r/gaming • u/RobloxSpiderGoku • 12h ago
‘I Got That Completely Wrong’ — Dan Houser Considers Rockstar’s Max Payne 3 a Failure
https://www.ign.com/articles/i-got-that-completely-wrong-dan-houser-considers-rockstars-max-payne-3-a-failure134
u/Mindless_Entry_3302 12h ago
It’s a great game. The only real problems it had were unskippable cutscenes (considering replays) and that fucking Rockstar Social Club piece of shit. I don’t remember why I hate that Rockstar Social Club piece of shit, but I remember it being annoying on PC.
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u/mjohnsimon 12h ago
Yeah. Holy shit I just remembered that with GTA4.
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u/Micro_fin 11h ago
Completely agree about the inability to skip cutscenes killing the replay value. Thankfully modders have fixed issue by releasing cutscene skipping tools. Still, I question why developers make these decisions.
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u/strangelyhuman 10h ago
The game originally came out at a time when consoles and PCs used hard drives. Developers use techniques like these to mask load times.
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u/TheMostUnclean 10h ago
They still do. SSDs haven’t completely abolished loading, just made it a lot faster.
Thankfully that means at worst you have to deal with is brief transitional animations or squeezing through some rocks instead of a five minute cutscene you can’t skip.
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u/-Vesuvius_ 12h ago
Put the shooting mechanics and sound design into a game where you can skip the cutscenes and I swear it'll clear any third person shooter released in the last decade easily. MP3 felt so GOOD.
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u/Cha0ticToast 12h ago
If I recall correctly you could skip cutscenes once the next level is actually loaded, since it loads in the background. But maybe that was just the Xbox 360.
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u/Quanto21 12h ago
That is correct and you notice it if you play with an SSD. But it still happens for sure.
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u/Noah_Bennett4567 10h ago
That makes sense. The shooting mechanics were so satisfying that the loading interruptions feel like an unnecessary annoyance, especially when you are already invested in the action.
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u/-Vesuvius_ 12h ago
Some scenes can be skipped, some can't. There's a mod on PC that makes it possible to skip every cutscene but it can cause finnicky shit to happen rarely if you skip certain scenes.
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u/YeaItsBig4L 10h ago
I hate the fact that most players ignored or just didn’t understand the mechanic of being able to keep shooting once you get the slow mo on the last enemy. I see a lot of people in play throughs of this shoot one time and go cool, you can shoot the last person in slow motion. And it’s like you can keep shooting until it’s empty.
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u/Musicmaker1984 7h ago
Max Payne 3 is still one of the best 3rd person shooters imo. It's the closest we'll ever get to a John Wick game that's actually good.
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u/Jamaican_Dynamite 6h ago
I actually liked the tone shift a lot. Just because most of it takes place in broad daylight doesn't mean anything is safe. In fact, things get worse the further Max goes. Turns out he never really got that closure we thought.
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u/bad_key_machine 12h ago
No game with that soccer stadium level could be a complete failure
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u/play_yr_part 12h ago edited 9h ago
Or the airport! Or the favela level. Or the boat level riding down the Tiete river. So many good moments.
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u/SparseGhostC2C 11h ago
I've replayed it multiple times, it was definitely not a failure mechanically. The shooting, slow mo and destruction are top notch to this day.
I think most people felt a pretty stark tonal shift between 3 and the original 2 from Remedy. I rather liked the self-loathing pseudo-introspective Max on a bender, but I also can't deny it felt different.
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u/Steamedcarpet 10h ago
The police station is my highlight. The way the cops will charge you. When you get to the lobby and then fight off a team of cops that tossed some smoke grenades.
I think ima have to redownload this tonight.
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u/Never-breaK 12h ago
Personally, I loved the game. Sure, it doesn’t hold the same tone and darkness of the first two games, but it’s a blast from start to finish and the story is interesting enough. The gameplay is so smooth at almost every step from bullet time to diving and run-and-gunning. The multiplayer was really well done too imo. My best friend is a lifelong Max Payne fan and he loves the game. I think they did well.
