Max Payne Mobile

Max Payne Mobile Review

by Michael Sawh on May 1, 2012

Max Payne 3 doesn’t hit consoles until late May, but until then you can go back to where all the Bullet Time action first began without having to dig out your dust-collecting PlayStation 2. Rockstar has already successfully ported GTA 3 to iOS devices and now it’s bringing the John Woo-inspired title to the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

For those who didn’t pick up the third person shooter first time around, the gun-toting action is set in New York with former detective Payne hell bent on clearing the city of the drug gang responsible for killing his wife and daughter.

Picking off the enemy with a series of weapons is at the very heart of the gameplay with a some platform and puzzle-solving  action thrown in for good measure all of which is knitted together with the once again excellent voice acting work and the comic book presentation which pushes along the story.

Graphically, we were never expecting Infinity Blade visuals, and it’s important to remember that this game is over ten years old. Textures certainly don’t age well, but the Retina Display makes up for some of the visual shortcomings. Having tested on the iPhone and the iPad, the game ran relatively smoothly with some very minor lag issues.

Controls are perennially a stumbling block for most console ports and it is no different here despite the fact that you can move the virtual controls anywhere on the screen to make it as comfortable as possible on an iPhone or iPad screen. In the heat of the battle we were disappointed at times by the responsiveness of the shooting, while simply opening up draws and lockers felt poorly executed and at times irritating.  The Aim-assist option can take some of the fun out of precision shooting, but without it, the task to get through levels is tough, particularly on a smaller screen.

If you can get past the initially frustrating touchscreen controls which took us about twenty minutes to get to grips with, the narrative and gameplay still stands the test of time. For those obsessed with stats Rockstar has also added Social Club support where you can also unlock cheats. Until the action turns to Brazil, Max Payne mobile is a more than decent warm up for the main event in May.

Buy this app: Download Max Payne Mobile iPhone app now