The game’s story was stated to be set 12 years after the previous installment, but was later revealed to be changed to take place 9 years after Max Payne 2 in 2012 in a later interview with Rockstar.
The favelas of São Paulo
The location of the narrative is São Paulo, Brazil, and presents the favelas, known as favelas, as well as the rich neighborhoods, port, bus station and a football stadium, among others.
The films City of God and Elite Squad have been cited as inspirations for the game’s setting.
Max Payne 3 is set in the Max Payne Universe of the first two video game installments and is in no way connected to the film, which had its own universe.
Plot
“We are starting a new chapter in Max’s life with this game. This is top notch, as we’ve never seen him before, a few years older, more jaded and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance at salvation.”
―Sam Houser
Years after killing Vladimir Lem, Max Payne retired from the NYPD, after consorting with a known criminal (Mona Sax). At that point, he moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, and developed an addiction to alcohol and painkillers. Max gets into a confrontation at a bar with Anthony DeMarco Jr., son of a local mob boss, and Max’s former Police Academy acquaintance, Raul Passos, interrupts, hoping to recruit Max for a private security job. in South America. Max initially resists, but after he kills Anthony Jr. in a shootout and narrowly escapes Hoboken, he agrees to accompany Passos to Brazil.
Max and Passos work for the wealthy family Branco in São Paulo, made up of three brothers: businessman Rodrigo, politician Victor and Marcelo’s party. During a party held at Rodrigo’s penthouse, Rodrigo and his wife Fabiana are kidnapped by a street gang called Comando Sombra, but are quickly saved by Max. Fabiana, her sister (and Passos’ lover) Giovanna and Marcelo are later directed to a nightclub by the same gang, who are successful in kidnapping Fabiana, but failed with Giovanna and Marcelo. Max and Passos bring ransom money to the gang at a football stadium, but the deal is ambushed by an outlaw right-wing paramilitary group known as Crachá Preto, who have stolen the money. Max and Passos decide to invade a Comando Sombra base to save Fabiana after hearing about it from a CS member, but the gang escapes with her.
