I've been thinking about this for a while now and...is Max Payne 1 actually the best written and presented video game of all time?
It rides the line perfectly between drama and camp, the budget limitations which resulted in stuff like the graphic novel cutscenes has only made it more timeless. It's goofy, but it's not schlock. It's the perfect amount of self-awareness for a video game mainly about shooting people in the face, but it's also serious enough to make you feel invested.
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How can West even compete with him?
Criminally underrated
I'd say Alpha Centauri has better writing but since this is really a Max Payne thread
I wish 2 was better.
I wish 3 was better.
I've only recently played Max Payne for the first time, and I hated it.
The guns do peanut damage and the bullet time mechanics don't even let you dodge since your body hides where the bullets are going if you're planning to shoot back as well. The default bullet time/action shoot wasn't even configured to be different, and often times I action shot when I wanted to go bullet time. It's silly to think I needed to change the default button mapping for that.
But when I finally finished the game, something kicked inside of me. I wasn't glad that I was finished, I was sad. I realised that I just finished a good game. I missed everything instantly, the gunplay, Max's monologues, the enemies; but when I came back to go for a Hard-Boiled run, I thought it was still shit.
What other games give this feeling?
it has really fun gameplay too
shame mp3 ruined the series
>I wish 2 was better.
>I wish 3 was better.
I'm fine with both 2 and 3 never existing. Max Payne should've been a one-off game.
One of my favorite games, with Max Payne 2.
The story and atmosphere was great. It was dark. It was cold. Still unprecedented in my opinion.
Yes, MP is the best third person shooter.
It's the perfect video game story. But if we're talking about the best written, it has to be pic related.
>MP3 is bad meme
le sigh
How bad is the PC port?
It's released in PC first and foremost you idiot
>The guns do peanut damage
...what?
did you literally play the game only using Berettas, without aiming to the head?
Also, the bullet time ain't for dodging shots, but to kill everything in the house before they have time to realize you're there.
But yeah, MP is one of the swansongs of the era where a small group of FRIENDS could make a game THEY wanted to do, and make it well, thus turning into a success story. Plus, MP1 was like this "Crysis" of the early 00s with its visuals and animations.
>port
it is a PC game that was later ported to consoles, ya dork.
MP3 isn't bad, it's just not really what fans wanted.
It probably is. The only other game I enjoyed as much was Nolf
You might have some problems getting it running on a modern system but after you get through that the PC "port" is good.
>LITERALLY gimping myself to play the game with Berettas only
>when it's supposed to be Payne's trademark weapon
At least make the enemies realistic and not take a quarter of a shotgun shot to the body and still run around with perfect aim
Also hate the fact that you get lead pipes and a baseball bat as melee but you can't get close to anyone without them noticing and shooting you down
>dude makes new game after Payne and Wake
>it's shit even with CIA in it
What happened Sup Forumsros?
I guess I'm a retard.
Thanks
Sold his soul to Microsoft.
The bigger Remedy got the shittier they became.
I'd blame Microsoft, but I don't really think it was their fault.
Microsoft
its a terrible qte/tutorial/bland shooter that comes off as a bad fan fiction of the original story line. it was all wrapped up in 2 no need for a 3rd one jewstar.
The problem is Remedy themselves.
They were too ambitious for their own good, all their games take fucking forever to make and they always wants to be bigger and badder.
Max Payne 2, Alan Wake, Quantum Break; they were always trying to out-do themselves. But in reality they were biting off more than they could chew.
>Game saved
Is Sam Lake the John Kricfalusi of videogames?
Alan Wake was better
Playing through MP1 after not having touched the game in close to a decade and it's held up surprisingly well.
It's pretty hard compared to the sequel though, to the point where I'm spamming quicksave every minute because I don't want to get buttfucked by a shotgun wielding thug hiding behind a corner.
MP1 isn't that hard, it's more that MP2 is super easy.
Having bullet-time slow down more for every kill was a neat idea but it broke the game.
It's that dynamic difficulty system that buttfucks you if you're doing too good.
i cant be the only one who didn't like max payne 2? it took itself way too seriously and the whole sappy love story between mona and max didn't grab me at all. and it looks like they got a completely different model for Max (not sure but it cant be sam lake) and even his voice sounds different, like he's trying too hard to be dark and serious. then in 3 they do a 180 and max looks and sounds like sam again albeit older.
they also made it so when you jump off a building thats high enough to kill you, the camera does this shitty birds eye view from miles up and you can barely see shit. jumping off aesir tower and seeing max bounce was cool as shit
I'm actually playing the trilogy for the first time and I'm loving it. 1 kept fucking me so I found myself savescumming like a bitch every few moments. And fuck those dream sequences where you have to balance yourself on those blood trails.
