Max Payne is a stylish dude. His games have flashy presentation, his slow-mo shoot-dodge lends some flair to his kills, and his tie just defies fashion. Rockstar encourages further style in Max Payne 3

Arcade Mode opens up as you complete each campaign chapter, and it comes in two flavors. Score Attack breaks your kills into categorized points, so the better you murder the higher you score. Body shots give you a worthless 10 points, so aim for the face to score 100, blow dudes to pieces for 200, or devastate a vehicle for 250. True to form, style dictates score, so diving in Bullet Time, shooting while lying on the floor, and killing quickly net you multipliers.

To balance it out, killing civilians, using painkillers to recover health, and taking bullets yourself deduct points. This could add up quick – Max is vulnerable, so he needs to heal up after just a few shots. Playing cautiously and effectively is the key to breaking even and staying above the zero-points mark. To keep you focused on the score at all times, Score Attack goes so far as to cut the story cinematics from each mission.

New York Minute Mode, on the other hand, is even more demanding. It’s for super-skilled speed-runners looking to blast through their favorite missions again. With just 60 seconds on the starting clock, you’ll have to earn kills and headshots to add time to the ticking timer. Your high scores and best times wind up on a Rockstar Social Club leaderboard where friends and nemeses can try to tear you down. It’s not just about status, though, since you’ll earn experience points at the end of each level – the higher the medal, the more XP you earn.

Natutrally, Max’s goal is always to put lead in heads, but Arcade Mode adds enough interesting variables that it should lend a great deal to Max Payne 3, making it meaningful and fun to return to after you’ve wrapped the story. Smart players will be able to stack multipliers and maximize output. Less skilled players could learn new tactics here, which would benefit them when they dig into the competitive multiplayer.

Look for IGN’s full impressions on Arcade mode, online multiplayer, and more when our Max Payne 3 review hits next week. If you crave more information on how the scoring works, on Arcade Mode in general, or just anything related to Max Payne 3, check out our Max Payne 3 wiki

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN