Simon Bishop puts on his rose-tinted glasses and takes another look at games from past generations that made a mark, were unfairly lost in the annals of time, or blockbusters he wishes would return. This week, Max Payne 3.
Released: 2012
For: PS3/Xbox360
From: Rockstar Games
The Max Payne series of games are depressingly brilliant epics. Max isn't your happy-go-lucky action hero, he's a cop (soon to be ex-cop) who loses everything, gets addicted to painkillers and is constantly being shot.
In Max Payne 3 he's starting a new life as hired muscle for a wealthy Brazilian family and, of course, it all turns to custard, with members of the family being kidnapped and thugs shooting up the place, forcing Max to once again face (or indulge) his demons and attempt to rescue them.
Max Payne 3 was pretty contentious when it came out in 2012. I loved it (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this), but there are many fans of the previous games in the series that found it massively disappointing.
In my opinion, this is the finest third-person shooter available on PS3/Xbox360. It just feels so good.
Max Payne is famous for its ''bullet time mechanic'', which slows time to a crawl and enables Max to efficiently dispose of the thugs accosting him. That's an almost ubiquitous feature in games these days, but Max Payne does it better than anybody else.
Combining bullet time with the ability to do full-length dives creates the most exciting, outrageous and entertaining sequences in a shooter I've ever had. And the best part is they're all natural.
Other shooters have scripted events where you dive through a window and shoot the bad guys, but that is the entire game of Max Payne. You dive through windows, over tables, through doors, off boats whenever you feel like it in glorious slow motion. It never stops being entertaining.
Combine that with the story and the way it's told, and you've got the complete package. As mentioned before, Max is a miserable character with an unhealthy addiction to painkillers. You'd think that'd make him a misery to play as, but the opposite is true. His dry internal monologue that you hear throughout the game is hilarious, and deep down he has a heart of gold, trying to make things right and failing dismally.
Max Payne 3 is another thing - brutal. As soon as Max shaves his head and puts on that stupendous Hawaiian shirt (as pictured), the story ends up in territory that I dare say no other game will ever venture. It's disgusting and horrifying, but enthralling. And the bullet wounds. Every shot you take leaves detailed entry and exit wounds, and they are spectacular. Make no mistake, this is no game for the kids.
Prepare for a challenge too, as the difficulty level also fits in the brutal bracket. If you're caught out by enemies you're invariably toast. The only way to recover health is through painkillers which are few and far between. Expect to get massacred often.
The deaths are never cheap though, so there's no frustration that sets in, in the way that it does in a Call of Duty game.
Rockstar Games is almost automatic, every game they release knocks it out of the park. The GTA series is outstanding. Red Dead Redemption was a massive hit. And Max Payne is no different.
The attention to detail, the dry comedy, the script, and the little things throughout the game are second to none. The way the screen blurs and distorts representing Max's delirium from his addiction is superbly done. This game just oozes atmosphere.
If you liked Red Dead Redemption and GTA V, give this a go. It always appears in sales bins (often for less than $5), lasts about 10 hours and will blow your mind.
- Simon Bishop
