When I heard about Max Payne 3, I naturally was interested, I loved the first 2 games and even though Remedy were not the ones working on 3, I still love Rockstar, they are able to tell great stories like in GTA San Andreas or Red Dead Redemption, so I was still very optimistic. Now, Max Payne 3 is not a bad game, not even close, but I can't deny it did felt like a step down compared to the previous games, the story is interesting at parts but after a while, you start to loose interest, while is a good story, is not as intriguing and engaging as the stories of the first two games and at times it gets pretty boring, the change of location was an interesting choice and they do take advantage of it, but it makes the game feel a bit distant from it's own franchise, thankfully there are some breve flashback scenes that take you to New Jersey and they feel more similar to the Max Payne games, now gameplay is something that has been improved considerably, the shooting mechanics are more polished than ever and the bullet time was perfected here, the graphics look gorgeous and the musical score by Health is great, in regard of technical aspects, Max Payne 3 is a near perfect game, but in regards of story and characters, this game is a bit of a let down, other than Pasos, there aren't many memorable new characters, none of the antagonists feel as unique as Nichole Horne or the Gognitti family or Lupino, none of the secondary characters are as memorable as Vladimir or Mona Sax, and that's a shame since this have always been a strong point in the franchise. Something I did liked about this game is the kind of story they were aiming, the first game was a neo-noir revenge story, the second game was a neo-noir romance story and this game is a neo-noir redemption story, that is actually a brilliant idea, making the Max Payne trilogy feel like one long story with 3 different acts, the execution though is the problem. Like I said, Max Payne 3 is by no means a bad game, in fact is pretty good, the graphics, gameplay and attention to detail are amazing, but the story and characters are unfortunately weaker and while the game is a fitting conclusion to Max's story, is not quite as strong as it should have been.
Review of Max Payne 3
