Well, after finishing up the game yesterday, I thought it might be awesome for me (and for you) to overview and talk about this game. Now, I guarentee you that in this critique, there will be some spoilers wether on the storyline, the gameplay or the characters. So if some of you are Max Payne fans and haven't played it yet, You have been warned.
This overview will be held on multiple apects of the game. The only thing I won't talk about is the multiplayer experiences as I didn't renew my Xbox live account ^^;. IT will be focused on the gameplay (Bullet Time, Shootdodge, final kill cams, hard locks/soft locks and so on), on the storyline (story itself, clues, golden guns, characters...) and on the strategy book I bought.
Are you ready? I am :D So let's start:
Let's talk about the gameplay. I will comment on every plain aspect of the game.
Difficulty/challenge: I have to say, Max Payne 3 does have challenge. I'd say: bring all the today's mediocre shooters all together on their hardest difficulty and you won't even get a single half of what Max Payne 3 gives you on easy. I have to say, I finished Max Payne on Easy in 30-35 hours. I am about to complete the story on Medium and I can't even count the numbers of times I died to be honest. I have to say that this shooter really offers an amount of difficulty and challenge that is incradebly difficult and that gives you the type of shooter you always wanted in your childhood. The other thing I love (and all of the Max Payne fans will know what I'm talking about) is a whole new dimension of the New-York Minute arcade mode. For those who don't know what it is, it's a game mode where you have to acheive the chapter in a certin amount of time (Killing ennemies gives you extra seconds and all that) and if you die, you restart the whole chapter. BUT... On this 3rd opus, they added a "Hardcore New-York Minute". The rules are the same BUT, that's where it get twisted. If You die, you don't only restart the chapter, but the whole game itself. And with 14 chapters, you don't want to die.
Health: Since we're talking about challenges, why not talk about health? See, the more hard you go in difficulties, the less bullets it takes you to get killed. Sure Max uses some painkillers to heal himself but whoops, another twist. You REALLY REALLY have to manage your painkillers because I'm telling you, there's about 4 to 6 places in all a chapter where there's some painkillers. You want challenge, you got some baby :D
Last Man Standing: Now that's a concept I like that wasn't on the first two ones. This concept uses one painkiller. If you have at least one botle of Painkillers, it works. See, Whenever you have at least one bottle and you're almost dead, you have one chance to redeem yourself. Kill the attacker who shot you and you'll recover from your wounds by taking a bottle of painkiller. I love that concept to be honest :D Gives you the chance to get back on your feet, especially on that "Harcore New-York Minute" xD
Bullet Time: AHHHHH... The element of this trilogy. One of the first shooter to ever use the impact of slowmotion. Slowing down your enviroment to aim, run, fire, recharge faster than your enemies. If you want to survive, you have to use it a lot and RAPE your Bullet Time bar xD Seriously ._. And what I love too is that your bullet time bar raises up in function of where you hit your enemies. Hiting them in the uper arm gives you more bullet time than in the stomach and so on... A little peice of advice, headshots are the best ;)
Shootdodge: This aspect of the game is really usefull to be honest. Shootdodge lets you jump in any directions and activates bullet time even if you don't have some in your bar and lets you have a full 360 degrees view on your enviroment WHILE being in the air WHILE in Bullet Time. Isn't that amazing? :D Plus, when you get on the floor, if you don't touch your left analog stick, Max will stay proned on the ground, having yet again a full 360 degrees view on your enviroment. Pretty usefull when you have a horde of ennemy coming at you.
Final Kill Camera: This is awesome! When you clear an area of ennemy, the last one you shoot is called the "Final kill cam". A bit like in Multiplayer in CoD. But the amazing part is that you can slow down even more the speed of the bullet by pressing either A or X. Plus, you can even shoot multiple times in your enemy to make more blood come out of the body xD Pretty interesting too :3
Cover: What a great way to prevent bullets from hitting you... But be carefull! If you stay covered too long, your enemies will try to switch tactics and get you from behind. Which makes it another challenge in this game.
Melee: I was quite surprised that they did put this in the 3rd one. The melee atacks are quite awesome and you get to choose at the end of the attack wether to pull a bullet in your ennemie's head or knock him off dead. The choice is yours :D
Weapon wheel: Another VERY interesting concept. The wheel lets you carry one two-handed weapon along with 2 one-handed weapons. This is real fun because in the other Max Payne games, you could carry a lot of guns on you. But not on this one. And another challenging twist: You can choose to double-weild yourself with your two one-handed guns, but you automaticly drop your two-handed weapon. What's fun though is that when you double-weiled yourself with one handed weapons, you can create a whole diversed combination of them. You can put a .38 revolver with a Uzi, a PT92 with a 608 bull and so on. So it makes this fun to try and to use all the combinations possible :3 And let me tell you, there'S A LOT of weapons in that game (there's 26 weapons in the game to use)
So overall, this is the first part of what makes Max Payne 3 a pure masterpeice. All those combinations of new concepts that probably no shooters today reunited in one can offer... I didn't took the time to spoil anything on the gameplay as you would have learned all this in the mini tutorial (only on easy) at the beginning of the game.
