Part 2: The Guns of Max Payne 3, Part Two

Part Two: Submachine Guns and Assault Rifles



(this image looks like someone printed the gun on a body pillow)



The Heckler & Koch MP5, known as the MPK ingame, is kind of a weird one! It's got the shape/body of an MP5, but the magazine release is on the front of the magazine holder; it also has a straight magazine instead of a curved one. This gun has some weird model issues, too. The game treats it like a two-handed weapon (because it is one) but Max uses it like a single-handed weapon in cutscenes. jake pointed out in I think the Chapter 11 video that Max was holding his gun by the magazine, which happens with a lot of the submachine guns you can use.






The IMI Uzi, also called the It's a fucking uzi jake stop correcting me, is basically the younger cousin of the Ingram. It's the size of a Micro Uzi but the shape of a Mini Uzi (without the folding stock). The accuracy and damage on this thing is fucking ridiculous I don't even know what Rockstar was thinking when they balanced it. I think it for some reason does more damage than the actual Ingram.






And speaking of The Actual Ingram, better known as the MAC-10, it's one of the only guns from Max Payne 1 that appears in its full form in this game... except in Max Payne 1 it's actually a misnomer and in this game they get it correct! What a flip-flop on the expected! In Max Payne 1 the gun is actually a Cobray M11/9 which looks similar enough. Either way, it's pretty much just a sized-up version of the Micro 9mm even though like I said in the above it somehow manages to be worse in every way. It has a ludicrously fast fire rate though which is a carry over from Max Payne 1 where it was coded to fire 4 rounds of ammo per button press!






The Taurus M972 is a weirdass gun. It's that one Max held by the magazine in every cutscene of Chapter 11. It usually has a stock and a foregrip but Rockstar got rid of those so that the gun would fit in Max's side holsters. Otherwise it'd be a two-handed weapon even though it's small enough to be a one-handed one. I don't think there actually is a version of the M972 without the foregrip so maybe everyone in Brazil likes tinkering with their guns or something. This gun is as much of a bullet hose as the Auto 9mm but looks like scrap metal, so don't use it.






The Taurus MT-40 is a .40 cal version of the FAMAE SAF, aka Rico's trademark gun in Just Cause 2. While the MT-40 is a Brazilian-made gun (by Taurus, obv.) the FAMAE SAF is Chilean; like the PT92 and Beretta though, the two guns are basically the same. The game throws that shit out the window though and calls it the SAF .40 anyway, which is a weird misnomer considering the gun is the proper Brazilian version model-wise. It's used almost exclusively by UFE troops and I think you don't even get to use it until like the second-to-last chapter.






The AK-47, Accept no substitutes, is used by pretty much everybody. Comando Sombra, Jersey thugs, UFE, Cracha Preto; this gun reflects its real life status as the bicycle of guns. Everyone's... ridden it? Alright maybe that metaphor doesn't work out so well but it gets the point across. The ones in the game have a little tiny modeling error on the gas tube that only gun nuts will notice in that it isn't ribbed like the real thing. The stock is also straighter than the real one just so it doesn't look wonky propped up against Max's shoulder.






The FN FAL is the other bicycle of guns. Everyone's ridden it. I'm sticking to the metaphor this time dammit. It's mostly used by UFE though. You will notice that jake and I have a weird attachment to it and I can't really explain why. It's just got great stats and it's very accurate despite having the shittiest sights in the world in real life.






The Heckler & Koch G36V is the spiritual successor of Max Payne 1's Colt Commando. The game even refers to it as the G6 Commando even though that's, er, not a real gun. In fact, that's actually a misnomer carryover from real life! The G36C variant of the gun is shorthand for "compact" but it is commonly mistaken for "commando" for some weird reason. This thing is fuckin' awesome though and it is definitely my UFE weapon of choice because it does crazy damage, looks cool, and even sounds cool.



The golden gun version gets a drum magazine to compensate for the higher ammo capacity! Neat-o!






The IMBEL MD-97 is basically what I like to call the I Can't Believe It's Not A FAL. The two guns are almost interchangable in the game, stats-wise. In fact they even kinda look similar. The game calls it the MD-97L, which is incorrect, because the version in the game has a different stock than the MD-97L, which is the full-length rifle. Again, it's really just gun semantics.






The Mini-30, also known as the Did That Guy Seriously Just Kill Me In One Shot AGAIN?, is the most unbalanced weapon in the entire god damn game holy shit I hate multiplayer so much because of it. It can kill basically any enemy in one hit in both single and multiplayer. Interestingly the ones in the game have a 10-round magazine but in the cutscenes for Chapter 2 Max's Mini-30 has a 30-round curved magazine, which then disappears in gameplay! The extended magazine itself is not usable in singleplayer but is unlockable in multiplayer so I have no idea why it shows up there.

There is some HOT DEBATE about this weapon because it may very well be a Mini-14. The outside of the Mini-14 looks exactly the same as the Mini-30 in every way except that it is chambered for a different caliber. The 30-round curved magazine in the aforementioned chapter's cutscenes would make it a Mini-14 because there is no curved 7.62x39mm magazine, but in gameplay it functions like a Mini-30. Which is it actually?






The Heckler & Koch HK21 is not an assault rifle, but there are only two machine guns in the game so I'm not going to give them their own section/post. This one is used by all of the heavy artillery members of the Cracha Preto and UFE special forces. Y'know, the "boss fights". You don't ever actually get to use it against enemies save for one tiny section near the end of the game which is pretty much a crime because it's fucking awesome. That said, the machine gun on the boat segment of Chapter 5 is a different variant with a box-fed magazine, so I guess that counts. The heavy artillery guys themselves hold the gun by the stock and somehow still manage to fire it. I dunno how that works.






The RPD is the best weapon in the game and I will not hear any opinions otherwise. It's shown up in basically every Call of Duty game ever. It's also the only LMG you actually get to use at length on enemies and it's badass as hell. Weirdly, the real-life RPD has a 100 round drum magazine, whereas the one in the game only has a 75 round one... but the golden gun version corrects this! I guess it was just a balance choice. It's too bad you only get this gun in Chapter 11 because it's seriously my favorite automatic weapon in the game.