I don't remember enough of the plot to make any points about the politics of the game, white savior stuff aside. The biggest problem I had with it at the time was that they got lots of non-Brazilians doing voiceovers for Brazilian characters. There was a guy, I think one of the villain's bodyguards/militia leader, who was just so blatantly wrong, to the point of breaking immersion if you're a native speaker.
Oddly enough, the random gangsters in the favela level were all legit native Portuguese speakers. It was hilarious hearing some rando shouting "pega esse gringo filha da puta" (get this gringo son of a bitch) and the like. The gunplay was fucking awesome too, I don't know what this guy is going on about.
The politics of the game actually aren't that bad for what it is. The white savior stuff is addressed, with Max himself realizing by the end the only thing he's good at is killing people and being addicted to painkillers. He fails to have meaningful relationships with anyone and even in situations where he's around normal people, it's either awkward or he's actively in a firefight. The plot mainly involves Max uncovering a scheme that a São Paulo city councilman, Victor Branco, is attempting to become mayor by paying off a fascist special police force to do assassinations and organ theft. I remember the game being pretty honest and directly calling Branco a right-winger a few times. There are also more than several points made about how the USA bullies and colonizes central and South America.
The only questionable politics I remember have to do with a dichotomy being made between good cops and bad cops, but it's a Max Payne game where a lot of the characters are themselves cops, so that's just gonna happen.
There was a guy, I think one of the villain’s bodyguards/militia leader, who was just so blatantly wrong
MP3 Spoilers:
spoiler
Not Brazilian so I can't weigh in on other characters, but Passos, Max Payne's supposed ally and friend not really being Brazilian was actually a plot twist. I think it was even specifically mentioned that the bad guys relied on Max being enough of a dumb gringo that he wouldn't be able to pick up on his Portuguese sounding off. Is that who you were talking about?
No, it was actually one of the bad guys, let me see if I can find it.
Alright, watched part of a video of all the cutscenes, and found that it was the security chief for the Brancos, Theo Becker, who really bothered me. It turns out that he's a native speaker, but just an atrociously bad voice actor, lmao
Some of the Brazilian characters are clearly not native speakers, though, but it's funny now that I remember that what broke the immersion was the dialogue not sounding at all like natural Portuguese, except for the random gangsters you get to shoot.
I don't remember enough of the plot to make any points about the politics of the game, white savior stuff aside. The biggest problem I had with it at the time was that they got lots of non-Brazilians doing voiceovers for Brazilian characters. There was a guy, I think one of the villain's bodyguards/militia leader, who was just so blatantly wrong, to the point of breaking immersion if you're a native speaker.
Oddly enough, the random gangsters in the favela level were all legit native Portuguese speakers. It was hilarious hearing some rando shouting "pega esse gringo filha da puta" (get this gringo son of a bitch) and the like. The gunplay was fucking awesome too, I don't know what this guy is going on about.
The politics of the game actually aren't that bad for what it is. The white savior stuff is addressed, with Max himself realizing by the end the only thing he's good at is killing people and being addicted to painkillers. He fails to have meaningful relationships with anyone and even in situations where he's around normal people, it's either awkward or he's actively in a firefight. The plot mainly involves Max uncovering a scheme that a São Paulo city councilman, Victor Branco, is attempting to become mayor by paying off a fascist special police force to do assassinations and organ theft. I remember the game being pretty honest and directly calling Branco a right-winger a few times. There are also more than several points made about how the USA bullies and colonizes central and South America.
The only questionable politics I remember have to do with a dichotomy being made between good cops and bad cops, but it's a Max Payne game where a lot of the characters are themselves cops, so that's just gonna happen.
MP3 Spoilers:
spoiler
Not Brazilian so I can't weigh in on other characters, but Passos, Max Payne's supposed ally and friend not really being Brazilian was actually a plot twist. I think it was even specifically mentioned that the bad guys relied on Max being enough of a dumb gringo that he wouldn't be able to pick up on his Portuguese sounding off. Is that who you were talking about?
No, it was actually one of the bad guys, let me see if I can find it.
Alright, watched part of a video of all the cutscenes, and found that it was the security chief for the Brancos, Theo Becker, who really bothered me. It turns out that he's a native speaker, but just an atrociously bad voice actor, lmao
Some of the Brazilian characters are clearly not native speakers, though, but it's funny now that I remember that what broke the immersion was the dialogue not sounding at all like natural Portuguese, except for the random gangsters you get to shoot.
haha Becker, hell yes. His bad voice acting makes him the most enjoyable boss fight imo