Max Payne
Banned
- AKA
- Leon S. Kennedy,Terry Bogard, The Dark Knight, Dacon, John Marston, Teal'c
Trailers
Screenshots:
ARTWORKS:
Hands on Impressions
After a lengthy absence Max is back and this time the coding duties have been handled in-house at Rockstar. The team had previously helped the Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment with Max Payne 2 but now the franchise is solely in the hands of Rockstar with Dan Hauser, the writer of Red Dead Redemption, taking over the scribe duties from series creator Sam Lake.
Set a few years after the previous game, Max (voiced by James McCaffrey) has moved to São Paulo, Brazil and now works as security for Rodrigo Branco. Branco’s trophy wife, Fabiana (big boobs, the mini-est of miniskirts) gets herself kidnapped by a street gang and it’s up to Max to get her back.
A meeting is arranged in which Max and his buddy Passos drop off a bag full of cash in exchange for the skirt and a tense cuts scene shows the drop off. All is going to plan until a shot rings out and a paramilitary group gatecrash the exchange and shoot Max in the arm. The cut scene moves seamlessly into game play and it’s time to make a stumbling dash to cover as gunfire blazes across the stadium.
I died rather a lot during the first hour of Max Payne 3 and this was made even more embarrassing as sat either side of me and watching every move like a hawk were two chaps from Rockstar. The reason for my multiple deaths was that I was playing Max Payne 3 like any other third person shooter.
After stumbling and crashing his way to the depths of the football stadium Max is now facing a number of enemies all of whom are reaching for their guns. I glance around and spot a pillar, the perfect cover, so run over and hide behind it.
Wrong.
The bad guys quickly out-flank me and toss a grenade at my feet. I’m dead. Some words of advice from Rockstar and I’m ready to try the scene again.
This time as the paramilitary squad go for their guns I tap the shoulder button, engage bullet time and dive sideways through the air. In slow motion I take out three of the enemies with blasts to the chest and the cripple the fourth with a well placed shot to crotch (somewhat of a signature move of mine during the play through).
As bullet time ends I see the telltale traces of shots being fired from behind me so as Max lands on his back I quickly shift his aim to the two bad guys who have entered the room and take them out whilst laying prone on the floor.
As my last shot is fired the camera switches back to slow motion and follows the bullet leaving Max’s gun, zipping across the room and smashing into the enemy’s face. A plume of blood sprays out and his head snaps back, smashing into the wall with a satisfying thump…
It’s hard to describe just how awesome Max Payne 3 looks in action; you can pull off some ridiculously cinematic moves and make your own John Wu movie. For example, near the end of the play-through I found myself at the top of a set of stairs in a football stadium, about 50 feet below me more paramilitary types are searching for Max and Passos.
Convention dictates I should have hidden behind some of the stadium seating, take advantage of the high ground and gradually picked off the men one by one. Instead I start running and take a leap from the top of the stairs and engage bullet time. The assembled bad guys at the bottom of the stairs turn towards the plummeting Max before crumpling in heaps as four well aimed shots to chest end their short appearance in the game.
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/03/01/hands-on-max-payne-3/
Set a few years after the previous game, Max (voiced by James McCaffrey) has moved to São Paulo, Brazil and now works as security for Rodrigo Branco. Branco’s trophy wife, Fabiana (big boobs, the mini-est of miniskirts) gets herself kidnapped by a street gang and it’s up to Max to get her back.
A meeting is arranged in which Max and his buddy Passos drop off a bag full of cash in exchange for the skirt and a tense cuts scene shows the drop off. All is going to plan until a shot rings out and a paramilitary group gatecrash the exchange and shoot Max in the arm. The cut scene moves seamlessly into game play and it’s time to make a stumbling dash to cover as gunfire blazes across the stadium.
I died rather a lot during the first hour of Max Payne 3 and this was made even more embarrassing as sat either side of me and watching every move like a hawk were two chaps from Rockstar. The reason for my multiple deaths was that I was playing Max Payne 3 like any other third person shooter.
After stumbling and crashing his way to the depths of the football stadium Max is now facing a number of enemies all of whom are reaching for their guns. I glance around and spot a pillar, the perfect cover, so run over and hide behind it.
Wrong.
