News about a baldy-beardy protagonist and a cover system for the first time in the series have alarmed hardcore Max Payne that the upcoming Max Payne 3 might not be the sequel they've been waiting for since the release of Max Payne 2 in October 2003.
Rockstar VP of product development Jeronimo Barrera listened to the community's concerns and assured them that there is nothing to worry about as the new sequel will be faithful to the series' key features.
"While we've revealed the setting as São Paulo, the game stays true to all the fundamentals of the first two games, from the noir themes and visuals to James McCaffrey's iconic voice-over and even a version of the graphic-novel-style panels," he said.
Max Payne 3 is being developed by Sparkle Motion, but Remedy - the developer of the first two titles in the series - was consulted early on to ensure that the game's direction was set correctly. "Staying true to each core element of Max was always a major focus, and that's actually something that we discussed with Remedy during development, and they've been extremely supportive of our work."
Max Payne 3's story will take place over a few weeks, as opposed to Max Payne 1 & 2 whose events unfolded in a single night each.
Berrerra confirmed that Max will visits "some familiar locations" in Max Payne 3, but refused to give more details.