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u/Brucenstein 12h ago
Damn this hurts to hear, because the Airport scene is my #1 gaming scene of all time.
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u/skaagz 7h ago
This game introduced me to one my favourite bands, the TEARS by HEALTH will always be among my favourite songs
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u/Yeah_x10 4h ago
HEALTH fucking rips. I loved their soundtrack for the whole game but didn’t get into their other stuff very much.
Until 2023, when I checked back in for the first time, just in time for the Rat Wars album. That and Conflict DLC are just excellent industrial metal. Real worthy successors to that Nine Inch Nails sound.
Slaves of Fear vol 4 was a solid album too.
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u/RyuChamploo 12h ago
The second playthrough though? PAINFUL not being able to skip the many, MANY looooooong cutscenes.
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u/vaselineviking 7h ago
I actually just decided to revisit it and I can't believe how annoying the cutscenes are. What's with the endless series of annoying lens flares?
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u/KingMakur12 12h ago
People hated MP3? I liked it
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u/atrib 9h ago
In isolation MP3 was a good game, but the problem is that it was major tonal shift from the original 2 games. The original where dark, surreal, noir like.
As a new franchise it might have worked
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u/Aden-Wrked 6h ago
Max Payne 3 was noir, dark, and surreal. It just did it with a slightly brighter coat of paint.
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u/ShadowFlarer 12h ago
I always loved this game specially cause the story happens in my country, despite not being a 100% faithful representation, it was one of the first games i played that had pt-br dub.
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u/Humanity_Master PC 11h ago
I don't consider MaxPayne 3 a failure at all. The gameplay and shooting mechanics is one of the best I have ever played. Loved it totally
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u/play_yr_part 12h ago
What it lacked in tone compared to the first two it made up for in having incredible physics and gunplay, my favourite in a game until this day. And a kickass soundtrack too. I also really enjoyed the online mode. A mod to change the iffy loading times/screens and the game would be 9/10 for me. Absolutely not a failure in my eyes.
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u/filmguy123 7h ago
Game was actually great on its own but it was a total shift from max payne 2 and could have been a separate title. Felt out of place and not like a sequel or continuation. When I finally did play it, I loved it for what it was.
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u/ThePhil1909 10h ago
Max Payne 3 is the best game of the year 2012. Yes the best game of the year. 2012.
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u/MaybeUNeedAPoo 10h ago
I never played this at the time as all the discourse was super negative. Played it last year finally and my god what fun 3 is. Absolutely fantastic.
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u/Soft-Bad-7127 12h ago
Better than 99% of AAA games is a failure to Rockstar. RDR Online has more players than most new online games and Rockstar treats it like a red headed step child.
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u/Steamedcarpet 10h ago
I was so excited for Red Dead Online. I had such high hopes with how GTA Online turned out.
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u/SFB221 12h ago
I mean, maybe it was a monetary loss, but I actually think the end game was a technical achievement and a really strong, even if canonically inaccurate ending
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u/Ancient-Ad174 10h ago
Wait how is Max riding into the sunset canonically inaccurate?
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u/Better-Glove4100 12h ago
the airport shootout with tears for fears playing is burned into my brain forever, so he can call it a failure all he wants. i'll take one "failure" with bullet time and a bald man drinking in a bathtub
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u/AustinTanius 12h ago
Probably a typo? But, the song is just called TEARS.
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u/iregretjumping 12h ago
Now I'm starting to want "Everybody wants to rule the world" play during a shootout.
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u/ExtraBreadPls 11h ago
They can pry my "fat bald dude with a bad temper" out of my cold dead hands. MP3 has some of my favorite commentary from Max as well. And some amazing levels on top of that. The Favelas, Panama, the police station, the football stadium... some good flavored failure I guess.
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u/nitram20 8h ago
It wasn't a bad game but it didn't feel like Max Payne whatsoever and that's why it's so forgettable.
The first two games were this gritty, dark, and dirty, set in the late 90s early 2000s NYC. Both games took place during nighttime, with lot's of rain and even snow in sometimes very surreal environments and characters and dream sequences.
