It’s been a long time, Max. Last time I saw you, we were hunched over in some filthy New Jersey side street with nothing but a pistol and a bottle of painkillers to distract us from the bloodshed that had run rampant across the city. Yes, the life of Max Payne is one steeped in tragedy and remorse, and although it’s been years and his game has shifted hands to a new developer, that one simple fact still rings loud and true.

Rockstar hasn’t been shy about showing off the changes that they’ve made to the Max Payne formula. Originally revealed as a shaved, awkwardly dressed drunk, the new Max was seen in early press materials stumbling through the favelas of Sao Paulo, Brazil looking for redemption. Fans worried about the changes, claiming that the atmosphere of the original games, which took place largely in New Jersey, would be lost in sunny Sao Paulo. To an extent, this is true. Graphic novel styled cutscenes complete with text blurbs for especially important pieces of dialogue evoke the graphic noire stylings of the original, but otherwise the tone of Max Payne 3 does differ from that of its predecessors. It’s less L.A. Noire, more Man on Fire.

That said, the direction that Rockstar has taken the hapless protagonist is equally satisfying, given the time to marinate. At first, Max Payne 3 disappointed me. Transplanting Rockstar’s usual themes of social extravagance and corruption into the world of Max Payne didn’t seem like such a hot idea. As it drew into its second act, though, I was enraptured by the world that Rockstar was showing me. Gritty and realistic, full of double-crosses and abhorrent violence, watching Max’s third journey play out is like watching a train wreck in motion. It’s captivating in a sick way, but you know that there will be bodies to account for in the end.

Although simple in scope, the story that Rockstar tells with Max Payne 3 feels grand. To wrap it all up in a neat little bow, Max was recruited by a rich family to be their bodyguard in Brazil after living the tired, pill-popping life in New Jersey was no longer viable. When he came onboard, trouble started brewing. Thugs kidnapped the wife of his wealthy ward, and in rescuing her Max sees a way of redeeming himself from his past mistakes. Thus, it’s off to some of the worst areas of South America, with nothing but a bad haircut and a Hawaiian t-shirt to guide him. Max doesn’t even have a semi-capable understanding of the language, making his interactions with the locals all the more intriguingly pathetic.

Some great voice acting on the parts of everyone involved supports the story. A few of the cutscenes can drag on a bit long, but they are very well produced and always have something interesting to say. Much of the voice acting in the game is actually in Portuguese, which Max doesn’t speak a lick of. To immerse you further into the character, even the subtitles are written in Portuguese, making the illusion of being a lost man in a strange land complete. The video and color distortion effects that permeate many of the cutscenes also serve to put you in Max’s shoes, albeit in a way that simultaneously distances you from the rich world that Rockstar has created. As a pill-popping drunkard, Max feels pretty distanced from the world, too. The effects brought back some unpleasant memories of Kane & Lynch: Dog Days, but that unfortunate reminder notwithstanding they worked like a charm. Max’s interactions with the locals of Brazil are given additional edge by the distortion.

Of course, this being a Max Payne game, many of those interactions will boil down to shooting said locals in the face with giant guns. The transitions from cutscenes to gameplay are perfectly seamless. The gunplay that ensues is buttery smooth, with three different aiming schemes available so that any player can tailor the experience to their wants. Most of these control options revolve around a lock-on system, something that modern games have all but forgotten.

Antiquated as it may seem, the lock-on can really help in some of the game’s tougher battles. Max is a fragile character, and his health will never regenerate after a battle. Your only method of healing comes through the painkillers that you scavenge from medicine cabinets and cupboards along the way. A health meter in the bottom right corner of the screen will drain steadily as you take shots, and with no onscreen indication of your lowering health other than the tiny meter tucked away at the bottom of the screen, it can be easy to find yourself bleeding out on the ground seemingly out of the blue.

