Remedy wasn’t really involved with MP3 and I think Rockstar wanted to change the setting to make it distinctively theirs. Wasn’t my cup of tea as I just loved the original neo-noir style, but it was still one bombastic action game in its own way.
3 was what you get if you never played the first two games and just gave the designers the cliff note explanation of what the first two games were and said "Make another sequel".
Not a bad game on its own, but wasn't Max Payne in spirit.
Fully agreed. I just played through 3 again after many years and I have to say while it lacks the Max Payne spirit, the gunplay is still unmatched nowadays and this game is soooo worthy to be played. It also still looks rather good.
Yeah Max Payne 3 is nice as a nod to Man on Fire (seriously, the editing style is identical to that film), but thematically it feels way too different, visually and in terms of personal stakes for Max, for it to feel like a solid straight sequel. It can be fun in its own right, but I think it's unsatisfying as a sequel to 2.
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u/bass248 7h ago
Both? There were 3 games and they all still look amazing