Single Player: It brings back the awe that the first game evoked when it brought bullet-time to gaming. On top of that, you now have the Euphoria Engine and explicit gore. Of course there's also the satisfyingly gritty story that comes with it being a Max Payne game. And usually I'm not one to jump all over soundtracks for video games, but the one in this game is amazing.
Multiplayer (v1.02): This game got added to the Major League Gaming circuit, so I figured it would be pretty polished, and when I first started playing it, it really seemed like a new multiplayer community I could get into. But once I was kicked out of the Rookie Team Deathmatch nest I was in for a rude awakening. It's your typical XP grind, thus turning the matches into a rapefest for whoever has the most time on their hands. But it has many more problems than that. If you're not getting completely mowed down by the guy who's two ranks above you, you're getting one-shotted only to find out some laggot was emptying a mag into you the entire time, or you're blown apart by a lag grenade that looked like it was flying in the direction opposite from you up until the point where it stopped at your feet, or you just have a trainwreck in the middle of a shootout because of the clunky Euphoria movement and generally unresponsive controls. If you survive all that, don't sweat; you can still count on being spawn killed ~25% of the time you respawn-- or when someone spawns directly behind you!
I think I'll go back to "competitively" playing bumper cars in the helicopters with other people in GTA IV's free mode, which I think compares to Max Payne 3 in clunkiness and skill.
