Max Payne, possibly the unluckiest man to ever walk the earth (in virtual form, at least) makes a return after nine years... but is he still the same man and is he still up to the job?

For reasons unclear at the start of the game, Max is now in São Paulo, Brazil, working as private security for the wealthy Rodrigo Branco.  Still troubled by his past and spending more time drunk than sober, it's not long before things start to spiral out of control and Max finds himself running round most of São Paulo shooting anyone and anything in his way.

As you play through the game, Max's story will take you to numerous locations including several flashback chapters to explain why you're in Brazil and giving you clues to the main plot.  Told mostly through long cutscenes with Max's trademark internal monologue, the plot is suitably dark and contains a few twists without ever getting too bogged down.  One thing is always certain, however, is that if it can go wrong in Max's world, it will do.

One major gripe about the cutscenes is that they can't really be skipped. In theory they are skippable by pressing 'enter' but 99% of the time you'll simply be presented with the message "Still Loading..." and some of these cutscenes are unbelievably long.  I don't mind sitting through them once, but if I'm replaying through a level, I don't want to see them... I already know the story and I don't need the build-up.  I'm guessing they are covering up some painfully long loading times, but that still doesn't help when you just want to get on with the action.

The mechanics of the action are a slightly mixed bag.  The graphics, at least on the PC version, are top notch and the animations and overall attention to detail are the usual Rockstar high standard.  One of the slightly more disappointing features is actually the one thing Max is so well known for... the shootdodge.  While it's fun to do during gun fights, any contact with scenery will end your flight prematurely and violently, leaving you out in the open and unable to protect yourself from the unforgiving bullets of your enemies.  It doesn't help that a lot of the environment is either to tight or cluttered to give you any real space to take advantage of Max's signature move... or they involve long or painful drops with barriers just conveniently low enough for you to sail gracefully over to your death.  In fact, the level design lends itself more towards a more standard cover-based mechanic which, while functional, is less fun to play and pushes the game into a more generic mould.  As you get further through the story and the enemies become tougher, you'll be spending more and more time in cover, using your bullet time only to pop up and thin the numbers attempting to cause you harm.

It is good to see that Max's health does not magically regenerate after fights (as is so common these days) and he is still heavily reliant on painkillers to keep him going.  Fortunately the levels generally have a decent supply of them dotted around in logical locations, Max often giving a suitable comment when you pick them up, which is a nice touch.

Another slightly frustrating quirk of the game is how it seems to forget which gun you had equipped just before a cutscene, normally returning you to one of your single-hand weapons just before throwing another wave of enemies at you.  I found this particularly odd when, during one chapter, I had used up all of my pistol and SMG ammo and only had my shotgun left... only to trigger a mid-chapter cutscene and then find myself armed with an empty pistol, in the open, against a number of heavily armed individuals.  True, it didn't take more than a few seconds to switch back to my shotgun, but I shouldn't have had to and I took a number of hits before I was able to return fire.  Some of the cutscenes also change your location without any real reason... one in particular, late in the game, I found extremely frustrating.  After fighting through several tough firefights, you find yourself facing a tough, heavily armoured and armed 'mini-boss'; the cutscene showing him walking out, however, would move you out from cover and place you in front of the cover rather close to him, giving you no chance to get away before he started shooting with the checkpoint being right back before the initial firefights.

Sometimes I wonder what game developers are thinking when they make certain decisions...  they work long and hard, most often than not to very tight deadlines, so I appreciate that sometimes there isn't the time to fix every last bug in the shipped product.  However when a fundamental design decision goes against all the evidence from games that have gone before, and it most certainly going to cause problems and attract criticism, you've got to ask why.  Surely they want their game to be as well received as possible?

Other than the cutscene issues I've already mentioned, the multiplayer matches in the PC version have to be mentioned.  Like a number of games before it, Max Payne 3 uses peer-to-peer connections rather than server-based.  How many popular peer-to-peer twitch-based games can you think of that haven't suffered from problems and abuse? Constant connection problems, high pings and rage disconnects plague this type of multiplayer and Max Payne 3 appears to be no different.  This evening I attempted to play three rounds of team deathmatch and six rounds of gang wars before I gave up.  I managed one round without any game breaking connection issues (and I know my connection is good... it should be for the money I spend on it).  Three of those rounds simply dropped during the setup, or about 30 seconds in, one was so laggy, other players would hop from one side of the map to the other, three of them took around ten minutes before it would actually let me into the round, and the final round of gang wars I played got all the way to the end before simply stopping... so I can only assume the host got upset at a potential loss and pulled the plug.  Several of the rounds also seem to freeze after showing the deathcam, but that might have been a bug rather than a connection issue (although it wouldn't surprise me).  The point is, I've come away from the game feeling annoyed and frustrated... and that's unfair as the multiplayer, when it works, is great fun.  In truth I suspect this was a financial decision... why spend the time and money sorting out some form of client-server multiplayer when, once the game starts to lose popularity, the peer-to-peer will suffer fewer problems.

Ultimately Max Payne 3 is, like most Rockstar titles, an excellent game... spoilt by some unfortunate decisions and quirks.

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