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Explain why this game is considered bad?


Sir-Syzygy

Do you like you game?  

255 members have voted

  1. 1. Is 'Max Payne 3' a bad game?

    • Yes
      32
    • No
      223


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I often find online fans of the Max Payne series refer to this game with great contempt. 

I don't remember much about the first two instalments but it seems those who dislike this game are people who feel it's a poor imitation of the prior two. 

So, could someone please (without being aggressive or rude) explain the major issues fans have with this game? Since I can't find any clear reasoning. 

 

Important note: If you don't know, don't understand or just don't have the answer to my question, please do not reply to this topic. I'm so sick of my topics getting responses akin to "Idk just enjoy the game lol". It's just so draining. 

Concerning the poll: Yes, I'm aware I only gave two "black-and-white" answers. That's the point, if you think it's just "okay" then vote for it being good. I'm also tired of people whining about my polls. 

Sorry for the mini-rants. 

( @TheEyeOfSa will assist in enforcing these rules)

Edited by Crispy78923
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I voted no. There exists no such thing as a game that's bad objectively. Take my opinion with a pinch of salt because I never played the previous games but I did watch summary videos to get caught up on the story. 

 

Loved it a lot despite giving me hell on the way to plat ( still haven't platted it yet). 

Edited by PooPooBlast
I don't know what I was smoking :)
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The game lacks the dark comic book-y noir vibe of the first two games, and kinda boils down to a more generic shooter with a sulky protagonist... which probably rubs a lot of fans of the series the wrong way.  But graphically, mechanically and even story-wise... it's a fine game for what it is.

 

I'm sure the people who don't like it would say "it'd be better if it weren't called Max Payne"... which is an argument I've always found ridiculous.  A good game is a good game is a good game, people who get hung up on trivial semantics like that are just picking for reasons to complain.  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Edited by Dreakon13
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34 minutes ago, Crispy78923 said:

it seems those who dislike this game are people who feel it's a poor imitation of the prior two. 

 

Nope, from what I remember most people dislike this one because it's different from the 1 & 2. It didn't try to imitate anything, instead it has it's own identity that IMO feels great.

 

That's why it has 87 on metacritic from game reviewers and 77 from users. There were probably many fanboys who blindly gave this game 0 only because it wants to show something new.

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It isn’t considered bad - as even a cursory glance at any of the conglomerate review sites will attest.

 

Of course, there will always be forum heckling of any game that gets good reviews - that’s just the internet for you: giving an imaginary megaphone to the contingent who confuse shouting dissenting opinions into the void with having a personality.

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I love this game. Had a ton of fun when it came out... and yes I know this is something you normally don't hear but I even had a lot of fun with the Multiplayer and getting the online trophies. 

I would love to see Max Payne 4 asap.

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3 hours ago, Crispy78923 said:

So, could someone please (without being aggressive or rude) explain the major issues fans have with this game? Since I can't find any clear reasoning. 

 

Could you provide examples (links) of "issues fans have with this game" that brought about your topic?

 

I haven't heard/read anything credible that I would have said denotes Max Payne 3 is a "bad game".

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45 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

 

Could you provide examples (links) of "issues fans have with this game" that brought about your topic?

 

I haven't heard/read anything credible that I would have said denotes Max Payne 3 is a "bad game".

well to be fair I did hear that and the 6 people who voted yes echo that as well

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51 minutes ago, PooPooBlast said:

well to be fair I did hear that and the 6 people who voted yes echo that as well

 

To be fair, the survey just asks people if think it’s a bad game and the opening post asks for why. The survey doesn’t ask if people heard/read the game is bad, so they’re not related. 

 

Secondly, I never doubted the thread creator saw this, I was hoping to decipher what they saw if they could provide a link. I was just adding that I didn’t have anything to contribute with experience seeing people considering it a bad game.

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2 hours ago, DaivRules said:

 

To be fair, the survey just asks people if think it’s a bad game and the opening post asks for why. The survey doesn’t ask if people heard/read the game is bad, so they’re not related. 

 

Secondly, I never doubted the thread creator saw this, I was hoping to decipher what they saw if they could provide a link. I was just adding that I didn’t have anything to contribute with experience seeing people considering it a bad game.

Ahh I see. Fair enough. Though he was sort of asking on why did people generally hate which isn't necessarily true. 

 

Some points brought up by others on other forums is that they all thought Max was finally over his wife's death but then he's back to square one in max Payne 3. 

