Understanding the Music of Max Payne 3
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 31 май 2019
- HEALTH composed the music for Max Payne 3, and not only does it ease you into their unique discography - it also attempts to help you identify with Max through sound. In this video, I'll be explaining how they accomplished this.
"Understanding the Music of..." is a series analyzing particularly exceptional video game music. Let me know if there's a game soundtrack that you think is worth exploring!
Listen to the Max Payne 3 soundtrack: open.spotify.com/album/3UVyUH...
HEALTH on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/6Ffjn...
Also featuring live performances of "New Coke" and "Die Slow"
Sources:
• Scoring Max Payne 3 Wi...
twowaymonologues.com/2010/06/...
• HEALTH | "NEW COKE" | ...
• HEALTH - Die Slow - Pi...
• HEALTH perform "L.A. L...
• Scoring Max Payne 3 Wi...
• Video
• Nine Inch Nails - Ahea...
• HEALTH :: WE ARE WATER...
If you liked this video and want to see more, give it a like and consider subscribing for future updates from yours truly!
Be sure to check out Last Life, a community and forum for thoughtful video game discussion! www.last-life.net
Like my videos a ton? Consider becoming a Patron!: / liamtriforce
#MaxPayne3 #YOUWILLLOVEEACHOTHER #LiamTriforce 
Игры
When you're running and gunning through the airport level with Health-Tears blasting in the background; that is easily one of the most memorable moments in gaming.
Just like the harbour song in Hitman Contracts.
This one ruclips.net/video/oMKonGXZQ_0/видео.html I haven’t played this game in a while so please correct me
I felt like a badass
no it isn't
No doubt
Rest in peace, James McCaffrey
The other thing I love about the ending is that not only is Max letting go of his past and moving on he's also quitting drinking because you see him paying for a soda
Exactly. I love that too. Some people don't understand that Max found his peace of mind now.
And in the end on the beach he also isn't monologuing anymore because he's at peace
New headcanon: The island Max ends the game on is Cayo Perico.
Max Payne as a series is the closest we’ve come to what a John Wick game could be.
I’d love to see a developer take that world and character and adapt this crazy shooter into something like that.
Not like the weird John Wick Hex we got recently
john wick is the closest we've come to what a max payne movie could be. Also, no, forget what I've just said, they both originate from the same source of inspiration which is John Woo's Hong Kong action movies.
I always pictured max as russel crowe the boxer/gladiator
@@MacMan2152 Stranglehold is great game, John Woo worked on it.
i think you meant to say John Wick is the closest thing we have in today's media that represents Max Payne. Without Max Payne, there would be no John Wick.
watch dogs 1?
Health crafted an amazing soundtrack, but now that I love it so much, I have a hard time listening to their actual albums. I want the more ambient sound I know from the game.
Yup
If you're intrested in something ambient and similar, please check out the soundtrack of the game call of duty world at war, or quake by nine inch nails, they're also ambient and have a similar style
Bro ASHAMED & FEEL NOTHING are good songs.
TEARS by HEALTH is fucking godlike. How can such an epic hype song be so somber and bittersweet? It's the perfect closing OST for Max Payne's story.
That song did fit perfectly ❤
Max Payne 3: 10/10
Health MP3 OST: 10/10
As it should be
HEALTH be like 15/10
Holy shit you have no idea how long I wanted for someone to make a video like this. There's so few game soundtracks out there that not only sound as unique as this but also serve the narrative and the themes so well. It's a shame then that it feels like it's kind of forgotten, because rarely have I heard it mentioned by anyone when you bring up great soundtracks.
But anyways, great video.
@Juelz Zander Yea, I have been watching on instaflixxer for months myself :D
I feel like the music represents the enemies, too.
Gangsters: Heavy metal guitars, pounding tribal drums
Mobsters: Synth scores (reflecting the mobster music of Max Payne 1)
Soldiers: War drums, military-themed scores (The Panama soundtrack is straight up war music)
UFE: Tactical drum beats and pulsating raid synth
Nice!
