Reviewing EVERY Max Payne (PC)

[Music] [Music] max payne one of gaming's finest uses of double entendre the game that made finnish developer remedy a household name practically overnight a franchise popular enough to warrant its own big hollywood adaption that was very bad max payne isn't really brought up in conversation too much these days outside of passing reference but its legacy is undeniable from the distinct presentation to the exciting time-defying gun play max payne will forever stand out amongst many of its contemporaries plenty of you watching probably know all about this stylish bullet dodging saga but even if you don't you've unquestionably felt its influence any game you've played in the last 20 years with a mechanic that lets you slow down time in some way should be sending remedies some flowers and a thank you card i've been a fan of this series pretty much from the beginning running and gunning through each title many times but i hadn't gone back and played them in quite a few years so i figured what the hell let's give him another run through and talk about him on the channel there's also the fact that everyone keeps telling me to review every mgs which i can only assume stands for every max payne game sir and who am i to deny the people what they want please don't unsubscribe so let's taste the flesh of fallen angels and take an irresponsible amount of painkillers as i go over every entry in the max payne trilogy the chronicle of pain started all the way back in 2001 contrary to what some might assume because of its overbearing success max payne wasn't actually developer remedy's first game that honor goes to death rally a car combat and racing title released in 96 but hey having your sophomore effort be a title that would go on to inspire countless others effectively changing the path of the entire industry ain't too shabby i first heard about max payne around the time of its release at the ripe old age of 10 when a friend booted up the game on his dad's computer the distinct presentation unexpected brutality of the opening and bullet time effects that immediately reminded me of the matrix captured my attention and i knew i had to play this thing but being a dumb elementary schooler i couldn't remember what it was called you'd think it'd be easy to remember two whole syllables but i barely knew my multiplication tables okay cut me some slack i ended up taking the title too literally i recall asking my parents for maximum pain so naturally they couldn't find it i'd finally get my hands on the game a bit later on when it was ported to consoles and i absolutely loved it though i would of course go on to play it on pc in my adult years which i did again for this video speaking of which since this game is 20 years old it and modern computers don't exactly get along so you'll need to do some extra steps to make max payne work properly i downloaded a fan patch to prevent any potential launch issues used an audio converter to fix the sound effects and music which were broken by default and had to force the frame rate to a locked 60. i can't guarantee these steps will work for you since this also seems to be one of those older games that causes different problems for different people so i recommend heading over to the pc gaming wiki page and following whatever steps you deem necessary although locking the frame rate is something you'll have to do no matter what since animations rely on it if you don't shoot dodging specifically will be totally useless instead of soaring through the air like an action man max will kinda gently lay down on the floor funny but also game breaking the narrative as you'd expect follows the titular max payne a new york city detective whose american dream becomes a nightmare when his wife and baby girl are slain by home invaders high on a powerful new drug following this tragedy max joins the dea and spends two years undercover to rid the streets of this deadly narcotic only to be framed for the murder of his longtime partner and friend with his cover blown and the police hot on his trail max wages a one-man war against the crime family he assumes to be responsible uncovering the answers he seeks at the heart of a deadly conspiracy this tale of revenge marks the writing debut of sam lake who would go on to pen every major game in remedy's catalogue as the years went on events unfold at a quick pace with characters weaving in and out of the plot regularly to keep things moving and while the narrative is easy to follow and stands fine on its own optional scenes sprinkled throughout levels give added layers of context depth and parody for those who want a little more it nails the noir crime atmosphere it's going for with extended monologues dripping in metaphor though it does have a first time writer throwing all his ideas at the wall feel to it we've got the tragic revenge setup followed by a mobster flick which somehow falls into a cult stuff for a bit lupino is the wolf i'm mr beast i'm gonna spend the next 50 hours buried alive in this coffin government conspiracies secret societies betrayals and a sprinkling of dream sequences on the side it's to sam lake's credit that all this comes together without being too distracting and the unique graphic novel presentation helps quite a bit to smooth over the occasional silliness almost all of the plot unfolds via these narrated comic panels while the