The translated and reissued article by Edge magazine about the return of the same Max Payne.

Considering all the applicants and imitators who jumped on the SLO-MO rails, it is very easy to forget that ten years ago Max Payne was something completely new. Combining the elements of the noir of films, the Gon-Kong militants and the Scandinavian mythology, Remedy created a gloomy shooter with a third person with the main character who fell off with a leaf, lost and moving only the thought of revenge, but still overcoming the nihilistic excesses of a real anti-hero. He was a relatively soft person with an emotional core manifested in the game in the form of a constant internal monologue. Payne was an anti-duke nuukem.
For the sequel, the writer Sam Lake expanded the scope of the story in the series. The protagonist fell in love with an ambiguous killer and had a clear mission – to take the Tender Organization "Inner Circle". But Max Payne 2 stuck at the basis of manifestations – a fallen, but significantly more pleasant guy who has nothing to lose, raging against the car.
And then it seemed that the car won, in 2004, the director of Take Two Jaffrey Lapin, having the rights to the franchise (bought by him two years earlier), instead of materializing the third part in some way, after the release of the sequel was followed by a long silence. Remedy started work on Alan Wake. Rockstar also had their own affairs – GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption. Rumors surfaced and disappeared.
Although in 2009 Payne courteously returned, from the Rockstar Vancouver studio, the creators of Bully. Rockstar Sam Houser President commented this: “This is Max, which we have never seen him before, several years older, more tired of life and more cynical than before. We portray the descending spiral of his life."And he did not joke. The new Payne was shown bald, bearded and bulky.
For Rockstar Vancouver, the pressure was noticeable. They had to not only catch the feelings of Totel Remedy, but also develop a series. Art. The director of ROB Nelson, however, seeks to underestimate the fact that this is the adoption of a new franchise from nothing. “Rockstar was with Max from the very beginning,” he remarks. “We worked on original games, so it’s not so difficult for us to take these characters; It doesn’t look at all so that we take and refresh the franchise. But this is still a continuation of the series, so we must remain true to the sensations of the story in the original. We love Max and we want to stay faithful to him. This is the greatest challenge for us: we come to those decisions that would make sense for him."
Nelson also claims that this is actually the production of all Rockstar studio. As in cases with GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, there is a large number of cooperation between different teams. This time, Vancouver, Toronto, London and New England are involved. As he explains, “we have many talented people in all our studios, and this means that we can involve the right people for specific goals when it is necessary – this gives games the corresponding level of quality and reaches the recognition of Rockstar products."

So what we have – 8 years https://citybingocasino.co.uk have passed since the events of the 2nd part. Payne left Nypd. Somehow he got to the south, working as a private security guard in San Paulo, Brazilian metropolis. Its main clients brothers Branco. Rockstar is not going to just throw out 8 years from the life of Max to the wind. In the demonstrated (editors of the magazine) the demonstration, one of the early missions in the game was demonstrated: the wife Rodrigo Branco was abducted by the Comando Sombre street gang. Well, Payne was told to make a ransom personally. Moreover, Max’s head was full of hair and he did not look at all at all with a chalk-alkash, as everyone expected. The developers are going to hold a player from the events of the New York Max to a disheveled alcoholic, which he eventually became. Moreover, it is not at all assumed that this will be a consistent narrative: “We always play over time during history. We move back and forward, use very aggressive editing events. This is not like any of the games that we developed earlier."(This is pancake Bully! Really progress . ) The place of the transaction – a huge football stadium. At the beginning of Payne and his Passos partner, they stand near his helicopter, which landed exactly in the central circle. This thoughtful, ostentatious production is inspired more likely more technically savvy Michael Mann than John Wu – an interesting note that shows that the cultural references of the series have moved over time. As soon as the gang of the abductors approaches the meeting place, shots sound – another grouping on the stage appears, well -equipped and ready for decisive action. Payne falls into the hand, and Passos drags him inside. Payne, stumbling, still finds a first -aid post. The health icon in the lower right corner of the screen demonstrates that we have little to live, therefore, as in the past parts of the series, the level of health increases, painting in the player.
Throughout the action, the elements of the action go in the context with the narrative of the evolution of old Max Payne. Now, instead of personnel from the comic book, these dramatic plot moments use the intra -game engine and show an animated collage of actions in the frame. This resembles the series 24, and this is only one of the paths along which Rockstar in search of a combination of the basics and improvements of key elements of the narrative.
“We worked a lot to develop the aesthetics of the graphic novel, which was used in Max Payne and Max Payne 2,” explains art director Rob Nelson.“We are still working on this, we are honing the ways to achieve an interactive comic book, because it retains the style and drama of the original scenes and still corresponds to the pace of Max Payne 3. In addition to this, we integrate the story of history into the gameplay itself through the use of hundreds of prepared animations for many characters and situations-such as a way to move Passos, by the level of max, exploring the situation ahead, killing enemies and maximally interacting with the environment. The third way is the return of the classical story of the history of Max, which not only helps to move the plot forward, but also adds the atmosphere to the game. We want the players to move smoothly from KAT scenes to gameplay without pauses "

