00:00 - Intro 02:33 - Pre-Production 07:41 - Gameplay 15:51 - Story 23:45 - Conclusion/Credits Written, Voiced, and Edited by Lucas Raycevick Support the Channel at: / raycevick Tweet Me @Raycevick
exactly! Brilliant writing. And that's why the third installment sucked balls - they changed the damn writer. Who ever wrote first and second Max Payne was a genius
@@AldoApachi- the dialogue wasnt too great but the overall concept was really good. After everyone that died under his protection he was just done and had it. Didnt want to be a "hero" anymore but secretly he always wanted someone to kill or shoot at. That is why his "sense of duty" is just starting to seem like an excuse, like something he just had to do because he wanted to. He could easily have walked away and be over with it but he kept coming back with all these false sense of directions, thinking hes doing it for the good but in reality he doesnt know what hes actually fighting for. Time moves forward, but nothing changes. Only the people around him.
Same man. Had fucking nightmares out of it when I was eight. But its a good thing I suppose, because afterwards, I grew interested in Berserk, Vampire Hunter D, and the rest of its dark kin
@@someorclad9738 The grittiness of this game took me aback when I first played it. I was particularly unsettled by the junkies muttering "I think I died....I think I'm dead...."
I got the game when I was 13.... sad but back then I was a R rate shit so don't effect me much... Dead space... that is some shit I can not handler....
*They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark of everything that had led to this point. I released my finger. And then it was over. To make any kind of sense of it i need to go back 3 years. Back to the night the pain started.*
Max survives the dose of V because he has been taking prescription drugs the *entire* game. You feed them to him each time his health is low. Max is, most definitely, a drug addict. Just not the drug addict the fan theory implies. That is what leads to him having a higher tolerance for other drugs, such a V. If they both work on the same part of the bring, I.E. opiod receptors.
Corey Carnes fan theory is shit. No matter the indivuals tolerance, no one would be able to take painkillers so often without OD'ing. Its just a gameplay mechanic, dont think too much about it.
@@showxxxtime No he is not an addict and there is no reference to addiction at all in the first two games. The third one is just a spinoff shit and should not be taken as canon. The whole painkiller thing is just part of the gameplay, nothing more.
@@hutvagnerandras2194 I think that’s a fair point. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they miss. I just hope for full-blown remakes like this that Halo Anniversary becomes the format where the old art is still an option.
Damn, this video brought back a lot of memories. I love how Sam Lake puts Twin Peaks references in almost all of his games. Max's duality, freaky dreams, and the pink flamingo TV show is Twin Peaks! Once again this video is great. Good job Raycevick!
Dohn JoeYeah man, For its time it's a masterpiece of a game. The over all film noir aspect that was a mix with almost Dick Tracy comic book story telling, which I believe the sin city movie kind of ripped of a few years later was great. Plus, That blend of English Gangster, Americain Italian Mafia and 1940-esc feeling character development , and the Matrix slow down's along with gameplay that is the gun's Akimbo action perfectly goes together. the game industry should have a funeral for games like this, their gone forever. That baby scream is fucked, always gives me cold sweats.
I was 13 years old, it was 1am on a cool summer night, and I had been shooting with Max for hours while the rest of my family was asleep. I was alone. The final mission gave me chills as the thumping music propelled me forward. The harmonizing vocals echoed endlessly through the sound of gunfire. Even though I had to keep the volume low on my TV to prevent waking up the rest of the house, I felt every step, every bullet, every moment. That is why I love this game.
What makes Max Payne and Max Payne 2 so great is that Sam Lake *truely* understands Film Noir. While most of the more superficial elements of that genre are present (the "hard boiled" detective, the twists and turns in the plot, the varied and colorful villains, the damsel in distress/"femme fatale") - it's turning the setting, the ever-beset-by-blizzards "Noir York City", into a main character of sorts that truely makes Max Payne and Max Payne 2 masterpieces !
Quick trick, you mentionned bullet time and Shootdodge being assigned at the same button. You can assigne two different commands in the menu for each action, it's just not by default like Max Payne 2. Trust me, it will make the whole gameplay easier and cooler ;)
I remember seeing some screenshots in a game magazine back then, I was blown away by the graphics and the faces, also the fact that you can see the bullets fly in real time was absolutely mind blown back in the days.
