3 years earlier, on August 22. 1998, Max Payne is a regular NYPD detective just finishing his work. His longtime friend, DEA agent, Alex Balder, invites him to abandon his post as a NYPD and join him and transfer in the DEA, but Max declines the offer, wanting to focus his full-time on his wife, Michelle, and their newborn daughter, Rose. As he returns to his house in New Jersey, he finds a trio of junkies has broken to his house, addicted on a brand new designer drug, Valkyr. Max rushes to aid his family and kills the junkies, but is too late, and he finds his wife shot, and his daughter slaughtered. After his family's funeral, Payne accepts Alex's offer, and transfers to the DEA at his own request to stop the spreading of the drugs.