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The only bad thing of Max Payne is the horrid Multiplayer system and how you're extremely gimped at lower levels at the mercy of heavy armor and those crazy ass sawn off shotguns. Beyond that I found Max Payne 3 to flow gameplay wise a ton better than Max Payne 1 and 2. Going through on NYM and NYM HC was some of the best fun I've had in years with a shooter.

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I would not call the game bad, but it is in no way a Max Payne game, which likely caught a lot of people off guard when it first came out. And I mean both presentation and gameplay wise. Since the discussion on presentation has been done to death already, I'm just gonna focus on the gameplay that surprisingly few people talk about. In the previous Max Paynes you would often run into enemies organically. You would walk into a room and hear a couple of dudes having a conversation until you decide to kill them, and they won't be followed by a stream of dudes jumping from holes all around the place. Or you would come across a fake enemy booby trapped with explosives, and if you didn't trigger it you can eavesdrop on the guys who set it up a bit further away discussing that you're definitely gonna fall for it.

 

In the new game you're basically playing Painkiller and I couldn't unnotice that once I noticed it. You get locked in an area every 2 minutes and you have to clear out all of the enemies, almost always numbering in the double digits, in order to proceed. It's so far from how the old games played, and there's 0 variance to it.

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1 hour ago, NamoPh said:

I would not call the game bad, but it is in no way a Max Payne game.

wha? It's Max Payne through and through. He gets weapons, he jumps and shoots enemies in slow motion. Just because the set pieces are a little more obvious doesn't mean it's "not a Max Payne game". What does that mean anyway? Just because most of it isn't set in New York doesn't mean it doesn't have the same vibe, he's bitter and people keep stabbing him in the back, and despite his heroics it all turns to shit anyway, just like the first two games.

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21 minutes ago, SkyMason said:

wha? It's Max Payne through and through. He gets weapons, he jumps and shoots enemies in slow motion. Just because the set pieces are a little more obvious doesn't mean it's "not a Max Payne game". What does that mean anyway? Just because most of it isn't set in New York doesn't mean it doesn't have the same vibe, he's bitter and people keep stabbing him in the back, and despite his heroics it all turns to shit anyway, just like the first two games.

 

Well, I mean, you could have, like, tried reading the rest of the post beyond what you quoted, because you evidently completely missed where that train of thought ended up. But you did give me a good simple quote to sum up why the game soured a lot of people. It was made by people whose understanding of the previous games went only as deep as "He gets weapons, he jumps and shoots enemies in slow motion".

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People who dislike this game usually have one of the following reasons: 

 

1. Setting/aesthetic isn't the same as the NYC hard boiled neo noir the franchise is known for. The new setting in their opinion isn't true to what the franchise stands for, kinda like metalheads who won't listen to a bands new material because it's not the same genre, e.g. Linkin Park (and yes, I know that Linkin Park isn't a good example for a metal band; take Sabbath without Ozzy then, you know what I mean).

2. They feel that the games tone is too serious and not quirky enough compared to its predecessors, e.g. Max' face or the comic book cutscenes. 

3. They say that Max' movement is too slow and dislike the perceived reliance on duck and cover mechanics

4. They dislike the loading times as well as the amount of cutscenes

 

I personally love the game and think it's one of the best shooters ever made. I can still relate to some of the criticisms. For example, I think that parts 1 and 2 are way faster and Max' moves aren't as sluggish. Standing up after lying down takes him forever, when before it didn't. Duck and cover stuff can be pretty boring, but you can easily play the game without using those mechanics too much if you're so inclined. I enjoy the game with less quirkiness, but I do believe it's still pretty funny, even though in a less obvious way. 

 

The loading times are annoying if you're trying for NYMHC, but it's a great looking game, so whatever. The pros really outweigh the cons for me. 

 

It's been 6 years since the game was released. I'm still going back to it every once in a while. That doesn't happen with too many games these days.

 

Edited by drthomys
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40 minutes ago, NamoPh said:

 

Well, I mean, you could have, like, tried reading the rest of the post beyond what you quoted, because you evidently completely missed where that train of thought ended up. But you did give me a good simple quote to sum up why the game soured a lot of people. It was made by people whose understanding of the previous games went only as deep as "He gets weapons, he jumps and shoots enemies in slow motion".

Sorry for not quoting the full post, but I wanted to emphasize the first point you made, because I thought it was a little silly. Just because it is not exactly like the older games doesn't mean it's "not a Max Payne game". You don't get to pick and choose what makes a series what it is, it is what it is. Some fans of the older titles liked the new approach, some didn't. Just because the focus is on the gunplay setpieces, doesn't mean the character is any different, he's still the same miserable wise-cracking dude from the first two games.