Haven't gotten far into 2 but I'm liking Max and Mona so far. What I find really interesting is seeing Sam Lake's already working with the idea of the tv giving hints or parallels with the main story, like it happens with Alan Wake plus the manuscript pages.
MP 1 was all about the grizzled NYPD cop with nothing to lose getting framed and going all Hard Boiled to unmask and kill the kingpin of a corporate criminal underworld.
MP 2 was so fucking shit that I don't even remember the plot aside from Vlad being a bad guy and Vinnie being alive.
No, I don't like 2 either. Like you said it took itself more seriously and I also didn't like the changes to the gameplay.
I actually like 3 better than 2 because even though I don't like the writing the production values and tech are insane and it sort of feels like Die Hard.
Remedy forgot to make an actually good game first and foremost, and leave toying with the meta-narrative self-aware moviegame thing to afterwards.
Also, Max Payne 2 was one of the first of those games you can literally complete in an afternoon I remember playing.
I don't really remember if it actually started that irritating sub"genre" of the supershort-yet-fullpriced game, but I'm still not forgiving it for it. It felt like an expansion pack for MP1.
They modeled Max after an actor, the same guy that was in the comic book style cutscenes. I liked MP2 just in terms of how well it played and how the weapons sounded, it was a clear upgrade from the first game. The levels however weren't all that great.
No idea why they couldn't just keep the setting of the first game, then again I'm a sucker for snowy levels in video games.
Sam is a treasure.
>back on time
>cold night
>you got some coffee and a blanket around you
>playing MP1
>pic related appears
IT WERS LIKE BAGDAAD WITH GEE STRINGS
gameplay in QB was good it was just very short
I wish the sequels had more snow levels
nothing beats playing MP1 during the winter
>That dude in 2 playing Late Goodbye on the piano
>playing this back in 01
>pretty spooked by the first nightmare sequence
>enter the second, drug fueled nightmare
>walk into a dead end on the blood trails
>that wailing baby cry that turns almost demonic
3 was shit
i liked the nyc flashbacks though
nah 3 was alright. would have been 10/10 if not for the psychedelic filters and constant cut scene interruptions that were unfucking skippable
Holy fuck that cry.
That spook the shit out of me.
>cutscene
>max runs into a room filled with enemies
>alerts everyone to his location
>control is handed back to the player
I wanted to like 3 but it just did so many things wrong
>that absolutely perfect menu tune
youtube.com
Literally Feels: The Theme
That theme is perfect in my eyes.
>Max spending the entire trilogy trying to play it
>The theme song of my life
>Max Payne released 23 of July 2001
>Max will be 16 years old in few days
literally every fucking panel works as a reaction image
...
I hope Remedy does something to commemorate, even if just a video. Their videos tend to be pretty funny.
If it wasn't for Sam, I don't think Max would've been so remembered or loved. His weird expressions, the weird painted strokes look that accentuated even more the expressions.
tfw
>I hope Remedy does something to commemorate, even if just a video.
I do as well user, the trilogy is probably my favorite series of all time.
Also helps the comic how fun the writing was by the way
I should start my annual playthrough of 1 & 2 soon, thanks for reminding me Sup Forums
I will always love Remedy.
youtube.com
>1.50
What game did love as good as MP2?
I'm hopelessly nostalgic for MP1 and 2. I just get this warm feeling when I start my annual playthrough in the middle of winter. Remedy managed to channel the essence of the Finnish soul with these games.
>0:58 "Rush through time, confusing enemies"
You can bait them to run to you lol
I don't know but it certainly has the best quotes
Like every fucking thing they say in the game sticks with you
>nothing beats playing MP1 during the winter
fuuuuuck yessssss. Such good memories of playing MP at night. Windows open, pot of coffee next to me. MP atmosphere was so good. Really made me feel like I was alone in NYC at night, like I was in a parallel universe
sequel was better
>copying files to desktop
Ladies and Gentleman its the pain in the butt
Pain to the MAX!
>tfw even as a kid I knew how great the writing for this game was
Young little me was blown away by hoe cool everything sounded.
