Why So Terrible? Was 'Max Payne 3' the most horrible disappointment of 2012?

nola.com: I hate to be Captain Buzzkill, but it’s time for us to talk about the most disappointing games of 2012. Some were outright bad. But most just didn’t live up to their potential.
Consider this to be a love letter to good game makers who made bad moves.

[TheHater]

To me, Diablo 3 was the most disappointed game this year for me. So much hype, since I was a regular on Diablo 2, and this game let down on so many different levels

[Root]

Yeah it was a shame about Diablo 3 but for Max Payne despite being a good third person shooter...it wasn't Max Payne

Seriously if you've played the second game you know how Max came to turns with his grief thanks to Mona and managed to move on...he kind of found peace with himself but Rockstar just seemed to crap all over that and put Max back to where he was....OH and they got rid of Mona, they didn't say she WAS dead but they implied it when it was silly since there was the dead on arival edning where she lived, she was a good strong female character why get rid of her.

Story, theme music, atmosphere, setting, character development all disapointed me because they didn't stay true to what Max Payne was all about.

The only thing I enjoyed from MP was the flashback levels, New York in the game on this gen tec was amazing, imagine a full game based on that, him running away from the mob after killing his son could of been stretched into a full game with Monas help.

[Reibooi]

you hit the nail on the head.

Max Payne 3 is a great game and even has a pretty good story. But it's not really a Max Payne kind of story. I mean there really was no reason for it to be a Max Payne game story wise. I assume they had a story they wanted to tell and instead of making a new IP they threw it into a Max Payne game for the name recognition it would gain.

It's still a solid game but those of us who really loved the first 2 games it just doesn't do the character justice. Nor does it have the classic Film Noir feeling the first 2 games did so well.(Well the flashbacks kinda have it but that is about it) It feels more like a typical action movie type of deal. Granted a very solid one but again it's a little disappointing for fans of the first 2 games.

Also the idea of the story being entirely about fighting off the mob with Monas help is epic and it makes me sad that they didn't make that instead.

Despite all that I loved the game and the multiplayer was quite fun probably the most online I have played in a game in quite awhile.

[MarkusMcNugen]

I could not agree more.

[GuyThatPlaysGames]

I honestly thought it was a great game. They completely took the bullet-time to a whole new level. Yes the story didn't seem too Max Payne-ish but it was still good. I wish they would have just stuck to the whole urban NYC setting like the first one.Other than that, great game, great visuals, and great sound design! Merry Xmas Everyone!!!

[Ashunderfire86]

Yup you hit the nail on the head.

Max Payne 3 was nothing, but shooting galleries of mini maps before a series of cutscenes. Heck the friendly A.I. doesn't really help you at all. Passo A.I. kills are scripted, but when he shoots in actual gameplay he can't kill the enemies for some reason. His bullets are just sounds and air that doesn't affect the enemies!!! WTF? If you don't believe me play the game again from Beginning to end. Your on your own in the entire game. Max Payne 1 and 2 was better with more gameplay, humor, and less cutscenes.

[FriedGoat]

yaz288, GTA IV didn't have good gunplay at all.

[iChii]

Am I the only person who has played Max Payne 1 & 2 and still enjoyed the third one? I mean, sure it was missing the Max Payne touch but it was still a fun game and The story was good.. Soundtracks were amazing in my opinion, the cutscenes were outstanding.

[Fez]

Yeh, they should have just rehashed 1 and 2, that would have been amazing!

[fermcr]

Diablo 3 wasn't a bad game... it just wasn't as good as everyone expected... and the always online DRM hurt the game even more.

As for Max Payne 3, for me it was one of the best games this year.

[LOGICWINS]

For me, Max Payne 3 is the best story driven action game of this generation. It DID stay true to its roots. The game begins with a very gloomy atmosphere with Max almost drinking himself to death. The only thg that changed was that next-gen tech was taken advantage of to improve gameplay and production values. The setpieces/destructibility in that game were just steller!

Max Payne 3 is the best of the franchise and I bet my shorts that Remedy feels the same way. Rockstar took that franchise to another dimension. Way beyond Remedy probably ever imagined.