 

There was some gimmicks from the first (mostly MP2) couple of games taken out, but 99% of your time was spent doing the same stuff you do in MP3 anyway - shooting bad guys. If anything MP3 doubles down on the noir feel - this game is super bleak. I agree the game can be a little simplistic at times, but I still think taking Max Payne out of New York and doubling down on the gunplay (which IMO is the best shooting gameplay in any 3rd person game to this day) was a choice that mostly paid off.

49 minutes ago, drthomys said:

People who dislike this game usually have one of the following reasons: 

 

1. Setting/aesthetic isn't the same as the NYC hard boiled neo noir the franchise is known for. The new setting in their opinion isn't true to what the franchise stands for, kinda like metalheads who won't listen to a bands new material because it's not the same genre, e.g. Linkin Park (and yes, I know that Linkin Park isn't a good example for a metal band; take Sabbath without Ozzy then, you know what I mean).

2. They feel that the games tone is too serious and not quirky enough compared to its predecessors, e.g. Max' face or the comic book cutscenes. 

3. They say that Max' movement is too slow and dislike the perceived reliance on duck and cover mechanics

4. They dislike the loading times as well as the amount of cutscenes

 

I personally love the game and think it's one of the best shooters ever made. I can still relate to some of the criticisms. For example, I think that parts 1 and 2 are way faster and Max' moves aren't as sluggish. Standing up after lying down takes him forever, when before it didn't. Duck and cover stuff can be pretty boring, but you can easily play the game without using those mechanics too much if you're so inclined. I enjoy the game with less quirkiness, but I do believe it's still pretty funny, even though in a less obvious way. 

 

The loading times are annoying if you're trying for NYMHC, but it's a great looking game, so whatever. The pros really outweigh the cons for me. 

 

It's been 6 years since the game was released. I'm still going back to it every once in a while. That doesn't happen with too many games these days.

 

You pretty much said it in one. I can agree with some of the complaints (the loading times are atrocious - even on PC), but there's still one of the best action games ever made here. Honestly after MP1/2 I think the story and setting had its day, taking Max out of New York was pretty brave, but you can't keep doing the same things over and over. The humour thing IDK, Max Payne seems to be making one liners in MP3 even when he is being serious, the weirder supernatural stuff might have been taken out but there's still a lot of jokes in this game.

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7 hours ago, SkyMason said:

Sorry for not quoting the full post, but I wanted to emphasize the first point you made, because I thought it was a little silly. Just because it is not exactly like the older games doesn't mean it's "not a Max Payne game". You don't get to pick and choose what makes a series what it is, it is what it is. Some fans of the older titles liked the new approach, some didn't. Just because the focus is on the gunplay setpieces, doesn't mean the character is any different, he's still the same miserable wise-cracking dude from the first two games.

 

There was some gimmicks from the first (mostly MP2) couple of games taken out, but 99% of your time was spent doing the same stuff you do in MP3 anyway - shooting bad guys. If anything MP3 doubles down on the noir feel - this game is super bleak. I agree the game can be a little simplistic at times, but I still think taking Max Payne out of New York and doubling down on the gunplay (which IMO is the best shooting gameplay in any 3rd person game to this day) was a choice that mostly paid off.

You pretty much said it in one. I can agree with some of the complaints (the loading times are atrocious - even on PC), but there's still one of the best action games ever made here. Honestly after MP1/2 I think the story and setting had its day, taking Max out of New York was pretty brave, but you can't keep doing the same things over and over. The humour thing IDK, Max Payne seems to be making one liners in MP3 even when he is being serious, the weirder supernatural stuff might have been taken out but there's still a lot of jokes in this game.

 

I was mostly referring to the fact that your question had already been answered in the part you didn't quote. Because it seems we're in agreement that the game didn't follow the same approach. Yes it's all just gunplay, but there are hundreds of ways to do gunplay, and MP3 followed the Painkiller approach rather than the Max Payne one. And while I will never argue that Painkiller is a bad game (the first one at least), it was not an approach I particularly enjoyed and definitely not one I was expecting when going into MP3. I believe MP3 did quite a few things right, but combine these differences in gameplay with the differences in presentation you've seen before (no, this isn't all about not being in NY), and it isn't unfair to say that it is Max Payne in name only. Whether that makes it good or bad is a separate point entirely.

 

By the logic of a series is what it is, we would for example have to accept that Metroid Other M is part of the series for what it is, rather than pointing out the fact that it was the game that buried the franchise. Not the same thing obviously, I just want to point out the flaw in that philosophy.

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