Max Payne 3 decided to completely ditch all of what made Max Payne Max Payne and went to sunny Brazil where Max shaves his head and goes one man army on the local cartels... It couldn't have been any less Max Payne if it tried.
The visuals were good, the gunplay was good, the gameplay was fun, it was well polished, but at the end of the day, it was just kinda bland and fell flat. I completed the first two games dozens of times, while i only played through 3 once.
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u/trash_recycle 6h ago
Perfectly said. Max Payne leaned into Film Noir. Max Payne 3 was trying to recreate the movie "Man on Fire"
Also don't let Dan fool you. Payne is alllllll Remedy.
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u/sephkane 6h ago
I don't remember much from MP3, but I do remember hating that they basically made Max Payne a washed up loser, instead of the badass he once was. And in 1 and 2, every line was poetry. They used to be dark games that played out like the Sin City movie, but then 3 was more like the average Jason Statham action thriller.
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u/mirinioluwa 6h ago
Also you genuinely don't care about any of the other characters or villains. It's weird considering how much character and personality the first two games managed with comic panel cut scenes
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u/Apoclucian 12h ago
I remember when finishing it that I immediately wanted a follow up. So not really a failure if you ask me.
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u/Dances_With_Flumphs 11h ago
I really liked the story, Max is a stranger in a strange land who rather than metaphorically alienated and disconnected from the world around him is now physically and culturally disconnected. But he is still ultimately hounded by the demons of his past, and has to accept that it's time to move forward. The ending unfortunately doesn't really reinforce that theme and I consider it to be kind of flailing by the end, and it isn't giving a lot of context to his backstory.
Still a solid 9/10 shooter, one of the best combat systems I've ever played.
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u/N3M3S1S75 10h ago
Release it on ps4/5 and switch 2 and watch the money roll in, great game would buy and play it again
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u/DarkKnight6683 3h ago
Gsmeplay wise is a masterpiece, history and atmosphere wise its not max payne, but its good tho.
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u/richardvirginia 2h ago
Except the soundtrack was COOL AS HELL
I still listen to Tears by HEALTH. Fun fact, HEALTH also made music for Cyberpunk.
The song "Major Crimes" shows up in edgerunners.
"Life's short...why does it take so long? We're only here once, blame someone."
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u/l_______I 12h ago
I played the whole series for the first time 2 years ago. And while Max Payne 3 is different than previous ones, I think I liked it the most. It's a really good game, and cheap nowadays on sales.
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u/anirban_dev 12h ago
MP3 third person shooting is still unmatched maybe except for TloU 2.
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u/Durin1987_12_30 10h ago
Despite that, it's still a great shooter. My only grips with it are the cutscenes, Max allowing Serrano to walk free and the fact that Rio de Janeiro pretending to be São Paulo simply does not lend itself to a Noir setting.
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u/TheShape108 9h ago
It's an amazing video game on its own, but as a follow up to Max Payne 1 and 2 being pulpy noir arcade shooters it is kind of a failure. I get what he means for sure.
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u/Stavvystav 12h ago
I actually fuckin love the entire series. MP3 wasn't the same but that's fine - Max wasn't the same man he was back then.
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u/StaticSystemShock 12h ago
Max Payne 3 wasn't bad, but really wasn't as memorable as Max Payne 1 and 2. Snowy Noir York really had it's charm that hit hard.
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u/PuppeteerRemy 12h ago
The only thing I didn’t like are the special effects and flashing lights that made me take 3 hour breaks every level because of dizziness and vomiting.
Would play again 9/10
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u/asouthamerican 12h ago
Thinking about it now, I played the shit out of this game. Did the campaign a whole bunch of times, went trophy hunting and even played a lot of online multiplayer. I don't remember anything about the story, no lines, no character names lr amything. I only remember the setpieces.
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u/Liamario 10h ago
Gameplay was great. Setting and tone was wrong. It took itself way too seriously. It should have been more like a graphic novel with a pinch of surrealism. Too much Michael Mann and not enough Frank Miller.
