Timeline

The following is the timeline of Max Payne's story.

1941

• Jack Payne is born.

1944

• Helen Payne is born.

1962

• Rodrigo Branco is born.

1964

• May 12: Michelle Payne is born.

1967

• Álvaro Neves is born.

1972

• Milo Rego is born.

1976

• Helen Payne dies.

1979

• Jack Payne dies.

1984

• "Serrano" is born.

1985

• April 25: Fabiana Branco is born.

1986

• Giovanna Taveres is born.

1991

• In secrecy, Project Valhalla is launched by the U.S. government.

1995

• Project Valhalla is cancelled, but Nicole Horne continues manufacturing Valkyr as a recreational drug.

1998

• February 4: Rose Payne is born.
• Alfred Woden leaks the Valhalla files to the District Attorney's office.
• August 22: The Payne family massacre at the Payne residence, New Jersey. Nicole Horne labels it as a valkyr test subject "field test" in an "urban environment."
• Max Payne transfers to the Drug Enforcement Administration and starts working on the Valkyr case.

2001

• Álvaro Neves joins the Unidade de Forças Especiais, and sometime later becomes a Captain in that force.
• The Punchinello crime family enters a war with the Russian Mob.
• January: After getting word from an informant that underboss Jack Lupino was trafficking Valkyr, Max Payne goes undercover and infiltrates the ranks of his crime family.
• March: The heat of the Valkyr Case: Over three nights in a ferocious winter blizzard in New York City, Max Payne avenges his family and his friend Alex Balder by nearly completely decimating the Punchinello crime family and annihilating the Aesir Corporation.

Night One

• Alex Balder is murdered at the Roscoe Street Station when he stumbles upon the Roscoe Bank heist. Max Payne is framed for the murder. Although Payne is pursued by the police, he decides to go on a "nothing-to-lose" vendetta against the Mafia family he perceives is responsible for the deaths of his loved ones.
• The mobsters inhabiting Lupino's Hotel are exterminated by Payne. The Finitos and Rico Muerte die.
• The fugitive starts receiving calls from Alfred Woden.
• Vincent Gognitti is chased by Payne over rooftops and is left bleeding but alive after spilling the beans about Jack Lupino's hideout.
• Ragna Rock, the fortress of Jack Lupino, falls to Payne's attack. Lupino's existence ends when the undercover detective fills him full of holes. Payne meets Mona Sax but their romantic first date ends with him getting drugged to unconsciounceness.

Night Two

• Payne wakes up to find his skull being cracked by Frankie "The Bat" Niagara with his baseball bat. The prisoner escapes and kills Niagara.
• The defected Russian mobster Boris Dime is killed and his ship Charon returns to Vladimir Lem's control. Max Payne gains weapons for completing this mission.
• Casa di Angelo is torched, as Payne escapes the trap and ambush by Angelo Punchinello.
• The day at the Punchinello manor ends with the death of Lisa Punchinello, the Trio being obliterated, Angelo executed by Horne's Killer Suits and Payne personally meeting the Aesir Corporation CEO herself before being injected with an overdose of valkyr.

Night Three

• Max Payne survives the hallucinations and the withdrawal symptoms of valkyr and traces Horne to Cold Steel. Operation Dead Eyes results in the installation being blown to smithereens but not before Payne finds the files of Project Valhalla and realizes Horne was responsible for his family's tragic death.
• B.B., the crooked DEA agent who betrayed Payne and sold him and Balder out, meets his end at the Choir Communications garage where he and his minions find out they are no match for Max Payne's unstoppable vendetta.
• The fugitive meets Alfred Woden at the Asgard Building and makes it out of the building alive after a massive attack by Horne's units on the place.
• The Aesir Plaza, the final retreat of Nicole Horne, feels the brunt of Payne's assault. With the last Killer Suits dying around her, the female criminal mastermind attempts to flee in a helicopter, but her mortal enemy decides to topple a steel communications antenna, the tip of the scyscraper, on top of her ascending vehicle and violently end her life in many explosions which light the dark New York City night and send the crushed helicopter to its fiery fall down.

2003

• By this time all charges against Max Payne for his actions in 2001 are dropped, courtesy of strings pulled by Alfred Woden, and Payne returns to his post as a Homicide detective within the New York City Police Department.
• The Cleaner Case: A few rainy nights turn NYC into a bloody battleground as Vladimir Lem launches an aggressive, large-scale operation aimed to quickly eliminate his enemies and consolidate the power of the criminal underworld of the city under his grip. Max Payne and Mona Sax fight back and defeat Lem.
  • Mysterious hitmen posing as cleaners of the Squeaky Cleaning Company suddenly emerge as a powerful force in New York City that is tasked with covertly eliminating its enemies.
  • The NYPD Homicide detective Valerie Winterson, who secretly acts as a double agent for Vladimir Lem, works the murder of US Senator Sebastian Gates and catches her suspect Mona Sax. When the female assassin escapes from custody, Winterson goes after her once again but is killed by Max Payne.
  • The Inner Circle splits and starts its civil war. Alfred Woden and Vladimir Lem are the two opposing warring factions. Lem is winning the war. Woden is eventually murdered.
  • Italian mobsters lead by Vincent Gognitti continue to battle Lem's Russian Mob. Gognitti loses and is killed.
  • Max Payne and Mona Sax repel the Cleaner attacks, take on the offensive and crush the organization. Vladimir Lem and his remnants are cornered and killed, but Sax loses her life in the final assault.

2004

• September: Álvaro Neves is accused of orchestrating the executions of two left-wing politicians.

2005

• Álvaro Neves quits the Unidade de Forças Especiais.

2006

• "Serrano" becomes the leader of the Comando Sombra.
• The Crachá Preto is founded by Álvaro Neves and some other officers.

2007

• Milo Rego joins the Crachá Preto.
• Max Payne becomes a regular customer at the Walton's bar.

2012

• Max Payne is hunted by Anthony DeMarco, after killing DeMarco's son.
• Max Payne leaves New York City for São Paulo, Brazil and works as a bodyguard for the Branco family.