Yeah... this isn't it chief. It feels nothing like Max Payne.

Don't get me wrong; it is a good game. It has really fun, satisfying combat, and I enjoyed my time with it. But they could have changed the name to literally anything else, and nobody would've bat an eye. Both setting-wise and gameplay-wise, it's a departure from the previous games. It erases the ending of the 2nd game, where Max had accepted his past and started to move on with his life. Instead, he is put back into the depressed, grieving mode again. The darker noir atmosphere of the previous games is gone, Max is slower and he can't gun down enemy groups like in the 2nd game, he stumbles on the ground after bullet-time jumping, and he can only carry 3 weapons at once. Overall, it takes a more "realistic" approach. While it's still fun to play, I feel like it has lost the charm the previous games had.

However, the most annoying thing about this game is the overabundance of cutscenes. Like, there are unnecessary amounts of them, and it really interrupts the gameplay. I understand it's to hide loading screens, but it's annoying having to watch cutscenes back to back while moving slowly in linear corridors.

Reviewed on Jan 29, 2024


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