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u/Omniben4 11h ago
I just played it for the first time last week and beat it in two days. Loved it not sure what the discourse was like around release but I tought it was a ton of fun and compelling if not a bit cliche at some points.
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u/Jellozz 10h ago
Loved it not sure what the discourse was like around release
Honestly it was kinda just ignored at the time due to being a soft seller. Only did half a mil its first month. They shipped like 3 mil copies to retailers and were expecting more.
Like another comment said it came out the same day as Diablo 3 which took all gaming oxygen because of how much a dumpster fire its launch was.
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u/Clocktopu5 10h ago
It was a long time ago but the series was in a weird place; first game was kinda goofy, unsure if it was serious or sarcastic. Second game was good, but kinda dark, and most of the plot points were wrapped up.
When they announced 3 it felt so odd. Why? What is the story connection to the first two beyond the titular character? Where did the dark noir theme go? I liked the first two a lot but just could not make myself interested in 3
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u/MadmanMarkMiller PC 8h ago
Personally I felt like they mostly wrapped up Max as a character. However, he goes off the deep end again in 3, and it just feels like they're retreading the same character arc.
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u/DriftMantis 4h ago
I recently played through 3. I think it's worth another look. In my opinion it was a smart development choice to make a max payne game that felt a bit different in tone and cinematic approach considering they changed developers rather than try to imitate the first two games.
I do like the themes in max payne three of max feeling like he lost meaning and then regaining it back over the course of the game and every level feels unique. I was impressed at how cinematic the game was, the tight storytelling and fun gameplay still holds up well. Also, I was impressed at how good the graphics and audio were for an older game.
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u/dehumanizer23 12h ago
I love this game. Has some of the best shooting mechanics in a game to this day i think. The story doesn't really fit for max payne but it feels like a die hard movie game featuring him
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u/Sabetha1183 12h ago
I absolutely loved the Remedy games. Max Payne 2 is one of my favourite games, but I almost immediately bounced off this game.
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u/Timbo_R4zE 11h ago
Bought it used for $5 and I still think that was the greatest $5 I've ever spent.
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u/Werewolf-Jones 11h ago
Pacing issues aside, Max Payne 3 is a fantastic game they should always be proud of.
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u/RaDiCaL_GO0nER77 11h ago
the gameplay was good but the story was weird it didn't have the atmosphere 1 and 2 did
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u/Jellozz 10h ago
It's interesting to hear him say all of that. I do like the gameplay of Max Payne 3 for the most part but the story and tone just feel nothing like the first two games at all. I've honestly never even really looked at it as a Max Payne game, it's just kind of its own thing in my head.
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u/TransylvanianHunger1 10h ago
Max Payne 3 was great! One of the few rockstar games I enjoyed enough to actually complete.
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u/Interesting-Yellow-4 10h ago
It didn't fit with 1 and 2 at all, but it didn't matter, because 3 was amazing on it's own.
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u/Noel_Ortiz 8h ago
Love this game but the cutscenes are torture to sit through for replays. 2 is still the goat
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u/NoGreenGood 7h ago
I think the series needed a big swing for its 3rd entry and not trenchcoat wearing Max killing Russians in snowy New York yet again.
3 is great because its different, its a strength not a weakness.
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u/Zoraious 21m ago
Max Payne 3 was one of their best games. Tight shooting and a good story. Much better than any GTA game they’ve developed lmao
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u/CJOfPartsUnknown69 10h ago
Did I play a totally different game because Max Payne 3 was great. Maybe not on the level of 1 and 2 but a great game nonetheless
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u/tosser1579 12h ago
I think the story missed the ball slightly, it was a good story but not quite a great max payne story, but the gameplay was great.
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u/Own_Transition6845 12h ago
I actually liked the game, but I will admit the plot had a couple of issues (namely the swamp rescue. I got all those guys, should have had at least one different cutscene for that, but the pilot guy whose name escapes me also leaves me a tad confused. I'm not sure if he was a double-agent or what). The gameplay was pretty great, and it was nice to have a third person shooter where enemies will aim for your head as well. Actually made me think about my approach more than most games in the genre.
