PS3 Informer

Max Payne 3 Preview

Announced earlier this year by Rockstar Games, the Max Payne series will be getting a radical reboot later this year with Max Payne 3. The hardboiled hero will shed the dark, snow-bound city streets for a brighter - but no less sinister -South American venue. Max Payne is going to Brazil, but he is taking his noir -inspired dialogue, armory of handguns and depressing worldview with him. Oh, yeah, and there will be bullet time as well.

Max Payne 3 begins 12 years after the events of Max Payne 2, with Max visibly older, more violent, and more world-weary from the events that transpired in the earlier games. Having left the NYPD, Max has been taking odd jobs in security and consulting, and when we find him he is providing personal protection for a wealthy family in Sao Paolo, one of the world's deadliest and most crime-ridden cities. At absolute rock-bottom, Max discovers that trouble still dogs his every step, and he finds himself drawn into the brutal heart of the Brazil's dark underworld.

According to the developer at Rockstar Vancouver, Max Payne 3 will retain many trademarks of its predecessors. These include a focus on story and character-driven action, a large number of sophisticated weapons with dual-wield capabilities, Bullet-Time, an addiction to painkillers, mature themes and Max's ever-present internal monologue. Like Grand Theft Auto IV, Max Payne 3 also utilizes Natural Motion and Rockstar's own RAGE engine, working with brand-new particle physics technology to deliver spectacular, highly advanced close-quarters combat, an intelligent cover system, and constantly varied gameplay in every level.

This time, players will have a wider range of tactics available to them as Max. He will be able to sneak up and take human shields for use in those tricky situations when enemies outnumber him. When near death, Max will also be able to regain some health and adrenaline by capping a last-minute bullet in his foe.

Max is visibly older this time, both in body and spirit. Balding and slightly beefy, Max looks like a burned out cop on the run from his past. The iconic voice of James McCaffrey, who played the role in the first two games has been replaced with a new, more mature voice actor to reflect these differences.

The biggest change in the series, besides Max's new look, is definitely the environment. The nighttime city has been traded for the sunny and oppressive heat of Brazil. But this is no vacation: The country is notoriously known to house a number of the world's worst drug traffickers, street gangs and kidnappers. The number one cause of death among the youth is murder.

Sao Paolo's young gangs are amongst the most violent in the world, and the most dangerous of those is said to be the Primeiro Comando da Capital. The PCC has organized prison breaks, prison riots, drug trafficking, highway robberies and kidnappings since it was formed in 1993. With one gun for every 75 people in the country and 95% of those firearms obtained illegally, Max will need every skill he has in order to survive.

The colorful buildings and tropical foliage looks almost like something out of Far Cry, but next to the dark storyline, we are sure that these environments will have ironic impact. There will also be nighttime shootouts in the rain, of course:

"Will there be night-time levels in the rain? Probably, but level after level of that stuff would get old, so we thought it would be interesting to put him in this environment. You have the very rich living next to the very poor, and that creates a lot of tension," said art director Rob Nelson.

Max Payne 3 will be coming to the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms in the winter of 2009. [Read more about the MAx Payne 3 game announcement by Rockstar here].