It's more or equal about enemies battle strategy.
Tbh when trying to get over mental health issues you will often have short moments when it seems like youve solved everything and life will be golden from here on out. Unfortunately it doesn’t stick and the real fix is consistent work and self improvement. Max falling into another depressive episode after a brief high is pretty realistic. Especially for the exaggerated trauma hes gone through
fr happens to me every week
Fun story: My dad got to know Poets of the Fall when he was in Finland for a business trip, which got me into Max Payne. Which in turn led to me getting to know them and later Health, too.
Great memories!
The track Panama always gets me in the rightest of moods °L°
13:37
Not only can she be heard crying but it's a constant loop that's being played; I'm guessing this is because of Max remembering the last sound that she made over and over again as a haunting and intrusive thought.
I hate how people always bring up "but he already got over the death of his wife & daughter."
Guys, realistically, if any of us had a Spouse & Child and they died because of us, we'd end up just like Max in 3.
Realistically no one can move on from the death of someone we love, and especially none of us would get over the death of our Child.
We'd become a drinker or a junky.
We'd wish death to visit us.
Sure there would be moments where we find acceptance of the loss of our loved ones but sooner or later there will come something called an Existential Crisis.
Which is what Max is going thru in 3.
And working for a corrupt family and seeing the Girl he promised to protect die doesn't help.
It may be from the line "she had already been dead longer than I knew her".. but the fact max keeps visiting them proves this wrong. He did say goodbye in more ways than one. Saving Giovanna and sparing Serrano broke the curse.
Seriously I don’t get why that’s such a hard pill for the fans to swallow, I really doubt he was ever able to completely get over it, even now after max Payne 3. I don’t except anyone to ever get over that kind of trauma
Its symptom of the clash of philosophies when it comes to story telling and writing. People that believe characters should be treated like real people and have the story unfold around their actions (like Paul Thomas Anderson and more) and people that think characters should bend around the plot in such a way where they tell a moralistic and tight story rather than one with realistic people and themes with conclusions.
@@elsienova4269
As a up & coming writer I do think of that alot.
It betrays the ending of the second game. It loses it's impact when it doesn't stick
Max Payne 3 is one of the best gaming experiences I've had personally. It was like nothing i've played before. The gameplay? perfect, the soundtrack? perfect, the tone? perfect. I was a senior when I played this and i felt like I was having a midlife crisis playing this because the dark tone was so heavy. I played like I was ready to die any moment, which is exactly the energy Max gave off in the whole game. When the final scene plays out and he walks into the sunset, I felt like I had survived this shit with him. The soundtrack is so perfectly matched with what's going on in the game. One of the best soundtracks
you really should play mp1 and mp2, youll love it
Getting to see HEALTH live last year and hearing Tears in person was fucking incredible. if they're ever touring near you, you owe it to yourself to go see them.
Honestly, in my opinion... the thing with grief is that it can always come back. Sure you might be fine for a while but I know from personal experience, grief never goes away for good. It always comes back to hit you with a truck of emotion, and along with that, everyone deals with grief in their own way.
Personally, for me... when I lost someone close to me... I went numb. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Other people might not feel that same way and express their grief differently.
To me, the way Max grieves is through violence and booze. Both are ways that can numb his pain. That's how I perceive Max Payne 3 to be a thing. It's not the undoing of a character arc. It's that same character going through the motions once again, dealing with the grief once again, the grief of losing his wife, his child, and (Possibly) Mona. (I say possbly because of the ending you get on the hardest difficulty in Max Payne 2, and I still dont' know if that's the canon one or not.)
Mona dying is the canon ending.
Max is an unreliable narrator. Just because he'd said his wife being dead was alright, doesn't mean that notion it'd last.
@@TheCakeIsNotLie bingo. good job on the fanbase though for taking the words of a depressed alcoholic drug addict at face value. because when someone says "I'm fine", of course they're truly fine. and Max is probably one of the most emotionally broken protagonists in gaming.
