games website Max Payne 3 Detailed review: Dance a gorgeous "Bullet Tango"

I. Personal mood

A few years ago when I played through the "Max Payne 2", I have been feeling why the little horse brother's fate is so unlucky, the unlucky index is comparable to the death of primary school students (primary school students at least opened the harem, and little Horse brother is destined to be lonely life) lost his wife, children, trusted companions, confidants, There have been countless frame-ups, betrayals, involvement in conspiracies, and even having to deal with the same thing......

After more than three years of jumping tickets, Uncle Ma finally returned after eight years of absence, facing the "Bruce Wiley" with an old face in the game, we on the screen are also feeling that time is too quick to change things? Perhaps, this is also the fate of Uncle Ma, just like the Snake in MGS, the only purpose of living is to obtain self-salvation......

Ii. Introduction to the game

Max Payne 3 is very different from the previous one. After solving the second generation of the hated New York gangster rich second generation, Uncle Ma was introduced by his friend Passos to Sao Paulo, Brazil, as a private bodyguard for wealthy businessman Rodrigo Branco.

The game is no longer about the shabby apartments and dark sidewalks of New York. Instead, it is about exotic tropical environments, fiery Brazilian girls, and the extravagance and partying of high society.

But it's clear that the production team won't let Ma's pension be safely mixed here. The prologue begins with a group of heavily armed criminals hijacking Ma's employer and his gold-digger wife, Fabiana, at a high-class cocktail party hosted by wealthy businessman Branco. Subsequent events led Marx step by step into an even more sinister environment......

Three. Game screen

Max Payne 3 was built using Rockstar's RAGE Engine (not id's RAGE, but Rockstar Advanced Game Engine) and a dual-engine rendering mode using the Euphoria engine to control in-game character simulation.

Rockstar's most famous games such as GTA4, LA Noire, and Red Dead Redemption are all made using the engine. The biggest advantages of RAGE engine are the world map flow buffering technology, complex AI management, weather effects, fast network code, and many ways to play.

So we can also see clearly in Max Payne 3, although it is not an open sandbox game, but the game has a large virtual urban space. Players control Ma Shu can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Sao Paulo while playing the game.

Most of the scenes in the game were shot by the production team in situ to Sao Paulo, retaining a large number of original beautiful landscapes.

The overall picture of the game is good, dynamic light and shadow effects and lots of projected light perfectly create a real Sao Paulo.

In particular, the nightclub in the first chapter, where the neon lights are reflected, makes the player instantly think that this is not just a game, but a real movie scene. The initial level of the game is bright and not dazzling. The overall colors are bright and full, the light and shadow effects are very real, and the fire and explosion effects are surprising.

In the process of moving, Ma Shu can cast dynamic and soft fuzzy shadows in the scene environment, and static light source (natural light) and dynamic shadow (explosion light effect) perfectly interact. The layers and realism of the scene throughout the game are excellent. The use of a large number of motion blur effects makes the game full of tension.

The details of the game are also excellent, with the bullet holes in the body, the blood stains on the clothes, the paper flying on the table and the glass shards flying in the fierce battle.

However, the flaw is that the clothes and hair of the character model are relatively rough, Ma Uncle's suit lacks texture, and the effect of falling down the pool suit is relatively distorted after all the wet.

Fabiana's hair, on the other hand, has the look of a messy hen house. Is this the hair of the wife of a very rich man?

Thanks to the success of LA Noire's facial capture technology, Max Payne 3 also successfully uses this technology.

In the game, players can clearly see the pain and confusion of Ma Shu with alcohol, Rodrigo Branco and his wife when they were taken hostage, the panic and confusion, Marcelo's arrogance in the nightclub, the arrogance of the enemy at the beginning and the despair when he was dying, and other different expressions are vivid and unforgettable.

At the same time, compatible with the RAGE engine, the Euphoria dynamic animation engine provided by NaturalMotion - pre-recording multiple motion capture data, and then the most reasonable action output to the foreground according to the actual situation - will be the real physical collision in the gunfight to perform the most vividly.

The effect of different parts of the enemy being hit by different kinds of guns is not the same as the variable affecting the enemy skeleton animation. The Euphoria engine therefore perfectly compensates for the disadvantage of the RAGE engine in terms of precise physics.

For the most direct example, after Ma Shu uses the signature flapper action in the game, he does not do a lot of gorgeous floor performances like in the movie, but will fall on the ground and shoot flat, unable to move, and can only stand up gently after destroying the enemy, which also highlights Ma Shu's physical quality declining from one aspect.

There are a large number of seamlessly spliced real-time cinematic cutscenes (about half of the game's volume), and the transitions of these animated scenes employ a large number of cinematic effects: scanning lines, overexposure, multiple overlaps, comic-book style shooting, overchromatic shading, film transitions, and overlapping of different objects using visual residuals, etc. (the term above is provided by the literary group).

It may seem a little disturbing at first to be faced with so many unusual effects, but once you get used to them, it will feel like part of the game's character. The story cutscenes interspersed in each level inherit the dynamic graphic novel screen, which is one of the features of the previous series, and enhance the tension of the story performance through the real-time 3D drawing of the character performance with the manipulation of mirrors, special effects, monologues, keywords, and picture segmentation.

