[Ruger]

I liked it. Difficulty was a bit ludicrous on normal, especially near the end. Not having quicksave and the trademark "Rockstar-checkpoints-are-too-far-apart" led to some rage inducing replays of the same section over and over. I'm definitely switching to easy for subsequent replays.

Writing was good, but noticeably different from the Sam Lake style. Having replayed the first 2 games recently, I have to say that one thing that this series has always kinda struggled with is the contrast between the self-loathing over-medicated joe average that Max saw himself as, and the gameplay need to have ever more elaborate and spectacular shootouts, where in Max is clearly an unstoppable killing machine with not inconsiderable skills. Max never seems to acknowledge this incredible faculty he has for killing a bunch of people. Kinda like Niko in GTA4 having that disconnect between his personality in gameplay vs the plot.

The second Max Payne game probably did the best in terms of having the levels driven by the plot, while Max Payne 3 felt more like a return to first game in some respects, with the plot seemingly driven by what environments they want to stage big shootouts in.

Gameplay wise, I like that they went back to the bullettime conventions of the first game, and ditched the "Max moves at superhuman speed while the badguys move in slow motion" version of bulletime that the second game had. I sorta missed having molotov cocktails to set my enemy on fire with. Not sure why that got taken out.

Brazil was fine as setting, but I must admit the New Jersey segments left me wanting more of that old school snowbound Max Payne landscape.