Haven't played it yet, but I bought it and expect to love it as I really enjoyed MP and MP2 on the PC years ago.
Not sure why it was a commercial flop. I'm inclined to think that because it has a cult following and it's a name that's thrown about a lot people overestimate the sales potential of the Max Payne franchise. The first two games were cult hits at best, this is not a very big name in terms of sales.
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
It doesn't have the soul of the original, which is the main problem. Max Payne is gritty New York levels, in the nighttime, while it rains.. noir feel. Not vacation in Brazil and murder half the country while you're there. It just completely lost it's noir atmosphere.
Besides not having the feel or the soul of the first game, it's a bit too long. I did have fun with it, but was quite bored by the end of it. It get very repititive, with nothing else to do besides shoot bad guys. The first game didn't really have much else either, but the levels were more short and concise and the game was more of a concentrated feel rather than padding for paddings sake.
The difficulty of the game was simultaenously refreshing and aggravating. Refreshing because so many games I can half ass my way to the end with little to no challenge. Aggravating because it limits the combat system too much. Move from cover and you're dead. You pretty much have to play the game as a cover shooter rather than slow mo diving, more open ended shooter the first game was. They mayaswell took the slo mo dive out of this game. This greatly added to the boredom factor as well.
One of the main things that bothered me though was the fucking blurring effect they had EVERY 2 MINUTES. I get it. I drink a lot. FUCK OFF. Playing this game gave me a headache most of the time. I hate, hate, hate that fucking blur they have all throughout the game. It is constant and prevasive. It just never fucks off!! Something that should not have even mattered to me, really took away my enjoyment from the game in how often it raped my poor brain.
I didn't hate the game by any means, but I feel like it got a little overated because of the publisher name attached to it. The graphics were incredible, and some of the levels were fun before the boredom sets in. That office level with all the glass wall cubicles was pure fun.
Id give the game a 7/10 .... maybe an 8 but eeeeehhh
It's Max Payne without as much appeal to Max Payne fans, meaning that it has little appeal to anybody.
THANK YOU THANK YOU everyone for your comments.
Coming from the perspective of having beaten MP1 and 2 recently, I think that Rockstar kept true to the character while making some pragmatic choices about where SPOILERS Max would be this long after having lost his family. I mean how many games are we going to have with him mourning?
It makes total sense that after we made him use all those pain killers in the first two games that he is now dependent (a clever and funny choice).
Also, the setting he is in is gritty. Much more vital and depraved thatn NYC.
There is a sub-genre of noir that takes place in Florida, so having him do his noir schtick (most notably the running commentary, does work in a tropical setting).
Sorry to have to disagree with long time fans, but I think that MP3 keeps with the spirit of the first two games, in terms of Max's character.
I am not having problems with the difficulty playing on normal (I feel like Vader right now).
Don't forget Mexico, Aspro. A lot of noir films end up there for obvious reasons. Hell, exotic tropical settings (especially if you're a little more liberal with your application of the noir genre than people are today) beyond obvious places like Mexico were hardly rare, though most used them mainly for juxtaposition; does all of MP3 take place in Brazil? Dabbing away sweat is almost as synonymous with noir as smoking, venetian blinds, and narration.
I think the key thing to remember is that people generally think of noir as being much more limited than it was, and Max Payne 3 does fit into that idea. Obviously it's highly divergent visually from the original, so even if does stay true to the heart of the series, that's not what everyone's first impression is going to be. It doesn't help that all the early press made it sound nothing like Max Payne; in fact if I remember correctly the PR people/devs couldn’t' shut up about how they were taking it in a new, more modern and exciting direction.
The simple fact that it was Max Payne meant it was doomed from the start. Only Max Payne fans were going to be particularly interested in Max Payne, and they completely put them off early on. So even if it had sold to its peak, I still think it would have been considered a pretty big flop. Non-GTA Rock Star games have always been a bit of a cap shoot in terms of quality and sales too, which probably wouldn't have helped matters much.
Foolz and I discuss this in the lastest game under podcast (the timeline on the website will guide you where to skip to).
Since we both beat it recently we have a fairly comprehensive discussion as to what is going on in that game, the good and the bad. I think mostly we have positive things to say about it, but all in all it is a very intersting game to discuss.
http://gameunder.net/http/gameunderlibsyncom/rss/2013/8/31/game-under-episode-21
Tom Tower's Aural Review
0:49:30 Max Payne 3 (contains slight spoilers of Max Payne 3)
1:10:40 Max Payne 1 & 2 Spoilers Start Here
1:23:19 Not Noir, Not Even Neo-Noir?
1:33:00 LA Noire The First and Last AAA Australian Game?
1:35:55 Baseball Bat Boy Talk
1:39:30 Damned if They Do, Damned if they Don't
1:40:32 Phil and Tom Write Max Payne 4
1:44:05 Pubic Afro Deficiency (Major Problem With Game)
1:46:35 Phil and Tom Write Max Payne 5
"It has far better writing than the source material."
Dear lord.
Foolz said:"It has far better writing than the source material."
Dear lord.
Listen to the podcast. Times change, people change. I do think MP3 has a better plot than 1 or 2. Overall.
bonus content (be sure to click through to the spencer's t-shirt link within the story.
http://kotaku.com/sonys-latest-shot-at-microsoft-comes-on-a-t-shirt-you-1231834104
So... it has a good critical reception, why did this game commercially flop (relative to it's development and marketing budget)?
It was released during a gaming drought, so far as I remember.
It is, first of all, totally fine. Secondly, it is loyal to the source material (I beat MP1 and 2 recently and some of the simularities are slavishly loyal).
I remember people saying it was excessively gory/ violent (it isn't). I also recall people saying it had a historically bad demo, so maybe that is it.
So, if anyone has played it, what was your reaction? I am in the second half of the game and besides the stingy cheevos I have no complaints, indeed, it's on pace to knock Halo 4 out of my GOTY RUNNER UP.
Why?