Videogames

Max spends half of the game running around a locale that I don't give a shit about, in a country I don't give a shit about, chasing after a villain group that I don't give a shit about, trying to save a girl that I really really don't give a shit about.

Why would I care about politics in Sao Paulo, when the only locals we met in the game are vicious gangsters and rich assholes that step on the poor?

Why would I care about the survival of the woman(and her family) who's so stupid to waltz in a crowded nightclub only a day after an almost successful armed kidnapping?

And then Max spent the whole game talking about how he wanted to get shot and die, taking the easy way out, to the point that I really started to root for his success in dying.  Why would I care about even Max's survival, when all he really wants is to die. And he tells us multiple times too, as if we're going to forget.

What's more, about 60% of the game's dialogue was spoken in a language that I don't understand, let alone give any shit about.

Gone was the noire feeling and the comic book story telling aspect that Max Payne did so well in the past.  New to the table is "look how drunk and fucked up we can make the player feel, with bright blue and green flashes to make sure you can't see shit"

The game actively tries to make you hate its characters. It makes you hate Max because he's whining about how his life is. It makes you hate one of the girls (and doesn't introduce you to the other until around the time she goes "I'm pregnant!") and one of the guys. You aren't introduced to the bad guy until near the end, and you're like "wait, what? Max is screaming at the dude like he knows him personally; I've got no idea who this fuck is."

A huge problem with the game is that there's simply no reason to be invested in the characters. The game's so damn cynical that it literally makes everyone you meet not someone you want to care about. Max constantly talks about how he hates everything. People betray you. There's no one to root for. It's a lot like being depressed on a day where everyone's oddly mean towards each other, except for the cokehead party boy, who is just... a cokehead partyboy.

There's no reason to care.

In Max Payne 2, I grew to like Vinnie Gognitti. I loved Mona Sax. I liked Mike the Cowboy. I liked--until he betrayed me--Vlad, my dearest of friends. I liked Max. In Max Payne 3, everyone sucks. Everyone whines. Everyone betrays. Most people are barely introduced, yet Max seems to harbor a deep personal hatred for them as individuals. I liked one guy in the entire game.

The best moment was when a character who betrayed me sort of redeemed himself, and when I tortured and maimed two people.