Honestly Max Payne 3 is my favorite. Though I never played the second one, and I played the first one around 12 or 13. So the ending of 2 not really hooking up with the beginning of 3 never really bother'd me and I really enjoyed the color, and detail of the guns/fighting in 3. Though I'm a big John Wick fan so it's easy to see why it's my favorite.
You owe it to yourself to play Max Payne 2.
I’m in the same boat kinda. I only played Max Payne 1 and 2 at friends never really getting into it or beating them. But Max Payne 3 is amazing in my eyes. I went back and played 1 and it feels so archaic that it’s hard to play now a days and the game is pretty tough.
It’s your opinion max Payne 3 is my second fav but 1 is my most fav I didn’t like 2
@@Delby5 Good news - Remedy, the developers of Max Panye 1, are doing an official remake!
Tears is the most memorable song in the game and it actually sent me into tears too
You will never read this but “Tears” is the single most impactful song i have ever encountered in this medium. The song, level, and the feelings they gave me are seared in my memory forever. I listen to it frequently to this day and it STILL gives me goosebumps.
As i get older, music, more than any other art form, brings out emotions in me; often times without my consent. It reminds me of the tragedies i have personally experienced, many that others have lived through, and the impermanence of every moment we have on this earth.
Thank you for your videos.
My favorite tracks are: TEARS, PAINKILLER, PANAMA, SHELLS and TORTURE. However, TORTURE is the one that sticks with me the most because of not only how it sounds, but what I've associated it with. Call me emotional, but when I hear it, I literally cannot keep my eyes dry. The song to me perfectly captures the feeling of trying to let go but being unable to and you're being tortured by that inability to let go. It's also why I associate it with this one person in my life I used to know, but not in a good way.
Same. HEALTH has a ton of songs like that for me. Like he said in the video, I think I'll be listening to them until I die.
The Main theme of Max Payne 1 being the Theme of the Intro is Max Payne 3 felt like to me that Max was back to square one with a single change, his environment. (or in the music's case it being the Violin instead of Piano)
The second game had the violin in the theme. Though it would be nice to hear an updated or re-recorded version of the first game's theme. Hopefully once the remakes are out.
Pain and Tears definitely stood out to me.
Same with "FUTURE"
I remember beating Max Payne 3 multiple times over just to listen to Tears by Health once more.
Same.
Combat Drugs and Dead for life.
That shootout in the police station was a nightmare. Combat Drugs gives it that lonely, outnumbered depressing feel. "Dead" is as dark and cold as that cemetery. I also got some Punisher/Frank Castle vibes during this part of the story. The northeast, a snowy night, fighting the mob, a man with nothing left to lose, etc.
max payne soundtracks + story + storytelling = one of the best and most memorable criminal drama in history
Imagine if they remastered 1 & 2.
the gunplay of 3 combined with the story of 1 and 2 would make for the perfect game
Nah those games need a remakes
@@M1M220 yeah max payne 1 and 2 remake could revive the series and make more people actually playing it a remaster is ok but remake is a better option and than it won't be an underated series anymore
@@Windows11Sucks yes and I'm pretty sure there is already a remastered mod for them
ew
This is one of the best videos ive seen on Max Payne 3, people always mention how good it is in other videos, but I never really gave it any thought like that. It's criminal how underrated this game is.
"Pills" is the most reflective, sad and definitely the most Ambient piece of a sound track I've heard
Just replayed Max Payne 3 again for the un-tenth time with this video in mind. I was able to experience it with the full "Health" atmospheric experience in mind. I now have a new love for the already beloved game. I was able to finally play it entirely on PC to make the trek even better then when it came out on the Xbox 360.
Thank you again Liam for opening my eyes up the music behind the scenes and it's amazing conclusion of the story of Max "
buceta gringo" Payne.
God, I love this soundtrack. You did such a good job covering this.
The soundtrack to Max Payne 3 is Godlike.
