Max Payne 1/2 are my favorite shooters of all time, and one of my favorite series of all time period. I've played them countless times and it's why Remedy became my favorite developer after Valve.
Max Payne 3 was alright as it's own game, but for me misses almost everything that made me love the first 2. And I knew this would happen before the game came out because I know how Rockstar writes, and you just knew from the videos it was going to be more Michael Mann than Remedy. And I got into countless rage fits with other Max Payne fans on here who were excited while I was one of the few people who hated how it was turning out.
There was some cool stuff in MP3. Production values were through the roof obviously, euphoria was incredible, music was great (but different from what Max Payne should be imo), some nice looking 'cinematic' scenes/set pieces, the voice actor hadn't lost his touch at all and was the highlight.
I didn't like it as a Max Payne game because it completely lacked the atmosphere and tone of the first 2. Alan Wake is a completely different IP but is more like MP1/2 than MP3 because it has that Remedy feel. Everything with Remedy games has this oppressive David Lynch/Noir/Mystery feel to it. The settings are dreary, there are unsettling nightmare/dream sequences, you really don't know what's going to happen when you turn the corner and so on. It's like playing Jacob's Ladder mixed with Lynch mixed with 30s noir/crime films and I love it so much.
The Jersey section in MP3 was completely different from Max Payne 1/2, I liked it but it felt nothing like the original games. The rest of the game was Michael Mann stuff. The first few levels were cool just because there's nothing else like it and euphoria makes it so interesting, but it got tiresome after that because I did not care at all about the story. The setting was absolutely atrocious, it was exactly everything I knew it was going to be and worse. For me it's the equivalent of setting a Silent Hill game in Times Square. It makes absolutely no sense to me and I really hated it.
I hope Rockstar doesn't do another Max Payne. For me MP3 isn't canon, it was some side thing that could likely never please me because I always wanted Remedy to continue the series. The series ended with the Alan Wake manuscript. I can always hope Remedy will do something with it in the future but 90% of me feels it's done and Alan Wake 2 will have to suffice although I like Max Payne much more as a series.