"The consensus at the time was that people hated it."

Max Payne 3 is a bit of a strange project. Unlike its two predecessors, the game wasn't developed by original creator Remedy Entertainment, rather it was the product of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption studio Rockstar Games.

Despite that pedigree, it is seen as something of a failure - or, at least, not quite what fans wanted from the third game in the iconic third-person shooter series. And Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar, says it was his fault.

In a wide-ranging interview with IGN, Houser, who was also Max Payne 3's lead writer, recalled his experience working on the game and how it differed from other Rockstar projects.

"It was a linear game, so it was a little different from writing an open-world game, a little more structured," Houser said. "I really enjoyed that as an experience. I loved what we did design-wise, the way the game didn't have loads, the way it felt like a 12-hour movie, some of the visual stuff we did with words on screen. I felt we were creating a really cool digital noir experience, and the consensus at the time was that people hated it."

Houser is being a little harsh here; Max Payne 3 was critically acclaimed at launch. The same stylistic, tonal and visual choices many didn't like are what also set it apart from the two prior games. Indeed, Max Payne 3's mechanics remain among the series' best to this day, with smooth third-person movement and sharp gunplay that make it a joy to play over 14 years later.

"I know Sam Lake [creator of Max Payne] well, and he's a very good guy and really talented. I thought we'd done a good job of doing another Max Payne game," Houser added. "Some people liked it; lots didn't. So we got it wrong, or I got it wrong. I failed. My bit was not a success."

Max Payne 3 is seen as a commercial disappointment by publisher Take-Two, who said its "lower than expected sales" were mainly responsible for a loss of $110m (~£82,9m) that financial quarter. Houser acknowledged the lower sales in the interview, saying "it wasn't as successful as it should have been".

"So I would say a large amount of that failure was on me as one of the people making the decisions and also as the writer, when people really missed [Sam Lake]'s writing," Houser added.

Years after Max Payne 3's release, Remedy and Rockstar would be reunited on a mega-project: a remake of Max Payne 1 and 2, which Remedy said two years ago had entered full production. It is understood the remake is Remedy's next project.

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