Awesome / Max Payne 3

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• The rescue of Fabianna and Rodrigo at the start. Max slides down an awning and headshots a bandit holding Fabianna hostage before landing in a pool, and saves Rodrigo by shooting out the tire of the kidnappers' van, killing all the mooks inside, and immediately turning to gun down the last few survivors running in behind. All in the span of about 20 or 30 seconds.
• The third game also introduces scripted CMOAs as cinematic moments mixed in with the regular gunplay. One that stands out is the beginning of the second mission, with Max tackling a mook out a window and shooting the ones on the ground on the way down. Generally, Max responds to flying through the air (inadvertently or not) by taking advantage of it and continuing to shoot.
  • Towards the end of the game while Max is on the tram in a shoot out with mooks on the tram next to his. The mooks stop shooting to laugh and point out to Max that the tram he's on is about to crash into a dead end. So what does Max do? He jumps though the windows of both trams and starts firing away at them!!!
• Max's utter rejection of Neves' attempt to throw Mighty Whitey accusations his way, also neatly proving that, for all his world-weary cynicism, he's still a decent man in the end.
  Neves: What the fuck is your problem, man?
  Max: My problem? My problem!? Wanna know what my problem is!? You're turning humans into GLUE! That's what my fucking problem is!
  • This scene also calls back to Chapter IV, where an apartment tenant has rigged up a bomb to take himself out along with the New Jersey mobsters around him. Max has a detonator in his hand, perhaps expecting to die in the demolition of the Imperial Palace. Neves was intending to destroy the evidence with a controlled demolition; Max uses this plan against him.
• Max kills Becker by shooting a grenade in mid air while jumping off ramp stairs, causing it to blow up in his face and critically injuring him. Afterwards, the player has the choice to either end Becker's suffering or let him die from his injuries.
• Max blows up Victor's jet with a grenade launcher. As he stumbles out of the wreckage, Max points his gun at him. Da Silva pleads with Max not to kill him, since they have enough evidence to indict him. Max obliges. Victor then decides to taunt Max by saying "You know I'll walk." Max's response is this:
  You'll walk... WITH A LIMP! (He stomps on Victor's exposed shinbone hard enough to break it.)
• The entire last level is one, but the most standout moment is when Awesome Music Tears kicks in during a shootout in the airport lounge.
• Da Silva sending Max into U.F.E's building. At least a lot fewer dirty cops are going to show up for work.
  • To elaborate THAT'S THE ENTIRE U.F.E. BATTALION.
  • After a particularly intense shootout (in a shooting range, no less) towards the end of the game, a U.F.E mook drops to his knees, puts his hands on his head and begs Max for mercy. An Elite Mook, cowering in fear from a fat, bald ex-cop with a painkiller addiction and rightly so.
  • Props for Da Sliva for being smart enough to send Max in instead of himself.
• Max managing to play his own theme music on the piano. Like the music coming together, he's finally starting to get a grip on his situation and assert a semblance of control over his life in general and the various plots taking place around him specifically.
  • Max's entire character arc in Max Payne 3 is one. Even a man who has nothing left can still do the right thing.
• While he quips that Max knows how to make a good entrance at the end of Chapter 3, Passos' first chronological appearance was quite an entrance too: in Chapter 4 in New Jersey, he walks into the bar to see the son of a mob boss pull a gun on Max, so he draws his own gun and tells the kid and his crew to fuck off. When they return, all with guns, he simply tells them to fuck off again without hesitation.
• Once you become really good at the game, it basically feels like you're playing as John Wick.
• Subtle moment in how Max actually manages to quit drinking, simply by willpower.
• ArtOfPayne86's montage which shows off the game's fast-paced and brutal gunplay at its best. The coordination, accuracy and fast reflexes combined with the badass soundtrack from the game makes the entire thing a great visualization of what Max's abilities are like when used perfectly.

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