 | |
| Released | July 23, 2001 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Remedy Entertainment |
| Publisher | Gathering of Developers |
| Director | Petri Järvilehto |
| Writer | Sam Lake |
Max Payne is a 3rd person shooter with a crime noir aesthetic, released on 23rd July 2001. The game was developed by Remedy Entertainment who would also go on to develop the sequel Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne - the origin of Poets of the Fall.
The game features many elements that would later become staples of Remedy games, such as Norse mythology, environmental storytelling, fourth wall breaks, naming puns, narrative jumping and ventures outside of the game's core genre. Sam Lake provides the face of Max Payne but did not reprise the role in the sequel. Lake also provides the likeness of Alex Casey in the Alan Wake games, a character who is analogous to Payne. James McCaffrey voices Payne and went on to also have roles in Alan Wake and Control, providing Alex Casey's voice in Alan Wake II further adding to the connections between Payne and Casey.
Captain worked as a sound engineer at Remedy during the development of Max Payne and its sequel. Also, both Marko Saaresto and Olli Tukiainen were tangentially involved in the game's creation, playing roles in the game's cartoon story segments. Saaresto portrays Vladimir Lem, who would go on to be a prominent character in the sequel, albeit no longer in cartoon format and less resembling of Saaresto.
Remedy have been unable to officially include the Max Payne games in their Connected Universe due to the rights to the game currently being owned by Rockstar. This is likely why Alan Wake reworked the titular Payne into the non-copyright-infringing Alex Casey. However many nods and references are present that tie the company's entire catalogue of releases together, regardless of publisher restrictions. A remake of Max Payne is currently in development, again published by Rockstar so inter-game references are likely to continue to be of the easter egg variety.
Trivia
- A popular modification for Max Payne 2 replaces Vladimir Lem's face with that of Marko Saaresto as a homage to the first game.