Mass Effect 1 – Mako Segments

Mass Effect’s first outing laid the foundation for what would end up becoming one of the most beloved sci-fi RPG trilogies of all time, but even those who swear by the franchise will tell you that the Mako segments are easily the game’s most off-putting mandatory sections. On paper, cruising across alien planets in a six-wheeled all-terrain tank sounds like a thrilling opportunity to explore strange landscapes and uncover hidden secrets. But in execution, the driving experience turns into a bumpy nightmare in the face of weird controls and awkward handling. The Mako handles like a bouncy toy through and through, ricocheting off the slightest hill and sliding around at every slope. It also doesn’t help that most planets you explore are barren with little variety between them and the enemy encounters presnet within. And when mission objectives force you into these segments repeatedly, it becomes painfully clear they were more ambitious than polished. They can break the narrative flow, drag the pacing down, and leave anyone dreading the next time the game says, “Time to deploy the Mako.”

Jak and Daxter trilogy

To break away from the linear storytelling in prior triumvirate Crash Bandicoot, Naughty Dog developed a new graphics engine capable of rendering seamlessly connected open environments rife for joyful exploration for their Jak and Daxter trilogy. Ostensibly a third-person action platformer, the series also featured excellent combat and movement mechanics underpinned by the Eco system – a substance that can dramatically enhance player abilities; move sets which became increasingly complex and satisfying as the trilogy progressed.

Max Payne

Max Payne raised the bar for cinematic action in video games, appropriating the style of John Woo’s gun fu movies. Of course, we can’t talk about Max Payne’s innovativeness without referencing its bullet time mechanic – an ability to transform shootouts into slomo bloodshed. Max Payne’s bullet time was clearly indebted to The Matrix, and whilst it wasn’t the first video game to feature bullet time it was the first to do it with such effortless swagger.

System Shock

The ways in which System Shock was ahead of the curve are numerous: it’s exploration of prescient themes centring on artificial intelligence, transhumanism, ascension, and the human soul is still grimly thought-provoking; its physics engine revolutionised how objects act in 3D spaces; its morally grey antagonist grounded its fantastical setting; it’s emphasis on player choice and options to avoid combat via ground-breaking hacking abilities. System Shock is an all-time classic, inspiring Prey, Dishonored, Portal, to name a few.

Outcast

A fully explorable open world appearing two years before Grand Theft Auto III isn’t why Outcast is ahead of its time. No, this 1999 sci-fi cult classic delivered immersion by the bucketload, far above anything that had come before. NPC conversation was integral to the narrative, but each had daily routines to follow, opinions on each other, and opinions on you the player. An early example of a reputation system, NPCs will help or hinder you based on how well you’ve treated them. Enemy soldiers are progressively weakened by lack of food or resources too, the result of activities you complete for the leaders of each region.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Much like Outcast some two decades prior, Red Dead Redemption 2 set new precedents for immersive open world story telling. It’s gorgeous grassland plains, swamps, and misty mountaintops encouraged horseback exploration; fast travel was not the optimal way to get around. Rockstar deliberately culled the pace of Red Dead’s sequel, stuffing the open world with a smorgasbord of side activities and random encounters. Open world games released today are struggling to reach the levels of freedom Red Dead Redemption 2 presented.

Mirror’s Edge

Flowstate is a remarkable thing when it happens in games. The sense of body and mind working in tandem, fluidly, uninterrupted. Games had toyed with parkour before Mirror’s Edge but none elicited the serene flowstate Mirror’s Edge did. This is in large part to its first-person perspective, it’s almost texture-less clean lines and minimal, distraction free colour palette switching between bright white and bold primary colours. Dying Light comes close, but the innovativeness of Mirror’s Edge is tough to beat.

Metal Gear Solid

An absolute genre-defining masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid changed perceptions of what video games could be via its unashamedly cinematic approach to storytelling, it’s ground-breaking stealth gameplay, and ingenious fourth wall breaking shenanigans. Never had a video game toyed with the player as much as Metal Gear Solid; etching Meryl’s codec frequency into the game’s physical CD case, or – most famously – the Psycho Mantis battle requiring players’ switch controller ports to evade his mind-reading ability.

