14 DAY TRIAL // The first new details about Max Payne 3 have finally been revealed to the world, with the upcoming title from Rockstar Games getting a lot of information about story, gameplay and the technology behind it.
Max Payne 3 was initially showcased a few years ago and scheduled for a 2009 release, but it was subsequently pushed back by its owner, Rockstar Games, who only revealed a few details and screenshots when it was first shown to the world.
Now, it seems that the company is once again ready to talk about the Max Payne 3 project, with the first details coming courtesy of the May edition of Edge magazine, quoted by CVG.
According to the reveal article, Max Payne 3 is developed primarily by Rockstar Vancouver, but other studios are also being employed, from London to Toronto or New England.
Max Payne 3's story is set eight years after the second game, with the former NYPD detective now acting as a private security contractor in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
At the beginning of the story, Payne will have a full set of hair, as seen in one of the two screenshots below, but going through his adventures, he'll lose that, managing to look like the character we saw in the first images that accompanied its older reveal.
The game will be more linear than other Rockstar titles, with the development team putting an emphasis on set piece moments that will amaze gamers, and less on an open world where Max can run around and wreak havoc, like in Grand Theft Auto IV or Red Dead Redemption.
"Gamers expect a more fully realised cinematic experience, even if the main mechanic is still shooting. And though this is a more linear game for us, people want to be constantly surprised and entertained in new ways," said Rockstar Art Director Rob Nelson.
"So you need a lot of custom setups, the environments need to be varied, and all of that while keeping the gameplay fun and responsive - people have become really specific about how they want things to be controlled. It's a lot more work!"
In terms of gameplay, Max Payne 3 will see the hero retain his signature dive in real time, and he will react in a more realistic way depending on his environments, while enemies will also be taken care of, in order to add that extra bit of realism to the shooter mechanics of the future title.
It wouldn't be a Max Payne game without the presence of the bullet-time mechanic, which is charged by killing enemies, and will have repercussions on elements of the game world like glass, furniture or the bodies of enemies, all rendered in slow motion.
Expect a more complete reveal from Rockstar in the near future, but, until then, check out the two Max Payne 3 screenshots that surfaced last week.