The bad guys quickly out-flank me and toss a grenade at my feet. I’m dead. Some words of advice from Rockstar and I’m ready to try the scene again.
This time as the paramilitary squad go for their guns I tap the shoulder button, engage bullet time and dive sideways through the air. In slow motion I take out three of the enemies with blasts to the chest and the cripple the fourth with a well placed shot to crotch (somewhat of a signature move of mine during the play through).
As bullet time ends I see the telltale traces of shots being fired from behind me so as Max lands on his back I quickly shift his aim to the two bad guys who have entered the room and take them out whilst laying prone on the floor.
As my last shot is fired the camera switches back to slow motion and follows the bullet leaving Max’s gun, zipping across the room and smashing into the enemy’s face. A plume of blood sprays out and his head snaps back, smashing into the wall with a satisfying thump…
It’s hard to describe just how awesome Max Payne 3 looks in action; you can pull off some ridiculously cinematic moves and make your own John Wu movie. For example, near the end of the play-through I found myself at the top of a set of stairs in a football stadium, about 50 feet below me more paramilitary types are searching for Max and Passos.
Convention dictates I should have hidden behind some of the stadium seating, take advantage of the high ground and gradually picked off the men one by one. Instead I start running and take a leap from the top of the stairs and engage bullet time. The assembled bad guys at the bottom of the stairs turn towards the plummeting Max before crumpling in heaps as four well aimed shots to chest end their short appearance in the game.
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2012/03/01/hands-on-max-payne-3/
We’ve seen Rockstar’s Max Payne 3 at a few points in its development. Now, with the game’s May 15 release date drawing near, Rockstar stopped by the Game Informer offices to give us our first hands-on playable demo of the game.
If you’ve missed our previous coverage on the game, here’s a brief primer: Max Payne 3 is set several years after the events of Max Payne 2. The intervening years have not been kind to Max, who left the NYPD in disgrace and has fallen into alcoholism. Through a former colleague, Raul Passos, Max makes his way to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he begins working in the shadowy world of private security for the local scion Rodrigo Branco. Predictably, everything goes to hell when Comando Sombra, a paramilitary-style gang, kidnaps Branco’s wife, Fabiana. Max is tasked with bringing her back, and the result is a whole lot of gunplay.
While this is the first Max Payne game internally developed by Rockstar, the company hews closely to the formula that Remedy created with the first two titles. To wit, this is not an open-world game, but rather an attempt to create a more cinematic, technologically adept version of the series’ signature Bullet Time action.
We start off with a cutscene featuring Max, the Brancos, and Raul Passos discussing strategy at the family’s corporate headquarters. The scene shows off the game’s quick-cut, digital-video style presentation, which will be familiar to fans of the Bourne movies. After agreeing to pay off Fabiana’s captors, Max and Passos leave for the soccer stadiums where the drop-off is to happen. As always, Rockstar’s dialogue and voice-acting is top-notch; James McCaffrey reprises his role as Max to great effect.
It’s a dramatic set-up; as Max and Raul walk on to the field of the massive stadium, the exchange suddenly goes awry as shots are fired from by another mystery group from the bleachers. Max takes a bullet, but manages to pick himself up and run off with Passos to recover the money and (hopefully) Fabiana.
From here, we begin shooting our way through the stadium. As you’d expect, the emphasis of the game is still very much on Max’s Bullet Time abilities. You click down on the right stick to move in and out of Bullet Time, or use the right bumper to do a shoot/dodge. There’s a bit more emphasis on using cover than in past games, but I found that it comes with a risk. The AI is actually pretty aggressive in flanking your position, so staying put and playing the game like it’s a noir Gears of War isn’t a good strategy.
It’s all pretty straightforward; you won’t be mistaking Max for a tactical shooter. As we continue our way through the bowels of the stadium, I start to get a feel for the controls. Max feels a bit “heavier” than in past games, perhaps even a bit plodding at times. However, I get the old Max feeling back pretty quickly, and am soon dispatching enemies in balletic fashion. The highlight of the stadium sequence is a sniper mission where we provide cover for Raul as he runs across a section of seats.
