Probably my favorite gun combat ever, but not my favorite combat ever. I really hope something with its gameplay style gets made, preferably by Rockstar but maybe in a new world this time.

I couldn't agree with any of the poll choices. So here's mine, Max Payne's 3 gun fight was good but not fun. It didn't click with me like the first two games and i could play any of them right now and have a blast.

It's a refined version of the gta4, gta5, rdr combat. It's not great but serviceable. What's good about mp3 is it's production values. Graphics are awesome and love the soundtrack.

I fuckin hated the gunplay when I first played through it, till a few months ago when I reinstalled and changed up my control scheme. Boy did it make a difference.

Gunplay's fun as hell. Nothing quite like it in any other game.

It was great. Max Payne 3 remains my second favorite game of 2012 for many, many reasons, and the joy of shooting fools in the face in slo-mo is one of them.

Good for small areas, sucks for really gigantic ones. Doesn't hold a candle to Vanquish.

I played Max Payne 3 on the hardest available difficulty from the start and enjoyed it. I remember liking the first game more, most likely because the gunplay felt revolutionary at that time while MP3 is just a modern iteration.

I just went with it was good, but no revolutionary. The gameplay itself was pretty fun especially once you got used to the free aim controls, but it wasn't like an "oh wow" experience, in fact it was a little rough compared to the last two games. I dont really like the whole snap lock mechanic in rockstar games even though it makes it a lot easier for their open world games. It almost felt like cheating in max payne 3... so I turned that off. I really dug the rough story and writing of it though. I know most people think it's too "edgy" but I think we need to see more max payne like characters in general and more varied characters that are not aged between late 20s to early 30s.

It's fantastic and made me hopeful for GTA V. Sadly, it wasn't nearly as good in that regard.

I thought it was ok, made some adjustments for myself and really enjoyed the game. Especially the music, oh that soundtrack.

Maybe the best playing third person shooter there is. That is if you play using mouse and keyboard with free aim never using cover. If you play it like a typical console cover third person shooter then you're not going to have that much fun with it.

Biggest complaint with the shooting is that once you got good with it it got too easy because the guns were so accurate. I wanted to just chaotically spray machine pistol rounds everywhere causing chaos but the first shot with any weapon will always land exactly where you place the reticule which when coupled with the infinite slo mo you have from diving makes the game too easy to beat by just quickly lining up headshots over and over. It would probably be frustrating to make the guns less accurate but as it is it is hard to go back to because of it, that and the unskippable lengthy cutscenes.

The gameplay was great, but the game was short. Also that social club stuff on PC sucks. It was super under rated for reasons I don't understand. Maybe if he is was saving America/The World from super evil dudes people would have liked it more.

I could only do it with the soft aim on, after i figured that out it was pretty good.

I thought the gunplay was good, but not great. I loved how the weapon system worked, though — having Max hold a shotgun in his offhand while you shot dudes in the face with a pistol was the cooling fucking thing.

On the harder difficulties the combat was excellent.

Weird, I remember it being a good length and howlongtobeat.com seems to back that up saying it takes a little over 10 hours. Pretty good for a modern shooter campaign I think

Fucking great game all round. Even the cheese.

I'll just repost something I wrote a while ago because its still the most bad ass moment I've had in a game since probably ever. Also the beginning of the yacht level is ridiculously good. The heart pounding music, the guys yelling in spanish, clearing out rooms, slowly making their way towards you. I've played that level an absurd amount of times times just because of that opening.

"Its the best "feeling" shooter this year and the minute-to-minute gameplay is superb. The best use of bullet time since Max Payne 2 and helps create moments that leave you feeling like the biggest badass in the world.

For example, last night I was playing through the last level on the second to hardest difficulty (during THE signature moment of the game, actually) running towards a gate on a catwalk. The gate opens, out pop 4 or 5 guys on the level below me and two guys on the same level as me. I immediately turn my attention to the guys on my level. A couple of bursts to their upper body and they're down. I take aim at one going up some stairs and just manage to take him out before the magazine is empty. I retreat back into cover and reload when suddenly a grenade plops down right beside me. I instinctively start slo-mo diving off the catwalk. As dozens of bullets wizz by I take aim at two guys near the stairs. Burst, down, burst, down.

Grenade goes off behind me and a bright orange flash fills the screen. Health is down to just a sliver.

At this point I know I either kill the remaining guys through the final 3 seconds of this fall, or I'm dead. I turn my cross hair to my right only to find the final two guys are hidden by a section of the catwalk. After the longest half-second ever, I spot one of the guys legs and start unloading. I make it to his midsection before he falls. I take aim at the final guy and pull the trigger. Hit the ground, fire one shot. Bullet cam kicks in as it lodges itself in that dudes brain.

I stand up, feeling like a fucking king"

Max Payne 3 remains my favourite game of the last generation.

