Inflicting Max-imum damage

A barrel of laughs ... Bullet Time gets an upgrade

Max Payne 3 (Xbox/PS3/PC, £34.99 - £39.99) 

CLOSE to death and with only a couple of rounds left in my revolver, I desperately dive over an office desk as time slows to a crawl and the colour bleeds out of my surroundings. 

I slowly bring up my sights mid-air to aim at the final thug blasting me with a shotgun and with my last breath I pull the trigger, landing a single shot to take him out and save my bacon in the process. 

An unashamedly cinematic third-person shooter, Max Payne 3 is full of moments like these that leave you feeling like the hero in your very own action movie. 

Forced to abandon New York, Max is now a bodyguard for a wealthy Brazilian family in the city of Sao Paulo. When things take a turn for the worse, a desperate rescue mission becomes a bid for personal redemption. 

Gameplay is familiar Max Payne territory - you'll still run and gun down bad guys while dodging in slow motion around gritty environments. 

The mechanics are still solid but it's this familiarity that is the biggest flaw in the game. With the bread and butter gunplay of the previous games remaining much the same, fans looking for a significant overhaul will probably be disappointed. 

However, it's the pacing and tone which make Max Payne 3 more than the sum of its parts. 

Rockstar have put other developers to shame with an attention to story that is rarely seen in shooters. 

Its tightly-woven plot features the kind of twists and set pieces that make a day with John McClane look like a tea party at the village fete. 

Feel it in your chest ... Max Payne 3 in action

Other than after a post-death restart, loading screens are virtually non-existent, with cut-scenes transitioning directly into gameplay to create a practically seamless experience. Don't be surprised if you find yourself struggling to put down the controller. 

The multiplayer portion is a fairly engaging offering that, while not the main draw of the title, is a decent attempt to transplant the feel of the series online. 

Bullet Time, rather than breaking the game, is well implemented. Jump into slow motion and so too will any other players in your line of sight, helping to even up the odds. 

While there's certainly rampant fun to be had in Team Deathmatch, the Gang Wars mode is what will really keep people coming back. 

With a loose story playing out over the course of five rounds, players must work together to complete various objectives with the narrative changing according to the result of each clash. 

Max Payne 3 might not stray much from the well-established formula of its predecessors, but Rockstar continue to set the benchmark in third-person action games. A must-buy. 

4.5/5

Big bang ... Max is as subtle as ever