I've never ever had a problem with the cutscenes in all my time of the 5 replays I've done over the past 4 years. The cutscenes feel like they're almost integral to the experience, they always add to the story or are entertaining in some way, and they're a great way to give some downtime for the player to sit back and relax after the typically difficult battles they put right before the cutscenes. It only adds to the experience that they seamlessly integrate into the game between the ragdoll killcams and the in-engine cutscenes leading to shoot-dodge/bullet time moments right after them. It all adds up to a beautiful experience where you truly feel like you're Max Payne and in the story even if you don't have control all the time. Perhaps it's just because I like games like this (I fucking love Call of Juarez: Gunslinger), but that's exactly it, this is the kind of linear story-drive game where control WILL be taken away from you for purposes of advancing the story, and that's okay. If you want to completely control the character go play an open-world RPG. I can see where some cricisms come in that it isn't like the original Max Paynes in this regard, but honestly Max Payne 3 does things so differently from its predecessors that it might as well be a different game just that it's related the stories of the first two, and even then it basically discards the entirety of 2's story, which is fine imho because 2 was shit. Overall I really do believe that it's a great game and it's definitely a masterpeice of video game cinematography if that makes any sense, I'd absolutely reccommed everyone play it at least once, even if you don't have any experience with the series prior like I didn't.
What honestly killed Max Payne 3 for me was the gameplay. All the point Ray made in the video annoyed me 3x times as much. I played a shit ton of MP1 and 2 and their mods, and the easy-breezy movement made those games work so well with the bullet time. Having the Euphoria system in the game made me feel like I was controlling a lead suit.
I honestly could've stood bad gameplay if I fell in love with the world of MP3 like I had with the first two. But the game lacked the sardonic wit the first two games had. Sure MP3 was as dark as the first two, but it didn't have any fun world-building in the environments; the humorously standoffish NPCs, the over-the-top parody TV shows and ads; they all added the necessary laughs and relief needed to make the world of Max Payne not just another grimdark dystopia.
MP3's story was dark and noir, sure, but it lacked that absurdities that made the first two games' so memorable; the Military base levels in 1, that fucking escort mission with Vinnie in the Captain Baseball Bat Boy costume rigged to explode. The story just felt like a cynical direct-to-DVD sequel that had a carbon-copy story without character and understanding of what unique elements made people love the first two's so much. The first two games weren't above taking a step back and laughing at itself at its own absurdity; Max Payne 3 just took itself way too seriously.
Jesus this was the longest post I've written in a while, but as someone who really loved the first two games, I was so intensely disappointed.
The cutscenes are annoying as hell and keep this game from being great.
Firsty, the story itself isn't that good. It's like an average B movie action plot, with Max Payne in it. It was fine the first time, but I had zero interest in it after that. And the main "long" cutscenes aren't even the issue: the game keeps pulling you out of the gameplay sequences, even for 30 second cutscenes of Max doing stuff like seeing a truck drive by, or opening a door, peaking through a window, all while commenting. It's so fucking frustrating to have, as I say, your mouse and keyboard stolen from you literally every two minutes for these small moments. They are all unskippable, as with the main cutscenes. It's infuriating. Such a shame!
This video put a lot of things into perspective for me. My biggest grievance with MP3 was that it effectively nullified 2, and the abundance of cut-scenes. But Max's wit also, it rubbed me the wrong way and I couldn't put it into words. He was being edgy in 3, and not dry as in 1 and 2. it all makes sense now
I remember watching this before release:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8x1Gw6ZOkQ
It was definitely posted to Facepunch. Turned out to be a really good game, though.
i thought the story was simple but had a lot of heart, the dialogue is what made it great.
and the gameplay was on point
i feel naked without the winner rating, and i was present when it wasnt even o the forum yet :c
Honestly? Yeah.
I'd rather look at a traditional load screen than a cutscene I'm not invested in or have seen before anytime.
"Let's see, how can we expand on Max's character?"
"I know! Let's turn him into an alcoholic mess!"
"But Monolith did that with Condemned 2 and it was shit and it doesn't factor in the ending of Max Payne 2"
"Nonsense! This is superb character development! Oh and we'll have him swear every 60 seconds too"
"I hope you get hit by a bus."
"Great idea! we'll have Max on a bus!"
"I hate you"
wat
I'm not sure that boiling down the problems the game has with writing, and characterization like this actually gets your point across.
What does condemned 2 have to do with anything. And having him being an alcoholic wasn't what made that a bad game at all what are you talking about. And max doesn't swear every 60 seconds.
And I have no idea why you'd include the bus part. I'm so confused.
i thought he was always a functional alcoholic
even then he was still a painkiller popping mess after his wife died so same thing really?
Yeah I'll give you that, Max Payne 3's story isn't brilliant and is a bit messy at points, but that's one of the reasons why it works so well. It's about the presentation, not the story itself, and Max Payne 3 does that beautifully between the dialogue, the way the camera angles shift, and the music adding tension and release. It's like Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction was not a film with some wonderfully amazing story that plucks your heart, it's not even chronologically aligned, but that was never the point. The point was to make a masterpeice of cinematography and characterization that fits together without having to be put together intentionally. Max Payne 3 is intentionally riffing off of an average B action movie because that's the style its trying to imitate, injecting great characterization and cinematography to make up for any poor plot points. That's what makes those cutscenes so great. And I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about with the cutscenes just doing stuff like opening a door or whatnot, the only times I can remember that is when Max is escorting Giovanna and that's literally only because the game has to get some way of having the two of them continue through an area, otherwise the game always has dialogue going over top of it.
I see your point, the story is fine, but to me it doesn't warrant full attention on each play through. The best part of the game is the gunplay, the action, and all that stuff, at least that's what I really enjoyed the most. What I mean by short cutscenes is that the game constantly interrupts the gameplay with short scripted 'cutscene' moments. I've played it a while ago, so I can't specify exactly, but I've heard the same complaint from many other people so I doubt it's my memory deceiving me. You can't play for 20 minutes straight without any interruptions, and the function to "skip" cutscenes is only available right at the end of them (when it's done loading the next section). It would have made much more sense, and I would have preferred, if each level took an ass-long time to load but have all the cutscenes as skippable. After completing the game a couple of time, I often wanted to just jump in and shoot up a bunch of people but the cutscenes really put me off it.
The multiplayer is horrible, full of exploits such as overpowered guns, and it takes 0.0001 nanoseconds to get killed making it incredibly frustrating. Such a shame, since they clearly put effort into fleshing out customisation and game modes instead of having a half assed tacked on multiplayer mode. I think these two huge issues just set it back too much. I can understand if certain people don't mind the cutscenes, but to me they are way too annoying and stop me from wanting to pick it back up again.
I adore MP3, even though I felt like the moment to moment writing was a step down from the Remedy games. Max's quips just weren't as sharp and his noir metaphor-speak felt a little more contrived ("Baghdad with G-Strings" vs "I don't know about angels, but it's fear that gives men wings").
Love the game to death though for everything else.
MP2 will always be my favourite but MP3 comes second. I do have to say I found Rockstar's Max a bit too... depressed, that he's given up. That being said the story of MP3 is really great.
The gameplay is superb but after replaying it bunch of times you do notice there a lot of cutscenes, sometimes after each gun fight and couple of steps forward.
Still one of my favorite games of all time.
Despite not being made by the same people and going in its own direction, Max Payne is still really good.
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