And imo the game got a lot of hate it 100% didn't deserve.
Its an amazing game and close to a masterpiece imo.
This was an amazing video and you deserve WAY more subscribers.
So I helped and instantly subscribed.
Well deserved.
You probably already caught it but the section where you showcase MAX: KILL, the song actually playing is COMBAT DRUGS and THE GIRL is actually MAX: KILL
Great video! glad to see the soundtrack recognized and admired in 2019
Im surprised this video didnt get copyright struck down.
Anyway, AMAZING work. Plz never retire bc you have one of the BEST YT channels in existence. Everything you do is concise, focused, and cohesive. And you do it in a way that appeals to our nostalgia. Really superb work, I mean it.
The way I saw it, in the past two games Max was a angel of death, an omen. People just die around him, people that made the mistake of getting close. But in this game, he actually saves someone. Even if it was a pregnant woman related to someone that left him for dead. Just this once, he actually did some good, and it wasn't by accident.
Excellent video. I feel as though Max: Finale should have been given recognition as well.
The song, to me, absolutely champions the last desperate act of a broken, stubborn man to find redemption. The beat of the drum like a frantic heart amidst the violence . The high notes like the very wings of absolution, almost out of reach, but very much there in the moment and achievable.
The odds were never in his favor. The finale was the end of a taught noose. But then, when did that ever stop Max?
Easily the most underapprecited track in the game.
I'm so fucking happy that I found your channel dude, you totally made my day with this video
Max Payne 3 is one of the best shooters I've ever played. My favorite in the series and cemented Max as one of my favorite video game characters
Max Payne 3 was the first Max Payne game I ever played, and I only played it this year having picked the game up for £1 in a charity shop. I think it was just about the best £1 I've ever spent. I mean it has its niggles (constantly switching weapons on you between scenes!!) but it's a fantastic game and the soundtrack is, as you've pointed out, a *huge* part of the gritty and oppressive atmosphere. Genuinely fantastic. I've recently started playing the original Max Payne on Xbox: it's very different in atmosphere and feel, so I can see why fans of the originals criticise Max Payne 3, but they're all ludicrously fun games. Highly recommended.
I know from a more “story aspect” the jump for MP2 to MP3 is confusing, but from a more realistic standpoint it is really depressingly accurate. It really comes off as he just had a huge moodswing, most likely a midlife crisis, or a relapse.
The sad part is max never gets a break, he is almost constantly in some sort of combat situation, or just in a situation where he cannot relax or take a break, and when he tries to (drinking, sleeping or whatever) it all goes to hell the minute hes awake or “sober” goes to sleep after drinking on the boat, wakes up and everyone is dead.
I personally think MP3 is the best, but i get why it might be jarring from a more, action “movie” narrative perspective
Max is caught in cycle of violence even when he tries to stay from it. Alex keeps him relatively sane for few years and dies because of dirty cop. Bravura almost dies cause of Winterson betrayal. He works for Brancos, feel guilty about failing to save Rodrigo and his wife but learns that whole family is rotten except Giovanna. He feel for a killer working for Woden and feels sorry about Winterson - she was guilty of course but now her blind kid is an orphan.
I hadn't paid this much attention to the soundtrack nor the artist behind it despite replaying the entire game atleast 3 times.
I'm listening through the soundtrack now and I'm checking out the artist >:)
Isn't it crazy that the same dude who made a freaking Tak and the Power of Juju video also made this absolute beast of a music analysis?
Great video, and I'm glad you saw them live too (I seen them three times on their recent tours!). Never met a band so kind & open about their work.
Good stuff, man. I always loved the music in this series!
I died a shitload of times in MP3, meaning that I had to hear those songs over and over again as I replayed the same sections. but never once did I get tired of them.
rockstar I think has influenced most of us with its soundtrack and its the only reason I like music as much as I do before I played gta I never cared for music I did not have a favorite nothing but after vice city I grew a charm for 80s metal and in san andreas I leaned to love 90s west cost rap and country, and even with max payne 3 it got me to like a band that I never even thought I would like normally. I really hope rockstar keeps up putting great music that fits the style of the game
Same here * w *
Loved several songs from GTA liberty city stories on PSP.