Shit man, I downloaded the game demo back then and I didn't know what to expect.. after playing it I was so mind-blown I just played it all day long, even if it was the demo. I was like 7 years old, lol.
Good to see there's still some love going around for Max Payne 1. It's oozing such style and likeability from its weird development cycle that really sets it apart. Its sequels just don't have the same kinda vibe. Also about bullet time while standing still, I never had that. Bullet time for me is on shift, while the bullet dodge is on right click. Max Payne 1 is best fite me bois
Turbo Button Max Payne 1 is the best but I always consider the second game to be a worthy sequel. I don't like the third one, it's more like a Die Hard game than a Max Payne one. His character isn't following the first two naturally, it's just feels weird. Anybody could be that game's protagonist and it would almost be the same. Not only that but they ruined the second game's endings, even if they told us that his adventures weren't finished with that. It's not canon in my standing.
I can understand the charm from Max Payne being it's key, but personally, the sequel was my favorite of the trilogy. I'm excited to see how or if my views change with these games like they did for Halo and Mass Effect.
whats your thoughts on Remedy as I'm totally a fan boy of theirs since Alan Wake and then Quantum Break came out. I really admire the story telling and with Alan Wake its made me want to location scout Oregon and Washington State with a flashlght. I've never had a game immerse me so much as Alan wake did.
I don't know about y'all, but as much as I love this game, when I was a kid, it scared the shit outta me. The tweakers in the bathroom stall, laying on the floor, talking to themselves. So high that they don't even notice people around them "I... I think I died" "The flesh!" This game was so ahead of it's time.
I'm no New Yorker and I also have that fantasy, whether it stemmed from Max Payne or Sam Raimi 's Spiderman films, who knows, but I expect to be sorely disappointed by how much 20 years have changed the city. Any New Yorker would like to chime in and corroborate my thesis?
lol depressing. I was in high school. They sent me the game early. It was amazing. Man I feel old as f-ck now. Using the Max Payne Mouse pad right now.
And speaking of people who were used as actors for comic panels: Vladimir Lem was played by Marko Saaresto - Sam Lake's friend, who later on has become leader and singer for a fantastic music band Poets of the Fall. Their first song was none other than Late Goodbye for Max Payne 2. Beside that, the band also plays a huge part in Alan Wake - they make cameo, you can hear their single War on a radio, and they are the ones who gave the voice to Old Gods of Asgard. I can only hope this fantastic and creative friendship never fades away.
So first time you've played Max Payne was in 2010.? That wasn't long ago, i remember playing it in 2001. And it was mind blowing, everything was completely out of everyone's expectations. Still to this day, some gun mehanics and physics are way better than in average shooters, especially story, which is probably my favortie storyline of all time. Great review though!
Thank you for uploading this. A week ago, I asked myself, "Whatever happened to Max Payne? How come people forgot about that? It had everything-- the story, the music, the gameplay, the characters, the overall dark atmosphere. People need to know its uniqueness." I had to play all 3 games again for that feel and man, most modern AAA games don't have that same feel anymore: 1st one got you gripped into Max's taste for revenge as well as uncovering the truth of a major drug company, the second one has you feeling pain (no pun intended) that could not move on from the 1st as well as uncovering the mysteries behind old friends while the 3rd one (which some people agree is the least likable story due to the absence of the graphic novel cutscenes but still a great plot nonetheless) has Max finally "moving on" from his dark days only to realize his demons would come back to haunt him and us witnessing his on-going struggle against his own depression. The gameplay just kept on improving as the series went on-- every encounter really felt like a John Woo/Matrix moment. And then there's the music; my God the music of the trilogy was so good, it could rival any Emmy Award-winning musical scores. It's one of the most underrated video game series imo and I feel like it deserved more recognition than what the trilogy got. Once again, Raycevick, thank you for opening up this topic. This is why I love your videos. May you never change for the worse.
I'm gonna guess the whole cheeky hiding spots is due to them, idk, knowing you're coming to pepper them with dual Ingrams. I mean if you were to be hunted down, that's what you'd do instead of standing in the middle of the room. But I agree those spots were irritating at first
This was one of the first games I ever played on PC and one of the few games I ever actually completed as a kid. It's probably nostalgia speaking, but I absolutely loved this game and the second. Such a great breakdown of one of the most iconic protagonists. Great video, as always. Definitely looking forward to the imminent videos on the sequels.
