In São Paulo alone, you’ll be traversing the favelas, an airport, police station and more run-down buildings than you can shake a stick at.ĭuring development, Rockstar conducted research to assure that São Paulo in the game matched São Paulo in real-life as much as possible. The locales are few, but the environments and levels heavily varied. Most of the game takes place in São Paulo, with New Jersey making an appearance earlier on. This technique is hardly new, but it is an interesting way to fill in the gaps and gain a new perspective to a certain event. There will be times when Max will ponder over things that happened in the past, at which point you play through the memory. As you can likely already see, Max has his work cut out for him.Īlthough the game is linear (unlike Grand Theft Auto, for example), the story isn’t always sequential. São Paulo, being a city engulfed with favelas and extreme poverty, doesn’t blend too well with a family as wealthy as the Broncos. With the help of acquaintance Raul Passos, he’s become a private security guard for São Paulo’s Branco family.
That said, there will be certain areas that are undeniably inspired by the older games, and if you look hard enough, you might even find a television airing Captain Baseball Bat Boy.įrom the get-go, Rockstar’s “start fresh” goal becomes evident. For this third iteration, Rockstar wanted to “start fresh” with the Payne saga, so hints from the previous games are far and few between. Mona Sax, featured prominently in the original games, doesn’t make an appearance here aside from being seen in a quick flashback (she either died or lived in the second game depending on the difficulty level chosen).
In the game, much of Max’s history is left up for you to already know. If you haven’t played the original games, it won’t take you long to realize that Max doesn’t fear death – in fact, he would welcome it after the hell he’s been through. However, what does remain is Max’s constant narration of the goings-on. While the original games featured a film noir theme, the third does not. Max’s life is hardly smooth-going, and each game to date has done a superb job in getting that point across. Dan’s other writing credits? Does Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption ring a bell? Oh, this ought to be good.Īnd it is. The first two titles were developed by Remedy Entertainment and written by Sam Lake, whereas the third is handled by Rockstar Studios with Dan Houser as the lead writer. So, where from here? Max Payne 3 is an interesting game for a couple of reasons. He entered a downward spiral, and began living a life reliant on drugs and booze. Following the events of The Fall of Max Payne, Max’s grief got the better of him. A former NYPD cop, we were first introduced to Max shortly after the murder of his wife and child, and he’s lost many more friends and allies since then. Max Payne is a man who defines what it means to suffer.