@@KemonoPriestessHazuki same page man the main theme is nostalgic for me
Im sad NakeyJakey didnt do a video on just the music, but im glad someone did.
He loves this game, I wish he did do a video on it
So much love went into this review. Thanks for all the work you put into the video.
I'm confused by the sheer number of people who thought the final line of Payne 2 was him coming to terms with everything. If anything, it was him lying to himself, something I thought the credits made very clear with the line "Max Payne's journey into the night will continue..."
________________________
Yes,
I downloaded the story of Max in 2 as an MP3 file just to give it a listen whenever I want to feel sad back when I was in high school. Ending it and replaying the file making it seem like Max is contemplating again about his past.
Also, there is an alternative ending to his story, in that one, he fools himself by believing that Mona survived the incident in the manor. This ending is officially non canon. Considering that Mona is not alive in the main story but only as a player character in the multiplayer mode of 3.
...
Max for me is definitely tormented by the past. He kept on replaying what happened when he lost the new life he is trying to build. He is in grief, he cannot accept that Mona died. He overcame it thanks to Raul's offer to start a new life as a body guard.
I almost forgot about the alternate ending.
Glad someone spoke about this. It's been 10 years since Max Payne 3 came out and I'm still crazy for it till this day. I love you Max Payne ❤
”what I’m listening to is some of the hardest and most engrossing noise rock I’ve ever heard, and it’s being accompanied by an angel of death singing in a soft eerie colourlessness” is such a genius description of HEALTH's sound. It's the union of two opposites; the harsh masculine noises of the zoothorns and drums accompanied by a disembodied, effeminate voice singing the dead to sleep.
I like to think that the pianos you find through the game symbolize Max's journey to sobriety. At the start, the piano is disjointed. The notes are there, but they are messy and, as I said, disjointed. But as the game progresses, the notes come together to finally make the Theme together, just as his life is getting together once again. I like to think, regarding this current Max, that he regrets having embarked his journey of Revenge (by how he wishes he had been the one to die and the self regret he speaks of constantly), dismissing his past as "just grief", seeing everything through a nihilistic vision due to his alcoholism and anguish, going through a survivor's guilt. But when he cuts his hair, and decides to take a new journey to redemption, he decides to concentrate on his future and ending the violence, and, as Tears suggest to me, come to terms with his path, now seeing everything with sobierity, ending his journey by finally saving people, unlike 1 & 2, where everyone who he cared about ending up dying, while in 3, he saves Passos and gives him a chance to have a violence-less life, and ending the violence with more people alive than dead. This trilogy was so engaging and great, I loved getting into the mind of Max, one of the best characters of all videogames.
I'm going to make a recommendation for all of you: I recommend revisiting Max Payne 2 with Payne Evolution if you loved the gameplay of the Third game. It not only translates the gameplay, but also put the soundtrack in the game.
Thanks for this videos Liam, it really opened my eyes on the importance of music in games. I knew you thanks to Half-Life, and so I have been watching you since. I doubt you'll see this, but I just wanted to thank you!
This was an excellent video! You deserve more subs.
Max: Panama gives me really heavy Hotline Miami, synth wave vibes. That track has always stuck out to me
This channel is incredible. Keep up the great work Liam. You deserve more recognition.
