Max Payne 3 launched in 2012 to positive reviews from most critics. But the game didn’t sell nearly as well as other Rockstar titles, and for some fans it wasn’t the sequel they wanted. According to former Rockstar Games vice president and lead writer Dan Houser, the game’s failure is mostly his fault.
In a new wide-ranging interview with IGN, Houser talked about his time working on franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption while at Rockstar Games. He also discussed the less successful third-person shooter, Max Payne 3. Unlike the previous two entries, which had been developed by Remedy and written by Sam Lake, Max Payne 3 was developed entirely by Rockstar and primarily written by Houser. It also moved the series to the sun-soaked favelas of Brazil and went with a more neo-noir style.
“It was a linear game, so it was a little different from writing an open-world game, a little more structured,” said Houser.
“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. So I got that completely wrong,” admitted Houser.
While I know some fans of Max Payne weren’t pleased with the tonal shift in Max Payne 3, I think it’s a fantastic game with incredibly snappy and satisfying gunplay and some of the best-looking third-person animations I’ve seen in a shooter. But Max Payne 3‘s story and its overall presentation were its weakest elements. And Houser seemingly agrees with me and others who felt let down by the story, writing, and overall vibes of Max Payne 3.
“I know Sam Lake [creator of Max Payne] well, and he’s a very good guy and really talented,” said Houser.
“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 [Lake’s] writing.”
Meanwhile, Remedy and Rockstar have teamed up to remake the first two Max Payne games as a single title, with Remedy developing the new entry using its own tech and Rockstar publishing it.