It's been very nearly a decade since we last saw Max Payne, and while time has not been kind to the antihero himself, his third, long awaited outing looks to be a thoroughly modern return to form. Max has, in the tradition of a true noir protagonist, been on hard times ever since we first met him. He's reintroduced here eight years after Max Payne 2, and it's apparent that things have gone from bad to worse. The incredibly detailed squalor of his Hoboken apartment bears every hallmark of a bachelor who has long since ceased to give a damn. Alcoholism and painkiller addiction are apparently the least of his worries, what with a pissed off mob boss waiting outside his door with a whole angry mess of heavily armed mooks.
"...thousands upon thousands of seamlessly blended animations lend him a feeling of real solidity ..."
Also, he's put on a bit of a paunch. Max is one of those rare characters who actually shows his age rather than the comic book eternal youth of most of his contemporaries. Interestingly, this means not only the return of James McCaffery as Max's voice actor, but as his motion capture actor as well, and he's simply a perfect fit for the role. Max may look a little run down in his middle age, but the combination of the Rage engine, Euphoria, and thousands upon thousands of seamlessly blended animations lend him a feeling of real solidity as he athletically dives and rolls around. His feet never skate across the ground, and as he twists and turns through the air following the player's targeting reticule he genuinely seems to have a sense of heft to him without any sign of sluggishness. At one point, while executing a slow-motion dive down a stairway I saw him clip his foot on a banister, which set his body slightly spinning as he twisted his back to maintain his aim. This kind of detail in motion is simply a joy to watch. As the game that first introduced hongkong style and bullet time to shooters, Payne 3 is already in the position where it needs to surpass and differentiate itself from all the offspring that have taken the concept and run it into the ground over the years Max has spent on hiatus. This sense of weight and reality rather than the weird, floaty wire-fu-esque animation we've become used to already goes a long way toward that.
All aboard the Blood Bus.
Max never actually says he's getting too old for this shit, but clearly he's feeling it. Lines like "Maybe I just haven't found the right guy to put a bullet through my head yet." and "Can you find me work sitting in a bar feeling sorry for myself? Sign me up." immediately assure us that Max hasn't lost his touch for internal monologue. Which might even have become more relatable for those of us who have been aging right along with him. It's more than a little satisfying to see him get over his self-pity enough to get his ass back in the saddle again.
"Also notable is the brief appearance Max's scraggly, pants-less, apparently insane survivalist neighbor..."
The first sequence we were treated to sees Max fighting his way out of his apartment building, which is sustaining an absolutely absurd assault from mobsters intent on avenging the death of his son at Max's hands. Over the course of this introduction the angry father's legions completely perforate the place with machine guns and sniper rifles. Set pieces such as a long, window-lined corridor with dozens of tell-tale laser sights shining through the glass act as a setup to something we'll see throughout the game: a ludicrous level of destructibility. There's a lot of glass and plaster in this game, and it's pretty much guaranteed that all of it is going to end up as a shower of glittering shards and dust by the time a firefight is over with. Also notable is the brief appearance Max's scraggly, pants-less, apparently insane survivalist neighbor, who takes out his share of badguys while shouting about the joys of hygiene before finally detonating explosives concealed beneath his jacket. "Come to me you sinners! You evil men! You were born in filth and squalor, but today you'll be cleansed! Cleansed in fire!" Yeah, it's a pretty surreal moment even in a series that's famous for surreal moments.
Luckily Max's dandruff problem was cured.
It's probably the sort of thing that finally convinces Max to take a new job and move the hell out of town, which brings us to the second part of the game we saw, set in S�o Paulo, Brazil. It's a brave departure, given that noir inspired media tends to confine itself to traditional settings like New York, LA and Tokyo, but the city of S�o Paulo actually epitomizes the spirit of the genre. It's an almost Gibson-esque megalopolis where powerful men with private armies make their own law and the abyss between the haves and have-nots is seen in rooftop swimming pools rising over plywood shanty towns. It's a setting that not accidentally recalls films like City of God and Man on Fire, and just incidentally makes a great backdrop for insane firefights.
"...Another nice touch is that the bullet tracking kill cam that...now shows up for the last kill of each wave of bad guys, and can be sped up or slowed down ..."
Max has taken a gig doing private security for a powerful aspiring politician whose trophy wife has just been kidnapped. Which sounds fairly straightforward, but obviously turns out to be much more complicated than at first blush. One thing that can absolutely be relied upon in these games is the inevitable betrayal and the resulting body count. The sequence we saw is set some time after Max gives himself a "shit just got real" head shave, and has him and a girl named Giovanna attempting to escape an assault by a paramilitary group called Cracha Preto. The escape is full of interactive environmental details, like a bus suspended on a hydraulic jack that can be dropped on enemies by shooting out the controls, or gas pumps doing what gas pumps are supposed to (i.e. explode when shot.) Another nice touch is that the bullet tracking kill cam that was previously reserved for scoped weapons now shows up for the last kill of each wave of bad guys, and can be sped up or slowed down depending on how much the player feels like reveling in slow-mo carnage. Also glimpsed was a new mechanic where, when Max's health hits bottom but he still has painkillers remaining, he may recover by quickly killing the enemy who fired the last shot. It's still better not to find yourself in that situation, but it offers a welcome opportunity to recover from a screwup.
I think I can, I think I can!
Additionally, a multiplayer mode is in the works, though Rockstar is holding off on details until later in the year and will only say that "it will combine the traditional with something new." Regardless, from what we've seen we've already got a lot to look forward to when Max finally hits the streets again next March. VIDEO
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