Now... Let's get on WITH the spoilers xD This part will talk mostly about the Characters, the storyline and the collectibles.
Collectibles: Now... This part isn't really a spoiler because one time in the game, you'll find these and say "Teh Hell is that? O.o" So might as well explain them to you :3 In the story, there's two things collectible:
Golden gun parts: Now those are the ameliorations of every weapon in this game. Find the 3 gold parts of the gun and you upgrade it in gold, causing more damages to your ennemies. Let me tell you, they are HARD to find ><
Clues: These are only there to help you get the story go on and figure out why Max got in this whole trouble. Those too are hard to find but they are priceless to find as they are part of the story to understand.
And now... THE SPOILER! The storyline... Now if you really don't want to know the story, DON'T open the the spoiler... Seriously, I warned you like multiple times. Don't whine if you read it and wanted to play because I warned you multiple times. Not my fault if you read it.
Chapter 1: Something rotten in the air
The story begins with Max in a rich party thrown by Rodrigo Branco, one of the richest mogul of Sao Polo. Max is actually working with his friend Raul Passos in assuring the Bronco family a full protection. The cinematic introduces you to every family member: Rodrigo, Marcelo and Victor Bronco along with Rodrigo's wife, Fabiana. But soon enough, the party crashes as some armed man bursts from the elevator, shooting their way and kidnapping both Fabiana and Rodrigo. You learn that these masked men are part of the Comando Sombra. A high pursuit leads Max all the way to the building's parking where Max finally rescues Rodrigo. Let's say that this Chapter introduces you to some techniques very usefull in Max Payne
Chapter 2: Nothing but the second best
A couple of days later, Max accompanies Fabiana, Giovanna (Fabiana's Sister) and Marcelo to a high private electro club in downtown Sao Polo. But unfortunately, they were all unaware that the Commando Sombra would strike again. As they strike, Max runs towards a window and pushes a bad guy off the window, leading to an automatic bullet time shootdodge where you can clear all the guys in the rom. Unfortunately, the commando Sombra are able to kidnap Fabiana and her sister. Then, it's a whole shoot and run across the Main Floor, VIP lounge, orbitas lounge and so on to chase them. Then, you arrive to a point where they go up to the helipad. The cinematic goes on where you get in your helicopter and Giovanna manages to break lose from their kidnappers. When the controls are back to the player, you have to shoot your way with a rifle to protect Giovanna while she runs from her ennemies. After this chasing episode, you get back on the floor and make your way to find Giovanna. When that's done, a cinematic where Passos arrives with Marcelo gets on and shortly after, you can see Max mixing painkillers and alcohol like he uses to do.
Chapter 3: Just another day at the office
The day after the club incident, you end up at the Bronco family's office where the group look at a 3 million dollars randsom for Fabiana's safe return (as she got kidnaped in Chapter 2). Max, though he knows nothing about kidnapping and randsom, accepts to do the job with Passos. There's a cinematic where you land into Sao Polo's soccer stadium and where you do the exchange with the Commando Sombra. But soon enough (again), all turns wrong for Max as sniper rifle gunshots ring, one of them seriously injuring Max to the arm. As you escape the sniper's angles, Passos and Max walk into the stadium, despite to find a first aid kit. They arrive at the team's medical center where PAssos heals Max's wound. Next, you make your way through a sevral amount of rooms and you finally end up in the stadium's gift shop. Ennemies come and shoot and you learned shortly after in a cinematic that the guys attacking them are seriously financed. Mainly, you fight your way through lots of places again and you finally end up covering Passos as he has to get out of his cover as ennemies are rushing towards him. After protecting Passos, there's a cinematic where you see the guy with the money get shot by the well financed guys. But before, you learn that Fabiana is being held at the old docks on the Tiete River. Finally, you manage to battle your way through to your helicopter, where the cinematic leads to Chapter 4, Max's meet with Passos.
Chapter 4: Anyone can buy me a drink
This flashback opens with Max siting in a New-Jersey bar, drinking. A trio, led by Tony De Marco (son of the local mob boss) and threatnens Max. Soon enough, Raul Passos ends up the haressment and when the trio is out, Raul Passos introduces himself as being one of Max's classmate back in the academy. He tries to recruit Max into a protection job for his Brazilian "firm". But suddently, Tony comes back in and after a short moment, Max shoots Tony, leading the situation out of control. So you end up fighting your way to Max's appartment but Max now realises that he became Anthony DeMarco's new target. So again, you fight your way against DeMarco's ennemies up to the rooftops. And then, you end up in a chop shop, killing more and more ennemies! The chapter ends up in the backyard guntlet where Passos asks Max again if he wants a job. The flashback ends, leading us to the 5th chapter.
