In 2001, I was 13 years old and Max Payne’s grimace in marketing material for the game MAX PAYNE looked badass and the Xbox? It looked even more badass. MARIO KART? Hell no I wanted man in leather coat dive into rooms and shoot people game.
It would take about a year for me to secure an Xbox on my birthday and for a while, I had SEGA GT, JET SET RADIO FUTURE and HALO. I already had a job working retail in a local pharmacy so I was getting my own money and eager to spend it on games for my shiny new system. All it took was for me to go to GameStop and for a disaffected employee to sell me an M rated game way before I was able to do so. Thank you, bad employee!
I was already familiar with the mechanics of the game because I had played the demo on one of those Xbox Magazine Demo Discs. What good times. Did you know those magazines were only like $8?? And you got all that content?? Anyway, I had played the subway level and was in love with the “bullet time” function and the ability to dive around like a total lunatic. As a fan of THE MATRIX at a young age, this game clicked with me. But to play the entire game? What a rush. To this day I don’t know how I was able to complete the game on the hardest difficulty. I wouldn’t be able to do that now!
Popping MAX PAYNE in again and playing those opening levels still brings me back to that moment in my life. A simpler and quieter time when video games were comically violent and time wasn’t something I needed to keep my eye on all the time. I didn’t have obligations eating away at my free time. Sigh.
Anyway, Mitch and I have decided to rewind time and tackle Remedy’s earlier series, MAX PAYNE. We are no strangers to our noir-soaked hero as we previously podcasted about MAX PAYNE 3 which you can listen to HERE.
MAX PAYNE was the work of a young team embracing 3D technology - to make 3rd person action games like TOMB RAIDER but with good controls. The tank-like controls of Lara were frustrating even in those early days for players no matter how great the game was.
While they shot for a 1999 release year, the game was pushed back until 2001 which made it seem like they ripped off THE MATRIX with the “bullet time” mechanic. The game was in development with that idea before the movie arrived but instead of fighting comparisons, Remedy embraced them.
Obviously MAX PAYNE was a success on PC and the home console market. The sad thing is we never saw the Dreamcast edition get released as the console was shut down as MAX PAYNE was about to be released. All we have left is like 240p video quality of that build:
MAX PAYNE laid down the framework of what we would see later on from Remedy as well in terms of building their own game engine (MAXFX for this and later NORTHLIGHT) and just storytelling devices. The meta TV shows to the surreal Lynch-like dream sequences, this is still what you see in games like ALAN WAKE 2.
Enjoy the new episode and let us know what you think! We will be tackling MAX PAYNE 2 next and even though that’s a short game, you can see where Sam Lake’s writing style began to grow.
Share this post