Why Made Max Payne 1 Remains an Unabashed Classic

Remedy Entertainment belongs in the upper echelons of the games industry. The Finnish studio has cemented itself as one of the most talented and consistent developers in the industry with virtually each major new game it has put out. And though recent megatons like Control and Alan Wake 2 have obviously contributed to Remedy’s reputation massively, though it’s lineage of standout titles can be traced back to even its earliest days.

Though Remedy’s first game ever, 1996’s vehicular combat game Death Rally, wasn’t exceptional by any means, five years later, in 2001, the developer released its second project, a little game known as Max Payne, which completely changed its fortunes. Over a decade on from its original launch, the third person shooter continues to enjoy a stellar reputation and is still widely regarded as one of the best games ever made. But what exactly is it about it that has led to such enduring fandom, and allowed it to create such an enduring legacy?

Separated from its launch by more than two decades, in hindsight, the thing about the original Max Payne that stands out in memory more than almost anything else it did is its aesthetic. In the here and now, Remedy has, of course, unequivocally proven its peerless ability to not only envision a unique and unforgettable sense of style and atmosphere for each of its games, but also to bring those visions to life with the kind of confidence and coherence that’s very rare to see in creative works of any kind, especially those that are actively trying to set themselves apart from the crowd. And that all started with Max Payne 1.

In fact, so long after Max Payne’s release, its excellence in this department has become such a fact of life that many of us almost end up taking it for granted. On paper, a neo-noir detective thriller story isn’t exactly the most unique premise, but Remedy brought it to life in a way that no one had ever seen before. Yes, on surface level, it did an excellent job of portraying New York’s gritty and violent criminal underbelly, and an even better one of filtering it all through the slick and stylish lens of a noir detective tale. But it also injected those trappings with more texture and depth than many may have expected back in the day.

You see, Max Payne 1 was a much more cerebral and psychological experience than you’d expect from a hardboiled detective story. Bizarre and “surreal” are obviously words that we all associate with Remedy now, but back when we were all experiencing Max Payne for the first time, it was hard not to be taken aback by how layered its take on the traditional neo-noir detective story was. From the unique flavour injected into the storytelling by Max’s internal monologues to the standout, wonderfully surreal sequences where Max is grappling with drug-induced nightmares, the game was full of unique eccentricities that lent it an entirely unique personality. That it managed to pull that off as cohesively as it did makes its accomplishments that much more impressive.

Of course, the story itself was one of Max Payne’s brightest highlights as well. From a tortured protagonist with a tragic past to a constant stream of twists and reveals, from a standout cast of characters to a constant escalation of stakes, Max Payne spun an utterly engrossing tale from start to finish. Some might argue that its storytelling ambitions were let down by the fact that it used comic book-style panels instead of traditional cutscenes and cinematics, but on the flipside, many would say that that creative choice only served to heighten the game’s sense of style and its singular aesthetic that much more.

Regardless of which side of the fence you fall on in that discussion though, there’s no denying that there was something inexplicably gripping about Max’s struggle to clean up the streets of New York, and how that brought him to cross paths with all manner of foes, from the Italian Mafia to the Russian mob, from the NYPD to shady corporations, from secret societies to even the military. And to top it all off, you had the incredible voice acting performance of James McCaffrey as the titular Max Payne, without whom the character very likely wouldn’t have gone down as one of the most beloved and iconic in gaming history.

Meanwhile, on the actual gameplay side of things, Max Payne was decidedly less remarkable with its strengths and achievements, thanks in large part to how linear it was, how short it was, and how lacking many perceived it to be in replay value. Even so, even in this area, it managed to set itself apart in one key way- one that, in fact, turned out to form a crucial part of the game’s identity. We are, of course, talking about the bullet time mechanic. Lifted straight out of The Matrix and coming at a time when it was still a novelty, Max Payne’s bullet time was nothing short of a revelation.

A lot of that was obviously down to how unabashedly cool it looked, and how thrilling it felt to use no matter how many times you used it, especially when you threw dual-wielding into the mix. Slowing time down to a crawl so you can visibly see bullets slowly flying through the air is an excellent visual flair in and of itself, but when you add to that the ability to aim and react to enemies in real-time, it becomes an incredible mechanic. Launching Max into the air and watching him dive through streams of bullets while firing off his own with lethal precision never got boring. Not only did Remedy set out to build Max Payne 1’s gameplay experience around a unique and exciting mechanic that we hadn’t ever seen in games before, it also stuck the landing in its execution with great aplomb, with the kind of confidence that would suggest that the studio had been making bullet time games for an eternity.

In the many years since it first came out, Max Payne has built up an incredible legacy, and though it has been outdone by its own incredible successors in nearly every way possible, looking back at the game, you can only regard it with the utmost love and respect. Remedy Entertainment and Rockstar have, of course, joined forces once again, with the former set to develop a combined remake of Max Payne 1 and 2, and we absolutely cannot wait to see how the studio will revitalize and reimagine the classics that put it on the map. That would be the case even in the absence of any context, but especially at this point in time, where Remedy seems to be at the absolute peak of its powers and can’t stop putting out one excellent game after another, the prospect of a combined remake of the original two Max Payne titles seems even more exciting than it ordinarily would. And who knows- maybe the remake will be successful enough to kickstart a resurgence for the franchise? One can always hope, right?

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