decision to do it this way was primarily based on budget and time constraints they end up giving max payne a signature look in addition to a timeless charm knowing that all of the actors modeling for these scenes are developers or associated friends and family it's a well-known fact that sam lake himself was the model for our main character but did you know that the villainous ceo nicole horn is actually his mother and yes i did steal that factoid from ray civic of course none of this would work if the voice at the center of it all fell flat but that's not an issue thanks to the silky smooth vocals of actor james mccaffrey like michael ironside as sam fisher the casting here is so perfect that no other voice will ever fit max his gruff tone is exactly what was needed for the character and mood of the story able to sell every dour soliloquy or dry quip collecting evidence had gotten old a few hundred bullets back i was already so far past the point of no return i couldn't even remember what it looked like when i had passed it in 2001 his performance stood out among others in the industry even the game itself since bit characters tend to have more cheesy over-the-top deliveries but diving back in with fresh ears mr mccaffrey's performance is still quality but flawed sometimes it sounds like he's rushing through dialogue and there are inflections that don't quite match the scene likely being recorded without knowing their actual context that said there's far more good than bad and his work would only get better as the series continued while presentation and plot were inspired by the noir genre gameplay took its cues from hong kong action movies diving through the air in slo-mo guns of kimbo spraying lead these stylish scenes are a regular occurrence here while this game didn't invent the term bullet time 1999's the matrix gets that credit max payne absolutely popularized it in the video game industry while the gunplay is serviceable on its own this core mechanic that lets you slow things down at will while still aiming in real time provided a great deal of flexibility in firefights honestly if you took away this staple mechanic the game would lose a lot of its magic enemies outnumber you they're quick to react and max can be brought down by just one unfortunate burst of gunfire the iconic bullet time is here to give you the edge in combat you need effectively turning max into a glass cannon capable of incredible room clearing spectacle while still feeling vulnerable emphasized by his need to regularly down painkillers to continue the fight this combination keeps the minute-to-minute action gratifying even all these years later though there are definitely elements to the design that are both dated and sometimes frustrating public service announcement when you boot up max payne be sure to go into the options menu and remap the bullet time and shoot dodge abilities to separate inputs the former has you slowing down time while moving as normal while the latter initiates the trademark slow motion dive by default both of these actions are on the same button and which you'll do is determined by whether or not max is moving making it easy to unintentionally fling yourself into danger as i said you can resolve this by rebinding keys so it's a simple problem to fix but i don't know why it isn't this way in the first place that one quirk aside controls are responsive and allow for plenty of cool moments but other systems like to throw a wrench in your well-thought-out murder plans first is weapon inaccuracy when you put your crosshair over a bad guy and pull the trigger you're not so much aiming at them but more their general direction bullets can and often will spread out so there will be times where you empty half a magazine at a group during a sweet-looking mid-air dodge only to recreate that scene from pulp fiction this does add a lot to the visual chaos of gunfights but it also contributes to a sinking feeling when time resumes its normal pace and you're left staring down the gun barrels of three very angry mob enforcers for this reason the dual engrams are far and away the best weapon in the game acting as bullet hoses that increase the chances to hit at least until you get the cult commando in the second half which in contrast to everything else is incredibly accurate on top of being powerful another issue is max payne's habit of ambushing a first-time player to its credit the game does generally warn you when you're about to walk into an encounter with upcoming baddies having loud conversations but there are plenty of instances where a cheap enemy placement or scripted grenade toss will basically guarantee a death if you don't know they're coming one trick the game likes to employ is placing bad guys in corners right next to a doorway just often enough to be a noticeable tactic but not so often that you learn to expect it so prepare to be jump scared to death by these dudes almost every time max payne also employs difficulty scaling in an attempt to make the experience consistent for all skill levels but it's not properly balanced at all when you find yourself getting into the groove really feeling like an unstoppable force the game will inevitably put up a brick wall by overly increasing the challenge without warning enemies will start tanking damage reacting faster and the amount of aim assist given to the player will change and you'll only be made aware of all this after you've been riddled with bullets trust me when i say the quick save button will quickly become your best friend thanks to these factors i'd say max payne is less a game about improvising an action scene on your first go and more about dying once or twice and using the knowledge gained from your failures to plan out an efficient route the next time it's certainly still satisfying if not exactly the most ideal max payne was groundbreaking when it first debuted two decades ago and despite some pieces of it not aging as gracefully as others it speaks volumes that it remains a very enjoyable shoot em up even if you dismiss its lasting influence as long as you go in expecting some bumps by modern standards you'll still have a great time the game would go on to be a massive success winning multiple awards from several publications and reportedly sold over four million copies in its lifetime across all platforms with just one title remedy had put themselves on the map proving they were a studio worth paying attention to and their follow-up to the debut of pain would only cement that further max payne isn't necessarily a game that needed a sequel it wrapped everything up in a neat little bow no real threads were left dangling most of us would have been content with the one and done but when the behemoth known as rockstar who also set the industry on fire in the early 2000s offered to foot the bill for a second entry in exchange for the ip rights remedy leapt at the chance with an established foundation to work from and double the budget the same team responsible for the original would release max payne 2 the fall of max payne in 2003 ask most fans of the series including myself and they'll tell you that max payne 2 is the best of the trilogy i'd even go as far as to say it might be the best remedy title the storytelling presentation and gameplay are all improved resulting in a product that exudes confidence and stands the test of time with barely if any caveats unlike its predecessor the game ran without issue for me on pc no patches or tweaking of any kind was needed to get it working and i didn't run into any issues while playing it i can't guarantee this will be the case for everyone of course but i'm confident in saying that this game is not only better than the first but also more readily accessible to modern day players narratively speaking the fall of max payne sets a pretty different tone the first game kept things pretty clear-cut in terms of its morality max was a righteous force of good his enemies and allies were obviously distinguished there was no question as to whether our leading man was doing the right thing the sequel however decided to blur these lines following his revenge-fueled rampage max is heralded as a hero but his victory is ultimately hollow yeah he got the bad guys but his family is still dead he's still haunted by his past and ends up returning to work as an nypd detective since the job is really all he has left when he encounters thought to be dead femme fatale mona sacks while responding to a shot's fired call he's pulled into a complex power struggle that tests loyalties and potentially gives him something worth fighting for during an initial play the plot can be a bit disjointed as it jumps between a few different points out of chronological order it's not difficult to follow the broad strokes of what's going on but many of the subtle hints that foreshadow what's happened or what will happen are easily missed a throwaway line about a hot date a message left on an answering machine or an image on a whiteboard won't mean anything to you in the moment you'll probably brush them off but when you have the full context of what's going on these small hints stand out and give the storytelling more layers for that reason alone i think max payne 2 is a game that requires at least two playthroughs to fully appreciate that second run is full of aha moments as you pick up on things you didn't before thanks to the power of hindsight the budding romance between max and mona is at the heart of all this i've always found it a bit forced but that might actually be intentional two lost souls that thrive in violence understanding bonding and allying with each other through shared tragedy i think it works on that level it's that sense of love whether real or misguided that defines the decisions max makes in the story what mona and him share isn't typical or what one would call healthy but it's something max desires and in order to hold on to it he puts blinders on disobeys orders and makes some rash decisions that have tangible consequences it's a natural direction to take the character and the writing really pulls it off the graphic novel panels return and look better than ever trading in the amateur charm for professional polish actual actors model for all the scenes shot compositions are bolder sound effects and music choices are more striking and the voice performances for all characters are higher quality this is where james mccaffrey truly owned the role of max like always the dead had all the answers i was missing it wasn't that they weren't eager to talk quite the contrary the dead had plenty to say and once they started they would never shut up their words would keep you awake at night due to the higher budget there are also more in-engine cutscenes started throughout levels and they