The second level we play is down by the docks, where the Sombra is keeping Fabiana. By shooting out a wedge behind the tire of parked truck with a silenced pistol, we begin the level with a bit more stealth than we’re accustomed to from Max. However, after blowing our cover, we’re thrown back into the fray. While the level design is straightforward (i.e., run into a new area, shoot everyone), there’s a definitely a learning curve in terms of how to approach each scenario. In one garage area, we also got a look at one of the game’s mini-Bullet Time events. After diving off a walkway, the game automatically went into Bullet Time and I was able to pick off enemies on the ground floor with one-hit kills.
Overall, the base gameplay feels solid, but still needs a bit of polish before it ships – something Rockstar has shown time and again it’s more than capable of doing. I played the bulk of the demo in free-aim mode, but there is also a soft target lock available if you choose (something I was forced to a do in a couple of areas for the sake of time). Bullet Time is still a great gameplay mechanic, even if it doesn’t feel as novel as it did years ago. After all, it’s arguably one of the most imitated gameplay mechanics of all time. It’s certainly challenging – I frequently made use of the “Last Man Standing” feature that allows you to save yourself from death by killing the enemy that shot you.
While I didn’t get to see the outcome of the bloody events we’d help set in motion, I was certainly caught back up in the world of Max Payne. The Brazilian setting feels like a fresh start for the series, and while the gameplay is hardly innovative, it’s definitely fun and engaging. Max’s Hong Kong-inspired theatrics are a refreshing change of pace from the current shooter market.
At the end of the demo, Rockstar dropped some intriguing new details on the game’s multiplayer. While the game will have all the customary modes, Rockstar hopes to incorporate the drama and storytelling of the single-player campaign into the competitive multiplayer through a mode called Gang Wars. Gang Wars creates multiplayer scenarios out of events from the single-player campaign that will change based on the outcome of each round. For example, if your team captures the most turf in the last round, the story will dictate that you must defuse bombs in your territory that will be planted by the team that lost the last round. In another set-up, the player with the most kills in the last round will become hunted by the rest of the players in the match. While Rockstar wasn’t specific, we were told that these events will be fleshed out through cutscenes and tie directly into Max’s story. There’s also a new mode called Payne Killer, in which the player who gets the first kill becomes Max and the player who is killed first becomes Passos.
There are also new abilities called “bursts,” that will add intrigue. One, called “sneaky,” will turn your Gamertag or ID the same color as your opponents’ to allow you to get the drop on them. Another, called “paranoia,” actually turns on friendly fire and changes the opponents’ teammates ID color to that of the enemy team. Also, Bullet Time is functional in multiplayer, though Rockstar is attempting to balance the feature by allowing the opponent to “break” your Bullet Time chain by running out of your line of sight.
Based on everything we’ve seen so far, Max Payne 3 appears to be exactly what Rockstar promised in our original cover story: a game that aims to update the Max Payne experience in a new setting and with the best of today’s technology, while remaining true to the traditions of the series. While it would be impossible for Max’s Bullet Time acrobatics to be as groundbreaking as they were all those years ago, the core experience here is still one worth your time.
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/m.../new-hands-on-impressions-of-max-payne-3.aspx
If you’ve missed our previous coverage on the game, here’s a brief primer: Max Payne 3 is set several years after the events of Max Payne 2. The intervening years have not been kind to Max, who left the NYPD in disgrace and has fallen into alcoholism. Through a former colleague, Raul Passos, Max makes his way to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he begins working in the shadowy world of private security for the local scion Rodrigo Branco. Predictably, everything goes to hell when Comando Sombra, a paramilitary-style gang, kidnaps Branco’s wife, Fabiana. Max is tasked with bringing her back, and the result is a whole lot of gunplay.
While this is the first Max Payne game internally developed by Rockstar, the company hews closely to the formula that Remedy created with the first two titles. To wit, this is not an open-world game, but rather an attempt to create a more cinematic, technologically adept version of the series’ signature Bullet Time action.
We start off with a cutscene featuring Max, the Brancos, and Raul Passos discussing strategy at the family’s corporate headquarters. The scene shows off the game’s quick-cut, digital-video style presentation, which will be familiar to fans of the Bourne movies. After agreeing to pay off Fabiana’s captors, Max and Passos leave for the soccer stadiums where the drop-off is to happen. As always, Rockstar’s dialogue and voice-acting is top-notch; James McCaffrey reprises his role as Max to great effect.
