Max Payne 3 - review

PS3/Xbox 360/PC

, £ 39.99, 18 + certified, Rockstar

Rockstar can do sleaze, that's for sure. Sex clubs Latino GTA III: Vice City on the lounges and dilapidated houses fucking Red Dead Redemption, this company has always reveled in the sights, smells and pleasures of life low. And with Max Payne 3, the third of a franchise shooter pessimistic Finnish developer Remedy adopted, which created a masterpiece of the underworld, the carnal depravity and violence.

Once the action begins, Dan and Sam Houser - the brothers who run the giant Rockstar enigmatic and direct their creative output - take your obsession with genre film to light. Entrenched in the story of a fallen cop seeking redemption as a bodyguard of crime mega-city of Sao Paulo, there are fragments of the heat, Carlito's Way, Elite Squad and of course, Man on Fire, a tribute Tony Scott, wounded masculinity and heroism condemned.

In fact, the set opener Scott is here, in the throes of self-hatred of nature, the brutality of the set pieces and lighting choreography hallucinogen floods every scene with orange and yellow vertigo . But here, it's not just about style, it is subjectivity. Payne was a drunken accident, mad with grief over the murder of his wife and daughter a decade ago. Its sad state of mind is constantly communicated with a barrage of effects - from fuzzy graphs double flowers saturated colors on the screen like flashes of migraine. We are proud argues that in the hands of less sure, could have become boring and unpleasant very quickly. In this case, is the most exciting surf ever.

Because all that is Max Payne 3, at heart he is a keen pleasure in the third person shooting. Hired as a contractor for private security old colleague Police Academy, our hero is supposed to take care Rodrigo Branco and his brothers, a group of degenerate real estate tycoons and monsters from the game, lifetime high as piles poverty against his ultra-secure building. Everything goes to hell, when a gang tries to kidnap the wife of Rodrigo trophy, and we are quickly immersed in a bloody war between drug traffickers and right paramilitary secret police constantly clash and collusion between misery.

It is an encouragement to be derived from high-'em-up that deflects moving between the top clubs and the lower band life, yachts million for the corrugated iron shacks fall in the favelas of nightmare. In the 14 chapters, the battery kit memorable encounters on top of each, an exchange of hostages in disarray a football stadium, an escape from the stress of a bus station full of people, a Jail Break which makes it resemble in Prisoner Cell Block H. Oz Material is a hard spray.

The game is the key control system not perfect. A customizable auto-targeting system allows players to choose between the systems self-hard or soft, it subtly guiding your bag instead of shooting specific enemies vigorously. Both are intelligent, intuitive, seamless, allowing newcomers to get used to the rhythm with turbocharger. There is also a lens system for free for veterans, happy to do his thing with the most sensitive junctions.

maneuvers in the environment is super smooth too. Press "X" that enters the bridge, where you can target your enemies and shoot blind from a more cautious approach by the spray and pray. Disabling only need another tap on the "X", while "A" key takes you to ride on the roof, allowing maximum through an environment quickly without giving too much of a target. Over time, start locations of reading in micro-seconds, the preparation of a bomb factory of the object to object, enjoy the feeling of it. You know you're in good hands when you get to cover everything is fun and expressive.

the middle, however, are time and the ball shootdodge, both engines brutal Payne, the fight against the machine hyper-stylized. Essentially, the updates are in the standard recipe Tweaked: Get killed to fill the meter, then press the right analog to switch to a bullet in slow motion, allowing our anti-hero to lift several objectives, while enemies will continue to receive their bearings.

These have always been the signature components of the experience of Payne, but here in a series of very complex environments, and driven by the physics of motion animated characters advanced natural , lead to very exciting times for action, which combine perfectly and interactive cinema. There is a possibility that should not be so completely satisfactory headfirst by a stairwell, firing twin Uzis a room full of gang members coke exhausted, but he feels every time. Even when you crash into a table (which I've done this lot), or accidentally jump off the side of a boat (too). We are promised an interactive tribute to John Woo ballet sequences for the year, and now we have it.

• Unlike most titles Rockstar, Max Payne 3 is a completely linear experience - there is some room to explore some areas, but we are trapped in a corridor of the narrative and shot to a conclusion inevitable. While this is very restrictive in open worlds of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead, Rockstar has also helped to sharpen their storytelling skills - the labyrinthine plot, while far from revolutionary, and comes with participation care and there are several beautiful small plots, issues of unrequited love to the tragic story of a local actor, beloved fails to escape the violence of the favela. With the news and made a lot of tracks that can be discovered, they add some depth to the chaos across the line, and we make sense of this vast operation, the corrupt world of the costs of field vision of Max.
• Keep all this is a masterful performance by James McCaffrey Max. His monologue delivered a strong mind is tired diatribe picaresque world - part classic black voiceover, suicide note part in anger. There are plenty of black humor there, of course, but the subtext over-riding of loss and despair is at its best Rockstar indulgent, nihilistic.

At the top of 10 hours (or less) of the campaign, there is an arcade mode, split into two options: Score Attack takes you to retry a chapter you want the highest score possible adding that the multipliers consecutive moves or style, New York Minute is complete missions as quickly as possible, gain extra time for death. Both tables have global high score, but players can also compare the results against their friends, which should have the competence of Payne fans have fun at some point.

And of course, there is a wide range of multiplayer modes, combining favorite team and individual basis with lots of twists and turns typical Rockstar. Payne murderer, for example, puts two players in the role of Max and his cohort Academy Passos - who just survive as long as possible with another player after them, if one dies, the murderer assumes the role successfully. This is, of course, all the ephemeral loyalties arise between actors in the roles of friends and prosecutors, and is a. Clearly take on the family of one against all modes

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