Nova Esperança is a narrow, twisting meat-grinder with gunmen emerging suddenly from blind spots and firing at you from rooftops. Highlights include a rooftop nightclub where throbbing music and flashing lights provide an intense backdrop for a firefight. “Some hopped-up gringo a long way from home, causing trouble the only way I know how.” “Here I was,” he grumbles in one of his monologues. He was comfortable in New York, but here he’s an outsider, and the game plays up to it brilliantly. As if being a white American in a favela didn’t draw enough unwanted attention, he makes his life even more difficult by wearing the loudest Hawaiian shirt imaginable. It’s always interesting to see a familiar character thrust into an unfamiliar situation, and Max is hilariously out of place in Brazil. São Paulo is as rough, violent, and run-down as New York in places-particularly the Nova Esperança favela-but the overall tone is much less gloomy. The first two games are set entirely at night, while much of this game takes place during the day, giving it a very different atmosphere. And although there are a few flashback chapters in Max Payne 3 that take us back there, replacing that iconic setting with Brazil’s sunshine and palm trees was a brave move. The dark, snowbound streets of New York and New Jersey are a big part of Max Payne’s visual identity. But after a deadly run-in with the hot-headed son of a local mob boss, he leaves the mean streets of New York behind and moves to São Paulo-the largest city in Brazil-to work as private security for the wealthy Branco family.
Max is still depressed, still haunted by the death of his family, and still self-medicating with painkillers and booze. It’s a Rockstar game through and through, with lavish production values, gorgeous world-building, and confident, cinematic direction.
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