do the job but they certainly haven't aged as gracefully as the stills which still do most of the heavy lifting the gameplay will look very familiar maintaining the slick slow motion action of the first game and on the surface it is very similar but several small improvements and a few huge changes make it feel better than it ever did on the no brainer side someone learned their lesson and made bullet time and shoot dodging separate inputs by default throwables like grenades and molotovs which before were mixed in with all the other guns and had to be switched to are now bound to their own button making them more practical to use after a dive when max is prone on the floor he can now keep firing his weapon giving you a chance to deal with anyone still standing and guns are now way more accurate shots tend to go exactly where your crosshair is which makes the available arsenal much more versatile and satisfying to use max payne 2 also uses the havoc physics engine to great effect objects like boxes paint cans or chairs will get knocked over by gunfire or flung around by an explosion but it's the enemy bodies that provide the most entertainment they'll ragdoll in normal and hilariously exaggerated ways depending on the situation triggering bullet time and unloading into a group will usually result in some amazing corpse juggling when i played this as a kid i could entertain myself for hours just reloading a save over and over seeing all the different ways a guy standing on a ledge would react to getting shot it's fantastic all of these are good changes but far and away the biggest change here is how bullet time itself functions in the first game it was a static ability that worked the same way each time you turned it on it was endlessly useful but you could be in trouble if you didn't use it wisely in max payne 2 bullet time has been upgraded into a super power that would qualify max for the avengers when active the intensity of bullet time continues to increase with each kill you get the world around max gets slower and slower as he in turn gets faster essentially turning him into a criminal slaughtering blur you can and will routinely charge into a room and gun down every single enemy you see before the first guy's body has even hit the ground jesus christ that's jason bourne to further this momentum reloading is instantaneous during this time with max doing this sweet looking spin a move that the game likes to highlight with a 360 panning camera showcasing all the carnage left around him plus the bullet time meter is always passively refilling in and out of combat so you basically have access to your godlike powers at all times now there is an argument to be made that all this makes the game too easy and yeah it kinda does that feeling of vulnerability from the first max payne is largely absent replaced instead by a sense of superhuman superiority your personal taste will determine which of these polar opposites you prefer but personally i find so much joyful glee in the power fantasy i absolutely love it and it's not like you never die there are still ambushes to catch a first timer off guard later levels introduce enemies with better weapons and body armor and adaptive difficulty still tries to balance things out only now you're more able to improvise your way through tough encounters you definitely have the advantage more often than not your powers do make you exceptional but not invincible max payne 2 the fall of max payne is a classic that has stood the test of time to a spectacular degree and is one of the best sequels in gaming it fleshes out the world and character of max in satisfying ways and improves every piece of the original's gameplay when the worst thing you can say about a game is that it might be too easy you know you're talking about something special if you only play one entry from this series even though i recommend all of them this should be that one while critics and players once again showered remedy's efforts with praise max payne 2 was considered a sales disappointment official numbers were never disclosed but it's estimated the sequel didn't move half as many units as the first game and while that didn't make it a bomb per se that would absolutely make it a failure in the eyes of its publisher putting the prospect of a third game into question but that was okay max's story was left in a good place that provided closure and remedy moved on to much weirder projects so another max payne was by no means necessary but almost a decade later the pain would return looking much different than it did before [Music] once again max payne as a series wasn't exactly begging for a sequel but given the investment that rockstar and by extension their parent company take two had put into the franchise news of a third installment began making the rounds in the late 2000s this was back in the before times when the company was willing to put development dollars into something not called gta online when this new entry was officially revealed via game informer in 2009 myself and many other fans didn't have the most positive of reactions from this initial tease the mission statement for this new game seemed to be change everything from the previous games we all knew and loved instead of the nighttime streets of new york city the setting was moved to the sunny favelas of brazil instead of his signature black outfit complete with coat max was a bald angry gringo wearing a wife beater and the accompanying article stated outright that james mccaffrey would not be returning to his iconic role not because he turned it down they just didn't bother to ask him thankfully once mr mccaffrey learned of the injustice this sin would later be corrected looking back it was a representative vertical slice of the final product and i respect that honesty but it didn't exactly start things off on a great foot after several delays and additional years of development max payne 3 would finally hit shelves in 2012. max payne 3 stands out from the entries that came before it while remedy was consulted during the development process and publicly gave their blessing this title was actually made by rockstar themselves namely the team responsible for bully it also had by far the largest budget of these games costing over 100 million dollars to produce on its own merits max payne 3 is a damn fine third-person shooter with all the care detail and polish you'd expect from a modern day rockstar title it was worth playing when it came out it's worth playing now and being a 7th generation release it's unsurprisingly aged the most gracefully there is a lot to like here but you can definitely tell this sequel is from a different studio which clashes with the established series and any fan will tell you that some of the choices made for this concluding chapter are questionable to say the least in the decades since his last violent escapade max has fallen further into despair to cope with his past he's become a severe alcoholic drinking himself into unconsciousness on a nightly basis only to start the cycle over the next day he is in every sense at rock bottom forced to flee new york after pissing off yet another major crime family he takes a job offer from an old friend to protect the wealthy bronco family in brazil the work seems low risk and easy way to live out his days while downing expensive cocktails naturally this assumption proves false as various criminal entities set their sights on his employers leaving max to figure out who's behind the consonant attacks all while scrambling to keep those under his protection alive some of you may find that summary a bit familiar and that's because it's not exactly new in fact if you change a few words that could easily be the synopsis for the 2004 film man on fire starring denzel washington good movie by the way it's all directed well enough and the acting is good but there's nothing surprising about what happens during this story well okay i can't say i predicted the organ trafficking stuff that max just sort of stumbles into but for the most part there's very little you won't see coming the first time you meet any given character it's easy to tell who's good who's bad and who's expendable it's really max and his stoic monologues carrying this whole game and once again james mccaffery who max is now also modeled after absolutely kills it so this was it my easy retirement money my bloodstained 401k a chance to drink for free while chaperoning socialites around town and making sure the poor people didn't get too close the brochure sure didn't mention any of this [ __ ] that said this game has a pretty different take on max and honestly i think the character here is at his weakest i'm not saying he's bad he's still compelling but it's abundantly clear that someone who isn't sam lake is writing his dialogue the poetic metaphors are replaced by rockstar's trademark cynicism and while max has good lines it gets kind of tiring hearing him go on and on about how much he sucks and his life sucks and everything around him sucks he's much more angry and blunt with his observations and yeah it does communicate his world weariness but this one note never changes and his attitude directly conflicts with the ending of max payne 2. the final moments of that game have max accepting his past and finding a sense of closure there's an optimism to it but then max payne 3 comes along throws that out the window and shoves it down our throat that life is [ __ ] i know that crawling out of a hole doesn't mean you won't fall back into it later some might argue that's more realistic but it's simply unsatisfying narratively to have a character regress so heavily on top of that max in this story is well he's kind of a [ __ ] idiot in previous games he could be impulsive and rarely had all the answers but he wasn't dumb he'd have his suspicions he'd follow the breadcrumbs but here he misses obvious red flags and bumbles into life-or-death situations without thinking which shockingly doesn't work out when his protectee is kidnapped and his boss is murdered max decides to give up the booze and turn his life around impulsively shaving his head to symbolize the fresh start and what's his brilliant plan after all that wander around the slums and hope he accidentally trips into the kidnappers and after 10 minutes gets robbed by common street thugs this is not the only time this will happen he only gets some sense of direction when exposition cop shows up and literally sits him down to tell him who the bad guys are side note why the hell would the villains recruit max of all people to be their fall guy maybe try finding someone who hasn't murdered half the criminal population of new york in a bubble where the first two max paynes don't exist all this would probably work better but as a continuation to what we already know max can be frustrating to watch fumble around in the end all i can really say is god bless mr mccaffrey given how much capital was thrown at this thing it's not surprising that the graphic novel comic panels were dropped in favor of full cutscenes though the game does pay tribute to them with split screen edits in an attempt to add more flavor and emphasize a cinematic look various filters are frequently applied that distort the image in some way or highlight bits of dialogue once again i have to reference man on fire as it applied very similar techniques no one can tell me the devs weren't inspired by it these flashy effects are novel for a bit and fits certain scenes but they are way overdone at first i thought they were meant to convey the side effects of max's drinking but they'd never go away even after he sobers up and sometimes the words highlighted really don't have any importance it all becomes more distracting than stylish the gameplay has seen a significant overhaul stepping away from the godlike power fantasy that max payne 2 offered the familiar systems are here and a few have been added but all have been designed to give the combat a more grounded feel or at least as grounded as one can make things revolving around a guy who can slow time the basic act of firing a weapon feels really good although now you're limited to only carrying three guns at a time instead of having a whole arsenal in your jacket every gun provides pinpoint accuracy letting you easily nail headshot after headshot truly if you're not popping melons on the vast majority of guys you come up against you're playing the game wrong it's both the most efficient method of quickly clearing a room and the most fun the exaggerated physics from the last game are now more realistic so instead of bodies flying across the room they'll crumple to the ground like a sack of potatoes and while not as theatrical it definitely looks more brutal and that's equally satisfying in its own way max payne 3 also introduces a cover system since this came out at a time when every other game was a cover shooter and it works well as standing in the open can see you quickly put down though it's naturally most effective when used in conjunction with bullet time another new feature gives painkillers an additional benefit on top of their usual healing properties if you have a painkiller on you when your health drops to zero you're given the chance to retaliate against whoever dealt the final blow and if you can shoot them in time you'll be given a bit of health back and allowed to continue helping maintain the flow of gameplay now this wouldn't be a max payne game without the iconic bullet time and shoot dodging so of course both are present though bullet time in particular has been toned back a bit the effect no longer gets better and better as you rack up kills so it's more akin to how it was in the 2001 original the meter governing these two abilities is more balanced now no longer regenerating outside of combat recklessly spamming either can leave you in a very compromised position so while you'll still be leaning on both frequently there is some consideration required when doing so there's also been optional time manipulation added to kill cams focusing on the last enemy to drop in an encounter isn't new for the series but here you can opt to keep this killcam going for a while while continuing to fire away allowing you to really admire the gore depending on how sadistic you're feeling when you're in the thick of it the gunplay in max payne 3 is great but there are a few things that tend to get in the way there's no denying that this game is a looker even now there's a ton of rich attention to detail everywhere you look but sometimes rockstar's desire to make everything aesthetically pleasing compromises the gameplay and one of the biggest culprits here is animation max's movement is both remarkably fluid and weighty with many small shifts or direction changes blending into each other in impressive ways but these animations can be given priority over the player's inputs and at crucial moments this will get you killed you'll pop out from cover spamming the fire button only for nothing to happen cause max isn't positioned correctly or you'll be on your last legs trying desperately to tag the guy behind you but since max's arm isn't in what the game considers a believable spot you're just dead these instances aren't abundant but they stick out like a sore thumb whenever they happen shoot dodging is what suffers the most from this adherence to realistic animations and physics previously leaping through the air was a given you didn't really have to think about the environment around you when you did it but now max has collision with his surroundings and even the slightest scrape against a desk or a wall will cancel out the badass dive and send him tumbling to the floor it can be pretty funny to watch yeah but given the cramped nature of most levels you'll unintentionally send max into a face plant on a regular basis and since it can take a few seconds for him to pick himself up you're left extremely vulnerable if you're paying attention to what's around you you can mitigate this issue sure but sooner or later you'll shoot dodge out of reflex and end up creating a benny hill sketch but it's really rockstar's flair for the cinematic that hurts the gameplay the most rockstar is super proud of their cutscenes i can say that for a fact because they insist on showing you one every few minutes i'm not kidding it's not uncommon for you to go through just one or two rooms only to be interrupted by some non-interactive scene to their credit the transitions from cutscene to gameplay and back again are pretty seamless but the content of these cinematics usually don't justify their existence pivotal plot developments or important exposition are one thing but watching max walk through a door slowly creep down a street or exchange banter with his partner that could have easily been delivered over a radio all this just slows down the pacing this probably won't bother you much on a first playthrough because you're just along for the ride but you'll definitely feel control being constantly snatched away from you on a replay this also leads to one specific annoyance that slowly drove me crazy i briefly mentioned before that max can only carry three weapons on his person now he can have two sidearms and one primary such as a rifle or shotgun however without a magical backstrap or bottomless coat he has nowhere to store that larger weapon so if you want to use one of your smaller firearms he'll carry the bigger one in his offhand this is a really neat detail i can't think of another game that does this and i really appreciate it on that level but here's the problem all of the cutscenes expect max to have his hands free so each time you walk into one which happens constantly he'll automatically unequip the primary then after you've watched max hit a button or whatever and gameplay resumes you have to manually re-equip said primary now i know this sounds like a nitpick and if it only happened a few times it would be but it's this tiny niggling problem that keeps coming up and you notice it more and more and it stands out as an example of how strict adherence to detail can negatively impact the player experience oh yeah there's also the multiplayer what every max payne fan was asking for okay in fairness while this was not a series in need of pvp at all the multiplayer was enjoyable for what it was and did have real effort behind it there were various death match and objective modes available more than some games shipped with today expansive loadout customization tons of guns skins clothing items perks and titles to work toward and there was healthy post-launch support players leaping around shooting each other provided a chaotic and amusing experience it was never going to replace other competitive juggernauts no one abandoned call of duty for this but it was a solid distraction that i remember having a good time with however you may have noticed i'm speaking in the past tense because this game's community is deader than max's family in all the time i spent staring at lobby screens i got into exactly one game a free-for-all death match with three others that quickly turned into a beatdown there's no one playing this anymore and the few that are will stomp any and all newcomers based on my memory i feel comfortable saying that if you could organize a decent group together you could have fun running private matches for a night or two otherwise this is one part of the package you can ignore nowadays rockstar made a very good game with max payne 3. in many ways it exemplifies the standout qualities the studio is known for but i think it's those very same qualities that get in the way exhaustive levels of detail help bring each aspect of the presentation to life but sometimes those details are given priority over player control the cinematic quality and flair does an effective job at conveying the story but cut scenes are overabundant and the plot itself is the weakest of the trilogy the lively energy and flashiness of it all makes a first playthrough pretty engaging but play max payne 3 more than once and the cracks not only start to show but become more apparent this is my least favorite max payne game but it's by no means a failure i still like it the highs are too high for it to be considered anything less than good it's a solid send-off for a series that revolutionized an industry and given how many other franchises stumble and fall into mediocrity that alone is worthy of celebration [Music] and the band played on and with that this chronicle of pain comes to an end thank you so much for watching i'm glad i decided to revisit these games especially the second one i forgot what a blast it was have you played any of the max payne titles which one is your favorite and why share your thoughts down in the comments if you enjoyed listening to my thoughts take a second to hit the like button and if you want to hear more from me consider subscribing to the channel or check out my reviewing every videos for half-life hitman or splintercell remember to not abuse painkillers and have a nice day

Channel: Critical Nobody

Views: 310,317

Keywords: critical nobody, video games, gaming, gameplay, criticalnb, max payne, max payne 2, the fall of max payne, max payne 3, max payne review, reviewing every max payne, remedy, remedy entertainment, rockstar, rockstar games, james mccaffery, sam lake, bullet time, shootdodge, slow motion, action, story, noir, sequel, multiplayer, review, overview, retrospective, opinion

Id: oEycs2tonUc

Length: 39min 0sec (2340 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021