22 Games Like Max Payne
Our assortment of games like Max Payne covers third person shooters where you’ll play complex characters and find yourself in mysterious storylines.
The Max Payne franchise is a collection of third person video games where players step into the role of Max Payne, a New York City officer who turns into a vigilante. Just like Max Payne’s personal progression through the series, the game mechanics have also evolved to bring the game series additional depth, extra variety, new settings, different characters, new weapons and even multiplayer elements.
The foundation of the series is third person shooter gameplay mixed with a special bullet time feature which can slow down the incoming bullets to give players a serious tactical advantage. The later additions to the franchise also introduced cover systems for players to help them fight off multiple enemies as well as a more varied number of weapons to provide new flexibility and explosive options in combat.
The games similar to Max Payne found here also offer third person action with cover systems, special abilities and strong storylines across a range of platforms including PC, Xbox and PlayStation titles.
Watch Dogs 2
Building on the elements of the original Watch Dogs 2 serves as the sequel as it continues the Ubisoft action-adventure franchise across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Featuring a familiar third person perspective players explore a fictional imagining of the San Francisco Bay Area with multiple approaches to the various missions and side activities available. Exploring this fictionalised Bay Area through the eyes of Marcus Holloway you step into the role of a hacker who joins the ranks of the g...[Read Review]
Watch Dogs
Watch Dogs puts you in the driving seat with a rich open world adventure where you decide on the direction that the story, your character and the world around through your actions and interactions. Set in a modern day era this futuristic title uses a fictional Chicago as the foundation of an adventure of technology hacking to achieve your objectives alongside plenty of side activities. Playing as a hacker named Aiden Pearce you’ll enter into a story of revenge after an electronic bank heis...[Read Review]
State of Decay
State of Decay combines the open world genre with a zombie outbreak to create a large and challenging adventure that has you leading a settlement of survivors through a number of trials. First released on the Xbox 360 in 2013 the title was quickly brought to Windows and eventually remastered in a Year-One Survival Edition version that also added Xbox One support. The fictional Trumbull Valley is the setting for this zombie adventure and feels like a small to medium sized rural area in the real w...[Read Review]
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs has players taking on the role of Wei Shen an undercover cop and martial artist specialist that decides to tackle the Triad organisation across Hong Kong. Released in August 2012 by Square Enix Sleeping Dogs joins the ranks of other high profile open world action adventures with a crime theme. With a large Hong Kong setting as your backdrop players are free to design their own story as you freely roam the city taking part in fights, driving, crime and anti-criminal activities. Spli...[Read Review]
The Saboteur
The Saboteur explores a different setting to most open world action adventure titles with a World War II theme that has players trying to sabotage everything within reach to help the war effort. With a setting that the genre hasn’t touched before you’re guaranteed a unique adventure as you play on Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game focuses on Paris during its Nazi occupation with players taking on the role of Sean Devlin as he attempts to sabotage the Nazi’s from within as...[Read Review]
The Godfather II
The Godfather II continues with the Godfather series of video games with another crime based open world experience for players to dive into. Retaining the core blend of action, adventure, story, combat and crime players will also find an enhanced array of strategic pathways to help you undermine the other crime families that you compete against for control. The second game in the Godfather video game series and starts in 1958 with some loose ties to the Godfather film franchise. Once again you&#...[Read Review]
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a PlayStation 3 exclusive (later brought to PlayStation 4 as a remaster) that takes you across the globe in an impressive action adventure with a sprinkle of environmental puzzles. With the second release in the Uncharted franchise improving on the original you’ll find a wealth of enhancements in the areas of story telling, character development and voice acting. Like the original Uncharted the game follows the adventure of Nathan Drake across a range of envir...[Read Review]
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception continues the Uncharted series with action, adventure and third person shooting that the series is known for. Just like previous games the title is a PlayStation 3 exclusive (and later PlayStation 4) developed by Naughty Dog with a familiar air of mystery to your action adventure. This time around players will join Nathan Drake as he adventures through the desert in search of the lost location known as the Iram of the Pillars. The story takes players back in ...[Read Review]
L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire delivers a detective themed open world action title with fantastic realism and world design which gives players the sense of being a real detective throughout the story. Inspired by historical films the game also features an era appropriate soundtrack and the option to play in black and white to simulate a film noir adventure. Originally released on 2011 for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 L.A. Noire was revived with an enhanced edition for modern platforms in 2017. Set in the cit...[Read Review]
Mafia II
Mafia II offers a third person action packed experience that puts players inside the mob and builds on the original Mafia experience to once again challenge players to rise the criminal ranks. Originally released in 2010 a Definitive Edition remastered the experience with HD graphics for modern platforms (PS4 and Xbox One) and combined all of the downloadable content to date in 2020. Serving as an action adventure sequel to Mafia players will return to the fictional Empire Bay between the era 19...[Read Review]