It’s a dramatic set-up; as Max and Raul walk on to the field of the massive stadium, the exchange suddenly goes awry as shots are fired from by another mystery group from the bleachers. Max takes a bullet, but manages to pick himself up and run off with Passos to recover the money and (hopefully) Fabiana.
From here, we begin shooting our way through the stadium. As you’d expect, the emphasis of the game is still very much on Max’s Bullet Time abilities. You click down on the right stick to move in and out of Bullet Time, or use the right bumper to do a shoot/dodge. There’s a bit more emphasis on using cover than in past games, but I found that it comes with a risk. The AI is actually pretty aggressive in flanking your position, so staying put and playing the game like it’s a noir Gears of War isn’t a good strategy.
It’s all pretty straightforward; you won’t be mistaking Max for a tactical shooter. As we continue our way through the bowels of the stadium, I start to get a feel for the controls. Max feels a bit “heavier” than in past games, perhaps even a bit plodding at times. However, I get the old Max feeling back pretty quickly, and am soon dispatching enemies in balletic fashion. The highlight of the stadium sequence is a sniper mission where we provide cover for Raul as he runs across a section of seats.
The second level we play is down by the docks, where the Sombra is keeping Fabiana. By shooting out a wedge behind the tire of parked truck with a silenced pistol, we begin the level with a bit more stealth than we’re accustomed to from Max. However, after blowing our cover, we’re thrown back into the fray. While the level design is straightforward (i.e., run into a new area, shoot everyone), there’s a definitely a learning curve in terms of how to approach each scenario. In one garage area, we also got a look at one of the game’s mini-Bullet Time events. After diving off a walkway, the game automatically went into Bullet Time and I was able to pick off enemies on the ground floor with one-hit kills.
Overall, the base gameplay feels solid, but still needs a bit of polish before it ships – something Rockstar has shown time and again it’s more than capable of doing. I played the bulk of the demo in free-aim mode, but there is also a soft target lock available if you choose (something I was forced to a do in a couple of areas for the sake of time). Bullet Time is still a great gameplay mechanic, even if it doesn’t feel as novel as it did years ago. After all, it’s arguably one of the most imitated gameplay mechanics of all time. It’s certainly challenging – I frequently made use of the “Last Man Standing” feature that allows you to save yourself from death by killing the enemy that shot you.
While I didn’t get to see the outcome of the bloody events we’d help set in motion, I was certainly caught back up in the world of Max Payne. The Brazilian setting feels like a fresh start for the series, and while the gameplay is hardly innovative, it’s definitely fun and engaging. Max’s Hong Kong-inspired theatrics are a refreshing change of pace from the current shooter market.
At the end of the demo, Rockstar dropped some intriguing new details on the game’s multiplayer. While the game will have all the customary modes, Rockstar hopes to incorporate the drama and storytelling of the single-player campaign into the competitive multiplayer through a mode called Gang Wars. Gang Wars creates multiplayer scenarios out of events from the single-player campaign that will change based on the outcome of each round. For example, if your team captures the most turf in the last round, the story will dictate that you must defuse bombs in your territory that will be planted by the team that lost the last round. In another set-up, the player with the most kills in the last round will become hunted by the rest of the players in the match. While Rockstar wasn’t specific, we were told that these events will be fleshed out through cutscenes and tie directly into Max’s story. There’s also a new mode called Payne Killer, in which the player who gets the first kill becomes Max and the player who is killed first becomes Passos.
There are also new abilities called “bursts,” that will add intrigue. One, called “sneaky,” will turn your Gamertag or ID the same color as your opponents’ to allow you to get the drop on them. Another, called “paranoia,” actually turns on friendly fire and changes the opponents’ teammates ID color to that of the enemy team. Also, Bullet Time is functional in multiplayer, though Rockstar is attempting to balance the feature by allowing the opponent to “break” your Bullet Time chain by running out of your line of sight.
Based on everything we’ve seen so far, Max Payne 3 appears to be exactly what Rockstar promised in our original cover story: a game that aims to update the Max Payne experience in a new setting and with the best of today’s technology, while remaining true to the traditions of the series. While it would be impossible for Max’s Bullet Time acrobatics to be as groundbreaking as they were all those years ago, the core experience here is still one worth your time.
