Rockstar's latest offering is a gritty shooter in a style that reminds me of the old detective film noir style. The plot is simply captivating and it kept me up way later than I should have just because I wanted to know what happens next. Unfortunately, the film relies on custscenes and some kind of red and blue blurring effect to distort the cut scenes, which really annoys me. I have vertigo and those effect are what vertigo feels like. To be fair, though, they seem to use the effect more when Max is drunk, and it does convey the disorientation of drunkenness quite well. Also, I'm a big believer the the saying "show, don't tell" and in games that means let the player explore and discover it on their own rather than force the player to stop playing to watch a cutscene.
Now please don't get me wrong, custscenes can be truly epic when done right. The Wrathgate cinematic in World of Warcraft nearly brought tears to my eyes. In this case... Well, I'm on chapter five and I feel like I've spent more time watching cutscenes than actually playing the game. And every now and then, Rockstar decides to not tell you when a cutscene ends and you were supposed to be playing a gimmicky and timed shooting gallery segment. I am beginning to wonder whether Rockstar really wanted to make a game or if they really wanted to make a movie but just made it into a game instead. I love the plot, I'm not a big fan of the way in which Rockstar has chosen to tell this story. Every time you use a cutscene you are taking the gameplay out of the player's hands and relegating him to the role of a passenger on your ride. The whole point of a game is that the player is the driver. The player gets to drive the story forward and unravel the beautiful fabric that you've woven as the plot.
The gameplay is pretty solid. It's a standard shooter and the controls are pretty intuitive. There aren't too many trick shots or special finishers that you can use, but that's fine with me. The last bad guy in each... let's call them "encounters", the last bad guy in each encounter is marked by a special slow motion effect and a focus on the bullet and a close up of the kill. You can pull the rigger to pump a few more shots off in you like, but you're wasting ammo. The first few times I felt a rush and the thrill of victory at this accomplishment. After a while it got on my nerves. Not only does it tell me that all the bad guys are dead rather than let me explore and clear the room, but sometimes the shot just isn't that good or worthy of an epic slo-mo. A headshot does, a near miss to the left hip really isn't that cool.
In the end, with a same like Max Payne, the style is exactly what I expected, which is good in this case. The cinematics are increasingly artistic and creative, to the point of trying too hard. The game play is excellent, but too sparse and too often interrupted. The "bullet time" effect is is overused or simply not used to good effect.
On the whole, a good game. Great gameplay and a story worthy of any Hollywood summer blockbuster. Personally, if I'd been able to play a free demo I probably would not have bought the game, but now that I've played it, I can't put it down.
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