MAX PAYNE 3
In Max Payne 3, the player controls Max Payne, a former NYPD detective who had became a vigilante after his wife and daughter were brutally murdered. The game follows the life of protagonist Max Payne nine years after the events of the end of the previous game, as he works as a bodyguard for the wealthy Rodrigo Branco and his family, alongside his friend and fellow ex-detective, Raul Passos. The game's plot was written by Dan Houser, co-creator and writer of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Redemption, and Bully.
Video game critics gave Max Payne 3 highly acclaimed reviews. Praise focused on its story and action, while criticism was targeted at the sharp departure in tone and style that defined the original games. The game also received high sales, shipping approximately 3 million units in the first week of release. Max Payne 3 also won, and was nominated for, several industry awards, including Best Animation at Machinima's Inside Gaming Awards, and various nominations at the Spike Video Game Awards.
Game Play
Max Payne 3 retains the shoot-dodge mechanic from the previous games in the series. Players are able to stay grounded after a dive, which enables them to shoot 360 degrees around. Rockstar has blended physics and animation, so that when a player dives, they do so appropriately according to their surroundings. Through advanced use of the Euphoria dynamic animation engine, shooting and killing enemies in Max Payne 3 will look noticeably more realistic than in any preceding Rockstar game.
Story
Nine years after the death of Mona Sax, Max Payne has left the NYPD and spends his days at a bar in Hoboken, New Jersey, nursing his alcoholism and an addiction to painkillers. During a drunken argument, Max kills the only son of local mob boss Anthony DeMarco, who puts a price on his head. After killing most of DeMarco's gang, Max decides to leave New Jersey with Raul Passos, an old classmate from the police academy who helped him defeat DeMarco's cronies, taking a job as a private security contractor in South America.Max and Passos work for the wealthy Branco family in São Paulo, consisting of three brothers: Rodrigo, a real-estate mogul, Victor, a local politician who aspires to be the city's next mayor, and the hard-partying socialite Marcelo. At a private party, Max saves Rodrigo and his young wife Fabiana from members of the Comando Sombra, a street gang based in the neighboring favela. The gang later strikes again, successfully kidnapping Fabiana and demanding a ransom of $3 million. At the site of the exchange (a football stadium), the deal is interrupted by the Crachá Preto, an outlaw, right-wing paramilitary unit, who kill the Commando Sombra and steal the money. Max and Passos escape and meet with the Branco family for their next move. Victor suggests they rely on Armando Becker and his Unidade de Forças Especiais (UFE), a special police unit, to oversee Fabiana's safe return. Victor, Passos, Marcello and Becker leave via helicopter, moments before the Crachá Preto abruptly raid the Branco offices.
Max fights off the Crachá Preto and returns to Rodrigo's secured office to find Rodrigo assassinated, and a bomb waiting for him; he narrowly escapes the blast, before learning that Fabiana is being held in the Nova Esperança favela and that the Crachá Preto raid was meant for Max, as vengeance for the deaths of the Crachá Preto operatives at the stadium. Blaming himself for what has transpired, Max swears off alcohol and informs Victor and Marcelo that he is going undercover into Nova Esperança to save Fabiana. He gets lost in the sprawling favela, but is assisted by Detective Wilson Da Silva, who reveals that the Crachá Preto had links with Rodrigo, who hired them to clear out villages on land he intended to turn into a retail development. Da Silva thinks the UFE and Victor are all connected.
Max eventually finds Fabiana with Marcelo and Giovanna (Fabiana's sister), who were kidnapped while trying to pay Fabiana's ransom themselves. Fabiana is executed and Giovanna and Marcelo are taken away. The UFE raids the favela, and Max witnesses them collaborate with the Crachá Preto, selling them the people they arrested during the raids. Max later witnesses the Crachá Preto necklace Marcello, and escapes with Giovanna. Passos later rescues Giovanna but abandons Max, who is saved by Da Silva.
Da Silva reveals that Passos worked for Victor until he hired Max. Max recalls the time when he and Passos worked as security for a yacht party for Marcelo near Panama, which was attacked by Panamanian soldiers in the Panama Canal. Max escaped the yacht to find Marcelo and Passos trying to drive away with unknown cargo. It hits Max that he was recruited by Passos to be the "fall guy" for whatever illicit activity the Brancos were involved in. Da Silva deduces that Passos and Victor set Max up, so the latter would gain access to his brother's wealth and garner sympathy for elections. Da Silva informs Max about a rundown building, the Imperial Palace Hotel, where the Crachá Preto and UFE are seen entering with prisoners, yet none leave. Max discovers it is the base for a black market organ theft ring and corrupt UFE officers are being paid to deliver the detainees for organ harvesting; he frees the remaining detainees.
Max sets explosives to destroy the entire complex, but is held at gunpoint by Neves, the leader of the Crachá Preto and an ex-UFE member. Passos reappears and kills Neves, thus saving Max, then explains that Marcelo and Victor pressured him into the Panama plot in order to get Rodrigo to share his wealth. Passos apologizes to Max, who forgives him. Passos then leaves Brazil with a pregnant Giovanna to protect both himself and his new family from Victor's attempts to eliminate them. Since Da Silva cannot take any action due to extreme corruption within the police, he suggests that Max "turn himself in" to find incriminating evidence linking the UFE and Victor to the crimes of the Crachá Preto and the Comando Sombra. Max does so and escapes into UFE headquarters as planned, finding a surveillance CD stolen from Rodrigo's office and learning the identity of the assassin - a high-ranking UFE member named Bachmeyer. Max kills him in vengeance for Rodrigo's murder, and confronts Becker, but Victor appears and holds Max at gunpoint. Victor explains that he ordered the Crachá Preto to ambush the exchange at the stadium, which went toward funding the organ harvesting ring, the profits of which assisted in the funding of his campaign.
Victor and Becker escape to the airport with Max in pursuit. After an intense shootout with the UFE, Max catches up with them as they are preparing to board a jet. Becker and his men try to stop Max and allow Victor time to escape, with Becker himself using a grenade launcher to try to kill Max. However, Max shoots one of the grenades in mid-air, resulting in the burning and maiming of Becker. Max then has a choice of whether or not to kill the critically injured Becker; if spared, he dies from his wounds anyway. With Da Silva's help, Max disables Victor's plane, and approaches a disabled Victor with the intent to kill him, but he relents after Da Silva persuades him to spare Victor, so that he will answer for the crimes he committed.
A week later, Max finds out that the remains of Becker's UFE battalion has been disbanded indefinitely due to their ties to the illegal organ harvesting ring, while Victor has been found hanged in his cell, although the circumstances to his death are unclear as to whether it was suicide or murder. Max walks into the sunset, satisfied with the outcome of the last few weeks, and having found some solace after all the years of heartache.