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is an action orientated role playing game that explores the rarely touched vampire fantasy for a video game setting. Offering deep role playing mechanics players customise their recently converted human to design their own playstyle through the vampire filled world full of story, choice and challenges. Set in a modern day Los Angeles players explore four unique game areas that include downtown, Santa Monica, Hollywood and Chinatown that each have their own myst...[Read Review]
Scarface: The World Is Yours
Scarface: The World Is Yours is heavily based on the popular Scarface film and offers a great adventure for fans of open world crime based video games. While gamers who have seen the film will definitely get most from the experience it is not a requirement to stepping into this world and claiming it for your own profit and revenge. Released in 2006 this action adventure was made available on PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows with an enhanced graphical port for the Nintendo Wii a year later. The pl...[Read Review]
Alan Wake
Alan Wake promises an interesting adventure filled with horror for players to combat across popular game platforms. With a small rural town setting as the backdrop for this adventure players will be fighting against a dark presence that stalks in the shadows while also fighting their own sanity to save their wife from the other worldly threat. Alan Wake follows the story of well known thriller novelist Alan Wake as he goes on a vacation to the quiet town of Bright Falls in a hope to cure his wri...[Read Review]
Mafia III
Mafia III builds on the fundamentals of the previous games in the Mafia franchise and once again offers players the opportunity to rise through the criminal ranks in a fictional but realistic setting. Released in 2016 Mafia III explores a darker storyline than the franchise to date with players embarking on various quests across the fictional New Bordeaux as you play Vietnam War veteran Lincoln Clay across both console and PC. Set in 1968 the story revolves around the orphan and veteran of the V...[Read Review]
Quantum Break
Based around the idea of time travel and control of time, Quantum Break employs a unique story telling landscape aiming to combine a TV like show design with a video game experience. The result is a dramatic science fiction story filled with action and adventure while players command Jack Joyce through an array of gunfights and story plot points in third person view. In addition Jack Joyce grants players the ability to manipulate time right from the start of your adventure after a failed experim...[Read Review]
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is the first in a series of games that focus on the Mafia while placing players into a third person shooter free roam setting that is similar to that of the GTA series. The game was originally released in 2002 for Windows and eventually made its way to Xbox and PlayStation 2 with console game ports a few years later. Playing as Tommy Angelo who finds himself in the middle of a crime family war and forced to join one side to protect himself you’ll make your ow...[Read Review]
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Taking the popular Metal Gear Solid franchise further with the ninth core game in the stealth franchise players will lead the familiar mercenary of Snake through a campaign in Soviet occupied territory. Advancing the story nine years after the events of the previous game (Ground Zeroes) you’ll tie up a number of loose ends as you advance through the levels that offer greater player freedom than past titles. Mainly focused around the Afghanistan and Angola-Zaire border with Punished (Venom)...[Read Review]
Stranglehold
Stranglehold is a high octane action packed third person shooter that lets you do all sorts of crazy stunts on your PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Designed as a sequel to John Woo’s 1992 action film, Hard Boiled the game features a number of call backs and movie style design choices for the keen eyed film fan, although those unfamiliar with the 1992 film won’t be missing out either. In Stranglehold players play as the tough cop inspector Tequila Yuen over a roughly 6-8hr campaign of action that tak...[Read Review]
Deadly Premonition
Deadly Premonition rolls open world gameplay, horror and even comedy into a single ball of interesting to create an adventure that is borderline insane. The game originally released on Xbox 360 in 2010 and saw a Director’s Cut for the PlayStation 3 and Windows released in 2013 after the game attracted a cult following online creating demand for the game to be delivered on alternative platforms. This same following was likely the reason behind the games port to Nintendo Switch in 2019. Part of th...[Read Review]
The Godfather: The Game
The Godfather: The Game is a 2006 release based in the Godfather universe that allows players to live out a life of crime in an open world environment. Leading the Mafia in this action based adventure game players will find a number of references to the Godfather films as they build and maintain their profitable crime empire. This means that fans of the respective Godfather films will instantly recognise many of the characters from the movie and the game even includes voice acting from a number ...[Read Review]
WET
WET offers third person shooter gameplay with an insane level of action that feels right out of Kill Bill or similar action film with its distinct style of action. In your WET adventure you’ll use acrobatic moves, create combos, slow down time and other powerful abilities alongside more traditional shooting and slashing gameplay. The star protagonist for this over the top game is Rubi Malone, a bounty hunter, mercenary and general problem-solver who has built a reputation for getting the job don...[Read Review]
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Marking game number 4 for the Uncharted series and Nathan Drake Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End pulls him right out of retirement to reunite with this brother and Sully to search for clues and find Captain Henry Avery’s treasure. Serving as the final instalment in the franchise Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End delivers an impressive send off to the characters of the franchise both from a story and gameplay perspective while continuing the impressive and often extreme action adventure gameplay that the seri...[Read Review]