14 DAY TRIAL // One of the questions that popped in my head frequently while playing Max Payne 3 was: how many addictions can one man contend with before crumbling under their combined weight?
The first two titles in the series have already established that Max Payne has a heavy addiction to painkillers, which are his one and only way of getting his health back up after being repeatedly shot.
It’s also implied that the painkillers are also a way for the protagonist, who lost his family in pretty brutal circumstances, to push away the memories that haunt him, while focusing his attention on the task of carrying out his brutal revenge.
But this third game piles even more misery upon Max Payne and takes away his main motivation from living, creating an even more pitiful human being and, oddly, a main character that’s somewhat harder to accept and root for.
Painkillers mix well with alcohol and the cutscene which starts off the game shows off a lot binge drinking, complemented by some throwing up and some pretty solid stumbling around.
Max then continues this pattern of abuse without giving a damn about the consequences, continuing to drink his neat whiskey even as he is clearly headed for an ambush which might cost both him and the people he is protecting their lives.
The painkillers and the alcohol serve some story purpose, but they aren’t even the worst of Max Payne’s addictions.
His biggest problem, one which he can never walk away from, is his need for violence.
Max Payne tends to talk about being forced into fights, having no choice but to kill, but after the two games set in New York he could have broken this cycle and he could have lived a normal (although the term feels forced) life without ever firing a gun in anger ever again.
Instead, he chose to seek out violence, and Max Payne 3 is a chronicle of his relapse and a gentle, but clear, exploration of how hard it is to separate ourselves from what we genuinely love, regardless of whether that is violence or simply video games.