The second-best Max Payne game. It's a lot better than MP2, but worse than MP1 (both of which I've also reviewed on Steam). People complain about the cutscenes--that there are too many and they're too long--but I didn't mind them at all. First, they're really well done--why can AAA slop devs today not manage to make cutscenes this good even though all they try to produce are ♥♥♥♥♥♥ interactive movies instead of real games? I briefly played, and rapidly refunded, the new ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Indiana Jones game, and it has nothing on MP3 in this regard (or any other). Second, the gameplay is challenging enough that I felt like every cutscene was a nice little break/reward for getting through the last bit of combat. I never felt like I was being annoyingly taken out of the game.

I have to say that it doesn't feel much like a Max Payne game as far as the gameplay goes. MP1 and MP2 fights are almost all done at close quarters. But in MP3, the emphasis is on speed and accuracy, picking off enemy heads from a distance before the bad guys can get near you and ♥♥♥♥ you up, which they'll do really fast if you don't kill them quickly. There's also the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 360-era cover mechanic: don't use it. For the most part, you can avoid going into cover and also leave cover as soon as the game puts you in it after a cutscene. It makes the game a lot more difficult but way more enjoyable. The cover mechanic for third-person shooters was never anything but devs trying to accommodate games that require (even moderately) careful aiming to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ console gamepads. Look up online how to edit the settings in MP3 to make it play like MP1, and just avoid using cover. Use shootdodge a lot instead.

The weakness of the game comes down to the lack of variety in the combat, and the gameplay is all combat. Throughout MP3, the point is to pick off enemy heads as fast as possible. And apart from shotguns, which end up being practically useless, you can do that just as well with pretty much any gun (biggest factor making a difference is the size of the gun's magazine, really). You can play the whole game with a basic pistol and it won't be much different than if you use other guns instead, but this depends on your accuracy. In MP1 and MP2, your choice of weapons to use had a big effect--including grenades and molotovs, which are completely absent in MP3 singleplayer (so there are no throwable weapons in the SP part of the game, which sucks ass--but enemies have grenades anyway).

Also, the intensity of the game oddly fell off toward the end--it seemed like the late middle part of the game was harder than the end, which was kind of underwhelming.

One last thing to mention is that the enemy AI is way better than what you'll find in almost all action games released in the past several years. Another mystery: why can't AAA slop devs today make AI that isn't rancid ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ when we had AI this good in 2012 (not to mention even earlier--FEAR had really good AI in 2005, for example)? Enemies will usually avoid running right at you and making themselves targets. They'll hang back, use cover, flank, try to flush you out of your position with grenades, etc. There were a couple times I saw an enemy throw a grenade, immediately run right into the grenade he just threw, and kill himself--so it's not like they don't do ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sometimes, unfortunately.

Overall, an awesome game. The fights are very fun and always kept me on edge. I never felt like I could relax during combat--there's always the risk of instantly dying if an enemy lands a headshot on you. There was one part where I kept dying over and over, but somehow I never got frustrated. The combat is so good even dying is fine because you get to do the badass fights over again. Even if it doesn't play much like a Max Payne game, I don't see how anyone can reasonably complain about that given how good MP3 is, and considering that MP2 was such a letdown.

Damn fine installment in the Max Payne series. Great story that could easily be made into a blockbuster. The game has a new engine compared to the first two games. The animation and effects are beyond its time and dont' feel dated at all. The physics in the game are amazing as well, and the shooting is without end! Definitely a worthy addition to any gamer's collection.