I saw a beta mod where the painkillers were red and the plastic bag was black and also the lighting in the game was alot darker is this what the game was actually supposed to look like prior to rockstar london picking it up?

No. It was retexture. Not that good imo.

Ah, ok wasn't sure because I know it was originally supposed to have way better graphics than what actually came out

Not necessarily better graphics, But more levels & weapons with environmental executions + innocent victims to prey on.

Yea I heard there was supposed to be a level where you actually kill Danny's wife not sure where I read that I also stumbled upon an artstation page of guy who did the concept art for manhunt 2 and asked him about the original ideas not sure if he will respond or not but fuck it I saw he does answer questions about rockstar vienna though because a bunch of people were asking him about max Payne 3

Yeah, at the end of Domestic Disturbance level. It was cuted out. Whole topic about his family was censored and taken out. His children played bigger role in orginal game rather than be some hallucinations in ghosts. And it was one timeline orginally not retrospective levels. His home wasn't burned in ghosts. Unused watchdogs dialogue hinted that they set it up on fire while searching for Danny in his home.

BTW: Max Payne 3 is the greatest game that Rockstar ever created. My personal all time favourite. Manhunt franchise and Max Payne are the pinnacle of gaming imo. Remedy lost it's touch or maybe they were just lucky but neither of their other IP stand even close to Max Payne.

Yea I can imagine why a level where you kill your wife and kids would be taken out although that would've pushed boundaries no game ever has or would also never played max payne 3 played 1 and 2 the original max payne is definitely one of my favorites 2 seemed rushed

So you're missing the best TPS ever created. Gameplaywise nothing stands even close. Story is great, characters are great, third MP is diffrent than first two, less personal and has a lot of symbolism (like that happy retired cop or some certain vietnam war veteran hobo). They achieved noire in enviroment that noone ever would thought of. Insane amount of details. The last trully great single player non open world game imo. I come back to this game from time to time like a great movie. Timeless.

I'll have to check it out speaking of the rockstar vienna guy I was talking about apparently max payne 3 was supposed to originally take place in russia which would've been more fitting for max payne imo but I still gotta check out max payne 3