This game would’ve been forgotten if not for its title. It's not a technically bad game, but it's not a good game either. It's just another generic uninspired 7th-gen third-person shooter sapping more money off the Max Payne IP.

The game wasn't designed with Max Payne's bullet-time or dodging mechanics in mind, other than their frequent use in scripted sequences. The actual gameplay is much like if Metal Gear Solid patched in dodging with bullet-time—okay, it's a feature, but these scenarios sure weren't designed with this ability in mind. The loss of OG Max Payne's arcadey controls, in favor of stiff but "realistic" movement, was also a disappointment.

The set-pieces in Payne & Lynch 3 aren't like those in Mass Effect or Uncharted, here they're drab and repetitive. There's nothing impressive, it all feels the same. Boom, explosion, Rico Rodriguez jumps to safety, but oh no—look! Six enemies are beneath you! Bullet-time has been automatically activated, leaving you plenty of time to get them all in the head. And so this occurs once every twenty or so minutes, in a bland, repetitive grind. When the enemies die, Kane monologues as you trail the linear path, with the environments lacking the interactivity of the previous games, and despite Rockstar's fame with open world titles, opportunities for small-scale exploration being minimal.

This game offers nothing of interest. Its story is both predictable and overly-clichéd, its characters are completely forgettable, and even Max himself is reduced to nothing more than your generic empty action protagonist. The game is polished, its shooting functions as it should, but for all the money poured into this project, they somehow couldn't add some level of substance to this garden variety shooter.

Max Payne 3 is a Michael Bay game through and through with just a hint of Max Payne. Gameplay is strong with plenty of adrenaline pumping moments, but unfortunately the game frequently interrupts the action with either pointless cutscenes or to tell a mostly boring story filled with unsympathetic characters. It's a fun game, but by no means deep. Even though it wants you to believe otherwise.
Pros: Excellent gunplay, great level design, plenty of diversity in locales and gameplay, amount of detail in the environments, solid sound effects, moments when it comes close to capturing the spirit of the original
Cons: Annoying visual effects that are spammed left, right and center during cutscenes and occasionally gameplay, too many useless cutscenes (that usually can't be skipped due to them covering up the loading) that break up the pace, writing wants to be smart, but rarely is, Portuguese is spoken frequently and yet there's no translation, weak characters and voice acting, boring story

In my latest live-show I am going to complete recent games, I haven't finished yet. First in the row: Max Payne 3

I think a lot of people missed some of the subtleties of the story. It's essentially a detox narrative. Max actually uses the wealthy family for his own gain, it's just not thrown in the player's face; really good writing.

The game itself is really addictive, the only major flaw is the long loading time hidden within the cut-scenes.

I didn't played the previous games, but I know the franchise well enough and what is it about; the story has it begins seems to head towards your typical "depressed ex-cop tale" but then it hits you terrific writing, characters and set pieces; gameplay is natural TPS, so you will be ok with it but the health doesn't replenish in time making things more difficult, so you must keep an eye on pain killers, stick to cover and don't play hero, thought "bullet time" will get you out of almost any situation. It goes for more of a blockbuster film style than a comic book, trying to appeal to the masses and multiplayer is very fun. In conclusion: This game is really good for all the right reasons and shouldn't be missed.

different max but still great game

An older, beat-up version of Max Payne shoot-dodges himself out of retirement: A job as private security detail for businessmen and socialites in Sao Paulo soon turns out to be everything but the quiet, little pension scheme. Rockstar successfully revives the franchise by introducing some fresh ideas while still staying true to the original! Pros: Incredibly detailed graphic, premium music and soundeffects and top-notch direction. Cons: Gunplay gets repetitive after a while; and the different plot strands, although easy enough to follow, never *really* come together in the end.

Never played the first two but I'm glad I took a chance on this one. A linear shooter's pretty different from what you usually get from Rockstar but you'd never know.
I love the over the top shooting and the set pieces are awesome. The way the story's told is great too, bleak as hell and a little heavy on the cut scenes but it's not predictable and the writing's top class.