While Dan Houser’s time at Rockstar Games was marked by many game releases that went on to see critical acclaim and commercial success, the former VP believes that Max Payne 3 was the studio’s biggest failure. In an interview with IGN, he discussed how, while he had fun working on the project as one of its writers, Max Payne 3 still missed the mark for Rockstar.
“It was a linear game, so it was a little different from writing an open-world game, a little more structured. 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.”
He admits, however, that Max Payne 3 ultimately ended up being too different from its predecessors, which were originally developed by Remedy Entertainment. Acknowledging the fact that the title leaned harder into high-octane action rather than the neo-noir stylings that the original two games were known for, Houser says that his own part in writing Max Payne 3 ended up being a failure.
“So I got that completely wrong. 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. 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. The game is beautifully made, and 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 his writing.”
Max Payne 3 was released in 2012 on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Despite being a major departure for the franchise, the shooter still ended up garnering quite a bit of critical praise thanks to its gameplay elements as well as its focus on protagonist Max still suffering from the trauma he suffered in the previous entries.
The core story takes place eight years after the events of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, with the eponymous protagonist continuing his slow descent into alcoholism and painkiller addiction. The game kicks things off by giving Max a new chance to start afresh as a private security guard in São Paulo, Brazil. Things escalate, however, with gang members trying to kidnap the Branco family’s patriarch, Rodrigo, and end up ransoming his wife, Fabiana. Max is tasked with getting Fabiana back, which sets him on the course to take on entire gangs in the city’s favelas.
Along with tonal differences from the previous entries in the franchise, Max Payne 3 also likely suffered quite a bit from coming out on the same day as Diablo 3, leading to underwhelming commercial success. For more details, check out our review from when it first came out.
