•Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser has taken responsibility for the reception of Max Payne 3, describing it as “a bit of a strange project” that diverged from what fans expected.
Unlike its two predecessors, which were developed by original creator Remedy Entertainment, Max Payne 3 was made by Rockstar Jocuri, the studio behind Grand Theft Automat and Red Dead Redemption. Despite that pedigree, the game is regarded as something of a failure — or at least not quite what supporters wanted from the third entry in the iconic third-person shooter series.
In an interview with IGN, Houser, who also served as Max Payne 3’s lead writer, recalled working on the title and how it differed from other Rockstar projects.
“It was a linear game, so it was a little different from writing an open-world game, a little more structured,” Houser said. “I really enjoyed that as an experience. I loved what we did design-wise, the way the game didn’t have loads, the way it felt like a 12-hour movie, some of the visual stuff we did with words on screen. I felt we were creating a really cool digital noir experience, and the consensus at the time was that people hated it.”
Houser appears to be somewhat harsh in his assessment. Max Payne 3 was critically acclaimed at launch, according to reports by Eurogamer. The same stylistic, tonal and visual choices many players disliked are what also set it apart from its two predecessors. Its mechanics remain among the series’ best today, with smooth third-person movement and sharp gunplay that make it a joy to play over 14 years later.
“I know Sam Lake [creator of Max Payne] well, and he’s a very good guy and really talented. I thought we’d done a good job of doing another Max Payne game,” Houser added. “Some people liked it; lots didn’t. So we got it wrong, or I got it wrong. I failed. My bit was not a success.”
Max Payne 3 is seen as a commercial disappointment by publisher Take-Two, who said its “lower than expected sales” were mainly responsible for a loss of $110m (~£82,9m) that financial quarter. Houser acknowledged the lower sales in the interview, saying “it wasn’t as successful as it should have been.”
“So I would say a large amount of that failure was on me as one of the people making the decisions and also as the writer, when people really missed [Sam Lake]’s writing,” Houser added.
Years after Max Payne 3’s release, Remedy and Rockstar were reunited on a mega-project: a remake of Max Payne 1 and 2, which Remedy said two years ago had entered full production. It is understood the remake is Remedy’s next project.
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