As long as you weren't playing it like a cover shooter, I thought the combat was absolutely fantastic. The enemy reactions to getting shot is still probably best in show.

I think that game got a really harsh reaction out of people, especially now when it's remembered by many as this abject failure for some reason. The combat system was difficult to get used, unforgiving, and not explained very well.. but by God if Max Payne 3 didn't have one of the best redemption character arc's I've had the pleasure of playing through.

Tight as hell.

Poll choices aren't really balanced, so I won't vote. It takes some getting used to compared to the controls of the first 2 max Payne games, but once you do it made me feel like a complete badass. The airport terminal gunfight is one of my favorite moments in games. I won't say its the best ever, but its really fucking good.

I really love Max Payne 3's gunplay.

These poll options suck by the way. Having the most positive option to be an extremely hyperbolic statement and then having all the other 3 being mixed just means less people will pick it the only entirely positive option.

I think it's tops for third person shooters. I am a big fan of the series and what 3 brought to the table was weight. All your choices in the firefight really matter, especially on the harder modes, and when you do manage a crazy dive it feels so rewarding. This game is very underrated to me. One of the best of last gen.

I think it's the best third person shooting out there. I'd be curious to hear the PC/Console split between opinions because I played both versions and man it controls terribly with a controller.

The always aiming forward animation system coupled with the direct control non-randomized recoil are the best things about it. Even other TPS games that are best of class like Vanquish still suffer in the "main character facing the camera" regard where there still remains a fraction of a second required for Sam to turn around.

That being said the down but not out system is broken and the camera just goes nuts, no idea how that managed to get into the final game but w/e. If it weren't for the overbearing cutscenes and the generic enemy difficulty scaling (standard TPS light dude, medium dude, heavy dude) it would be the best TPS game I've played.

I can't imagine playing that game with Rockstar's shit console aiming code. With a mouse and keyboard, however, I remember having fun with it.

I was a huge fan of the combat. I liked the combination of using the cover system and blindfiring to defend yourself and build the meter for bullet time, then get mobile and use it in quick bursts. If you tried to lean out of cover even in slow motion you were a sitting duck, you either had to barely ever poke you head out and not accomplish anything or take a lot of damage as you take out enemies. The key was you be out and mobile while you took out as many enemies as you could, then keep the meter in mind and as it runs out find a way to dive back into cover to charge up for the next run.

Honestly if not for the intolerably long loading making the numerous cut-scenes that break up action sequences unskippable I would be more inclined to replay that than any other shooter of the generation that comes to mind.

Where's the 'it was superb, but not the best'? I don't think any of those cover that. My issue with Max Payne 3 though is that as fantastic as the combat was to me, that's really all the game felt like to me: run through section, have fun shooting some dudes, go to next section. I guess the previous games were that, and really, a lot of games are that, but Max Payne 3 really felt like that to me. As great as the voice work and writing was, the story wasn't that interesting to me either. I kind of liked the settings, but the originals New York setting was better, and loved the moments you went back. I suppose I wish Max Payne 3 did a few things more interesting than it does, and it does do a few things beyond just the shooting all the time, but the feeling isn't strong throughout the majority of it. Red Dead Redemption, and Max Payne 3 both had really great combat to me, so when I played Grand Theft Auto 5 on the Xbox 360, although I thought it was an overall superb game, they took some combat mechanics out (if that's the correct word for it), where you could no longer even switch sides over the shoulder, and that disappointed me. The PS4 version though with the fps mode really made up for that for me and makes GTA 5 one of my favorite open world games, rather than one of the best games (though not the best) of 2013, but that's getting out of the topic. Anyways, it sounds like I'm talking too negatively about the game above, but I think Max Payne 3 overall is really great.

Some truly great ideas, played out in a frustrating and unruly way in practice.

I came to Max Payne 3 with the "baggage" of Max Payne 1 & 2 being my two favorite games to date. After struggling with with the combat for a good number of chapters and giving up once the favela chapter rolled around, I came back to the game about a year later and it became my favorite cover-based shooting I've ever played.

My personal verdict: not nearly up to the standard of the first two games, but if you meet it half-way - fantastic!

I thought Max Payne 3 had excellent gunplay. I played that game on hard the day I bought it and played it just like I played the first two Max Payne games: diving everywhere and never taking cover or zoom aiming. Super fun. It probably goes without saying I played on PC. I don't think a controller would allow for the precision you need when aiming in Max Payne. Headshots are vital.

The option in the poll I would choose is a bit hyperbolic so I'm not going to vote. Just thought I'd say my piece.

Sure enjoyed it, even playing with a controller on PS3. Later on bought the pc-version and that's even better!

I would probably play it more often every now and then, but I really can't stand those long unskippable cutscenes...