Shadow of the Colossus

Originally released in 2005 at a time when video game contingent was still debating if the medium could be considered art. Contemplative, bleak, beautiful, befuddling Shadow of the Colossus put that contest to rest via minimal storytelling told ostensibly through environmental puzzles masquerading as boss battles. There really was nothing like it at the time. A wholly unique experience with an ending, like some of the world’s greatest art, wide open to interpretation.

Red Faction

Remarkably ground-breaking for its Geo-Mod technology was Red Faction. It’s incredible how much destruction developer Volition managed to build into its gameplay, and whilst there was a multiplayer component to the game the single player campaign was treated to this bar-raising destruction tech too. Players could reshape the world around them with unparalleled freedom. See a locked door? Blast a hole in the surrounding rock. Want to infiltrate a guarded building? Fashion underground tunnels with rocket launchers. Prior games included scripted destruction, but Red Faction was the first to grant players pure unscripted world-altering capabilities.

Shenmue

Sure, Shenmue’s stately slice of Japanese life divides fans and critics to this day, but the developer’s ambition for what they hoped would become a sprawling series was certainly ahead of its time. Introducing the concept of open world game design to mass audiences (well, Dreamcast players at least), Shenmue heightened immersion through its day and night cycles, NPCs with jobs and routines, and dynamic weather. The interactivity inherent in its detailed world cemented Shenmue as a trailblazer too, ranging from mundanely examining the objects of a kitchen drawer to hitting the arcades for some vintage game time.

Prototype

Prototype’s Alex Mercer is the perfect anti-hero. It’s as simple as that. So many powers and abilities are stuffed into his skillset that there was no more powerful a feeling possible in games than raising utter carnage in downtown Manhattan and barely feeling a scratch from an army desperate to stop you. In blending shapeshifting, superhero-esque aerial acrobatics, offensive and defensive body augmentations, thermal vision, guns, tanks, and helicopters, Radical Entertainment risked Prototype being a sludge of mechanics. Instead, Prototype is a blast; combining so many combat mechanics seamlessly truly was an achievement ahead of its time.

Battlezone

Never had a game merged first-person action, real-time strategy, base building, and tank simulation as cohesively as 1998’s Battlezone. Whilst the similar-in-scope Uprising: Join or Die released a year earlier it didn’t have the same sense of finesse that Activision’s effort exuded. Battlezone dripped in atmosphere, featured dynamic missions inside an engaging dual-perspective campaign, and – crucially given its melding of disparate genres – a sleek interface innovative for its simplicity.

RAGE

You can debate until you’re blue in the face on the memorability of RAGE. It brought legendary developer id Software back from the brink of mediocrity, but it’s shooting, premise, enemies, story – all middle-of-the-road at least. A solid 7/10. RAGE though had an ace up its sleeve: megatexturing. This tech wasn’t new at the time, but thanks to game engine id Tech 5 RAGE’s environment artists were able to build in an endless stream of unique textures. Dynamic scaling based on PC capability kept the game running at 60fps too; another feature prevalent nowadays but none-too-common back in 2011.

Syndicate

1993’s Syndicate put you in command of four trenchcoated, mirror-shaded cyborgs undertaking a corporation’s nefarious dealings via the trigger of a minigun. Gameplaywise, you’d take to the streets – early examples of living cities – to assassinate, coerce, rescue, or destroy, depending on your objective and whims. There was intelligence beneath the bloodshed too, a satirical mirror exposing the tunnel vision of rampant consumerism. Grand Theft Auto took these themes and ran with it, but Syndicate was the first to do it.

Far Cry 2

If Far Cry 2 were released today, it might be criticised for an overly minimalist approach to open world game design that’s become much more commonplace than it was back in 2008 when it originally released. Thing is, it’s Far Cry 2 that arguably started this trend. A true pinnacle of emergent gameplay, zones aren’t acquired like a shopping list and NPCs don’t tend to function as quest givers. Instead, it’s up to you to head into the bush a cause your own trouble, but beware as guns often malfunction, exploded vehicles cause rampant bushfires, healing is strictly limited. Far Cry 2 had the confidence here to blend FPS with survival mechanics, with Metal Gear Solid V, Fallout 4, and The Forest to name a few taking many leaves out of its book.

