Rockstar on Bringing Max Payne Into the Era of Cover Shooters and Regenerating Health

For any developer looking to revive a classic franchise, there's always a challenge in looking at which parts of the series have withstood the test of time and which ones need a modern update. Rockstar has certainly found itself in just such a position when it comes to Max Payne 3. We recently spoke with Jeronimo Barrera, Rockstar's VP of product development, to see how the company has addressed those issues.
GameSpot: In your eyes, what's the one part of the third-person shooter genre that has changed most since Max Payne's last outing? How have you addressed that in Max Payne 3?
Jeronimo Barrera: Cover is something that everybody worked to adopt, and it quickly became a staple of third-person shooters. For us, the direction early on was to make sure we had a great, intuitive cover system but not make it the central or core mechanic. It's only natural when trying to build a game around gunplay that the whole environment comes into play, and it would look silly if Max couldn't assume a position behind obvious cover points. One of the goals was to make sure that AI reacted appropriately to the player if they're behind cover. If you're caught by a thug flushing you out, it can be deadly. That led to further development of the shootdodge and the ability to vault over cover in the fast and fluid manner that characterizes the Max Payne games. In the end it feels and looks great and is a totally natural progression for the series.

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