From this place in our demo Passos, moving through the stadium, they fall into multiple skirmishes, pursuing the kidnapper who ran away with his victim. We are fighting in small utility rooms, later we interrogate the wounded member of the gang. Then the action passes to the terraces, a shootout continues with enemies climbing between the seats, when the outlines of the skyscrapers of San Paulo shine on the horizon. At a certain moment, an intense sequence of events occurs, during which Payne, armed with a powerful rifle, should protect Passos, killing impending militants. Over time, it becomes clear that in one of the broadcasting rooms in the TV tower there is another sniper, and Payne should make its way there. Several times we find ourselves in bloody shootings between two local groups, and this returns the memories of Half-Life-the feelings that you are not a hero, you are only one agent that paves his way through a cruel and disorder of the world.
An important point is that Max Payne 3 is not felt by a standard corridor shooter with faceless bad guys who endlessly appear from all possible open passages. It is felt that each fight is specially stripped and works as part of the context of the environment and plot. And it turns out that this really could be the biggest piece of plan for developing the game. “We spent a lot of time setting up these mechanics,” says Nelson. “This is a linear game, so it should be dense. Each aspect should be perfect. We shoot much more Motion Capture than before. And the action really never stops, he never lets you go. You are constantly moving from one cut-scene to another, from one group of events to another. For the head with a sniper rifle, we had to use Motion Capture for each episodes. All this leads the performance of the narrative, so it looks so believable. And it really starts to come to life. When you look through the sight, you actually follow your friend – you want to take care of his life."
Smooth, carefully worked out, choreography in the creation of scenes contrasts with the realism of physical interactions. The fights are fraught, fast and brutal, as everyone expects. But now the famous Bullet-Time is replenished by the murder of opponents. As before – the game contains a layer of beauty to match the gameplay influences. As in the RDR, the level of graphic details is presented by the means of amazing action possible-broken glasses, bursts of blood, furniture-but here it is fragmented and slowly to show the excellent physics of each element. Bullet-Cam also returned with an increased role, this time providing a bloody stop-frame for each fight, so the player understands that it can move on. Well, in the intervals, this is all rapid shooting, some, almost intellectual, movements from opponents and many contextual-dependent animations.

This is a more integral interaction of film elements and interactive actions is a concession to modern mores-an understanding that the Julesfish genre has gone through many changes since the appearance of Max Payne 2. “Both games and the audience have become more sophisticated,” says Nelson. “Gamers expect even more fully and clearly realized cinematic experience, even if the main mechanics are still a shooter. And although this is a more linear game for us, people want to be completely surprised and entertained in new ways. Therefore, you need many user settings, the environment should be diverse, and all this is parallel to the gameplay interesting and responsive – people have become really specific in their desires about how things should be controlled. And this is a lot of work!"

