Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 is Rockstar's 2012 third-person shooter, and the first entry in the series the studio developed itself. It finds Max years after the first two games: older, drinking, out of New York, and working private security for a wealthy family in São Paulo.

When the wife he is paid to protect is kidnapped, the job falls apart around him.

Official Trailer

Max Payne 3 Official Launch Trailer

Why Is Max Payne 3 Set in Brazil?

Moving him out of New York strips away everything familiar. Max does not speak the language, cannot read the city, and has no allies to fall back on, which is exactly the point: the story is about a man with nothing left to be good at except violence. The favelas, the stadium and the airport give the shooting a very different texture from the snowbound New York of the earlier games.

Bullet Time, Rebuilt

Shootdodge and bullet time return, now with a euphoria physics system so Max collides with the world as he falls, and with cover that shreds rather than absorbing shots. The last bullet of a firefight follows the round in slow motion to the kill, which is gratuitous and completely in keeping with the series.

One Continuous Film

There are no loading screens between cutscene and gameplay. Comic-style panels and colour distortion, meant to reflect Max's drinking and painkillers, carry you from scene to scene. It is the most tightly directed game Rockstar has made, and the most linear.

Is the Multiplayer Still Online?

The servers are still up, though the population is small. Gang Wars and Payne Killer were the main modes, and both carried bullet time into competitive play, which almost nothing else has attempted since. The Complete Pack, which bundles the game and every add-on, is the version to get: where to buy Max Payne 3 explains why it costs less than the base game.