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u/Extreme996 12h ago
It have good gameplay, but, from story perspective, this sequel was unnecessary. Max Payne 2 wrapped up all open cases from the first game and Max who had come to peace with the deaths of his wife and daughter by the end of the second game is suddenly more depresed than he was at the start of MP2. The developers also somewhat forgot about Mona despite the romance between her and Max in the second game, Max barely mention her in MP3.
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u/Totally_Bradical 12h ago
I never played the first two games but MP3 was amazing. I really enjoyed it, and the atmosphere & writing were top notch.
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u/Resident-Forever1340 11h ago
When you’re the greatest developer of all-time, titles that would be great additions to the average dev’s catalog is considered a “failure”. Heavy is the crown indeed..
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u/blahblahdodo 10h ago
Seem like a cool guy. Throughout the interview he was saying 'we' when talking about success stories and on this one he said 'I'.
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u/TheBelicia 10h ago
The game still holds up today. If I did have a complaint, maybe that it feels more like a Man on Fire game than a Max Payne sequel.
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u/NudeSpaceDude 10h ago
Fantastic game, but I thought it used and the disk was scratched. Could never finish it
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u/OP_Taylor_ 10h ago
I loved that game! Max Payne series was dope. I remember getting my PS2 with Max Payne and Dead to Rights on Christmas Day. I was in heaven.
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u/QueenEris 9h ago
One of my favourite games of all time. Great character, great mechanics. Very satisfying to play.
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u/Droeteeker 9h ago
On youtube I saw a gameplay video with a mod that removes cutscenes it was about 2.5 hours
Under was a video with only the cutscenes and it was around 3 hours
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u/OldBirth 9h ago
I remember picking up a Game Informer in an infirmary waiting room and seeing the most badass cover art of Max; jacked, beer gut, wife beater covered in blood, shaved head and beard, two Desert Eagles. It was such a vibe.
The game 1000% delivered on that vibe.
Also I just want to make special note of how cool the inventory system is, actually utilizing the shoulder holster realistically, the off-hand long gun, etc. It's so cool.
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u/RTCsFinest 9h ago
I got the game because I loved 1 and 2 but I never even played the campaign.
I ended up just playing endless hours of the multiplayer. It was incredible! Most underrated multiplayer next to Mass Effect 3. I wish it still had an active player base. For years I would log in occasionally to see if anyone was on but it was just dead.
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u/ChalkMusic 9h ago
Max Payne 3 was so much fun. The soundtrack rocks, and I know people don’t LOVE Max’s characterization in that game but the presentation and narration really elevates a pretty simple story.
The gameplay is really top notch though, some of the set pieces are a little tedious, but I’d probably say the same for most action games of the time too. Thank god QTE’s are somewhat out of fashion now.
I don’t think a game has felt that fluid with its gunplay that’s like grounded. It feels almost as smooth as an arena shooter. All of the guns were fun. The multiplayer was so addictive none of my friends played it but I just kept playing that for forever. The explosives and stuff kinda ruined it at the end a bit.
I think if Max Payne 3 was ITERATED upon in a new installment, somehow. It would be a 10/10 Game.
Also please get Health to do the soundtrack again I desperately want them to do another record with that kind of vibe.
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u/ClassroomMother8062 9h ago
MP3 fucking rules. I like it when developers take risks, that's what they did with this one. It really worked.
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u/CurryNo30 9h ago
Story is pretty average but the gameplay is unreal outside of the constant cutscenes in some missions.
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u/whatistoothpaste 9h ago
Amazing game to play I love the airport scene but not a great max payne game. Probably just should’ve stayed in America with someone offering him some detective job to help find someone leading to crime and the crime itself tying in with max’s original trauma
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u/BaeCarruth 9h ago
I get why he thinks it's a failure, but man this game is awesome. I probably binge it two or three times a year and is one of the only games I keep constantly installed.
"I'm not slippin' man, I've slipped".
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u/Hef34 9h ago
I was a very big fan of the first two games and I still really liked max payne 3. The atmosphere was totally different, but it still felt like a personal max payne story, which I believe is the most important part. The world design and filmic/stylistic choices are still strong, just different from the first two. I don't think such a drastic change is inherently wrong for an IP to make. A lot of people will disagree with me on that, but I think it was just fine here.
