Players learn a lot about Payne's past and what motivates him, but not a lot about Payne himself in the previous games. What was the process of deciding what to include, what not to include and how to fill the years between Max Payne 2 and Max Payne 3?
Those games are pretty old now, so to judge the character as unrealized is perhaps a little harsh. At the time they came out, they set a new benchmark for narrative in shooters, but Max Payne 1 came out 11 years ago, before people even did things like motion-captured cutscenes or any of the other storytelling devices that are staples today. Of course, we may expect more now, but it is because of games like Max Payne 1 and 2 that we not only expect it, but also as designers, know how to implement it.
For all of us at Rockstar, the character was pretty clear - and we had no interest in changing his character, as the character was so central to the game. We just wanted to make a game using the most up-to-date technology and design methods we could, using that character so he could be more fully realized. That character is one we all found compelling - a world-weary romantic, self-absorbed, burdened by memories, but also with a sense of humor, and with a great propensity for, and skill at violence. In other words, he's like most of the ex-ops we've met over the years researching games! Kind and chivalrous but also deeply cynical emotionally and beaten up by what they have seen. And, because we wanted to make a contemporary game, we had to imagine where Max would be several years after Max Payne 2. His career in the NYPD was clearly destroyed by the events of Max Payne 2, and given his love of Scotch and painkillers, his grief and his guilt.
At the same time, in some ways, we wanted something of a blank slate, so people new to the franchise after all this time would not be intimidated - so the events of the previous games serve as Max's personal back story, but they are easily picked up - all someone really needs to know is that here is a man who wanted to be a good guy, but has suffered and made mistakes and is struggling to live with those mistakes and with the cards the universe has dealt him. All of these played into the idea of Max as a washed up drunk. It was hard to see him as anything else after all he had been through, and who he was.