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/m.../new-hands-on-impressions-of-max-payne-3.aspx
I didn't have the highest of hopes going into the preview for Max Payne 3. I love the series, and though I know the latest has been getting preened and primped by Rockstar to match the caliber of their games, initial impressions of the game's story and the transformation of Payne's character had me more than a bit worried. Mostly, when I had heard about the implementation of bullet-time, I imagined it would be handled in much the same way as in Red Dead Redemption, and that there would not be much to distinguish it from other Rockstar properties in that vein.
It seemed like the Max Payne series was being more or less 'Rockstarized,' and since the series is a highly stylized -- and more importantly, a unique -- experience, I was concerned that Max Payne 3 wouldn't retain the same awesome noir character that made the earlier titles in the series such singular endeavors.
Then I actually got my hands on the controller for some extended playtime.
Max and his acquaintance Raul Passos enter a soccer stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, planning to pay off a ransom to a group that has kidnapped the trophy wife of real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco. Unfortunately for Max, things get muddled when an unknown third party takes Fabiana Branco and leaves Max with a sniper bullet in his shoulder.
I took over here, and as I pushed an injured and slightly hallucinating Max along the dim hallways of the stadium, it became apparent that most of the Max Payne series' standout qualities have been retained. While the story is no longer told in static comic panels, it is still conveyed with great stylistic flair, including direct narration and witty one-liners from Max. Cut-scenes bleed into gameplay, and the storytelling keeps a graphic novel perspective. Words stand out boldly on-screen as they are narrated. The story moves through a series of flashbacks that take place in New York, and the cut-scenes often transition seamlessly from present-day Sao Paulo to New York. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to check out any New York levels, but I did get a peek at how the storyline would integrate the present and the past.
As I reached my first large combat scenario in an abandoned training room, Rockstar representatives began to tell me how to effectively use the newest iteration of bullet-time, and it took a few tries deflating a lone soccer ball before I really got the hang of it. You can go into bullet-time at any moment by clicking down on the right stick; as a result, time slows down and frenetic combat situations become much more manageable. One thing that was immediately noticeable was that the game really encourages bullet-time, as aiming becomes a much more refined affair in this mode. I noticed that when I tried to play the game like it was Red Dead Redemption, my gun had a much weightier feel to it, and I would often swing wide of my target and miss it entirely, spraying a random set of lockers with my bullets instead.
This strategic use of bullet-time really makes Max Payne 3 shine. A fair bit of criticism has been aimed at earlier Rockstar efforts because of their cover-based shooting mechanics, where it felt like you basically used the exact same strategy in every combat scenario. You'd find a good place to duck down, and then pop up and try to hit dudes who were little tiny heads popping around cover. Max Payne 3 truly flips this conceit on its head: I found cover rather ineffective, as enemies would often either rush me or flank me, making it difficult to return fire as my reticule swung wildly. Instead, the real rush of combat in this game comes from actually running headlong into a room full of bad guys, switching on bullet-time, and then using your weaponry and every environmental object at your disposal to take care of them all. It's like a much more evolved version of John Woo's Stranglehold.
Bullet-time, and especially the shootdodge mechanic that you can initiate by running in any direction and pressing the right bumper, can be a glory to behold. With the Euphoria engine at play, Max actually moves quite realistically. He actually twists around in the air (or while prone on the ground) as he aims in every direction. My favorite move would be to run into a room of bad guys, initiate the shootdodge mechanic with a flying leap, and then flip around, shooting everyone in the room as I flew backwards onto the ground. Sometimes Max would even shoot under one of his legs in one smooth natural motion, which was both hilarious and awesome at the same time.
As you use bullet-time, you can press the A button (on the Xbox 360 controller) to slow time down to a near-standstill, and whenever you kill the last enemy in the room, you're treated to a final kill-cam that lets you watch as the blood splatters realistically out of a dude's head while you're still pumping him with bullets. This seriously never gets old, and I found myself abusing the mechanic as much as possible.
I continued through the stadium, shooting bad guys with dramatic flair. As I reached the actual stadium stairs, I decided to get really clever and leaped into the air above a bunch of guys hiding out in the bleachers below me. I managed to take down four of them before hitting the ground with a brutal thud that caused everyone in the room to laugh and reminded me that physics were still at play.
