São Paulo is the setting for the explosive Max Payne 3
Photo: Rockstar Games / Publicity
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Originally released on May 15, 2012 by Rockstar Games, Max Payne 3 marked an era by bringing back a character adored by fans of action games, the embittered police officer who gives the game its name, a creation of Remedy Entertainment who had starred in two great games in the past – and had even been adapted for the cinema, with Mark Wahlberg in the role of the protagonist.
For us Brazilians, the game was also remarkable for a more personal reason: Max Payne 3 was set in Sao Paulo. The capital of São Paulo is faithfully portrayed in the game, on a level that only Rockstar Games could offer, with famous nightclubs, favelas and even a well-known football stadium serving as the backdrop for the incredible action and gunfights of Max Payne 3.
To the development director Rob Nelson, São Paulo was the perfect choice for the game’s setting. “It is a fascinating and beautiful city, it is the largest city in the southern hemisphere. It’s a true metropolis, filled with incredible architecture, culturally diverse and with a criminal underworld as dark and dangerous as the one Max had faced in New York, if not more.“, said the director in an interview with Rolling Stone Brazil at the time of the release.
Definitely out of the police, Max arrived in Brazil with a new look, bald, bearded and wearing an indefectible flowered shirt. Tourist thing? Perhaps, but a tourist beyond ‘badass’ who quickly gets involved in a rescue mission and revenge against gangs in the hoods of São Paulo. The action was of the highest octane, as Rockstar knew how to preserve the style of combat with firearms, acrobatics and slow-motion jumps of the old games.
The series is known for introducing “bullet time” mechanics into games – a technique that would become very popular with the Matrix films. Max Payne is also a precursor of “gun fu”, the supposed martial art with firearms and pirouettes that made John Wick famous in theaters many years later.
The game also had Brazilian voices in the cast, such as Paulo Bonfá, among others, and had the rapper Emicida involved in the soundtrack – the artist’s first participation in the games, well before the shows at esports events and presentations in Fortnite.
