The environment is often shredded to bits, destroying you and your enemy’s cover during the course of a firefight.
Max’s body feels like it has weight as he leaps around, often taking a full second or two to get up once he’s landed, leaving you open to enemy fire. Max always carries his weapons in a believable way, a pistol in one hand, a shotgun gripped by the barrel in the other. In 2011, the game’s approach to mixing realism with Michael Mann-like violence was unparalleled. Our tragic protagonist’s past trails him, causing misery and death to everyone around him, not to mention glorious shootouts.Įven if Max Payne 3 didn’t have the series’ renowned bullet-time sequences (it does, thank goodness), which allows you to slow down the world Matrix style, the gunplay would still be fantastic.
Max Payne 3 is a bold game, essentially throwing the closure of the second game’s ending out the window to focus on Max’s time in Brazil working private security for a wealthy family. Rockstar took over the reins to everyone’s favorite series starring a widowed, drunk cop after Remedy bowed out, and the third entry is a hell of a sequel.
Update (02/4/19): Now that Red Dead Redemption II has been out for a few months and we've had time to analyze and discuss its achievements, we've added it to the rankings below. With all that in mind, let’s steal a ride and roar down this road to hell. From the humble top-down beginnings of Grand Theft Auto to the blood-soaked streets of Manhunt and the beautiful jaw-dropping vistas of Red Dead Redemption, you’ll find every single title put in its proper place in terms of influence, importance of innovation, and just plain fun. In the lead up to the eagerly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2, we came together as a staff to rank every single game that Rockstar developed (this means we excluded published titles like L.A. Rising up from quirky Scotland-based developers with a taste for pulp and crime fiction, Rockstar evolved radically, shifting into innovators and provocateurs, creating some of the industry's most influential and blockbuster titles. Over the past two decades, Rockstar Games has emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the games industry.