History VideoGame / MaxPayne

* StylisticSuck: While ''Max Payne 2'' was a DarkerAndEdgier sequel with a more serious and less campy story with a higher budget, Remedy deliberately decided to still keep the ShowsWithinAShow low budget cheesefests and Sam Lake cast almost all of the characters in them from the protagonist of ''Adress Unknown'' to the EvilMatriarch in ''Lords and Ladies''.

** At the end of the first game, Max has completed his RoaringRampageOfRevenge, and even feels a moment of satisfaction in having [[spoiler:destroyed Nicole Horne's drug empire]]. However, Max also realizes that having committed [[OneManArmy countless justified first-degree premeditated murders]]([[spoiler:Nicole Horne, a high-ranking government official turned multi-billionaire drug kingpin, murdered his family in cold blood precisely to conceal a series of capital crimes and would not only surely escape justice but go on to commit future crimes unless he, [[ItsUpToYou himself]], hunted down and wiped out her entire organization]]), he will [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand never be able to live a normal life in a society that permitted all that to happen]].
-->Just when you thought you had reached the deepest depths of horror, it suddenly got worse. How to turn off that small voice inside your head that started to whisper that you should be glad; that now, if not before, your revenge was justifiable on any conceivable moral scale. That small voice proved, beyond any doubt, that I was damned.

* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Even after achieving his revenge in the first game, Max is still haunted by the trauma of the deaths of his wife and daughter in the second and third games. He even outright states to a sex chat line in the second game that killing everyone responsible hasn't helped.

In April 2022, it was announced that Remedy and Rockstar were planning to release a remake of the first and second game for PC, as well as UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS.

** John Mirra in ''Address Unknown'', riffing on "Mirror." Also, the protagonist mentions a fictional poet called "Pool", in a game written by Sam ''Lake'' (who also plays the protagonist).

** John Mirra in ''Address Unknown'', riffing on "Mirror."

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The third game averts or deconstructs a lot of gameplay elements common in the previous games and gives them realistic consequences:
** Max having carelessly taken painkillers as a substitute for a health power up makes him addicted by the third game, which he realizes and comments about every time the player picks up painkillers.
%% ** Max had a HammerspaceArsenal in the first two game, but the third game reduces him to being only able to carry three guns: two one-handed guns and long gun. Not only that, but gameplay is significantly changed so that carry multiple weapons can be a pain in the ass: Max has dual shoulder holsters that can be used for smaller guns, but he has to drop the long gun he has if he uses one of the small guns
%% **

** In the second game Bravura is a recovered alcoholic. He believes Max has a drinking problem and think Max is trying to politely brush him off by claiming insomnia[[note]]he doesn't have a drinking problem and is legitimately insomniac, but he does have an addiction to painkillers, given how many of them are in his apartment; in the third game, he sometimes refers to "one vice at a time" while picking them up[[/note]].

** In the second game Bravura is a recovered alcoholic. He believes Max has a drinking problem[[note]]he doesn't, but he does have an addiction to painkillers, given how many of them are in his apartment; in the third game, he sometimes refers to "one vice at a time" while picking them up[[/note]].
** Max has descended into alcoholism as of the third game, and about midway through begins the struggle to quit.

* NintendoHard: In every game to date; there is no RegeneratingHealth, painkillers are quite scarce, the gunplay is ''very'' fast-paced, and Max is very much a GlassCannon who can be taken out if he takes only a handful of unlucky hits. Even since the first game, a small bite in your luck can result in Max taking a large amount of damage that could become troublesome for you down the road, whether via wasted painkillers or otherwise. The hardest difficulties have anti-SaveScumming features. The third game has no quicksaves, and the checkpoints tend to be spread apart. The third game also has has [[TimeTrial New York Minute]] ''[[HarderThanHard Hardcore]]''. Normal New York Minute rule (one minute time limit that's extendable with kills), but on the hardest difficulty and [[ContinuingIsPainful death sends you back to the Chapter 1 intro.]] It's not as tough as it sounds, but enemy memorization, BulletTime abuse and spare painkillers are key to even contemplate winning.

* GameMod: All 3 games have a fan mod that allows playing the game in first person, giving a fresh perspective on them. Because ''Max Payne 3'' is heavily built around cover-based combat, the mod gives it a hybrid first-person/third-person perspective reminiscent of games like ''VideoGame/RainbowSix Vegas'' or ''VideoGame/PerfectDark Zero''.

** In the third game, several plates with coxinhas (Brazilian chicken crockets), which are often considered "cop treat", can be seen around the UFE headquarters.

** Just give him some painkillers, and Max can walk off anything. In cutscenes, he's survived a lethal overdose of Valkyr, having his skull used for batting practice, wandering through the worst snowstorm in New York's history without even buttoning up his coat, getting shot in the head (several times, once with a ''Desert Eagle''), falling off a cliff, and having high-powered explosives detonate with him standing nearby. The third game introduces bullet wounds (including exit wounds) for both Max and the enemies, so it's not uncommon for a cutscene to [[http://patrickbrown.deviantart.com/art/Max-Payne-3-cartoon-303395986 have Max littered with holes and still going about business as usual]].

In April 2022, it was announced that Remedy and Rockstar was planning to release a remaster of the first and second game for PC, as well as UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXAndS.

* HeartContainer: In ''Max Payne III'', when playing on all difficulty levels except Old School, Max can collect up to 8 Painkiller bottles that will enable him to perform a LastStand if his health bar gets depleted. If you successfully kill the mook who scored the "kill" on you, Max will consume a bottle and you'll be able the continue fighting with at least some of Max's health restored. However, on the Old School difficulty, you must manually consume a Painkiller bottle before your health reaches zero, so this heart container feature won't save you here.