[Root]

@Logic

The only good thing it did better then the first two was it had better tec behind it, better animations, better graphics and better visuals (excluding the horrible distortation and blur effects it ALWAYS used way too much)...thats all really but then again the game was expected to have that kind of stuff anyway because it's was a next gen game

[disposable]

Frankly, D3 was so disappointing that I completely forgot about this game until you mentioned it.

[OCEANGROWNKUSH]

Why so terrible?? Max payne 3 was actaully a really great game, i didnt even expect alot from it or anticipated it much. It came out, i picked it up, and enjoyed it very much...

Most horrible dissapointment of 2012?

RESIDENT EVIL 6 gets those honors...

Not only was the story terrible but the actual gameplay was a complete disaster. First of all the game was completely bipolar, its like... capcom figure out what the hell you want the game to be and be done with it already! Second of the all the games core mechanics were amatuerish at best... The puzzles were absolutely mindless, the gunplay was sloppy, the action was slow, and the whole "i can stand here 2 feet away these zombies behind a fence for an hour until i walk thru the OBVIOUS invisible trip wire and trigger them to attack" was just... LAME.

[badz149]

yeah...MP3 might be a disappointment. it's a great game but it's in no way a Max Payne game in the slightest!

[th3n00bg4m3r]

And both was released on my worst birthday.

[hennessey86]

Max Payne 3 was brilliant

[adorie]

Max Payne 3 was a very good game. It felt like it's own movie, in a way. It did feel like a Rockstar game,though. They like doing all that club shooting, miami vice style stuff, which is a throw-back to Vice City.

I felt very bad for Max at the beginning. btw, <3Mona Sax<3 (i'm in old max payne fan)

[ChrisW]

Gametrailers also nominated Max Payne 3 for most disappointing...

One of their complains was about the numerous and lengthy cut scenes. Really?!?

[eliteslaya13]

Yet people complain when shooters don't do enough to tell a good story

[AzaziL]

@eliteslaya13

funny cause I know people that'll complain about the story and have no idea what's going on, then I see how they play and just race to finish the game skipping all the cutscenes. SMH....

[daggertoes83]

The cut scenes the first time through were fine because I enjoyed the story. But the second time through I wanted to skip them but most of the time I could not. That kept me from playing it again and wanting to appreciate it more.

[mt]

I usually don't complain about long cut scenes but when the long cut scenes are adding noting to the story but boredom especially the effect that wanna make my eyes bleed then yes I don't want long cut scenes, in the other hand I love MGS4 cut scenes so much. the game is not bad but it is not great. it is decent at the most.

[NYC_Gamer]

Mass Effect 3 was one of the biggest disappointments of 2012

[CerebralAssassin]

Mass effect 3 was amazing until u rushed the beam. Shit hit the fan from then on.

[aLucidMind]

Certainly agree here; why couldn't they have done a better ass-pull? The plot could have been how the Reapers symbolized unity at the cost of individuality while Shepard and crew symbolized unity without it, with the conflict being which is truly better.

Could have kept Synthesis (everyone becomes a Reaper), Destroy could have been on-par with Refuse (try to fight back, maybe barely winning but this galactic civ is extinct as well to get this debate of which form of unity is better going amongst fans), and Control being changed to an appeal to the Reapers to allow us to live as we've proven that individuality does not result in chaos or weakness. Far better than the technological singularity ending that wasn't even thought out.

[My apologies for the rant lol]

[DeadlyFire]

DLC season isn't over yet for Mass Effect 3. I expect some kind of something to appear towards the end of it hinting at a sequel.

[aviator189]

the only bad part was the ending, really.
I don't think that alone should qualify the game as the "biggest disappointment of 2012."

[r40k213]

Max Payne 3 was excellent. Sure it wasn't the exact same as all of the other Max Payne games but it was still a fantastic game.

[Belking]

Max Payne 3 was great. I loved it. It was definitely better than a lot of other titles this year.

[Grimhammer00]

Bigger question - why didn't Mac Payne 3 mp take the gaming world over? Seriously. I thought it was great. But community ran away fast.

Though it might still be active. It should've been more gripping?

[grassyknoll]

Hitman Absolution was the biggest personal disappointment for me. Not fit to lick Blood Money's boots.

