Note: This post contains major
spoilers for Max Payne 3.
When I first played through
Max Payne 3's brutal single player campaign, the shocking depictions of
violence are what stuck with me in the aftermath. Sometimes I'd be playing some
relatively light-hearted fare like Rayman Origins, only to think back to Marcelo's
immolation at the hands of the Cracha Preto, or the holes I'd pushed through
some poor schmuck's face with my automatic pistol.
It was powerful. It was
shocking. It hung around like trauma.
I loved the game because,
and in spite of, these displays of gratuity. I can remember looking away from
the TV when I thought someone's death was imminent, even Max's. Sure this meant
I failed the odd quick time event, but it also meant I could sleep at night. It
meant that I could stomach the tension of shootouts and close encounters with
militiamen. It meant eventually seeing the impossible tidiness of Max's
redemption.
Recently I've felt the urge
to return to glitzy (and grimy) Sao Paolo, but that was effectively tempered by
my unwillingness to pull the Xbox 360 out of storage and hook it up to an
entertainment system which is at capacity (in terms of HDMI ports and shelf
space). Thankfully, Steam came to the rescue with an unbelievable bargain: the
game plus all downloadable content for a measly 8 US dollars.
It may have taken 3 days to
download, but it was well worth the wait.
Despite my laptop struggling
with the neon noir presentation (especially scene transitions) and the pin
stripe of Max's suit, it's been a relatively smooth ride. Shootdodging against
hordes of gang bangers occurred at a reasonable clip (just shy of what I assume
to be 30 frames per second), my "rig" just can't handle the raw
emotional power of Rockstar's scripted sequences. Voicework usually played out
of sync with the rendered actors and my hardware approached alarming
temperatures, but we got through in the end.
What was most surprising was
just how well the action held up. I can remember complaining that I found the
damage model (read: how you accrue damage) to be inconsistent, but this time
around it felt just fine. I mean, you should go from dandy to deathbed after
being hit with a sniper rifle or up close with a shotgun, shouldn't you. Also,
since when have video games been known for realistic portrayals of pain
thresholds in the human body? With a bit of patience, any combat situation is
easily cleared - the only exceptions being 2 not-quite-boss fights in the
penultimate chapter. If you take the time to search your surrounds and find a
few bottles of painkillers, it's even more likely that you'll live to shoot
your way through another day.
Back to the action, leaping
through a dangerous battlefield in slow motion and peppering anything in your sight
with precisely placed projectiles is still super cool. Pulling away from cover
could be less awkward, but I'd be unreasonable for labelling that as anything
other than a slight annoyance. It is bloody and gross fun perforating heads and
body parts with a wide arsenal that covers everything from several variations
of the modest pistol to the rocket launcher.
What really sets this
slightly aged masterpiece apart from 2 years’ worth of blockbusters is Health's
original soundtrack that even makes a title screen sad enough to force your
head between hands. The stirring string arrangements that punctuate the bullets
and blood (and usually accompany the titular character drinking and drugging
himself into a stupor) are, with hindsight, more haunting than any instance of
gun violence. It lingers, playing through my head whenever anything fails to go
to plan. The grimy, foreboding tracks that are played throughout the bullet ballet
are just as -- for lack of a better word -- catchy, and I've had the album on
regular rotation since I started downloading the game last week.
One interesting observation,
particularly after having just started playing the Tomb Raider reboot, is that
the game tends to fetishise death. I was almost glad to see the camera focus on
Max's death mask and various angles of blood spatter after having been
subjected to arguably erotic angles on Lara Croft's multiple and gruesome demises.
Granted, Tomb Raider seems that little bit more uncomfortably preoccupied with
the protagonist's agony in the throes of death, but at least now I can find an
example of this treatment on a man.
While we're on the topic of
problematic treatment of women in games, they exist only to be saved in Max
Payne 3. I realise this ties in heavily with both the noir theme and the
premise of the original, but even the strongest (and, if memory serves, only
surviving) woman character is shown to have some serious flaws and has to be
saved by the lead male. It could also be argued that Giovanna is the only woman
to survive because she exhibits some positive behaviours and is thus worthy of
saving.
So, two years on, Max Payne
3 is still very much worthy of your time. If 10 hours of bloody, bullet-riddled
mayhem didn’t sound appealing upon its release, it’s not going to be any more
attractive to you now. That being said, I again found myself falling for and
with Max from failure to stomach-turningly grisly failure. If you’re looking
for a third person shooter with a compelling story and solid, cover-based
shooting action, I can recommend this (again) without hesitation.
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