This makes taking cover, a new addition in this latest iteration, a necessity, especially later in the game. Entering Bullet Time and Shoot-Dodging your way across the game’s numerous levels is no longer as viable an option as it used to be. Thanks to Max’s low health and the vast numbers of enemies who will come charging at you, you will have to utilize the cover system whether you like it or not. Again, this feels like a distinctly Rockstar spin to put on the classic Max Payne gameplay, and some people might not like that. Certainly it’s more traditional than the bullet ballets of old. That said, not only is the cover-based shooting gameplay functional, it’s enthralling and deep enough to support the game on its shoulders. That said, it’s just not as nuanced as in similar games. As is, you can only enter, exit, and vault over cover. There are no options for moving between cover points or advancing around corners. The lack of movement options can be a bit stifling during particularly intense battles. Compounding the problem is a lack of solid checkpointing. Some checkpoints can go up to ten minutes without saving your progress and can be a real buzz kill to fail.

You will still be utilizing plenty of slow motion acrobatics to get the job done, especially in the beginning half of the game. The so-called Shoot-Dodging looks great when it works as planned, such as in a number of scripted sequences peppered throughout the campaign, but it can be quite silly when it doesn’t. Diving headfirst into a door or table can really bring out some smiles in an otherwise serious situation. There’s still a satisfaction to jumping through the air in slow motion and firing away with twin pistols, though.

That’s a satisfaction that translates surprisingly well to multiplayer. Yep, that’s right; like the rest of Rockstar’s modern games, Max Payne 3 sports a fully featured competitive multiplayer suite, and Bullet Time has come along for the ride. It is but one of many “Bursts,” skills that can be activated to give you an advantage in the heat of battle. Implementing slow motion gunplay in a multiplayer scenario has always been an iffy proposition. How will your time-slowing abilities affect other players in the match? In the case of Max Payne 3, the answer to that is simple; only players in your line of sight will be slowed down when you activate Bullet Time, and the power runs on a rechargeable meter just like in the single player campaign so that players can’t abuse it.

That probably sounds like madness. Being spontaneously slowed down because another player activated their Burst can’t possibly be a fun experience, right? Wrong, actually. Even when it’s not you activating the Bullet Time, it’s never too obtrusive and, if you’re lucky, you can step out of its radius and deliver a nasty surprise to the bad guy who activated it. Like the rest of the game’s multiplayer suite, the Bursts in all of their incarnations are exquisitely balanced and incredibly fun to use.

They are but a small part of a much larger multiplayer ecosystem, though. A Call of Duty-esque progression system will constantly dole out rewards, such as the ability to customize your own loadouts and new, more advanced match types as you level up. It’s nothing new, but it’s as functional and addictive here as it ever has been. There are tons of unique modes to play in, too, with some being catered to beginners and others to more advanced players. By far my favorite, though, is the Gang Wars mode. This mode plays out similarly to the Warzone mode in the Killzone games, with objectives constantly and dynamically changing throughout each match. This ambitious mode is supported by a light story that drives the action forward, justifying each change with a little story hook. It’s powerfully addictive stuff.

Both the single and multiplayer modes are presented courtesy of some absolutely gorgeous graphics. The production values on display here are easily on par with those of the infamously gorgeous Uncharted series, even on the Xbox 360 copy of the game that I played. Facial details, down to the stubble lining Max’s cracked and worn skin, were uniformly great looking. The cloth animates gorgeously. Foliage and water shine and sparkle in the sunlight, and cast menacing shadows over the moonlit jungles of Brazil by night. Even in the multiplayer, where the graphical presentation must naturally be toned down to account for the larger number of players, I sometimes found myself stopping to stare at some scenery while gunfights raged on behind me.

Max Payne 3 is absolutely a different beast than its predecessors. In terms of tone, it’s more grounded in reality and grimmer, with a thin veneer of sarcasm bringing that trademarked Rockstar tone to the proceedings. In terms of gameplay, it falls back more on cover-based shooting than on Shoot-Dodging. These changes, coupled with an inflexible cover system and some poorly placed checkpoints, give cause for fans of old to reject the newer Max Payne. Give it a chance and don’t come in with any preconceptions, and you will find one of the deepest and most rewarding shooters in years. Both the single player campaign and the multiplayer suite have been polished to a blinding extent, and while it can be easy to nitpick little aspects of the experience, there’s no denying that the game as a whole has a powerful draw. Max may have changed, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less fun.

Score: 9.5/10