Here’s some news that genuinely caught us off guard today: Remedy is going to remake third-person shooter classics Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
The remade Paynes will be distributed as one package, and aren’t likely to be released anytime very soon: Remedy says that the project is in “the concept development stage.” For now, it’s just cool that Remedy was able to get the go ahead on the project, which wasn’t a given. Rockstar, not Remedy, controls the Max Payne intellectual property.
According to Remedy’s announcement, it approached Rockstar with the idea of remaking the games, and Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser was “thrilled” by the idea. Rockstar is funding development of the remakes, whose budget will be “in line with a typical Remedy AAA-game production,” says the studio. No surprise: Remedy plans to use its Northlight game engine, which was most recently seen in Control.
The first Max Payne game released a couple years after The Matrix hit theaters, and was the first game to really nail the slo-mo gunplay popularized by the movie; that influence can also be seen in its grimy New York levels, especially the subway station where it begins. The story is nothing like The Matrix, though: It’s an ultra-melodramatic noir thriller about an ex-cop out for revenge, and it delivered some of the most memorable videogame quotes ever; think True Detective, but turned up a few notches. I don’t know about angels, but it’s fear that gives men wings.
Max Payne was also notable for its physics, which were pretty groundbreaking at the time: I spent hours just running into buckets to make them fly around. And, of course, it’s known for Max’s face: A grimacing photo of Remedy creative director Sam Lake plastered onto a low-poly head. I think we all hope Lake models for the remakes, too. He hasn’t changed much.
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