This is the best of the series and one hell of an entertaining gameplay loop.
the soundtrack for this game keeps you on your heels with the dread and loss of this Max, keeping a tense and foreboding mood to the scenes. You pass through mud, waters and with the music filling the scene and shootouts. he's beat down, he knows he's out of his depth but he throws in all he has and finally makes it to the airport. then the first rift of tears health comes in heavy right as you're mid transition into cover and I don't know about anyone else but I was ready to fire before he had even made it to cover. the wave after wave of hard hits as your blasting through corrupt security, for the first time he wasn't being hunted, sneaking in or barely getting out alive and tears health stood out not only for being apart of a great ending but also the first song that has a tone of hope finally giving the audience a moment to fight back at the very cause of this story. the airport never stood a chance.
this is a really wonderful video my man. i fucking hate most youtube critics that make long videos like this nowadays but you share a lot of passion, thought, dedication, effort, and iron your points out so well that it makes me remember why i used to really like watching these. not only that but man spot fucking on with your perspective. learned a lot from this. that soundtrack is just fuckin killer
Amazing video. You really managed to express my relationship with this game's soundtrack. My late dad had been a big fan of the games for a long a time, amounting around 400 hours or so on Max Payne 3, to the point I just liked to watch him play and tell me about the games; I practically know the whole lore of Max Payne and never completed one game myself.
He really liked 3 because of the whole character and aesthetic of the game but especially the music. Aside from the classic Max Payne piano theme, 3's soundtrack really stuck with him, his favorite being the last song TEARS, which he used to hum a lot, imitating the bass and kicks, though lyrics were butchered as English is not our first language.
I teared up while watching when you played the songs from the different chapters of the game, as I just got struck with memories fo him playing the game. Thanks for making this video.
Just now seeing this video thanks to RUclips recommendation and I've got to say, HEALTH knocked it out of the park with the soundtrack, and they're great guys. Highly recommend joining their discord server.
This was a very cool video mate I'm sure you put alot of time into it, rock on ✊
Amazing video ! I love the game but didn't notice much about the music beside main theme.
The airport theme is truly fire.
I thought I was the only one who was confused with how they rewrote how Max saw the whole Mona situation in the comics and the third game, like he actually saw it as some sort of grief driven affair..
Regardless of that I still really enjoyed the game and I too, agree that the soundtrack was amazing! DEAD, TEARS and Panama are ones that really drew me!
Thank you for spreading love to this underrated masterpiece of a game 👏🏻 #youwillloveeachother
8:22 I'm so glad I'm not the only one who loves that "YOU'RE TURNING HUMANS INTO GLUE" line
TEARS just made health as my fav music band 12 years ago, lol, ty for the video
Idk why you did this, but for this video you granted yourself permament place in my heart. Thanks
Wow! What an awesome breakdown of the soundtrack that I love! Years ahead in the gaming world. Love your vids.... #keepitup
Much thanks for the video. This music made game so atmospheric.
Rest in Peace, James.
Come on man why does this spectacularly written, edited and presented video have so few views?
It made me realise why the music is still stuck in my head.. even after nearly a decade since i last played it.
What a game! And what a lovely hoot of a band that made the whole thing so much better.
Thanks for this man.
The jungle, favela, "palace" and police station missions really stuck out with the ambient IMO, it felt like Max was genuinely devolving into an insanity trip and the increasingly mad world around him just enforced that feeling.
Very unsettling.
Yo, do hotline miami 2 soundtrack, pleasseeee
Max Payne 3 is the best in the series in terms of gunplay and music if only every game had this type of music and gunplay
I came back, nearly a year later, just to say - this is the kinda video you come back to. Thank you dude.
Health became one of my favorite bands because I watched a video about this soundtrack
Been catching up on your work this week and I have to say you have some real good videos on here and I really enjoyed this video. You got a sub here and I look forward to what you make next :)
You should definitely make a video on Splinter Cell Chaos Theory's amazing soundtrack by Amon Tobin. Something unique and never done again.
exactly!
I gave this ST a chance but I guess the music revolving around "noise" isn't really for me. Unfortunately the same applies to other music by HEALTH. That being said, I really like this idea of identifying with the character through music and it does work within the game. And Panama is superb.