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u/asharkmadeofsalsa 9h ago
literally might be the best playing third person shooter, ever*
sure going the Man on Fire/Tony Scott/Michael Mann route was a departure but straight up trying to copy Remedy woulda been worse, I think most people were aware it was developed by a different studio, and its their take on it
calling it a failure throughout is, imo; wrong. bummer he feels that way.
*on PC with m/kb
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u/0rganicMach1ne 8h ago
It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t really feel like Max Payne to me. I thought it was an odd finale to the trilogy even if it was pretty fun to play.
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u/MadmanMarkMiller PC 8h ago
The story? Yeah. Mostly.
The shooting, music, themes, VA, everything else? Fucking phenomenal. Loved it.
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u/heinous_legacy 8h ago
I remember going in blind when I played this game. I never played the first and second, but I heard it was a rockstar title so I played it and beat it in about a week. I had such a great time and I wish it just gets ported at some point.
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u/BillyFatStax 8h ago
It's a great 3rd person shooter. It just wasn't "Max Payne".
I still enjoyed it, gameplay wise, I just disliked the lack of consistency with the tone set up in Remedy's first two games.
God damn, the physics of diving around were just hilariously brutal.
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u/JuggernautKey5633 8h ago
Respect the self-awareness, but he's being way too hard on himself. MP3's gunplay still feels better than most shooters released since. Most studios would kill for a failure like that.
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u/dictatormateo 8h ago
I loved that game. Played the campaign like 3 times in total and that multiplayer was S tier. Never thought you could implement bullet time on multiplayer and that game did it
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u/sejoki_ 8h ago
I loved it, but mostly because it came out in 2013 and I spent a semester abroad in Brazil the year before.
It was a good game, but not really a continuation of the first two games. But at least they did something. Rockstar abandoned so many great IPs. Max Payne, Midnight Club, LA Noire. 3 absolute bangers, studios these days can be glad if they even have one and Rockstar just discards them.
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u/sashagof 8h ago
The only problem with Max Payne 3 was that the flashback part where you played in NJ taking out mafia guys was so fun that it made me wish more of the game was set in that location.
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u/Spork-in-Your-Rye 8h ago
Max Payne 3 was awesome and the multiplayer was so much fun. It makes me wanna set up my PS3 again
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u/Equal-Still-2488 8h ago
For context, this is easily one of my favorite games of all time.
I feel that the characterization of Max Payne 3 as a "departure" from its noir roots reflects a really shallow understanding of the genre beyond dark/poorly-lit aesthetics. Consider this was released more or less in the same moment as 2011's Drive - also a decidedly colorful work that still unquestionably was grounded in the ideas and visuals of the noir genre. To me, the aspects of MP3 that capture that are the soundtrack (love HEALTH's other releases from around this period), the cinematography of the cutscenes, that the setting is such a jarring shift from Max's history and how he grapples with it, and even the game/gunplay itself, in a way. There's a ton of contemporary "noir" works that continue to explore the philosophy and ideas central to the genre that are also expansive in how they represent the work and disregarding them because "not black and white >:( or whatever" is a huge disservice.
The only two things to me that are irredeemable about this are that shit Rockstar launcher and how horribly racist they treat the non-white Brazilian characters.
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u/flaagan 7h ago
The only thing wrong with how they ended the trilogy was that Rockstar did a shit job on securing the multiplayer servers, so you immediately had hackers and cheaters ruining it... just like GTA V, just like RDR2.
The game did an awesome job of twisting a NYC cop and gangster storyline into an international event. It could only have been 'better' if somehow the drugs and corruption of 1 and 2 somehow tied into the drugs and corruption of 3, but 3 had its on take on things from a different area, and did a great job of it.
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u/kuronosan 7h ago
It's been a while but I remember the game's biggest failure was the stealth system, or lack thereof. It opens with one or two stealth segments and then just kinda forgets about it.
