Max Payne 1 & 2 Discussion

[Tavar]

Thanks to this thread I replayed both Max Payne 1 and 2. The first title is still great and a lot of fun, but the second one was way worse than I remembered. I took me just 4.5 hours to finish and that was 2 hours too long. The game felt padded with brutal level recycling: You visit the fun house three times, Vodka twice (and that's based on a level from the first game) and spend the entire second chapter in this rigged building. The level design is incredibly boring and the story didn't do much for me. The whole romance between Max and Mona feels out of place and malnourished. I also dislike Max's new design and the physics in the game as everything feels way to light. All in all, I can't recommend the second game to anyone.

 

[Outlander]

So, Max Payne 2 was re-listed in the Steam store today, and with a discount to boot. Maybe a mistake? MP1 still is delisted, though.

 

[Modron]

So, Max Payne 2 was re-listed in the Steam store today, and with a discount to boot. Maybe a mistake? MP1 still is delisted, though.

You sure that's just not an issue specific to your country because I see a Max Payne bundle options on that page with 1-2 or 1-3 as options to buy:

 

[Outlander]

So, Max Payne 2 was re-listed in the Steam store today, and with a discount to boot. Maybe a mistake? MP1 still is delisted, though.

You sure that's just not an issue specific to your country because I see a Max Payne bundle options on that page with 1-2 or 1-3 as options to buy:

It may have affected a few countries:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/12150/discussions/

The bundle is not visible for me.

 

[Tavar]

Max Payne 1 is delisted on Steam here in Germany (probably because it was "indiziert" for years). However, buying a steam key from a third party site worked fine for me.

 

[antimeridian]

So I finished Max Payne for the first time. Actually twice since I immediately replayed on the next highest difficulty. I had to tweak a config file to disable the adaptive difficulty on the default "fugitive" setting since it's the only difficulty available at the start and it's kinda broken. It ramps up really fast to become as hard as the highest difficulty, and dying repeatedly before it resets is not fun. Aside from the general level and encounter design being too relient on cheap enemy spawns, grenade tosses, and other trail-and error stuff. I still liked it quite a bit though. The visuals are artfully done and remain pleasing to this day, and the core gameplay is addicting despite being pretty repetitive. The overall tone is quite charming with a low-budget feel to the comic panels, thanks to the shitty filters slapped over photos of dorky-looking Remedy devs trying to portray gangsters. Not sure yet where I'd rank it among Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control, I'm a big Remedy fan and like all these titles a lot.

Got MP2 ready to go, looking forward to seeing how they followed up on the original.

 

[janior]

rofl u suck if u think mp1 is hard
mp2 is much more forgiving, bullet time is super strong there

 

[antimeridian]

It's not outright hard but it can be cheap first playthrough. Lots of enemies being in positions to oneshot you the moment you walk into a room. Or enemies bursting through a door behind you with no warning. I didn't have any issues second playthrough since I knew all the scripting, but like I said it felt balanced around trial and error the first time through.

I can already see 2 is giving the player more concessions, like being able to lie on the ground and continue firing after shootdodge. And shootdodge not using up bullet time. Hoping they made the encounters tougher to compensate.

 

[antimeridian]

Just beat MP2 a couple times. Overall a worthy follow-up, but slight step down from MP1. The new character designs for everyone are jarring but by the end I couldn't imagine them using Sam again, just like I couldn't imagine the MP2 Max model in the original game. They set the tone. The writing is (deliberately) as cheesy as before, but loses some of the amateurishness of MP1 along with some of the weirdness. But they succesfully executed what they were going for. The graphical upgrades and physics are really nice, loved having physics items fly around during shootouts.

MP2 is piss-easy since they did not design tougher combat to compensate for buffing player moveset. But the game isn't really about difficulty, it's about looking as cool as possible. It's telling that after the second difficulty level, the next one doesn't really buff enemies or nerf Max but rather limits saves per level (like the first game). Definitely an indicator that the devs knew these were savescummy games. The console versions, having checkpoints instead, might actually be incline in this aspect. The problem with the harder difficulties is that you have to focus on eliminating enemies as soon as possible, which means no prolonged firefights. But the fun comes from prolonged firefights.

Now that I've played all Remedy's major releases I can say they're among my favorite action game devs. Their games are usually linear and fairly simplistic, but have style and personality in spades and don't outstay their welcome. Control is by far their best release, though, thanks to breaking that mold.

 

[luj1]

An inclined thread started by Roguey, almost can't believe

 

[DJOGamer PT]

i've never seen resident evil being referred to as a third person shooter

that's because you're still stuck in 2002

sorry, not a fan of survival horrors

yet you like system shock

 

[Darth Roxor]

excuse me, system shock 1 is a flight sim