Chapter 5: Alive if not exactly well
When the flashback ends, you end up in a boat with Passos, driving to the old river harbor, where Fabiana is held captive. Nothing really happens on this chapter except the fact you battle your way once again to find Fabiana. You actually find her but they end up escaping once again, on boats. So the Pier Walkways end up blowing up and you end up chasing them on the river. Unfortunately, they manages to escape for good again as your boat is scraped by the boat pursuit and you depretely watch Serrano (comando sombra's chef) drive off.
Chapter 6: A dame, A Dork and a Drunk
Shortly after the river incident, Max ends up being in Rodrigo's office along with Rodrigo, Victor, Marcelo, UFE commander Becker, Passos and Max. After the breifing, Max stays with Rodrigo and talks with him but suddently, heavy armed invade the complex and the million dollar security system of the building fails to work. The only way to make it restart is to reboot the system on the server room. So Max protects the IT guy all the way to the server room, where he manages to reboot the system. Shortly after, he tells Rodrigo to lock himself in his office. After another battle, Max heads out to Rodrigo's office, only to find him dead, a single bullet shot in the head... A proffessionel job. More, there's a missing security tape missing. And as Max looks at a Fabiana photo and drops it, he discovers a bomb wired under Rodrigo's desk. Max manages to escape the multi-million dollar burning building. As he leads out, he finds a dying soldier who tells him that Fabiana is located up the hill and that the Crachà Preto soldiers were coming after him to try to kill him. The chapter ends with Max shaving his head and decided to become sober.
Chapter 7: A Hangover Sent Directly From Mother Nature
Max is now in Nova Esperança and he's going after Fabiana who is "up the hill". Before he does so, he calls Marcelo and Victor to let them know about the situation. Lost, Max tries to desperitely find his way as he really doesn't know where he is. He then crosses a kid who "guides" him to a live party going on on a basketball field. An armed trio of mug takes him in a corner, harass him and throws him off in a sewer ditch. Max then enters a bar and meets a cop, William Da Silva (you know the one in the smoking in the first chapter?) who talks that the Branco situation was a setup. Da Silva then opens a file where he points Commando Sombra's leader Serrano, the head of Cracà Preto head Neves as well as Milo Rego. Those two last men seems pretty familiar to Max. Finally, Da Silva suggests that Victor Bronco is somehow involved in all this but that he doesn't know why or how. Then, there's a massive battle all across Nova Esperança's favela (lower, middle and upper). Once Max reaches the upper favela, he reaches Serrano's hilltop and finds Fabiana but unfortunately, Giovanna and Marcelo are now being in hostage. Unfortunately, Max's efforts to save Fabiana are in vain as one of the Commando Sombra kills Fabiana. The chapter ends by the commando Sombra yelling about the UFE and while one of them stays with a gun pointed towards Max, there's another flashback to New Jersey that leads to the next chapter.
Chapter 8: Ain't no Reprievement gonna be found otherwise
As Max stands next to his passed away wife and baby's grave in New-Jersey and talks about the "Mona buisness". Like Michelle and now Fabiana, she was one among the others he couldn't had protected enough. But before he could do anything, three men comes up to him and confronts him. Max tries to make his way throught the cemetary as Ennemies tries to kill him and Passos. All this shooting brings him up to a cupola where there's a sniper. After defeating him, he enters the cupola but is soon trapped by Anthony DeMarco's men. A cinematic then comes up where you can hear and see Anthony whine about his only son's death and then forces Max to dig his own grave. But Max succeeds in espaing the graveyard, pushes on to the Morgue, gets in the chapel while another whole lot of ennemies get through his way. Max finally reaches the top of the chapel witrh Passos, where he makes a call to get out of New-Jersey, which leads us to chapter 9 and out of his flashback.
Chapter 9: Here I was again, half way down the world
This chapter is probably one of the most short and brutal chapter in Max Payne. The flashback ends and you can see in the cinematic that the thug assinged to kill Max is fearing all the gunshots, explosions and helicopters ringing outside. Max distabilases him, knocks him and escapes. This chapter is mainly a shoot and kill every Commando of the UFE that you see and try to escape the favela. Along the way, you see the UFE taking Marcelo and Giovanna. After escaping the favela, Max watches the Cracà Pato making a human exchange with the UFE death squat cop. He then decides to follow Milo Rego and this leads Max in finding both Marcelo and Giovanna. Unfortanutely, Milo sets Marcelo on fire and trhen an animated cinematic goes on where you press buttons to kill Milo Rego.
Unfortunately, I can't spoil the last 5 chapters... Maybe to your own pleasure :P But I will end on this... I didn't experienced the multiplayer experience but I can assure you that the single player story mode and arcade are truely awesome. To be honest, it's worth to spend 60$ on this game!!!!! :D