In the past few hours the guys from Remedy confirmed that a remake of the first two chapters of Max Payne, two third-person shooter titles that have left their mark on the hearts of many players when they came out more than twenty years ago. For the occasion we retrace the history by Max Payne, from its origins to the stop of the franchise.
The story of Max Payne: the origins
The first chapter of the franchise came out, as we anticipated, in 2001, after a long development that took place within the studios of Remedy. The game originally came out only on PC, and then landed at a later time also on consoles, more specifically on PlayStation 2, Xbox e Game Boy Advanced with the help of Rockstar Games, who served as a publisher for the Finnish software house.
The plot was as simple as it was effective: the police officer Max Payne is seeking revenge for the deaths of his wife and daughter, killed by a group of criminals under the influence of a powerful synthetic drug. From this initial event a series of chain episodes are unleashed, which will see Max grappling with the criminal organization Valkyrie and then with his own colleagues, as he is framed for the death of a policeman.
The agent’s vicissitudes will lead him to make contact with the Russian mafia and with a secret organization called Inner Circle, for which he will find himself having to do some dirty work to clean up his name. Very present in this game are the references to Norse mythologysomewhat the trademark of Remedyas we have seen in recent times with Control.
In terms of gameplay Max Payne stood out for the introduction of the concept of Bullet Timeor a mode that made the game go in slow motion during the most excited moments, after filling a relative bar: a game mechanic that made school, given that we have found it in almost all single player shooters since that moment forward.
The sequels and the decline of the saga
The first chapter of the franchise was a great success, both because of the innovative solutions it put on the plate in terms of gameplayboth for the narrative structure excellently edited and narrated through comic strips; a budget compromise actually, which serves its purpose, giving the game a character that is still recognizable today.
Precisely for this Remedy I developed a sequel, which came out in 2003, but which was not enough to close the events of the tormented Max Payne, destroyed by the loss of his family and constantly pursued by an overwhelming sense of alienation. For this a third chapter also arrived, well nine years later, in 2012, which unfortunately did not meet the favor of the public, despite the fact that it was an excellent video game.
In conjunction with this factor, a film based on the saga from John Mooredirector of Omen and Il Volo della Fenice, which was a failure across the board, as historical fans hated him to death, as he failed to bring to the big screen the sensations that the game returned so effectively.
This was enough to send the saga into a stalemate until today, a stalemate that however has just broken with the announcement of the great remake including the first and second chapter of the series. At the moment it is too early to say whether or not the franchise is destined to experience a second spring, but there is no doubt that this is an excellent sign for fans who have been waiting for years.