Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 304 sampled Steam reviews (269 positive / 35 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Story & writing22% mention it
- Combat6% mention it
- Music & audio5% mention it
- Visuals & art4% mention it
- Bugs & crashes4% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Story & writing37% mention it
- Bugs & crashes23% mention it
- Visuals & art14% mention it
- Controls & UI14% mention it
- World & exploration9% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
64%
61 reviews
5-15h
93%
157 reviews
15-40h
98%
63 reviews
40-100h
95%
19 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (Metacritic) | – | 86 | 6 |
| Creator reviews (1 tracked) | – | 76 | 0 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 87% | 81 | 1000 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 84 | 35 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 94% | 88 | 164 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 300 reviews sampled · 468 total reviews in window · weighted 213.8 up / 13.5 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (78)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 90
“Rockstar does it again. The new Max not only reminds us of his old tricks, but shows some new as well. Every minute you spend with Max Payne 3 gives you lots of fun and thanks to modes making you want to play again and a solid multiplayer the game won't become boring too soon.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“The presentation is top-notch, the game feels like you want it to never end while you're playing it, and the multiplayer gives it longevity that will stick around for a good while.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“The transition from emotionally tinged burial ground to functional battleground is at once touching and tasteless, presented in that kind of awkward, bittersweet combination that video games have gotten down to an art form. ”
read full review ↗ - 90
“A consistently thrilling and explosive tale that states its case as one of 2012's best. I'd be hard pushed to find a game that has made me scream with excitement on such a regular basis, as the compelling narrative and rewarding gunplay conglomerate into a truly spectacular product.”
read full review ↗ - 98
“The story and presentation rival that of a summer blockbuster. Throw in some smart dialogue, fantastic gameplay and addicting multiplayer, and Rockstar has hit the ball out of the park again.”
read full review ↗ - 83
“Despite some minor issues (and a couple that aren't so minor), Max Payne 3 still manages to be a first-class third-person shooter and is thus one of the better games of the year. More importantly, it's a welcome return for one of the shooter genre's better series. The years may not have been kind of Max, but it seems he hasn't missed a beat.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“That's all Max Payne 3 is, a beautiful, playable action movie.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“My only real gripes come in single-player action. Max has a very annoying habit of automatically switching to a handgun any time he's about to enter a cinema screen despite the fact that he might be carrying a perfectly usable assault rifle. There were some occasions the strongest rifle I was carrying in my arsenal practically disappeared after a bit of storytelling. This sometimes put me in precarious positions where I had to pull out a ridiculous combination of Bullet Time, rolling and melee (not always Max's strongest suit) to reach a weapon with more ammo in it. That led to a few expletive-laden moments, but it wasn't enough to get me to stop playing.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Seemingly cognizant of how tough it can be, the game gives you an extra bottle of health-restoring painkillers for every few times you restart at the same spot, but the situation is gratingly exacerbated by Max Payne 3's erratic checkpoint system. More often than not, you'll have to replay painfully long stretches of white-knuckle sequences, turning levels into chores, not treats.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Brilliant gunplay, and a classic character make for an exhilarating experience, but much of the narrative style distracts more than aids the final package.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“You can't escape the feeling that Rockstar just isn't as good at a pure third-person shooter as it is with the open worlds of Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption, and in this linear context it's much harder to put up with its usual missteps in mechanics and difficulty. ”
read full review ↗ - 90
“With its gripping narrative, brutal violence, and fantastic implementation of Max Payne's bullet-time ability, this is a distinctive and outstanding game through and through, and it's easily a worthy successor to the Max Payne games that preceded it. ”
read full review ↗
GRYOnline.pl
GameWatcher
ZTGD
Worth Playing
The Escapist
Eurogamer
GameSpot…and 66 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
No patch announcements found on Steam yet.