IT'S PAYNE
WHACK HIM
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present MAX PAYNE!
New York's finest with the biggest mobster bodycount ever!
>got home from shitty job last winter
>decided to play MP1 for the first time
>mfw playing it
Fuck me, I could not have picked a better game to play during the winter time. I don't usually replay games but I'll make an exception for this, it's too good. 2 and 3 were fine but they didnt give me the same feeling 1 did.
Playing it bogart.
I was quoting this as a kid but had no idea what it even meant.
>Boris can be beaten super easily even on DOA by throwing a molotov into the room he's in, running backwards, and then stunlocking him to death with the baseball bat
>beating the game on DOA sends you to a secret room where you have to fight 20-30 killer suits with low ammo and no bullet time. If you survive, you get to see photos of devs and concept art
>if you Shootdodge while low on HP, you actually can't be killed until you land on the ground
Any other neat stuff you guys found in this game?
In a time filled with badly animated cut-scenes and shitty low res fmvs, this was a fresh take on storytelling.
Did anyone else just use the baseball bat for the entire game? You're invincible while rolling and everyone is stunlocked with it
The only gripe I have with MP2's story is that Vlad doesn't have enough screentime. The final battle and his death are great but I wish he had been in the game more prior to that
My biggest gripe is that he was the villain at all, I really liked him and it made no sense for him to turn on Max.
PC audio doesn't work. Rockstar support told me to close background apps and play GTA 5 instead.
this. instead of coming up with new characters, they just used whatever was left from the first one, no matter how little sense it made. In the first one, Vlad was just some doofus, not a criminal mastermind. And why did they turn Vinnie into a literal clown. Thats just lazy writing
It was over. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark on everything that had led to this point.
I released my finger from the trigger.
All the disposable thugs can be reactions too
Reused characters makes sense since the theme of the game was deal with past. And I wouldn't call Vlad a mastermind
>Check MP3 game clock
>40 or so hrs of playtime
>atleast 11 hours was waiting for the few cutscene that you cant skip instantly
Which one is your favorite quote in MP user?
MP1
>Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Frankie "the Bat" Niagara.
>Niagara as in "you cry a lot?"
>He had a baseball bat and i was tied to a chair. Pissing him off was indeed a smart idea.
MP2
>I had a dream of my wife. She was dead...but it was alright.
MP3
>I had a hole in my second favourite drinking arm, and the only way we were likely to get Fabiana back now was in instalments.
I had a bullet with Nicole Horne's name on it. I had ten thousand bullets with the hag's name on them.
...
...
>tfw you realize the amazing heavy winter setting is really just a clever way to justify having empty streets and less to render.
Gotta love the ingenuity of old game design.
I really liked the stupid thug conversations
MP1
>Red, blue, or green?
>its always red or blue in the movies
>So, green?
>No! Not the Gre-
MP2
>But what about moving?
>What about moving? You put one foot in front of the other.
MP3
>*random Portuguese*
You can reuse them, but in a natural way, dont press them into characters that dont make sense. Also there should be new characters, otherwise its just more of the same. In the 2 Vlad is trying to take everything over, all of a sudden even having had this one guy from the first one as a mentor to tie everything neatly up for no reason
After Y2K, the end of the world had become a cliché. But who was I to talk, a brooding underdog avenger alone against an empire of evil, out to right a grave injustice? Everything was subjective. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you.
Turning technical limitations into a tool for atmosphere/gameplay is something we are not going to see anytime soon again.
>Silent hill included the heavy fog to hide the short draw distances in the city.
>Rockstar said they went to Brasil and " made various trip to the vast metropolis, while there studied the “highs and lows of city life” in order to incorporate what it learned into the game’s characters, storyline and the situations which will befall Max."
>Every single time an insult is spouted in brasilian is "Filha da Puta" (sort of a Son of a bitch/Motherfucker)
As an Argie with Huebro's it made me laugh every time
How do we save Remedy? Sam has gone full retard with his EXCITING NEW WAYS TO TELL STORIES meme that ruined Quantum Break.
There was a thread a while back where someone jokingly suggested an Alan Wake/Max Payne team-up game. Thing is that could actually work and turn out amazing since Alan Wake is all about fiction becoming reality and you could tie the two universes together pretty easily.
He Didn't want to turn on Max if i remember right, Max just wouldn't stop trying to figure the mystery out. Vlad was just after vinnie and woden
I remember also playing GTA III back then. Both of these games had an amazing atmosphere