So I bought the game at release. I played through the single-player campaign and had a good time with it. Yeah, it's different from the first two games, but I still found it enjoyable. 
 
Then I fired up the multiplayer. Spawn camping, spawning right next to/in front of enemies and getting killed immediately, imbalanced weapons, bad matchmaking that pits super high level player with awesome gear against beginners with total shit gear, etc... I played up to about level 14 before I called it quits. I don't want to give up on the multiplayer, but at this point it looks like I'm going to stick with New York Minute and Score Attack mode.

We just had our first Giant Bomb Max Payne 3 gamenight on PC, and the game is pretty broken. I canceled the event after 10 minutes.  
Infinite loading screen, the invitation system through Social Network is buggy as hell... What a shame. The multiplayer seemed really fun.

Plenty of the same issues that you brought up still exist as they've yet to patch the game. Poor spawn system, unbalanced weapon sandbox (snipers are a stupid concept in this game), lack of feedback as to how you died or what you should do differently, etc. make any potential enjoyment pretty short-lived.

That being said I still hop on every once in a while for fun, mostly to play Payne Killer. It seemed like the bullet time mechanic would suck in a multiplayer setting, but I find something oddly compelling about the way it works, which is essentially what separates it from the average game of "shoot that guy." Standard deathmatch is too boring over time since the game really isn't a measure of skill, instead it's the most fun simply as an excuse to dive around in slowmo. Gang Wars had some interesting appeal at first but the addition of objectives alone doesn't really elevate the core gameplay that's already there.

Well good thing I'm too poor to afford games right now. I shall now wait for this longer than usual.

Yeah invitations / grouping is fucked beyond belief. Infinited loading and disconnects are a dime a dozen, and your party disbands after every disconnect / host fail.

@Lebensbaum said:

unbalanced weapon sandbox (snipers are a stupid concept in this game), lack of feedback as to how you died or what you should do differently, etc. make any potential enjoyment pretty short-lived.

And these 2 are my biggest issues with the gameplay itself. I'm aware they had to include sniper rifles to avoid flame, but it just doesn't fit in with the game world or gameplay, at all, and turns most maps into snorefests. But then again, I always argued that any rifle of any kind had no place in MP series, so there's that. Akimbo is , thankfully, very, very viable as long as you have map awareness.

And yeah, the game hugely needs a better death screen, ideally with killcams.

OK, I have to admit that is so weird, I hear kids (under 13) say the same thing about every single game I play online... Deja vu perhaps?

The spawning in certain game types and maps is not great. I haven't been spawn killed a whole lot. I wouldn't class it as broken at all but there is room for improvement.

I have it on PC and I don't know if it's my connection or not but I constantly get dropped from games. It's incredibly annoying, just when I get into the groove of a match I'm dumped back into the lobby. It's a shame because the few hours I've spent in multiplayer I kind of enjoyed, the shooting feels great and the bullet time mechanic works really well. It feels awesome when you leap off a ledge and score two kills before smacking into the ground.

I'm on the 360 and aside from the occasional poor spawns I haven't felt any issues with the multiplayer? Well at first it took long to get into a game, but that got better after a week or so...

Fuck that grenade launcher.

I'm on the 360 and aside from the occasional poor spawns I haven't felt any issues with the multiplayer? Well at first it took long to get into a game, but that got better after a week or so...

I tried playing last night, jumped into Team Deathmatch (was the most populated mode last time I played) and I was matched up with 1 other dude, over the course of the match it added 3 others. I left after the match was done. Can't find matches in almost any other game mode, also it should be noted a lot of people are choosing the soft lock mode then using their mouse instead which feels kinda morally grey to me.

@nasseh said:

I have it on PC and I don't know if it's my connection or not but I constantly get dropped from games. It's incredibly annoying, just when I get into the groove of a match I'm dumped back into the lobby. It's a shame because the few hours I've spent in multiplayer I kind of enjoyed, the shooting feels great and the bullet time mechanic works really well. It feels awesome when you leap off a ledge and scoring two kills before smacking into the ground.

You're not alone, the PC multiplayer has constant disconnects and problems connecting to hosts. Sometime I get the hankering to play, I start playing and remember exactly why I don't play anymore. Spending 5 minutes to get into a match and then getting disconnected every 10 minutes, it's too bad.

I enjoy the MP a lot but it's currently busted.

On the console side: it's better than it was at launch at least. I'm hardly getting kicked from matches.

Haven't really come across any camping on the spawn points, though the Computer does seem to like re-spawning you right near the guy who killed you in the room opposite, in small maps which can be slightly frustrating. I have also noticed being shot in the back, where I was certain that no one was behind a few seconds previously.

I play the multiplayer in short bursts so I'm not sure how it would fair if I played it a bit more often.

Stopped playing it by the time I hit level 10. I like jumping off walkways and shooting dudes in slow motion, multiplayer facilitated that desire for about 3 hours. After that there didn't seem much point. Patch 1.04 went live a few days ago, but the notes didn't mention anything specific to matchmaking as far as I remember.

I haven't noticed any significant differences since the patch. Apparently the weapon balancing only changes the Mini-30 (which everyone complained about) and one other assault rifle. They still need to fix snipers so that they don't drop people in one shot. Kill times in general should be lengthened to encourage more use of dodging as a last ditch effort before death. Right now it feels like a game of whoever sees the other guy first wins, and it doesn't help that higher level players have attachments equipped that make kills even more instant.

Also some fixes for mouse acceleration and other PC issues - maybe the GB gamenight crew can actually start a game now:

http://support.rockstargames.com/entries/21535227-june-29-2012-max-payne-3-pc-patch-v-1-0-0-29

I just played for the first time today (PC) and found MP hilariously broken. As a level 4-5 player, I was matched up against people level 40+.

I could get the drop on someone, running up behind them nearly point blank, and begin emptying my AK into them, but they would be able to turn around and kill me with 1-2 shots of their pistol (!!) before I could kill them.

Being out of cover for more than a second or two was a death sentence in any large game.

It would probably be better if matchmaking actually worked, because using a starter weapon against someone with body armor and a purchased weapon with upgrades simply isn't fun.