What a wonderful job u did on showing the importance of a great contribution of an artist for a video game. The soundtrack on Max Payne 3 is one of the few masterly crafted, by a dedicated band
As someone that played Max Payne 1 on PC... going back so far as to play the *_demo_* off the PC Gamer CD waaaay back in 2001 and who never picked up nor cared about Max Payne 2... To me, Max Payne 3 is... almost a love letter the noir of the character. His pain and despair and frustration.... And the fact that the narrative of Max Payne 3 is basically an alcohol/painkiller fueled deconstruction of Max Payne's psyche and having HEALTH do the soundtrack... It's... Oddly beautiful. I wish I could remember where I heard it, but I remember the quotation: "Men are at their best when they're self-destructing." It was said somewhat sarcastically from what I remember, but with Max Payne 3... It's strangely fitting. Correct. Encapsulating. Max Payne hit rock bottom and he didn't care if he was dead or not because he already considered himself long past dead. He was just a shell, a leftover, a shade of something that kept moving despite the death of his family. Yet... despite all of that... He managed to find purpose and meaning in the least possible place during everything in Brazil. With something that shouldn't matter and something that, really, didn't matter... Max Payne found new purpose of life. New meaning. And that, to me, is beautiful. Even if it's meaningless. Even if it's destructive. Even if it's an indulgence. Because, at the end of everything, Max Payne was able to do something he could never do - he could forgive. Himself.
...And that is something Max Payne always lacked. Something he needed. Something that actually nullified the pain of his loss. He needed to be able to forgive. Forgive himself. And after all these long years, he finally got that. And that is what Max Payne 3 is so beautiful and rewarding. You finally see Max accepting himself. His pain. You see him finally forgiving himself for what happened and moving on. And if that, alone, was what happened it would be a worthy title of the Max Payne franchise. The fact that it was just SO well done and was basically a love letter to the *_idea and feeling_* of Max Payne as a character... Combined with the story, the soundtrack... honestly, even if I had cared and played about Max Payne 2, I would still hold Max Payne 3 as the character study and penultimate underwriting of Max Payne, the character. It was just so noir, so... bleak... so... I don't even know to how to describe it, but it just nailed Max's character and his FEELING *_so well_* and broke him down and rebuilt him... That to me it's the best game in the franchise. By far.
To me when this game came out it made perfect sense as to where he was now, all his life he spent building, all for it to be destroyed and gone in a second, from Michelle, to Rose, To Mona, its people he all FAILED to protect just to be set up and played with in the 3rd he fell harder due to the pills and alcohol. It’s the most realistic direction they could’ve taken, the music does An amazing job of capturing that even in the ending scene with Pain playing in the background
I absolutely love how they implemented the pain killers as health mechanic into the story. You tank painkillers in the first and second game like they’re going out of fashion so OF COURSE he was gunna be addicted to them. Its fucking genius
@@The_Smoke_Mirrors_Podcast thank you someone who sees detail!
I've never played any of these games, I'm just here because I'm a fan of the band. I read their wiki last night and found out they wrote a game soundtrack, saw that Tears won an award and listened to it, then was recommended this video. If you like Tears, I highly recommend their album Death Magic. It's my personal favourite, and it has a very similar feel to this soundtrack overall; you can listen to the whole album back-to-back in about half an hour, and it flows together from song to song very smoothly. This video used the song NEW COKE from that album in the introduction to Health section (it's the "let the guns go off, let the bombs explode" bit they were performing live near the start of this video).
It's cool seeing what they did with that soundtrack. Even as someone who's not much of a gamer, I have an appreciation for all forms of art, and I love seeing one of my favourite bands being part of something like this. It suits them.
The closest I have ever come to accurately describing some of the music in this game is "hazy", akin to the feeling of being drunk like Max often is in the game.
MP2 has story problems too: almost every character's personality is screwed.
Exactly what i tought
I don't like the Mona Sax character at all, I actually prefer to view Max Payne 3 as the true sequel of Max Payne 1
I guess one can only like Max Payne 2 or 3
And in 1 no one really gave a shit about anything it’s a bit campy, Max seemed to be having a fabulous time even ignoring the shit eating grin but maybe that was intentional
@@lucaalbano8 I talk about this all the time; 3 can definitely work with 2's ending because people don't really change like that. Max went through a terrible trauma and we're supposed to believe that after defeating the big bad of MP2 that he's just going to be alright forever?
