Max Payne 3 is a New World for Rockstar

Rockstar has rightly made a name for itself crafting incredibly detailed open-world adventures. In Red Dead Redemption it let you explore every inch of the beautiful landscape, from the snowy peaks of the Tall Trees to parched grasslands of Hennigan's Stead.

Max Payne 3, however, is a very different proposition. Ostensibly, it's one of the most linear games Rockstar has ever made, and that's not a bad thing. Those skills, normally directed towards building functioning ecosystems and populating vast cities, have been channeled into a more focussed narrative.

I played part of chapter III, which opens with a short in-game cut-scene. At this point in the narrative, Max has left New York and is working as private security contractor for wealthy industrialist Rodrigo Branco, whose glamourous wife Fabiana has been kidnapped. Max and his partner, Passos, are tasked with making an exchange for Fabiana that night at the Galatians stadium, a fictional football team in Sau Paulo. Recalling the motion-comics the series is famous for, it's a heady mix of cinematic styles and visual flourishes: key pieces of dialogue appear on screen, dutch angles, changes in film stock, gravelly voiceover. Some might find it overwhelming, but it certainly gives the game a distinctive visual style. It's not boring to watch. 

Impressive as these cut sequences are, though it's the way that they seamlessly segue into gameplay that really sells this type of storytelling. 

For instance, in chapter III the exchange for Fabiana doesn't go well: a rival faction turns up, steals the money, and during the ambush Max is shot through the arm. This sequence uses the same slick, cinematic grammar, but suddenly the game begins proper. Max is obviously in pain, clutching his arm. Low on health, you need to get out of the open and search for some painkillers. Watching Max stagger, holding onto walls, trying to ride out the pain, it's clear that a lot of motion-capture work has been done here. 

Passos shepherds you to one of the stadium's medical bays, where Max patches his arm and guzzles a few of his pharmaceuticals. Health partially restored, it's time to do what Max does best; unfortunately, like Wolverine, what that is isn't very nice. It's killing people. 

The game lets you choose between three main shooting options: hard lock, soft lock, and free aim. The first two are pretty much what you'd expect - both assist with aiming to a greater or lesser degree - but it's free aim that really facilitates the classic run-and-gun Max Payne gameplay. Yes, it's harder to pull-off a head-shot, but itshould be difficult. It also means that you can aim in any direction and keep on moving in a realistic manner. 

If Max Payne 3 has an ethical maxim underpinning its attitude towards murder, it would probably be something like: if you have to kill, you might as well do it as stylishly as possible. To assist you in this quest there are a range of mechanics, from the series' staple Bullet Time to Shoot Dodge, which momentarily slows down time as you launch yourself in any direction. For those who have never played a game in the series before, it takes a while to learn when Max's unique abilities should be used. Shoot Dodge, for instance, confers a greater tactical advantage when used in a large open space, not a tight corridor. But after a while, you start to use them instinctually, and you find you're creating cinematic action spectacle on the hoof. 

The forces Max encounters aren't all the same, either. The AI has been tailored depending on the background of that particular faction. In the interior of the football stadium you encounter an elite para-military group – they are well-trained, well-equipped and organised. If they spot you, and you take cover, they will systematically flank and flush you out. There's no hiding. It can get pretty tense, and this feeling is only amplified by the absence of regenerating health. Some players, coddled by the rebounding health of Call of Duty and Halo, might find the need to be constantly on the search for pills onerous, and something of an anachronism. But when you know you can't stay in cover like a coward until it's safe to shoot again, it encourages you to use Bullet Time or Shoot Dodge. And if it didn't nudge you towards its unique mechanics in such a way, Max Payne 3 would play like so many other third-person shooters. 

Working your way through the football stadium, it's hard not to be impressed by the level of detail that has been lavished upon the game's environments, from little 5-a-side pitches with training cones and footballs that you can dribble or deflate with a bullet to an impressively well-stocked trophy cabinet. This beauty could also be something of a worry, however. Uncharted 3 looks stunning, but one of the reasons why it's so breathtaking is the lack of freedom. 

But it seems as if Max Payne 3 is aware of this pitfall, regularly changing up the gameplay to vary the pace. In chapter III alone there's a sniper section where you help guide Passos to safety, as well as a breathtaking set-piece in which Max jumps from the gantry high above the stadium and crashes through a window in slow motion. Yet ultimately it'll be the story - Max's finding a kind of solace that doesn't come in a brown bag - that will really define the game. 

Max Payne 3's cinematic approach works brilliantly, and though much of what we've seen so far is set in South America, the demo implied that these chapters will be interspersed with episodes from Max's tortured past in New York. He's always been a compelling protagonist, and it'll be fascinating to see him explored further