Max Payne (series): Difference between revisions

* [[Animation Bump]]: From the first game to the second, and an even bigger one to the third (which drops the graphic novel portions entirely in favor of a TV-esque filter with shifting colors and static lines).

* [[Announcer Chatter]]: Any time you or a teammate activate a burst, or a vendetta is started/settled, Max will chime in with something appropriate.

* {{spoiler|[[Antagonistic Offspring]]}}: {{spoiler|Victor Branco is eventually revealed as this}} in ''3.''

* [[Anti-Frustration Features]]: In the first game, the final part requires an explosive weapon and a sniper rifle. Two mooks will inexplicably have these just in case. In the third, your health will reset to full if you die and need to go back to a checkpoint, even if you were on the verge of death when you trigger it.

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: When Max finds Nicole's computer, he says, "Hacking through Horne's computer would have unearthed criminal plans, strategies for world domination, spy helicopter reports, illegal wire tap recordings, Internet porno, all of the above, take your pick."

* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: Cleaners in the second have a tendency to run after their own grenades. Halfway referenced by Max:

* [[Art Evolution]]: In the first game, all the characters in the graphic novel sequences were played by random dudes from the programmers' offices, and it definitely shows (the goofy grins that everyone sports in the supposedly "serious" scenes is a pretty big giveaway). In the second game the character models were based on actual professional models, giving the cast a more polished, if less unintentionally amusing, appearance.

* [[Art Shift]]: In the first game, the Captain Baseball Bat Boy series is a [[Peanuts]]-esque newspaper comic with the titular character being a Charlie Brown lookalike. In the sequel, it is in the style of a [[Saturday Morning Cartoon]], and the titular character is now in full-on super-hero getup, wearing a mask, a cape and wielding a laser baseball bat. A commentary on Television Adaptations perhaps?

* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]: You'll find yourself leaping through the air firing your handguns akimbo a lot.

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Max Payne. Even the villains lampshade this.

** As do the other policemen. [[Deconstructed Trope|Apparently, Payne is a name that will most likely "make 'em remember" and even get a pomotion than one like]] ''[[Fail O'Suckyname|Broussard]]''.

* [[Badass Bystander]]:

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Vlad, though he was never really a face, just on Max's side for a time.}}

* [[Facial Composite Failure]]: In Max Payne 3, Max sees a newscast that reports that he is wanted for questioning as the unidentified man that has been seen leaving {{spoiler|Rodrigo Branco's blown-up company headquarters}}, the report also shows a facial composite that looks almost nothing like Max in-universe, but fans of the series will recognize it as [[Creator Cameo|the constantly constipated Max Payne from the first game that was based on Sam Lake's face]].

* [[Fake Nationality]]: {{spoiler|Raul Passos from ''3'' is actually Colombian whereas Max believes him to be Brazilian.}}

* [[Family Values Villain]]. "Vladimir was one of those old-time bad guys with honor and morals, which made him almost one of the good guys." Even in the sequel he tries to confine his battles to fellow criminals. {{spoiler|It doesn't work, as he realized far too late that [[Death Seeker]] Max would drop his death seeking in favor of pursuing one of those... "[[Belligerent Sexual Tension|complicated]]" relationships with Mona. [[It's a Long Story]], but the result puts him in Max's gunsights, making his death pretty much a [[Foregone Conclusion]].}}

** Some of Max's dialogue hints at a [[In-Universe|desire for]] [[Catharsis Factor|some much needed catharsis]] for which he requires a ([[Asshole Victim|not unjustified]]) bloodbath. This would account for his "path of most resistance" mindset in the latter half of the game.

* [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]: Lampshaded by Max during Mona's section in the second game:

** Painfully averted in the first game, where enemies can peg you in the face with a pump-action shotgun blast from the other end of a football field, and in the third game, where some soldiers can drop smoke grenades that don't impede their aim at all.

* [[Important Haircut]]: Max shaves his head in the third game after failing to prevent a kidnapping {{spoiler|and murder}}.

** Hoboken in ''3''. A Max Payne game without a seemingly neverending supply of mobsters? Blasphemy.

* [[Not What It Looks Like]]: Vinnie's Captain Baseball-bat Boy collection.

* [[Numbered Sequels]]

* [[Obstructive Vigilantism]]: One of the graphic-novel cutscenes has Max contemplating this, but he ultimately decides to come clean. Sort of.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Brewer from the 3rd game.

* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]: B.B. Lampshaded by Max:

* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: Max's escape from Cold Steel facility in the first game.