Meanwhile, the shooting of firing with evasion is available again, allowing Payne to start with a tackle on the floor, through objects or right from the stairs, in order to avoid counterclaim.(It is perfectly depicted how a bullet, inciting air, goes to you). No prepared animations – Payne can dive to any direction and when he lands, he will react to the environment, pushing his arm or shoulder to absorb the blow, or rotate his feet, falling off the stairs.“This really puts it inside the environment in such a way that it makes all the sensations in the game more stylish and exciting,” says Nelson. “He feels like a character naturally reacting to the world around him."
A new shelter system also appeared, which allows to hide behind the volumes on the battlefield. The mechanics are still working on mechanics, but at the moment the left trigger is responsible for the preliminary sight, and the right one – for protruding from shelter and shooting. When the left trigger is released, Max will begin to conduct blind fire, which can be corrected with the right stick. It looks quite comfortable and controlled, and in combination with manual control and evasion, it provides a large selection of possible strategies during the battle is another feature of the Paynovsky franchise, in which it is at an altitude.
Most of the issues of physics, of course, lies on the shoulders of “NaturalMotion Euphoria”, presenting the procedural animation and Full-Motion system models of characters. “In every new game, we think about how to promote NaturalMotion in new directions,” says Nelson. “In my opinion, the Red Dead Redemption was a great step relative to GTA, and Max is waiting about the same. We devote a lot of time to the AI ​​reaction, checking that the reaction to the power of the bullet is true. This adds a considerable fraction of weight and realism to each character, and the very juice of this is that we can vary the level of control over the system to direct the situation and every trifle in the direction that we want, achieving an amazing level of cinema ”
“As in the GTAIV with Red Dead Redemption, in Max we all work with the same zeal to improve the reaction of enemies to each shot – they can even sit down from a bullet that has whistled past. We also worked hard on cameras in bullets – the emphasis on such plans will be great, so we are extremely trying to calibrate the forces that will act during the blow about the body."
Nelson also believes that the introduction of Euphoria systems into the animation of Payne is a key element in the future feeling from the game. But this is still at the development stage. “Given the fact that in the game you will need immediately after moving along the wall in the jump to evade bullets and land through the stairs to the floor or something else, Euphoria significantly increases the overall realism of what is happening than if Max simply made a somersault. We can even make sure that his face reflects an understanding of the imminent hard landing – that’s exactly what we are striving for."

As for weapons in the game, we saw Payne with pistols, rifles and semi-automats, as well as with an extremely useful sniper rifle. The weapon selection system is borrowed from RDR, so Max will carry up to three types of weapons. He can also take two -different weapons in two hands in two hands, which will allow Max to break into the battle, say, with beretta in one hand and with an ultrasound in the other. Attention to such moments is directly felt by the back of the head – we see a departing shutter, a small movement of the hand and Vaual – the bullet is already catching the target. Meanwhile, in such short shootings, that huge range of involuntary movements and shooting techniques are visible, when enemies dive for shelter and water Max from there with blind bursts, or, shooting backwards.
Also, we could not help but notice the innovation in the entire slowdown system. In critical points of each of the Slow-Motion mission, it will turn on automatically. As an example, take a scene at the stadium – after Max saw a sniper who had settled in the commentary cut, he climbed onto the lighting tower and struck a window in a suddenly slowed jump. “The legs of such a choice are growing from our same decision to turn a gameplay into one continuous cinematic cowscent,” Nelson explains Nelson. “The creation of interactive segments mixed with the moments with Slo-Motion seemed to us an excellent filling for the passage used in other games. This changes the perception by the player of any situation proposed to him, and this technique looks excellent."
At the end of the mission at the stadium, we will come across a high-tech fighter who captured hostages, put on incomprehensible high-tech bulletproof vests, and their weapon will be a cutting whip. There are assumptions that they can be fighters of a parallest organization or Bope, an elite police detachment specializing in street wars. Whatever their motives, Passo notices the dark-Commando operative they captured. It becomes obvious that Rodrigo’s wife is kept somewhere in the nearby docks, and there is a chance that she can be saved. Later, mystically dressed in a dark stranger gets a chance to knock the Payne helicopter with RPG, but does not do it.
Rockstar keeps partisan silence regarding the specific places the game will take place, but it is still known that Max will bring San Paolo to all corners, starting from the mansions and ending with slums. The publisher also confirmed that some stories begun in previous parts will find their continuation here, so that we can with full confidence to the return of a narrow circle of corrupt organizations, officials, police officers, various gangs and killers. Everything also hints that Payne was simply wiped out of New York, and we will find out why. It also became known about the intersection with some specific characters from the previous parts, which, however, is not specified, but, apparently, the problem of any different relationships will again be posed to the center of the entire cycle of events.
So now everything looks like the fact that Rockstar has promised all the time – Max Payne is reversed and restarted for the whole orava of jokes of the jokes. The highlight of the project is hidden in a combination of the ubiquitous Slo-Mo with procedural animation, mixed along with a strong plot and sprinkled with tactical systems for constant shootings. The game promises to be tied on feelings from gameplay and mechanics, the perception of the player and cruelty. And in order to justify these promises, the game only needs to be polished what it already has. And seeing the work of Rockstar, it is possible to say with full confidence that the game will not be released until the moment of reaching its brightest brilliance.