A little later on, I climbed up into a tower and initiated an action sequence where I had to snipe from above, protecting Passos from enemies flanking him on all sides. The sniping was spot-on as well, as I had to really lead my shots and account for the direction and movement of my enemies. Here too, bullet-time was necessary to get in good shots and do it in enough time to save my acquaintance.
The stadium level ended with Payne and Passos just missing Fabiana as she's taken away, and at this point I handed the controller off to Tara Long to get a feel of the game. Tara soon demonstrated another really awesome aspect of Max Payne 3: the automatic melee combat system. Just about every time you get near an enemy, Max knocks them out, and you have a chance to execute them with a bullet to the head at point-blank range while engaged in bullet-time.
Tara proved to be pretty merciless, employing the tactic of running up to enemies and smacking them down before a shotgun blast in the face or the nuts. Though we both played in complete free-aim mode (and thus made it a bit more difficult for ourselves), you can always turn aim assist on if you're having trouble.
Another aspect of the combat that came into play in the second level was using the environment to one's advantage. Max was running through the docks of the Tiete River on a rainy night, and throughout the level there are places where the environment can help turn the tide of combat to your advantage. One such point was a boat landing, where a truck sat just beyond the water's edge. The player had the option to shoot the obstruction blocking the truck's tire from rolling downhill, which sent it rolling into the river along with a few bad dudes. Also sprinkled around the level were the inevitable gas canisters, though using them was a strategic affair -- they took a while to explode, so timing was important.
Both levels we played were great examples of how the series is retaining its noir feel through visual flourishes. The stadium level saw Max hallucinating a bit as he struggled to get through the area with his wounded arm (which, by the way, he quipped, is his "second favorite drinking arm"), and the gritty arena was rife with dark corners and minimal but effective lighting. The docks level included impressive rain and storm effects, as the wet asphalt glistened and lit up with every lightning flash.
After jumping back into the game to finish the docks segment, I came away from the whole experience incredibly pumped for what Max Payne 3 will have to offer. With a cohesive storyline that's told in a similar but more evolved fashion and tight combat mechanics that make you feel like the bad-ass that Max Payne always has been, I sincerely cannot wait until this game comes out in May.
http://www.destructoid.com/preview-how-max-payne-3-made-me-a-believer-again-222840.phtml
It seemed like the Max Payne series was being more or less 'Rockstarized,' and since the series is a highly stylized -- and more importantly, a unique -- experience, I was concerned that Max Payne 3 wouldn't retain the same awesome noir character that made the earlier titles in the series such singular endeavors.
Then I actually got my hands on the controller for some extended playtime.
Max and his acquaintance Raul Passos enter a soccer stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, planning to pay off a ransom to a group that has kidnapped the trophy wife of real estate mogul Rodrigo Branco. Unfortunately for Max, things get muddled when an unknown third party takes Fabiana Branco and leaves Max with a sniper bullet in his shoulder.
I took over here, and as I pushed an injured and slightly hallucinating Max along the dim hallways of the stadium, it became apparent that most of the Max Payne series' standout qualities have been retained. While the story is no longer told in static comic panels, it is still conveyed with great stylistic flair, including direct narration and witty one-liners from Max. Cut-scenes bleed into gameplay, and the storytelling keeps a graphic novel perspective. Words stand out boldly on-screen as they are narrated. The story moves through a series of flashbacks that take place in New York, and the cut-scenes often transition seamlessly from present-day Sao Paulo to New York. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to check out any New York levels, but I did get a peek at how the storyline would integrate the present and the past.
As I reached my first large combat scenario in an abandoned training room, Rockstar representatives began to tell me how to effectively use the newest iteration of bullet-time, and it took a few tries deflating a lone soccer ball before I really got the hang of it. You can go into bullet-time at any moment by clicking down on the right stick; as a result, time slows down and frenetic combat situations become much more manageable. One thing that was immediately noticeable was that the game really encourages bullet-time, as aiming becomes a much more refined affair in this mode. I noticed that when I tried to play the game like it was Red Dead Redemption, my gun had a much weightier feel to it, and I would often swing wide of my target and miss it entirely, spraying a random set of lockers with my bullets instead.
