Preview Max Payne 3 (Part Two)

Continuation of the translation. Start looking here .



Max grew old and the team decided not to use the voice of actor James McCaffrey. Instead, they plan to hold a casting to find a new voice that could best show what happened to the hero over the years. Rockstar is known for not attracting famous Hollywood actors to its projects, but as Nelson said: “we are making a serious selection”. Regardless of the actor, Max's trademark monologues will be in the game, as the developers consider them to be the foundation of the franchise. “Something that I could have voiced myself,” Berrera jokes, in a serious way, “I was desperate for some bullets, like the operation of a child.” Rockstar wants to put as much “old Max” as possible into a fresh setting. “All the topics covered in the original Max Payne will remain intact - manipulation, betrayal, without all this we would get a completely different game,” says Nelson. “Will there be nightly levels in the rain?” It is possible, but such levels are banal junk - they can quickly get bored with you, so we decided that it would be nice to come up with a new environment for Max. "

"You are in the circle of the rich living among the poor, and this creates a lot of tension." Thanks to the diversity of the population and architecture, you can create a great game, with not annoying and intense gameplay. Watching Max, running through the slums, when the enemy is aiming at each door from every roof, it becomes clear that these new levels are just perfect for our usual gameplay. “Slums are small labyrinths,” says Barrera. “They are authentic copies of real districts. We saw how these houses were built and said: “Hmm, that would be fun.” Of course, we create levels so that it would be fun to play them, I do not think that we can recreate absolutely all slum objects in our game, yet diversity is more important for us and we don’t want to sacrifice it. ”

Road of weapons

Regardless of the setting, the core of Max Payne has always been the crazy gameplay in slow-motion, which is so pleasing to all gamers. The mechanics of Bullet Time was innovative for the genre of shooters, it won the love of both critics and fans. For eight years since the release of the first Payne, “bullet time” has become almost a standard video game, it is presented in different volumes in a variety of games. But how can Bullet Time be improved today so that it does not lose its former fascination? Rockstar Vancouver plans to solve this problem only in a known way, but today we can say with confidence: Max Payne 3 is playing “as it should.” “We should have left Bullet Time in the game, if only because it's Max Payne,” says Barrera. “But there is a more important problem:“ How to return Max to the throne? ”Indeed, since the release of the second part, a lot of years have passed and during this time many games have come out, where there is a Bullet Time. In our game, we decided to make it very meeeeeeeeeee. I assure you that by turning it on, you will be able to see all the smallest details. ”Rockstar Vancouver uses the RAGE engine together with the Natural Emotion Euphoria animation technology, which showed itself perfectly in GTAIV. With Motion Capture and Natural Emotion Euphoria, the game looks really realistic. When you see the game, the attention to detail will surprise you to say the least.

If Max jumps from a height (by the way, most of the objects in the game are completely destructible), you will see how he puts his hands to group. And when it lands, you can see how it falls into the mud. The animation system is very important for developers. During the demonstration of the game, Rob Nelson jumped in different directions, squatted in order to show us the new system of shelters. You heard right, the game really will be a system of shelters, but Rockstar stressed that this will be just one of the many opportunities for the player, they are not going to focus on it. “What you see in the game is not just“ hid, bummed, ran over to another shelter, ”says Nelson,“ we want to make the game very elaborate. Here, everything is very similar to GTA IV. We could have done even more, but it would require simply unrealistic investments. "But back to the shelters: now any person in the game can be used as a human shield, the team is working hard on this aspect, they want Max to aim and move while in his hands a hostage.

“We took all the key elements of the traditional Max and greatly expanded them, now the game is like“ gun ballet ”or“ gan-fu ”, damn, you can call it what you want!” Says Barrera. “The game has a system of shelters, but no one forces you to use it. You can pass the levels as you like. The AI ​​has scripts that are responsible for various events, but it also has its own “head on shoulders” - so that dismantling with enemies will not seem monotonous to you. ” Since the familiar Bullet Time was expanded for a more dynamic game, slow motion also endured some changes. Now it's “Environmental Bullet Time.” He strongly resembles QTE (God of War, Fahrenheit - approx. Translator), familiar to many, but with some differences.

The player has full control over the hero, when the Environmental Bullet Time is on, tricks will be available that in the “full-speed” mode Max would simply break off. Rockstar decided to show a small example: after hiding behind the wall, Max slides on a small roof, beautifully killing dozens of opponents on either side of him (for some reason, there were moments from the game Stranglehold - the thoughts of the translator). Rockstar assures that the main focus of the game will be placed on the mechanics already known to us, but Barrera was not too lazy to hint that the players would not be left without surprises.

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Putting all the pieces together

We don’t know much about the developers of Max Payne 3, but the pieces of the game shown to us make us believe that the final product will be at the level of the first two Maxes, as well as the games of Rockstar Games as a whole. RVs are highly focused on design, and the RAGE engine is able to show a great picture. Seeing Max, moving through the slums, it became clear to us why Rockstar decided to choose Sao Paulo - the only place on earth that is ideal for the last part of MP. We will see buildings of varying degrees of decay: with crumbling bricks, rusting steel and rotting wood. Flimsy bridges over the streets, hundreds of windows - all this provides a huge number of places where your enemies can hide. Now, Max will not be stopped by any walls and fences, he can climb over low obstacles, which will allow him to pass levels with alternative routes (a similar opportunity was in another game of Rockstar Vancouver - The Warriors).

Watching Max, shooting at enemies in the “slow mo” mode, you will be able to see the smallest details: the shells ejected from the pistol, each movement of the pistol shutter. In especially piquant moments, the camera will move directly to the bullet and you will be able to trace its flight straight to the target. In an unequal battle, Max’s ability to shoot at a group of people will help you: he raises his pistol above his head and starts shooting around him. This ability can be salutary in many cases. And if Max's health is at zero, then you can save him from a deadly hit with just one accurate shot at the enemy and if this shot kills him (the enemy), then Payne gets an adrenaline rush - salvation from death.

I help the details add a sense of realism to the game, but one cannot ignore the fact that the game has everything that made the previous games of the franchise so strong. The series is developing. At the moment, it is perfectly clear that the key elements of Max Payne 3 are brought to near perfection. “We wanted to make shooting fun,” says Barrera. "It was decided from the first day of development."

You will not play a boring shooter. You must “feel” every shot - whether you hit someone or not. Max communicates with the world through guns, so that a crazy reaction comes in handy. If a guy runs away from you and you shoot him in the leg, then you want a reliable reaction. If you shoot a man with a machine gun, then he must be riddled with bullets. ”Max Payne 3 is close to being a super-brutal fighter with a grim, adult theme. The developers want to make the game such that it is compared with the cult films that inspired them.

Max had been doing nothing for years, but Rockstar was able to make a decent game, which is part of their vision of games. Contrary to the new exotic setting, Barrera hopes that the new Max will be able to evoke the same dramatic and thrill that the first two parts caused. “This is part of evolution,” says Barrera. “In the memories of many people, Max Payne is closer to art than any other game. He was technically excellent and fun to play. The fascinating story and its execution were a cut above the head of many other games. But Max goes further: this is a new setting and this is a continuation of his life.



That's all. I think everyone will make the conclusions himself, but personally I’m not going to bury the game prematurely. Let's give Rockstar Games a chance, they deserve it.



upd: Added some pictures. Everything is clickable.