[Scott_Arm]

Single player: AWESOME

Multiplayer: meh

Graphics in the single-player campaign are fantastic. There is a huge amount of detail and polish in everything, and the character animations are unbelievably good. In terms of visuals, this one is up there with the best of the best on consoles. The controls are tight, and all of the weapons feel great and sound great. All of the narration is spot on. Enemies react in what appears to be a realistic or believable manner when being shot, much better than RDR. It really gives the combat a visual flair that's unique. There are some complaints that the game's combat gets repetitive, and if you don't like shooters, I can see how that would be true. If you do like shooters, I think you'll have a lot of fun. The game flows great, without any loading screens (loading is hidden in cutscenes), and the cutscenes transition in and out of gameplay seamlessly. There are more cutscenes than I'd like, but they're very well executed.

Unfortunately, the multiplayer misses the mark, despite the fantastic match making, partying and customization. They pretty much lifted the party features right of COD, and it works. You group up, and it keeps you on the same team, and if you leave a match it keeps you together. That's great. The way you can customize your appearance is spot on. The problem is, the balance of the weapons and unlocks is pretty much way off. The maps are ok, but not really spectacular. I picked up a crazy gun someone had unlocked and immediately went on a huge killing spree. The gun was just vastly better than what I started with. Not a huge fan of that.

[pjbliverpool]

Thanks for the review. I'm not the slightest bit interested in multiplayer anyway so this just moved it's way significantly up my list!

[RenegadeRocks]

Haven't played the game, but I watched quite a few walkthrough videos by different guys and it seems to be a cover shooter, per se. Did not see much bullet dodging. Those guys, different people, were mostly using bullet time to pop out of cover and take shots.

Is that so Scott_Arm ? Do the levels mostly lend themselves that way ?

[Scott_Arm]

I find cover is absolutely the worst way to play. I die way more often if I try to pop in and out of cover, and for the most part it's ineffective. Maybe they're doing something different than me. Are they using lock-on aiming (full or soft lock)? I'm playing with free aim. When you're in cover, you don't have an aiming reticle until you press LT to aim, so you can't line up your shots before popping out. You also can't jump from cover to cover with a button press like in most cover shooters. The enemies are accurate shots, so standing still for a second can get you killed pretty quickly. It could be that you can abuse cover in combination with bullet time, but I find standing still, even in bullet time, gets you killed quickly. For me, the best way to play is to be very aggressive and keep moving so the enemies can't draw a bead on you. Headshots recharge your bullet time quickly, so once you're in bullet time you can keep it going if you're accurate enough.

I'm pretty far into the game now. Chapter X or XI, I think. The basics of the combat do not change, and the aren't really many differences between the enemies, other than weaponry, armour and grenades. Some enemies do seem to be more accurate at shooting than others, and are more effective at taking cover. The untrained gang types pretty much stand in the open shooting wildly. The game is surprisingly long compared to the previous games, so I imagine if you aren't really into shooters or have found a way to abuse cover, it might feel like a grind. For me, the combat is so visceral and stylish, that I never really get bored of it. Any time I'm in an office area set-piece with a lot of glass, I get pretty excited. Mowing down endless goons is always amusing. Last night I broke the 1000 kill mark, and I'm not even finished the campaign yet.

I would describe the game as a real hardcore shooter. There are a few sections that I found fairly challenging, where I died quite a few times and had to retry. That's on normal with free aim. Hard would probably be very difficult. Comparably to other shooter type games, the normal setting is much more of a challenge. Most shooters on normal are incredibly easy.

[Scott_Arm]

Later in the game you really have to focus on headshots, which I don't like quite as much because early in the game it's fun to run across a room spraying bullets out of an uzi wildly and watching hordes of enemies get dropped. I definitely started using cover a little bit more yesterday, but I still found that I only really used cover to reload, and continually moving worked best for me.

[RenegadeRocks]

Maybe the cover becomes more crucial on harder difficulty, cos the vids I watched were on hard mode. Will link them tomorrow when I am on my PC.

[Scott_Arm]

Yeah, that could be true. Relative to other games, normal is fairly difficult at times. The enemies are accurate and do a lot of damage. One shot from a heavier gun will put you down, so you can be killed quickly. I haven't tried the hard setting yet. It could be that the enemies are so accurate that you really can't move much in the open. It would be interesting to see how the game is balanced on console vs PC, because PC players are going to be far more accurate using a mouse to aim. Maybe the mouse makes cover fire more useful, or it could be that the increased mouse aim makes "normal" too easy, forcing you to play on hard for a good experience.

[Scott_Arm]

Finished it. Great game. It is probably a little bit long for what it is. I prefer short and sweet to overstaying your welcome. Still, it isn't so long that it really hurts the game. Later in the game, I definitely had to change my play style to use cover a bit more, which is disappointing. The game succeeds more early on when running and gunning is the most effective and most fun way to play. Later on, the focus switches to head shots because of all the armoured enemies. Also the enemies start carrying higher-powered weapons, and are accurate enough to hit you while you're moving, so cover is a must. Basically I'd take cover to pop guys and let my bullet time recharge, and then I'd use bullet time to move from cover to cover while stringing head shots. You can't use shoot dodge much later in the game, unless you're fighting only one or two enemies. If you don't take them out before you hit the ground, they'll kill you fast when you're prone if they have high-powered weapons. Using shoot dodge against large numbers of enemies is a bad idea, unless you land behind cover.

I think Max Payne 2 was probably the best in the series, relative to what was available at the time. Max Payne 3 is a very good game, but it doesn't stand out against the rest of the gaming landscape quite as much. The game is a fitting way to continue the series, and my only major complaint is the lack of the crazy hallucination/dream levels that were in the first two games.

Highly recommended for action/shooter fans.

[Scott_Arm]

Looks like they shipped 3 million copies of Max Payne 3 in the first week. It'll be interesting to see how many of those sold.

[Acert93]

Wow, impressive. I thought it was running the risk of going under the radar.

[Scott_Arm]

I'm guessing this one ends up in the 4-5 million range on the consoles. Not sure what the PC will bring when it launches.

It's a very good game. I think a lot of the pre-launch negativity scared some people off, but in general the game is pretty popular despite the lack of talk on some gaming forums. It wouldn't be in my top 5 games this gen, but probably in my top 10. As far as pure shooters go, I'd put it near the top.

[Billy Idol]

Love this game!! Although it somehow is so old school...it feels refreshing

Gun play is superb imo

[Scott_Arm]

Agreed. I'm slowly working through my second playthrough when I get a chance, and I rarely play games twice. It's one of those games where messing people up just never seems to wear thin on me.

[Billy Idol]

Originally Posted by Scott_Arm

Agreed. I'm slowly working through my second playthrough when I get a chance, and I rarely play games twice. It's one of those games where messing people up just never seems to wear thin on me.

Yeah, exactly...never felt boring and old!

Just finished it! Last fight was a b****!

Played on medium and man I died a lot! I guess I should have used bullet time more....

Only minor critique I have: some if the checkpoints were rather unfair, but on the other hand this could also be a sign of other games holding your hand to much

Highly recommend this game!

[djskribbles]

First game I've played in months, and I'm loving it. Was very rusty starting off and found myself dying a lot. The game does seem to be a bit harder than most IMO.

Thought it would get repetitive and boring, but the gameplay and story keep you entertained. I just played for 4 straight hours... I don't even remember the last time I've done that.