The closest games to Max Payne 3 are Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Vanquish and Red Dead Redemption 2. Below, 9 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Max Payne 3, and what does not.
Max Payne 3 is a shooter about the moment you commit. Shootdodge takes your options away as soon as you press it, the animation system keeps Max grounded in whatever he lands on, and the bullet-time is a resource rather than a toggle. Rockstar made it far more brutal and far less noir than the originals, and the shooting is the best they have ever done.
Max Payne 3 released on the PlayStation 3. The list below is not restricted to that console — a recommendation is only useful if you can actually play it, so it spans generations and platforms.
The noir the third game left behind, and the tighter story.
The same commit-and-slide idea at three times the speed.
Rockstar's other shooter, with the same animation weight.
Bullet time plus the best shooter AI anyone has written.
Sliding, wall-running and bullet time in a small sharp package.
If the choreography rather than the reflexes was the appeal.
Rockstar-shaped open world with much better hand-to-hand.
Third-person combat with the same physical weight to every impact.
The heavy cover shooter of the same generation.
Several of these have their own page here: games like Gears of War.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. The noir the third game left behind, and the tighter story.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Vanquish and Red Dead Redemption 2 are the closest. The full list of Max Payne 3 similar games is on this page — 9 of them, each with the reason it is here rather than a genre tag that happens to match.
The picks above span platforms rather than sticking to the PS3, because the thing worth copying about Max Payne 3 is not a property of the hardware. The PS3 list further down is the place to go for more from that library.
Because the thing you liked about Max Payne 3 is not a property of the hardware. Restricting the list to one console would drop most of the good answers, so the picks above span platforms and eras. If you specifically want more from that library, the PS3 list further down is the place to start.
By hand, one game at a time, on what the source game actually does — its pacing, its movement, its difficulty, its tone. Genre tags alone put Max Payne 3 next to games that feel nothing like it, so they are not the basis for this list. Each pick carries the reason it is here so you can judge it yourself.
No. The whole list is on this page, free, with no sign-in and no email. We earn a small affiliate commission if you buy through a retailer link, which is what pays for the site.
If you already know what kind of answer you want, these are the same list cut by genre — and each one says what it leaves out as well as what it includes:
More from the PlayStation 3 library, each with its own recommendations page: