Reticles : Always White - Will keep the reticle consistent and will not change in any situation, such as being over an enemy and going red.
Kill Indicator : Off - You will not be able to see the reticle change when killing an enemy.
Outline Pickups : Off - The small outline on guns and such will not be displayed.
Target Slowdown : Off - You will have to manually keep aiming with no assist.
Golden Gun effects : Off - Because they are pretty OP and make the game easier.


To get closer to the original layout and increase the difficulty, you can rebind Aim, Crouch, Cover and Sprint to anything in the keyboard, like numpad, so you can't use them at all. Regarding cover and some sections where after cutscene you are thrown into it, you can just shootdodge or walk back to detach.


For maximium loyalty,

Roll should be assigned to Space.
Bullet time to R.Mouse Click.
Shootdodge to L. Shift.


Bullet Time FX : Off - Because there's already too many flashy effects going on.
Contrast and such can be tweaked at heart's content, but I'd suggest a high level of that and less brightness for a more dark image.


No matter the level, always play in Old-School difficulty if you have unlocked it (You can do so by finishing the game on Hard or Hardcore)

No Last Stand : No second chances. Die on the first misstep.
More Bullet Time : It will regenerate much faster when attacking.
Less enemy damage, but they are much more agressive : They will seek less for cover in some levels and do their best to kill you by either flanking you or going lone wolf.
Painkillers are less efficient : They regenerate only half of what they would.

Also I don't reccomend to use the cheats if you have unlocked them because it defeats the point of this all, but do as you wish.

You gonna see this screen a lot.

Enemies will be more dangerous, Max will have to always keep moving and reacting quickly to what happens, there is no cover to take a breather at all, painkillers are to be carefully used and managed, your shooting must be very accurate with little room for mistakes and in general you will have to run and gun like an absolute ragnarok of screw you and die. Plus some visual changes so you can keep focused on the battle.

If you are going for an Arcade Run, I heavily reccomend you to use the Noir filter for no reason but because it's cool , Lone Wolf A.I to make enemies hate your guts , further increasing their aggressiveness in combat, and for even more challange, the Headshot Only modifier. There's also the old Max skins, which are basically the Gameboy Adv, Max Payne 1 and Max Payne 2 's model. It's purely cosmetic.

If you are doing a New York Minute run, you can also use the old Max skins here as well which are a nice touch.

And, for maximium , traumatizing payne in the butt, you can attempt to play with these settings New York Minute Hardcore, which is basically the same but sort of an Ironman Mode.

If you are naive enough to try it, then good luck sir.

No really, good luck. You are going to need it.