Today’s game is Max Payne. I went ahead and figured out how to renable the Developer tools again and was just playing around with it. Remedy games are always the most fun to do this with because not only does it let you get out neat screenshots (like the one above), but theres some interesting things to be found out of bounds.
With having played the game before, i’ve taken to just exploring and watching the environment. Max Payne has some of my favorite ambient areas with the snow. I didn’t grow up with it, but something about it is just really pretty looking and nice to just chill and watch. So far this has been my favorite spot to watch. It’s right next to the fire barrel above and the ambient noise is nice to listen too.
I had a clip of me just sitting there watching it but i didn’t realize my mic was on so i can’t share it.
I went and sough out a close up of the rats wandering around the map to get an idea of what they look like up close. I did a similar thing in Halo 3 so i wanted to get an idea here too. Funnily enough they’re pretty close to me, at least on a surface level. I guess at the level of fidelity you don’t really need Rats to have a high polygon count.
I got as far as taking the elevator up before the game crashed as soon as i left it. I’m not really sure what the crash was because its been pretty stable so far. My last save wasn’t too far off though so i just need to load it up again and take the elevator back up before continuing.
Remedy are doing a connected universe, kind of like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. People are calling it the Remedyverse. They’ve started blending their IPs into each other, even IPs they no longer own like Max Payne and Quantum Break (where they just change the names pretty much so “Alex Casey” becomes “legally distinct Max Payne”). It’s very cool and really comes to its head in Alan Wake 2, which really is enhanced quite a bit by playing the other Remedy games in order first.
Max Payne 3 isn’t bad at all - it’s a very tight 3rd person shooter. It’s just that it was made by Rockstar and not Remedy (Rockstar had bought the IP after Max Payne 2). So Max Payne 3 doesn’t really “feel” like a Max Payne game. It’s still a good game though, I just kind of wish it was independent of the Max Payne franchise.
I think it mostly just didn’t feel like a Max Payne game because of the setting. Not New York? Not Max Payne.
Gameplay wise, it was definitely on the right track; and in a way - I remember it fondly as was the last time Rockstar seemingly experimented with game mechanics ahead of incorporating them into the next GTA game.
That’s part of it sure, but it just… doesn’t feel right. Someone else pointed out how it is almost an “alternate universe Max Payne 2” with how it feels narratively like a more follow-up to the first game than the second. It also just has a very different tone and style in the writing. It doesn’t have that Remedy vibe. Everything from the characters and main story to the TV bits, which feel very different compared to Lords and Ladies and Adress Unknown.
It’s by no means a bad game, and the action bits are awesome. It just doesn’t feel like a Max Payne game to me.