[josephayal]

Nice article, max paine 3 is terrible

[RandomDude655]

.
http://gifb.in/J0BV

[showtimefolks]

i thought max payne 3 was an excellent game. Its something i want to keep in my collection and replay every 6 months.

sometimes its hard to live up to the expections set by past games, MP1-2 were excellent games so people did want max payne 3 but expected that rockstar won' put their own spin on it. MP3 may not be like MP 1-2 but its still a great game in its right.

maybe that's why Valve is so reluctant to make HL3 or maybe they can't count to 3 or maybe #3 scares them lol

[AzaziL]

nope, valve just doubles the dev cycle with each game. that way by the time they release HL:V, it'll be in virtual reality.

[2v1]

haha had to lol

[InTheLab]

Max Payne....couldn't even finish it. It was an endless procession of bullet time through corridors, RANDOM words HIGHLIGHTED for no REASON, and the worst controls in gaming a.k.a. normal controls for R* games.

I suppose is you don't mind mindless gunplay, MP3 was a good game, but that's all it was. Why else did every outlet ignore it during the GoTY announcements? The simple answer is that it's just not that good.

[Brian1rr]

AC3 for me

[Baka-akaB]

Max payne was actually quite good . I agree with above that Diablo 3 was and still is the real train wreck of 2012 .

For christ's sake it's still even missing pvp to this date

[StrawberryDiesel420]

Ya that's true LOL. If anyone wants PvP they should play Demon's Souls or Dark Souls.

[Bumpmapping]

Asspayne 3 def a garbage game also a bore fest.

[ApexHell]

its like every game that ended in 3 released this year was a disapointment to me. except mass effect 3 i personally enjoyed it and had no problem with the original endings.

[SageHonor]

I think Diablo 3,Mass Effect 3, and Resident Evil 6 were more disappointments than Max Payne 3

[crackforgangstas]

I loved Max Payne 3... It was a great game. *squints* can't tell if article is trolling or not...

[Smokingunz]

Max payne was a brilliant game!!! I loved it and it was the best one out of the three!even the music was bad ass! I hope the make a max payne 4.sometimes great things and people dont get the merits they deserve.thats just the way life is. Max payne was a sleeper hit.

[KontryBoy706]

heck no! Max Payne 3 was freaking great!

[Convas]

I'm still playing Max Payne 3, on my 5th playthough so ...

HELL. NO.

[shammgod]

This^

Loved Max Payne 3. Still playing it and about to start the Noir mode!

[PopRocks359]

RE6 for me. Capcom actually managed to take a game that plays like RE4 (one of my favorites) and make it suck.

[RandomDude655]

.
http://gifb.in/PTBV

[Nunchez]

Max Payne 3 is a great game sure there are better ones this year but in no way was it a disappointment. It just felt slightly different compared to the previous ones that's all.

[andrew171994]

thsi guy clearly doesnt play games/know good games. and just calls them how other people to rate games.. dont look at the critics for how to rate games play the game.

Note: maxpayne was probably the best game of the year..

[coolmast3r]

I love these "OMFG!!! Why so terrible? *Enter a game title here* - disappointment of the year" articles on N4G.
-_-

[RandomDude655]

"10 reasons why so and so was terrible"

Written by the brillant minds of Kotaku

[floetry101]

Couldn't stand Max Payne 3 for a multitude of reasons. A tiresome gameplay gimmick that was fun when Remedy made it almost 10 years prior. An obnoxious Tony Scott/Michael Bay-like filter over every single cut-scene just to bang the audience over the head with Max's alcoholism metaphor. Poor level design and tight spaces that rarely catered to your bullet time diving. I really have no reservation is saying it was one of the most tedious and disappointing games of the year.

I'll get rated the hell down, no doubt about it, but at the very least I feel like I raised legitimate points.

[Kran]

W- what?

Max Payne 3 was actually great. One of my top 10 games of the year for sure.

[Jamiex66]

Max Payne was actually one of my favourite games of the year.

[kasser]

So you shooting game that was been always about gangs and drugs became THE MOST disappointing game because it was about shooting gangs and drugs.

The gameplay was good, characters were actually better, and it was satisfying.

Get over it. You did not give enough reasons to make Max Payne the most horrible disappointment of 2012. It was still neo-noir unless you wanted Max to have sexual monologue everytime he sees a woman behind.