Silent Hill 2

Dealing with mature, taboo, brushed under the carpet subject matter in such visceral ways; intrinsically linking a character’s innermost desires and torment to gameplay, to monsters encountered; in crafting an atmosphere so noxious it chokes you – these are all reasons why Silent Hill 2 is an ahead of its time masterpiece, and stands the test of time some 22 years later. In a way, Silent Hill 2 is experimental; for one, its story is told extremely subtly. A very hands-off approach which many developers, plus Konami themselves, haven’t learned from.

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?

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

McCaffrey was best known for his role as Max Payne in Remedy Entertainment’s Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, as well as Rockstar Games’ Max Payne 3. He collaborated with Remedy Entertainment on a number of other titles over the years, voicing Alex Casey in 2010’s Alan Wake and its recently released sequel Alan Wake 2, and Zachariah Trench in 2019’s Control. 

Though McCaffrey did not reprise his role as the titular protagonist in the Max Payne movie, he did make a cameo appearance.

Remedy Entertainment is currently working on a combined remake of Max Payne 1 and 2, though it hadn’t been officially confirmed whether McCaffrey was set to return in the lead role. The remake had moved into the “production readiness” stage as of the end of October.

RESIDENT EVIL

We quite like the idea of a survival horror game that takes place in a large and open setting and offers the freedom of an open world game. The Evil Within 2’s semi-open world sections, for instance, are among the game’s highlights. But Resident Evil most certainly isn’t a franchise that should veer in that direction. The level design is always a core pillar of any new Resident Evil game, and navigating the series’ trademark settings with their meticulous design is always a massive part of the experience. Going open world would dilute that massively, to say the very least. Resident Evil Village’s hub and spoke did, to be fair, boast more open ended design on a macro level, and yes, the game was better for it, but we wouldn’t want to see a Resident Evil game trying to take that design philosophy to its absolute extreme.

System Shock

System Shock is widely considered to be one of the best immersive sims of all time, and while the original still has an irrefutable charm to its aged gameplay – the game would undoubtedly benefit from a full-fledged remake. Thankfully, Nightdive Studios is working on just that – and the project looks really promising with completely redone visuals and smoothed out modern gameplay. System Shock remake releases for all major last-gen and current-gen console platforms and PC in March 2023, and those wanting to get a taste of the experience can try out a demo through Steam right now.

Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3 might as well be the sendoff for this genre-defining series, and it’s a depressing send-off for sure. The flame that breathes life into the once glorious kingdom of Lothric has faded away into ashes, sending the entire world into a spiraling descent to madness and turning them into lifeless Undead. The champions of the land like the Abyss Watchers and Aldrich have also turned into a shadow of their former glory, and the player embarks on a destined quest to once again link the flame and save what little is left of this kingdom. You literally start off in the cemetery, waking up from your own grave – which is made all the more depressing thanks to the game’s muted color palette and melancholic orchestral soundtrack.

While this was initially thought to be just secrets, Remedy has now revealed that these games are part of a larger universe, rightly dubbed the Remedy Connected Universe. While the only two confirmed games within the universe are Alan Wake and Control, almost every game by the developer somehow fits into this overarching universe – intentionally or not. With Alan Wake 2 slated for release next year and Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes on the horizon as well, it’s the perfect time to dive into this maze of connections that all collectively form the Remedy Connected Universe.

The baseline for this universe was established with 2019’s Control, so let’s start from there. As fans of the game might already know, Control sees players controlling Jesse Faden – a woman who’s on a quest to find her long-lost brother Dylan and uncover the truth behind the mysterious entity called Polaris. This quest leads her to the FBC headquarters, where she is promptly chosen as the director of the institution all while an otherworldly plague known as the Hiss has invaded the building’s premises. Keeping further plot details aside, Control is all about this organization that deals with the supernatural events which the game calls AWE or Altered World Events. Things that bring about these altered world events are called Objects of Power, and they can be anything from a flamingo statue to a slide projector to a well, you guessed it – a typewriter.

This is where Alan Wake fits into the connected universe. You see, Wake’s typewriter is actually considered to be an Object of Power – which combined with some magical properties of Cauldron Lake, makes the works of art created there somehow come true. Control’s DLC expansion AWE establishes even more connections between the two games, such as revealing that Alan’s wife Alice had been visiting the offices of FBC to talk about Alan’s sudden disappearance in Bright Falls. The FBC was, of course, well aware of the strange happenings in Bright Falls and the run-in of the Dark Presence with Wake – and had even nominated him as a prime candidate for the position of director.