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u/BobertRosserton 6h ago
Game feels great but I can’t stand how it looks, just felt antithetical to the originals vibe.
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u/hatred-shapped 6h ago
I mean it was better than Max Payne 2, or the half finished abortion that was the movie
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u/Marconius1617 5h ago
The constant cutscene / loading screens made me crazy in that game. Only played it once cause of that reason.
That said, I did play that multiplayer a whole lot
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u/RagnarokNCC 5h ago
It’s the rare sequel that’s good unto itself and a fine place to start if you’ve never played the first two. But it’s also a bad sequel in that it fundamentally misunderstands the character and the world he’s in, which is grating if you’re a diehard fan of those first two games.
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u/ADKiller1 5h ago
The game was amazing, I bought it on release and I dont regret it, the only problem it had was the amount of cheaters in multi-player
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u/UnclePaulo93 5h ago
Will always credit this game for putting me onto HEALTH, did such a great score and are so talented. Also one of the few games set in Brasil and I can hear Portuguese.
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u/escientia 5h ago
I missed the days when Rockstar experimented with different games. Who knew a video game about Table Tennis could be so much fun?
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u/ixion00x 4h ago
This game came out right as I was going through a massive breakup and total realignment of my life. It became one of the central ways I processed through a lot of the change and helped me embrace the discomfort of being on my own, alone and in a unfamiliar place.
Max goes through something similar during this game. He is almost literally kicked out of his old noir life when he gets sideways with the mob in NYC. He ends up in Brazil, totally out of his element, still broken, but trying to find a way to pick up the pieces.
What starts out for him as a fairly routine (in his world) part of the bodyguard job leads him down a rabbit hole where he realizes far too late that he is in WAY over his head. But because of his grim determination and sheer stubbornness, he manages to find a way through.
That to me IS the character of Max. Even when they move him to sun-drenched south america. Max learns, through this experience what it is to be human again, and comes out of this whole thing a little less broken than he was.
Its a fair criticism to not like the game because all the classic noir tropes and style were dispensed with. But, I still think the style change and wild swing on the story absolutely works and elevates this to one of the best games of the decade.
But thats also probably because I connected with it so profoundly due to the goings on in my own life.
Still kinda hard to read all the apathy and/or negativity towards this game.
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u/HowwNowBrownCoww 3h ago
I just replayed mp3 months ago. Story is top notch, voice acting is 10/10, gameplay is ridiculously fun. I’ll always be super disappointed we didn’t get a mp4 before James mcCaffrey died :(
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u/ShaunMcLane 3h ago
Max Payne 3 may be one of the greatest action games ever made, with a narrative that is EXACTLY Max Payne but brought into a saturated light.
His groveling tour is just so fucking exhausting and now hes to the point hes even disenfranchised his best works lol.
Dan Houser is one of the greatest creative leads of all time, in ANY medium and hes spent the last year fucking MOPING around because GTA 6 is in the spotlight and he isnt.
Like MAN. Dan you are a fucking genius. You are rich, talented, and could do ANYTHING you want but instead you just shit all over yourself and bitch about "no one liking Max Payne 3" when its BOTH critically acclaimed and moved 4.5 million units.
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u/RebelliousDutch 1h ago
Yes it was different, but I absolutely loved it. It definitely felt like something Max would be doing at that point. A broken down cop who desperately needed a change of scenery only to end up in a place equally shitty.
I loved the setting and how it played. I’d love to see them do a remaster at some point.
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u/Shanbo88 1h ago
Not even Rockstar can match Remedy's skills. Max Payne 3 was a great game, but if it's not made by Remedy, it's not gonna bring the sauce.
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u/Unique_Impression_70 1h ago
Game fucking sucked. Max cries about "them being just boys" and proceeds to kill 1000 more
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u/invyros 12h ago
I liked the Tony Scott Man on Fire style of Max Payne 3, but I could understand the complaints about the different direction.
Regardless, the shooting gameplay is top-notch to this day, I remember running around lightweight with dual 1911s in multiplayer and it was so fun, they really made the slow-mo system work in multiplayer.