This strategic use of bullet-time really makes Max Payne 3 shine. A fair bit of criticism has been aimed at earlier Rockstar efforts because of their cover-based shooting mechanics, where it felt like you basically used the exact same strategy in every combat scenario. You'd find a good place to duck down, and then pop up and try to hit dudes who were little tiny heads popping around cover. Max Payne 3 truly flips this conceit on its head: I found cover rather ineffective, as enemies would often either rush me or flank me, making it difficult to return fire as my reticule swung wildly. Instead, the real rush of combat in this game comes from actually running headlong into a room full of bad guys, switching on bullet-time, and then using your weaponry and every environmental object at your disposal to take care of them all. It's like a much more evolved version of John Woo's Stranglehold.
Bullet-time, and especially the shootdodge mechanic that you can initiate by running in any direction and pressing the right bumper, can be a glory to behold. With the Euphoria engine at play, Max actually moves quite realistically. He actually twists around in the air (or while prone on the ground) as he aims in every direction. My favorite move would be to run into a room of bad guys, initiate the shootdodge mechanic with a flying leap, and then flip around, shooting everyone in the room as I flew backwards onto the ground. Sometimes Max would even shoot under one of his legs in one smooth natural motion, which was both hilarious and awesome at the same time.
As you use bullet-time, you can press the A button (on the Xbox 360 controller) to slow time down to a near-standstill, and whenever you kill the last enemy in the room, you're treated to a final kill-cam that lets you watch as the blood splatters realistically out of a dude's head while you're still pumping him with bullets. This seriously never gets old, and I found myself abusing the mechanic as much as possible.
I continued through the stadium, shooting bad guys with dramatic flair. As I reached the actual stadium stairs, I decided to get really clever and leaped into the air above a bunch of guys hiding out in the bleachers below me. I managed to take down four of them before hitting the ground with a brutal thud that caused everyone in the room to laugh and reminded me that physics were still at play.
A little later on, I climbed up into a tower and initiated an action sequence where I had to snipe from above, protecting Passos from enemies flanking him on all sides. The sniping was spot-on as well, as I had to really lead my shots and account for the direction and movement of my enemies. Here too, bullet-time was necessary to get in good shots and do it in enough time to save my acquaintance.
The stadium level ended with Payne and Passos just missing Fabiana as she's taken away, and at this point I handed the controller off to Tara Long to get a feel of the game. Tara soon demonstrated another really awesome aspect of Max Payne 3: the automatic melee combat system. Just about every time you get near an enemy, Max knocks them out, and you have a chance to execute them with a bullet to the head at point-blank range while engaged in bullet-time.
Tara proved to be pretty merciless, employing the tactic of running up to enemies and smacking them down before a shotgun blast in the face or the nuts. Though we both played in complete free-aim mode (and thus made it a bit more difficult for ourselves), you can always turn aim assist on if you're having trouble.
Another aspect of the combat that came into play in the second level was using the environment to one's advantage. Max was running through the docks of the Tiete River on a rainy night, and throughout the level there are places where the environment can help turn the tide of combat to your advantage. One such point was a boat landing, where a truck sat just beyond the water's edge. The player had the option to shoot the obstruction blocking the truck's tire from rolling downhill, which sent it rolling into the river along with a few bad dudes. Also sprinkled around the level were the inevitable gas canisters, though using them was a strategic affair -- they took a while to explode, so timing was important.
Both levels we played were great examples of how the series is retaining its noir feel through visual flourishes. The stadium level saw Max hallucinating a bit as he struggled to get through the area with his wounded arm (which, by the way, he quipped, is his "second favorite drinking arm"), and the gritty arena was rife with dark corners and minimal but effective lighting. The docks level included impressive rain and storm effects, as the wet asphalt glistened and lit up with every lightning flash.
After jumping back into the game to finish the docks segment, I came away from the whole experience incredibly pumped for what Max Payne 3 will have to offer. With a cohesive storyline that's told in a similar but more evolved fashion and tight combat mechanics that make you feel like the bad-ass that Max Payne always has been, I sincerely cannot wait until this game comes out in May.
http://www.destructoid.com/preview-how-max-payne-3-made-me-a-believer-again-222840.phtml
I will be updating again as soon as more stuff is available, and post my personal impressions of the material.
) tbh but I guess that's good - it's just a matter of how Rockstar handles it in the context of all their new shiny animations.