The use of a large number of cinematic effects is mostly used to switch between scenes to achieve the purpose of highlighting the theme of the drama, while everything in the game reflects the change of Ma's personality and emphasizes his escape from real life.

At the same time, after each battle in the game, you can hear large sections of Ma's inner monologue, which reveals Ma's disgust for the decadent culture of capitalism and his deep contempt for the brainless wife of the rich businessman. Although the cutscenes can't be skipped, they give the player the feeling of a TV show in the middle of a commercial.

On this point can only say the wise, in fact, for a certain English base of players (to small series slag general level 4 as an example), probably read a plot should be no pressure. Moreover, these animations and a large number of Ma Shu's inner monologues in the animation have a good effect on the understanding of the game plot.

This is also the general trend of game development in the future - game cinema. Or in a sense, Max Payne 3 is no longer a simple game, but a high-capacity, long-duration interactive film.

Judging from the actual effect of the main view war movie cutscenes that have been featured in the Call of Duty series, some excellent works that dilute the boundaries between film and game to the greatest extent tend to be more engaged by game players. The only thing that affects the player's experience is the language and culture barrier.

So for the next door just out of the external phone turn only ha ha to say, with such a shoddy translation level will be more obstruction to the player's understanding of the game.

Four. Game music

The music in Max Payne 3 is excellent, and the electronic sound produced by New York rock band Health is breathtaking and evocative. Depending on the game scene, the background music will also change.

Just killing people while listening to intense electronic music in the nightclub chapter was pretty awesome. It reminds me of the wedding scene between the blacksmith and Elizabeth in Pirates of the Caribbean. There's also an impressive rap-style song at the beginning of a later chapter, which is very exciting.

In addition, the voice actor of the main character Max is James McCaffery, who has voiced little Brother in Max Payne and Max Payne 2, and you will be very familiar with him.

However, the shooting sound effect of guns in the game does not seem to be too bright, or it may be that the background music itself overshadows the shooting effect of guns, although there are many kinds of guns in the game, but the shooting sound effect feels little difference.

Five. Game operation

As a TPS, the game uses the most common bunker system, but unlike other TPS place is that you can not when thousands of years crouching pit back blood party, the game always emphasizes the excitement and tension between the horse uncle shuttle between the bullets, when you stay in place to play the creep, you will find that the enemy has secretly surrounded you to "surround and suppress".

"Max Payne 3" inherited the classic bullet time of the previous generation, after the launch of time will become very slow, while the player can decide the direction of the bullet flight, with the excellent physics of Euphoria engine, aiming at different key parts of the enemy will appear a variety of let people call the bullet effect.

In addition, in the course of bullet time, grenades, rockets, etc. can all be exploded. In addition, the bullet time is automatically activated during some special action scenes, and this "link montage" process in which the game pre-sets the overall scope of the media interaction and the player ultimately decides which direction to go further highlights the progress of the game.

After the newly added "flying shot" system is applied, Ma will fly sideways and shoot in all directions in 360 degrees at the same time, and will be in bullet time before landing, so you can take full advantage of this feature to launch a surprise attack on the enemy.

However, it should be noted that as mentioned above, Uncle Ma will lie flat or lie down after landing, although he can still shoot in all directions at 360 degrees, but he cannot move before getting up.

The game also has a melee system, after getting close to the enemy, Ma Uncle can display close hand to hand combat moves to defeat the enemy. When the enemy is stunned, you can perform an execution shot - firing a series of N shots in slow motion to kill the enemy.

Game style and system

Although the game map scene is huge, it is still a linear game flow, without the high degree of freedom of other games. The game style is black and tough, adult oriented, and there are a lot of weapons available in the game, but players can only carry a maximum of two one-handed weapons and one two-handed weapon at a time.

If you choose dual weapons, then you must give up the heavy weapons with powerful firepower. The setup is as straightforward as ever.

The difference with today's mainstream FPS/TPS is that the game no longer uses an automatic recharge setting, but a similar mode of health.

In the lower right corner of the screen, more red indicates more serious injuries, and the number in the center of the figure is the amount of Pain Killer (the number at the bottom is the amount of ammunition, and the number at the right is the time slot of the bullet). When Uncle Ma is injured, he will accumulate red parts, and once the damage accumulation exceeds the limit, Max will die.

The way to reduce the damage is a series of players familiar with the "painkiller". There are many places in the game where painkillers can be picked up, such as the infirmary, the first aid kit on the wall, etc.

However, when the pain value is out of the sky, it will not immediately die, when the pain value is out of the sky, the screen will turn brown, giving the player a small buffer bullet time, at this time as long as the target finally hit their enemies and kill them, Marx will automatically take painkillers to reduce the pain value to avoid death.

However, this mode only activates when there is still pain medication in his body, and if it runs out, the pain will hit the roof and Max will immediately fall dead, there is no way to save it.

Vii. Conclusion

The English name of the game is "Max Payne", intuitively translated as "extreme pain", a very obvious fact is that "Max Payne 3" is a "black tone of self-redemption" game, family, friendship and love are all clouds for Uncle Ma, at the end of the game, Uncle Ma saves others but also saves his own soul. He kicked the habit and started a new life.

I wish Uncle Ma a good journey.

Text and text: games website Literature Group -- Egg-roll Cat Literature Guide: Half-Demon Lich