I thought it was pretty damn excellent. I don't think I'd say "the best combat in any game to date" but it's certainly one of the best third person shooters I've played.

I thought Max Payne 3 was excellent in general, and the gunplay was definitely a huge part of why. I just felt like once you got into a flow with it (especially on a PC with the precision of a mouse) it felt and looked fuckin amazing

Loved it. Not "ermagherd best ever", but extremely satisfying just the same.

I just wish the load times weren't tucked into the cutscenes. Makes playing the side modes really annoying.

I remember thinking the mechanics of it felt great, but there were parts in the game where the difficulty ramped up dramatically. I haven't played it since it came out but I remember parts of the stadium and also an (?) airplane hangar (?) that were way harder than the parts before or after it.

I was actually excited to see slow mo in GTA V because I thought that meant the rest of the shooting was going to be on par with Max Payne, unfortunately it wasn't.

A spiritual successor to Max Payne 3 is what I want most from Rockstar right now. GTA is too open and empty for my taste. I find much of the humor embarrassing, and the story is so fragmented between the fifty missions and ceaseless commuting. Sadly, I don't see them returning to that style of play. They're aiming more for what people want now. You can see it in the driving in GTA V compared to IV. The cars in GTA V barely have any weight. There is no nuance that you have to get accustomed to. It's designed so that anyone can play it from the start. That makes it pretty boring for me. And since Max Payne 3 wasn't as successful as RS expected and they closed the studio that made the game, they will now continue to design their shooting mechanics according to what the vast majority are comfortable with. Everyone wants over-the-shoulder third person or aiming down sights. I'm pretty disenchanted with the AAA industry. It's all about what sells rather than what's functional or makes sense. If it's alien to people, then it will probably be thrown out.

This game had the best feeling third-person shooting in any game ever, period. Such a bizarre shame that GTA V's didn't feel nearly as good.

MP3 had such a tumultuous news coverage history. All that backlash to the setting and new character look. I for one embraced the change. Going back, MP and MP2 are still amazing games, and nostalgia definitely factors into those good fuzzy feelings. It's hard to say whether MP3 will feel as good in the coming years, but I thought it was good. All the Euphoria engine stuff that made GTA4 a pain to deal with was excellently implemented.

Goddamn, now I wanna play it again. Still kind of sucks it's 30 effing gigs.

This is somewhat of a tangent, but I feel it's a good place to say I was slightly bummed about the "motion comic" cutscenes. The actual comic panels from the first two were so integral to the feel of that game, I had hoped they would stick with it. They made it work, but I feel like it was the wrong choice.

IMO the only truly good cover based shooter I have ever played from a gameplay perspective. You stay behind cover for more than 10 seconds, you dead, thats how it should always be, I hate games where you are just sitting behind some wall for hours on end fragging dudes who have no chance of beating you if you are even remotely paying attention. The whole game just felt so satisfying when a few mistakes could just instantly get you killed, that paired with how the environments where set up the slo-mo and how you replenished it AND then those sick damage models. FUCKING FABULOUS! No other game has ever made me feel more like an action movie bad-ass than this game.

I beat it once on hard and once on whatever the next difficulty was and it was my goty that year for me for sure. (And free-aim for life, cant stand auto-aim even on ps3, If I'm not aiming well enough at the start of a game, doing the aiming for me is NOT the solution. )

BTW I did vote for best combat ever because, in a third person shooter? it may be. in other genres though? probably not. It is certainly better than alright

I distinctly remember disliking it a lot. But it's been so long now that I can't remember what exactly about it it was.

With a controller, the combat was just ok.

On mouse and keyboard, the combat was some of the best 3rd person action I have ever played. It's pretty awesome to jump into a room and kill everyone with head shots in midair and then land behind cover. It has almost a Hotline Miami vibe to it on PC.

It was the best 3rd person shooter Rockstar ever did. In global terms, it was ok.

I didn't liked that it didn't allow much experimentation. In everything but the easiest difficulties, jumping in slow motion trying to kill people was a fast way to getting ripped in half; so the only way to survive most encounters was playing defensibly and staying in cover.

@hermes: In before someone says "You didn't play on PC and it's your fault!"

It was fun the entire time until it wasn't. Which was like 4h. Then I waited a month and had fun for 2h more. Then Rockstar club deleted my savegame so i never finished it.

Play this game with a mouse. It's a fucking blast.

I have 26 hours logged on Max Payne 3 and enjoyed every single damn gunfight in that game. Yeah, some of the environments are a bit crammed and you don't slow-mo dive all that much, but I thought the combat still felt awesome. Even playing without slomo (which is definitely possible with a mouse) is a great thing!

Fun and rewarding.

Multiplayer was a mess though, somehow a pistol would deal more damage than an AR. Dual wield pistols, wear that bomb suit, and use that perk that gives you more health and you'll destroy everyone.

Really unbalanced.