[rbailey]

Glad to see someone else that agrees Max Payne was a pretty decent game.

I'm not sure I get why people complain so much when a company decides to change up a game, yet if the game stays the same they still aren't happy.

Case in point, look at the response from Resident Evil 6. Everyone knew from the beginning that it wouldnt be scary but rather a much more action oriented type of game. I bet if that game went back to the original concept of survival horror, then people would still complain it was too old school.

[onandonandon]

My biggest disappointment was Sleeping Dogs, after being hyped for it for ages I just couldn't get into it and gave up after 2 hours. I didn't finish AC3 either

[dirthurts]

To me sleeping dogs was one of the most refreshing games of the year.
Haven't played AC3 yet, but it looks good to me.

[biloz]

For me this is the most horrible article in 2012!!!
Is it a disappointment that YOU didn't "ENJOY" FIFA13? well, its not for me!

[tigertron]

Max Payne 3 delivered in every way.

[AllroundGamer]

have to agree there, i was expecting much more from Max Payne 3, but was bored pretty quickly with it... and Diablo 3 was also a let down, Blizzard isn't creating quality games anymore, they just have too much money and got lazy :/

[Gigglefist]

The multiplayer may have been lackluster, but the story was well told and enjoyable the whole way through

Also, the CE was great. Worth every penny.

Biggest disappointment of 2012?
Hmm... Either Operation Raccoon City OR Game of Thrones

[bladesofagony]

FarCry 3 FTW

[bunfighterii]

I've read a lot of Max Payne 3 hate going around. Personally I thought Max Payne 3 was really good. I loved the style and the gameplay, and the story was great too. Really freaking difficult, but great game.

The RAGE engine really worked well in a shooter.

[Droid Control]

I called Mxa Payne as a stinker and not a true Mx Payne games from the first bald-headed, sunny screenshot

[onandonandon]

MUST be true then!

[ShadesMoolah]

Max Payne 3 for me, is one of my contenders for Game of the Year. So, naturally I disagree strongly about it being dissapointing. Sure, I would have wished for it to stick more firmly to its original roots, but being on new hardware it was a good time to try and shake things up. Rockstar did an awesome job, a first for them really with a linear action shooter, and they did it damn well.

[KillerPwned]

I thought MP3 was one of the best Third Person Shooters I had played in a very long time. Surprisingly I found the multiplayer to be fun also.

[Soldierone]

Really? If anything it was one of the best games. Not being an FPS auto gives them a ton of points.

I find it funny how people complain that things get stale, things are the same rehashed stuff every year, and things never change. A developer goes and changes it, goes in a different direction, and "oh my god why did they change it?!?!?!?!?!"

There is no winning.

[turgore]

MAx Payne 3 was amazing, don't know what you are smoking.

[brettyd]

Disappointment? MP3 is one of my favorite games this gen.

[MetalArcade]

This a really lazy article. They didn't even get a picture of the right Spider-Man game.

[spike]

Worst Season Pass I bought but not the worst game. Single Player was good.

[Valenka]

I didn't think Max Payne 3 was a disappointment. Then again, all I really expected from it was:

Good graphics: ✓
Fun gameplay: ✓
Nostalgic anecdotes: ✓
Decent storyline: ✓

[themastr1]

i love this game

https://epicfreeprizes.com/...

[ninjahunter]

Planetside 2 was a pretty big letdown to me ._.

[MooseyXTC]

Max Payne 3 had so much technological wizardry going on, excellent voice-acting by Max's staple v/a [recognized him the instant he said his first line], a glorious soundtrack, was damned pretty, the combat was intense as hell and forced you to plan every jump and bullet.
The only problems were that it wasn't Noir and there was no Mona [who is obviously dead].
But why repeat the same theme for a third time?
They decided to mix it up, while still keeping the dry ramblings of Sarcastic Sam, and give you something new.
And they finally tackled Max's drug and alcohol addiction.
A commendable effort.

[e-p-ayeaH]

Its a very good game alot better than most 2012 games.

[jay2]

Nah, COD, MOH Warfighter and Fifa were. Love M.P.3. AC3, sleeping dogs, resi evil 6, dragons dogma etc.