TygerBS

I picked up the game on Friday afternoon, and after a long install 4 disks worth not to mention problems with my DVD drive I was finally ready to play.
Starting up the game I am met with a web page like front end, asking for sign in or sign up, no clear instruction on what should be done.
I sign up and login, at this point it asks me for activation code, which I enter.
It tells me activated, great... now what. No start button, no go to game button nothing.
Hitting escape somehow starts the game loading. Yay!
Click settings, lets get the graphics looking great.
Setting are comprehensive, from selecting Direct x 9 to 11 and all the setting relevant to each direct x version.
So I change my settings to the highest possible on everything and click apply, it says game must be restarted...
So it restarts.
I can see my setting have not applied as its blurry and obviously still at 800x600 res.
I proceed to then try a number of different settings to try and get the game to save them.
None work. Eventually I get it to change to the correct res, as that didn't require restart.
I decide to start the game as this has now taken up more than hour trying to get it to work.
Maybe starting the game will save my settings.
This proves to be the case. Start the game, then exit it, then start it again change your graphics settings, it will restart again, then finally your graphics settings will be saved.
This console port bullshit is annoying!

So now lets play.
The game starts out like almost all single players games with a story narrative cut scene, the scene ends and you are immediately in control of max...and the action starts.
This is how it is for the rest of the game.
The game is an interactive action movie. You are told the story through many and long cut scene's that set you up in different places, only for you to play the action part. Some people might not like that control is taken away from the player so often and so completely, and indeed at first I was a tad put off by it.
Soon enough though the absolute brilliance of the action sequences make you forget all about loss of control.
The game is very rich in detail and the game play area's are well constructed.
The game shines because of the bullet time aspect. It hasn't changed much at all since max payne 2, yet it didn't need to. The violence seems to have been upped a notch, so that slowmo last bullet shot that smashes in the henchmans face creates an explosion of blood and gore that is both shocking and very satisfying. Blood and gore are core parts of the game, the violence is almost part of the narrative. Max gets shot up and cut up and broken, and he caries those marks with him through the game. Quite simply the bullet time action is fantastic!

One new feature is the last man standing feature, if you have pain pills in stock and an enemy hits you with a death blow, you will auto take your pain pills and bullet time will be activated focusing on the guy that just shot you. you will be shacking and it will be hard to aim, but if you then kill him before bullet time ends then you survive otherwise you dead.

The story itself is compelling enough to keep you interested. Its no amazing thriller with in depth convoluted plot, but it does what is needed to keep you interested and engrossed.


So in short if you enjoy action movies, enjoy action shoot outs, and if you enjoyed the first games you will love Max Payne 3.

"Unbridled violent action movie with game play and gun fights that will leave you very satisfied .... not to be missed!"