“I had a dream of my wife. She was dead. But it was alright...” Okay cool but that doesn't mean he got over it, all it means is that he was better able to deal with his past. Nothing in that ending tells us that he was cured.
What happened in truth is that he was good for a few years but then ultimately relapsed back into his old pit of misery. I remember him specifically stating in 3 that he was "sitting at the bar for about 3 hours, or 5 years depending on how you look at things." 3 takes place nine years after 2, so he had a good 4 years of "normalcy" before the trauma got to him again and led him to alcohol.
People who experience trauma often go through a story cycle of pain and catharses several times before overcoming phenomenons such as grief. 3 is a perfectly plausible and fair representation of the character.
I agree I love all the games too!
Great job man 👏🏻
An excellent review!
Aw you forgot severin, that track in the airport chase is so good
“Shutting down the airport was a weird sort of compliment…but one I didn’t need.” 🥶🥶🥶🥶
The more i play max payne 3 the more it heals me from sadness of. Life. I don't feel alone anymore
Max Payne 3 is Rockstar’s forgotten masterpiece imo, I love this game to death.
Just replayed the Max Payne series back through, MP3 might not have the best gameplay (that honour goes to MP2) and defo not the best story (that goes to MP1) But Hot Damn do the visuals, Music and the portrayal of Max work far better in this game than the others. Weirdly enough the retcon you mentioned where Max failed to get over his grief after MP2 is actually a traditionally cynical take from Rockstar on what happened. Basically he lied to himself that what had happened was just fate and that he could move on now knowing that,. Of course living the awful life he had lived the fact that this was just fate and he had no control actually had the opposite effect meaning he just accepted his fate as a depressed drunk ex cop with no control over his life. In that sense his actions with Mona for him where just Grief, a mistake he had made in a desperate attempt to get over what happened to his family that really just made things worse. The ending where Max says that he doesnt know right from wrong isnt an act of sef loathing, its him accepting that there was a choice to be a better person, that he had lost what made him good and he couldnt just accept his fate anymore. Its that realisation combined with Health's somber and reflective score combined with the briliant final level that make MP3 so special.
I agree with you on almost every but the gameplay you lost me there Max Payne 3s gameplay is renowned all over the world people do speed runs on it all the time and always complain on how rockstar shouldve went with Max Payne 3s shooting mechanics and gore for GTA 5
@@localwarlord agreed; MP3's gameplay is nigh unparalleled by any other 3rd person shooter ever conceived and in my opinion definitely superior to MP2's shooting.
@@joeking6972 it’s 10000% better than MP2 shooting
MP2 still has excellent power fantasy gameplay but MP3 is definitely my preference. It’s raw and clunky but in an extremely satisfying way. You really only get out of it what you put into it - if you play safe and hide behind cover the whole time you’ll probably think it’s boring, but if you play it confidently you’ll have so much more fun.
MP1 story is kinda meh imo. The Fall of Max Payne has a much richer and interesting story.
TEARS is the best
Great vid, thanks!
I quite like rockstars approach to ambient stems that ramp up. GTAV had a soundtrack by tangerine dream, did something very similar.
As soon I heard the lyrics for the airport level, I knew if it was endgame for Max payne 3, we need more games like this!
I love the story of Max Payne 3 and how the soundtrack enhances the narrative. The awesome gameplay and emotional story made it my favorite 3rd person action shooter game ever. If there was one game I could have ported to the PS4, it's Max Payne 3.
HEALTH was a perfect band for this game! Seen them live twice very good band even before they scored this game! Death Magic is one of my fav industrial rock albums
19:20 how Jacobs vocals match the slow motion of killing your final enemy of that section masterpiece
Your videos are amazing.