* [[Past in The Rearview Mirror]]: From the second game:

* [[Pistol-Whipping]]

* [[Plot-Powered Stamina]]

* [[Sadly Mythtaken]]: A minor example, but several times during the comparisons to [[Norse Mythology|Ragnarok]], comparisons are made to Fenris Wolf eating the sun. Actually, the wolves who pursue the sun and moon, and who will eat them during Ragnarok, are called Sköll and Hati, both separate from Fenris.

* [[Sarcasm Mode]]: Max loves this, along with [[Deadpan Snarker]], and it pisses off a lot of his enemies.

'''Inner Monologue''': He had a bat and I was tied to a chair. Pissing him off was the smart thing to do. }}

** Also:

'''Max''': (chuckles) Angie! Tell me, how much did Dime cost you? [[A Worldwide Punomenon|I'll bet it was more than his name]].<br />

'''Punchinello''': Max Payne?!<br />

** In the first game, you can find a picture of a [[Commander Keen|Dopefish]].

** This exchange between two bums:

'''Bum 1''': [[REM|And I don't feel fine.]] I don't feel anything! }}

** A mobster can be found killed with a wooden stake in a boarded up room. Near him some letters in blood on the wall spells "[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|BUFF]]".

* [[Shown Their Work]]: In 3, Max carries a G36 assault rifle variant by the carrying handle. Despite the name and appearance, that's not what that part of the gun is used for. It is, however, a common mistake made by people unfamiliar with such weapons, such as former New York cops with drinking problems.

* [[Singing in the Shower]]: At one point in ''Max Payne 2'', Max comes upon Mona singing "Late Goodbye" in the shower.

* [[Slipping a Mickey]]: Mona does this to Max in the first game, right after he says "As long as you don't try to slip me a mickey."

* [[Sniper Scope Sway]]: A pretty standard version. Hold your breath and all movement ceases. Move and the sway becomes much worse, crouch and it lessens. The sniper shot bullet cam can get pretty annoying.

* [[Think of the Children]]: The police precinct in ''2'' features a civilian reporting on her husband, whom she's convinced is learning to kill from [[Murder Simulators|playing violent video games]].

* [[This Is Reality]]: In a blatant comment on the first game's reveling in [[Film Noir]] and revenge tropes:

* [[Title Drop]]: All of the chapter titles are spoken during cutscenes, usually as part of Max's [[Internal Monologue]].

* [[Tone Shift]]: ''3'' dispensed with the noir setting, cartoonish bad guys, and graphic novel format, though the meat of the gameplay is unchanged. Fans complained in droves, so Rockstar added some flashback levels to pay homage to Max's origins.

* [[Wasn't That Fun?]]: Subverted in ''Max Payne 2''. After getting rid of dozens of mobsters trying to kill Vinnie Gognitti and finally escaping, Vinnie comments "Well, that was fun - [[Dissimile|in a fuckin' terrible, sick, not-at-all-fun way]]".

* [[We Can Rule Together]]: {{spoiler|B.B.}} offers this to Max in the first game. Max doesn't even flinch for a second in rejecting it.

'''Max''': "Maybe, but I can make damn sure none of you do either." }}

* [[We Gotta Stop Meeting Like This]]: Mona Sax says this to Max upon meeting by drawing guns on each other for the second time in the game. {{spoiler|It's also the line spoken by Mona upon their first meeting in the second game.}}

* [[Why We Can't Have Nice Things]]: During the escort mission, if you shoot Vinnie's Captain Baseball-bat Boy collector's items, he will begin protesting your actions, claiming that they would have been worth a lot of money. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, he wouldn't be caring for more than a few minutes....}}

* [[Why Won't You Die?]]: {{spoiler|Vlad}} delivers one to Max in the second game.

* [[Wreaking Havok]]: Most obvious in one of the rooms in the backdrop of the funhouse, in which the player is given the opportunity to lob rubber balls at various props purely to show off the physics engine. The third game moves over to the Rage engine and comes with all the requisite next-gen physics upgrades, including a section where you can shoot the wheel block away from a truck and let it roll down a ramp to crush some bad guys loading it up.

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: The Cleaners fall into this a few times, often getting action movie tropes completely wrong... and them completely dead.

'''''BOOM!''''' }}

* [[Wrongful Accusation Insurance]]: He got off whatever charges that could be laid against him from the first game, due in no small part to {{spoiler|Alfred Woden}}. Lampshaded by Max Payne noting that he must have had to work ''big time'' to cover up him raiding a corporation.

 

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