According to Control‘s optional documents, FBC had also conducted an extensive investigation of a possible AWE in Bright Falls back in the 70s, when the famous poet Thomas Zane suddenly went missing, but the investigation never reached a definitive conclusion. During the end of the DLC chapter, fans are also teased of a future AWE set to happen very soon in Bright Falls – which we are assuming directly relates to whatever Remedy has in store for Alan Wake 2.

Another solid connection between the two games is Night Springs – a TV show dealing with paranormal activities that players can see throughout Alan Wake. As it turns out, Night Springs is actually produced by none other than the FBC – in an effort to normalize the supernatural for the common people. What’s more is that Alan is said to have written multiple episodes of this TV series, one of which seems a direct nod to the events that take place in Control. Fan theories suggest that Control and FBC may actually be all a part of a story that Wake might be using to somehow climb out of the Dark Presence – although that’s something we will get to know in the upcoming Alan Wake 2.

Control protagonist Jesse Faden found the Slide Projector object of power in the town of Ordinary, which kickstarted an AWE leading to a sudden disappearance of all the adult population of the city. This town of Ordinary connects Quantum Break to the RCU, as players can actually see multiple references to the events of Alan Wake and Control through graffiti and notes scattered around the game. Furthermore, an optional cutscene in Quantum Break shows Will Joyce preventing a critical miscalculation in a time-traveling experiment, which leads to a massive power outage in Ordinary. These are all loose connections and probably wouldn’t be built upon with future games from the developer, since the rights to the Quantum Break IP reside with Microsoft and not Remedy.

Then there’s Max Payne. Since that was the developer’s first proper game (if you exclude Death Rally), there wasn’t any concept of a connected universe, so the game doesn’t have any bespoke connections with Alan Wake or Control. However, we do know that Alan Wake was the author of a neo-noir drama by the name of Alex Casey, which saw an undercover cop exacting revenge for the death of his loved ones. We see a couple of pages of this novel during one of Alan Wake’s early sequences, which match the script for Remedy’s breakout success. Between this and the appearance of Sam Lake in an in-game interview, the original model for Max Payne being the model of the protagonist in Wake’s novel – we can more or less come to the conclusion that the events of Max Payne were indeed fabricated by Alan. It’s possible that we see more of these connections and references fleshed out with the Max Payne remakes, but given the fact that the Max Payne rights are owned by Rockstar and not Remedy – one shouldn’t expect these connections to be further expanded upon even if Max Payne as a series returns with a new entry in the near future.

Remedy also produced an Alan Wake spinoff in the form of 2012’s Alan Wake: American Nightmare, but the game is believed to not be a part of the canon universe – and apart from a mention of the town of Ordinary, there’s little to no connections of the game with the connected universe. Lastly, there’s CrossFireX, whose single-player campaign was developed by the Finnish developer itself. While the game’s narrative still touches upon similar themes such as time travel and supernatural elements, the game seems to be taking place in its own separate universe with no connection to the developer’s other titles – except for the odd mention of them through secrets and whatnot.

This connected multiverse wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Poets of the Fall, a Finnish alternative rock band that has provided music for most of Remedy’s games. The band has appeared under several aliases within the games such as Old Gods of Asgard – and has provided excellent tracks such as the likes of Take Control in Control and Children of the Elder God in Alan Wake alongside tracks like War that are credited with the band’s official name in Alan Wake.

To conclude, Remedy Connected Universe is an interesting premise, and one that the developer has been slowly and steadily building towards. Given how distinct of a style Remedy has perfected with so many of its games over the years, it kind of makes sense for them to have some sort of solid connection to each other. Fans are going to be treated with a ton of related information in the near future, thanks to Remedy’s upcoming releases which include a sequel to Control, its multiplayer spinoff Condor, 2023’s Alan Wake 2, and full remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2 built using the Northlight Engine. 

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Max Payne 1 and 2 Remakes

Announced very recently as a collaborative effort between original developer Remedy Entertainment and publisher Rockstar Games, the Finnish developer is working on full-fledged remakes of the first two Max Payne games using its in-house Northlight Engine. Given the massive popularity of this IP, it seems fair to say that expectations and anticipation for the two games are very high. The two remakes are still in the early stages of development, and fans will have to wait a bit before they get a chance to play them in all of their high-fidelity glory.