get in the way. The writing is, as previously noted, a little lousy with clichés. The grizzled former cop, drinking himself into oblivion until he makes one last attempt at redemption is a very well-worn staple of noir and thriller fiction. The narration, too, leans into pastiche. If that's likely to bother you, steer clear. If you can overlook that, the plot is fairly engaging and Max is a fun guy to spend time with. 'Fun' in a desperate, homicidal kind of way...

Max Payne 3 is thrilling, if not surprising.

Pros
+ Slick, well-directed action.
+ Strong implementation of bullet time.
+ Vibrant setting.
+ Solid storytelling.

Cons:
- Lacks stand-out feature.
- Occasionally clunky mechanics.
- Pastiche of noir conventions will annoy some.

SPOnG Score: 8/10