{"id":18152,"date":"2012-01-10T12:54:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T02:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/power-up.space\/?p=18152"},"modified":"2012-01-10T12:54:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T02:54:25","slug":"rockstar-research-the-weapon-wielding-gangsters-and-special-police-commandos-of-max-payne-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/?p=18152","title":{"rendered":"Rockstar Research: The Weapon-Wielding Gangsters and Special Police Commandos of Max Payne 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Escaping the traumatic events of Max Payne 2 and all of the corruption, betrayal, peril and pain of his existence as an NYPD detective, Max Payne breaks south \u2013 way south, to S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil where he takes up a new gig working private security for a wealthy local family in Max Payne 3<\/a>. As one might imagine, amidst the volatile disparity of towering wealth and profound, desperate poverty in S\u00e3o Paulo, this new job turns out to be not quite as cushy as hoped<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

In addition to all of the intense technical development and meticulous game design being poured into Max Payne 3 to create an advanced and cutting-edge action-shooter gameplay experience<\/a> – as always<\/a>, painstaking effort has also been made by our development teams and internal Rockstar Research department to ensure that the vibe and presentation of S\u00e3o Paulo – touchstones like Paulistano culture, police, weaponry and other elements that will not only contribute to the game\u2019s single-player narrative, but also the single and multiplayer environments and characters – are as authentic as possible.<\/p>\n

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be offering a glimpse into just some of the behind-the-scenes research and production design done over the course of Max Payne 3’s development, from information and asset-gathering trips down to S\u00e3o Paulo, to local casting for pedestrian types in all the game’s levels, to extensive study of municipal law-enforcement wings, weaponry and much more.<\/p>\n

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\n(Left: S\u00e3o Paulo’s own ‘elite squad’ of special forces, the GATE [Grupo de Ac<\/em>\u00f5es T<\/em>\u00e1ticas Especiais] in action. [Photo via Wikimedia Commons]; Right: One of Max Payne 3’s fictionalized special force commandos from the UFE [Unidade de For\u00e7as Especiais].)<\/em>
\nFighting against the criminals, thugs and kidnappers in Max Payne 3\u2019s S\u00e3o Paulo are the Unidade de For\u00e7as Especiais (UFE), a fictional special forces police unit much like similar counterparts featured in the documentaries Favela Rising<\/em><\/a> and Bus 174<\/em><\/a>, and feature films like Carandiru<\/em><\/a>, Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite)<\/em><\/a> and its wildly successful sequel Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (Tropa de Elite 2)<\/em><\/a>. Real-life Brazilian teams include the GATE (Grupo de A\u00e7\u00f5es T\u00e1ticas Especiais, or Special Actions and Tactics)<\/a>, GARRA (Grupo Armado de Repress\u00e3o a Roubos e Assaltos, or Robbery and Assault Repression)<\/a> and GOE (Grupamento de Opera\u00e7\u00f5es Especiais, or Special Operations Group)<\/a> teams in S\u00e3o Paulo, and the feared BOPE (Batalh\u00e3o de Opera\u00e7\u00f5es Policiais Especiais)<\/a> squad of Rio de Janeiro. Great care was taken to obtain research on the uniforms, equipment and weaponry favored by these Brazilian police\u2014including domestically-manufactured assault rifles and a wide array of exotic firepower imported from the US, Germany, Italy and other gun-manufacturing countries.<\/p>\n

Facing off against the city’s elite police squads are well-armed and highly organized gangs<\/a> who rule S\u00e3o Paulo’s favelas<\/a>. Even though Brazil has very strict laws on civilian gun ownership<\/a>, the gangs benefit from a stream of illegal weapons traffic flowing across the country’s massive, almost unpoliceable shared borders<\/a> with ten other South American countries<\/a>. With access facilitated to some of the most powerful assault rifles dirty money can buy, the favela gangs boast intimidating firepower to wage war against rival drug gangs, special police forces, or anyone else brave or foolhardy enough to provoke them.<\/p>\n

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\n(Left: Rockstar developers tour the favelas of S\u00e3o Paulo to gather level design inspiration; Right: Max Payne descends into the game world’s re-creation.)<\/em>
\nGathering assets to help accurately inform and create faithful game level environments set in S\u00e3o Paulo, Rockstar game developers and designers took several trips to the area to extensively document everything from the glamour and exclusivity of posh spots like Avenida Morumbi<\/a>, Avenida Paulista<\/a> and the Jardins<\/a> district, to harsh high-crime locales like Favela Japia\u00e7u (Favela do Nove)<\/a> and the infamous Edificio S\u00e3<\/span>o Vito (aka Treme Treme or the Vertical Favela)<\/a>. Thousands of pictures were taken for mood and texture, local fashions and outfits were scanned for reference, and a diverse array of Paulistanos from all walks of life \u2014 from bossa nova singers to jujitsu champions to favela gang members \u2014 were consulted and interviewed to provide thorough background on the dazzling and dangerous world in which the game is set.<\/p>\n

Look for this continuing series on the research behind Max Payne 3 in the weeks and months leading up to the game\u2019s release including a look at the casting of S\u00e3o Paulo’s residents, what inspired some of the unique levels you’ll find yourself shooting your way out of and much more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Escaping the traumatic events of Max Payne 2 and all of the corruption, betrayal, peril and pain of his existence as an NYPD detective, Max Payne breaks south \u2013 way south, to S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil where he takes up a new gig working private security for a wealthy local family in Max Payne 3. As<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18154,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18152\/revisions\/18154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.impulsegamer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}