Remedy doesn’t need Max Payne anymore – still nice that they got him back

After almost 20 years, Remedy returns to Max Payne – for me in the best way imaginable: The Finns are doing a remake of the first two parts for Rockstar, which is being developed and published as a double pack. In my opinion, this sends two signals at once, which I very much welcome.

First: Remedy knows that the old neo-noir approach of the first two parts can seem a lot of effort today and that it would be difficult to tie in with Rockstar’s own third part anyway. Second, they don’t intend to modernize the game beyond the technical side, which uses the snazzy in-house Northlight engine, and beyond common quality-of-life improvements. And that’s great!

Think about it: These two titles are from a time – 2001 and 2003 respectively, to be precise – when not every game had to be an RPG in disguise full of skill trees, upgrades and side hustles. Played back-to-back, both lasted barely 15 hours together and then as over as the marriage of the average hard-boiled detective. But since Rockstar isn’t in the budget business, it’s only logical to sell remastered versions that are true to the original in a double pack at triple A full price.

That means: In all likelihood we’ll get the undiluted straight-ahead shooting again, which brought a whole new, violent elegance to the screen with the cinematic bullet-time effect. Not more. But above all, no less, because inflating these games with excessive upgrades and collectibles would not do them any favors.

Max Payne – that’s simply an exercise in metaphorically pregnant monologues and in shooting through glass panes in slow motion. A short analysis of a rushing group of enemies, bullet time on and a continuous fire camera pan later, it’s quiet again and time for the drunk hero’s next spell. That’s all it needed back then, and if you’re serious about doing the games justice, then you’ll leave it at that. And for heaven’s sake leave it at Max’s face in the first part, which looks like he just realized that going to the toilet will take longer again.

Because remakes like this are not made to win new fans for a series, but to give people who played the originals the most inviting opportunity to still experience their favorite titles today. In a graphics and handling that you can look at without doubting the choice of your hobby.

And there’s something else that makes me extremely happy that these are “only” remakes: Remedy no longer needs Max Payne, and a real sequel would feel like a drastic step backwards for this studio. After a wonderfully weird and surprising game like Control, I want to see anything but a return to something as simple as Max Payne.

The good guy had his time and I’m only too happy to let it come to life again with these new versions. But Remedy has only just launched its own connected gaming universe, putting the events of the Oldest House-based Federal Bureau of Control and Alan Wake’s adventures in the same timeline. It’s a strange, exciting world with a ton of potential, and I’m incredibly curious to see where this ongoing continuity is headed. The possibilities seem limitless – you couldn’t really say that about Max Payne 20 years ago.

So I take the remakes for what they’re meant to be: the welcome, polished memory of a simpler time. And after that, I’m looking forward to the wacky frontiers Remedy will push with Alan Wake 2 and the rest of the Control-verse.