No longer a cop, close to washed up, and addicted to pain killers, he takes a job in São Paulo, Brazil, protecting the family of wealthy real estate mogul Rodrigo. WIRED Refreshingly interesting third-person shooting mechanics, surprisingly good multiplayer. Max Payne 3 - Rockstar Games For Max, the tragedies that took his loved ones years ago are wounds that refuse to heal. Playing through the game's solo campaign is akin to spending a whole day watching every Die Hard movie: fun, but something you shouldn't do more than once in your life. To keep playing Max Payne 3 longer than 10 hours, you're going to have to get into the multiplayer. It works, though, because once you finally nail a tormenter and settle a score the feeling is great. I found myself really getting worked up whenever somebody consistently got the better of me, to the point that I was yelling at my TV. Every time you're killed by a player, you're shown how many times that particular person has beaten you and vice versa. That vendetta system almost works too well. While you create a location-specific time rift, other online players keep going, unbothered by the slow-motion madness happening in your area. Rockstar even managed to make the slow-motion ability work in multiplayer – when using the slow-down power, every enemy in your line of sight (but not everyone on the map) slows down too. The game encourages players in team deathmatch mode to pursue personal vendettas against players that they're killed by, offering bonuses for taking out an enemy that you've declared a vendetta against. Kill other players to get XP, use that XP to customize your loadouts and buy stat-boosting gear. It's all wrapped in a Call of Duty-style progression system, because of course it is. I didn't expect to like the multiplayer, but I came away feeling pretty impressed by it. The plot sags a bit in the first half by focusing so hard on Payne's alcoholism, but otherwise the dialogue and overall plot feels on par with what you'd expect from a big-budget action movie.Īnd really, that's all Max Payne 3 is – a beautiful, playable action movie.