I feel the same way! I remember the nightmare lvl where you had to follow the blood trail maze through some dark abyss and just hearing the baby scream like crazy at random times. I would always mute that lvl cause it scared the crap outta me as a kid. Did you not like Max Payne 3? I though it was going to suck but after playing all the way through it turned out to be a good game and imo better than Max Payne 2.
I just love your channel. There's nothing on youtube quite like what you channel offers - the voiceover is just so nice to listen and the format is of highest quality. You offer so much background on the game development and it's so captivating. I just want to say thank you for the amount of effort you put in creating vids like these.
It made me so sad when I saw G4 years ago of what it turned into. Reruns of Cheaters, Cops, and other nongaming shows and movies. I've heard G4 was better when it was called TechTV, but I still miss shows like old X-Play, CinemaTech, and other shows that I can't remember the names of.
+LOUDcarBOMB TechTV was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better before G4 bought them and ruined them! I mean, really, say what you will, but the ScreenSavers was better then Attack of the Show ANY day. Even X-Play was better before G4 mauled it.
+LOUDcarBOMB TechTV was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better before G4 bought them and ruined them! I mean, really, say what you will, but the ScreenSavers was better then Attack of the Show ANY day. Even X-Play was better before G4 mauled it.
thank you for the videos to binge on, you and the act man have brought back many games lost from my childhood back to light it feels awesome to remember these games and realize that people loved them just as much as i did
I've been watching every one of your videos for the past few days because the unbelievable amount of nostalgia they give me. I seriously cannot put it into words. You make me want to call my brother and talk about all these games I used to watch him play because I was too scared or bad at it. I used to watch him play everything and have him beat certain things for me when I couldn't. Now he doesn't really touch games and I'm super passionate about them. I'm definitely going to recommend your channel to him. Keep up the amazing work!
@@talpatv512 Overrated or not, it was the main thing that introduced bullet time to American audiences, and was a huge inspiration to how the mechanic came to be presented.
@@ViveLRoi "american audiences" yeah. The thing is... I'm talking about the world, bullet time was wayy before matrix. It just did it better. But still very overrated. Just a cheesy tipical 90s movie with uninteresting and too badass charaters
@@talpatv512 1) the matrix is fantastically written, whatever not my main point. 2) the game was obviously influenced by that movie which can be seen by 2(!) lobby levels taking heavy visual cues from the design of the iconic matrix scene
@@QuietWookie they start to develop max payne way before matrix . And bullettime and other features was invented before that. You can thank Jhon Woo for that.
though the part where after you dive and get up automatically and open yourself to being killed, yeah that's all true. Max Payne 2 and 3 fixed that though.
Am I the only one who genuinely thought the writing was good and loved it? In any case, absolutely loved the series, even though I would disagree with most and say the first game was the superior one. Aesir Corporation's building and the final face off against the helicopter are so much more memorable than Max Payne 2's ending.
I always remember the line where Max talks about psyching himself up to assault Aesir by going to an all night diner and choking down coffee and stale donuts. For some reason, I can't really imagine many video game protagonists doing that, and it tied in well with the setting. Reminded me of exploring the cities I've lived in at night during blizzards and how isolated you could feel among thousands/millions of people. Trying not to sound like a 2008 Gaming Thinkpiece here, but I always remember that line as a really humanizing thing.
I'm so glad by this new wave of gaming youtubers that do a serious job with so much depth. And I'm also glad I stumbled upon your channel. Amazing work with this video. Subscribed!
I have watched a lot of your videos now and I have thoroughly enjoyed them all. Thank you for putting in the long hours and hard work to bring these documentaries to life. I am thankfull that you have been able to do these because it's great to see videos like this that really shine a light onto games I have enjoyed over the years. Thank you for your work, best of luck with your future projects
I must say watching your videos and growth has been amazing. That intro was just so dam beautiful, the change in voice and video to give that older grittier feel was so fuken awesome I loved it so much! But of course I can not compliment enough the editing of interviews, transitions, the quick joke here and there. It all flows so nice and beautiful I really cant critic anything you do as I am just so immersed and into the narrative throughout the whole way. Which brings me a quick point I must make, the narrative is always smooth and beautiful because you avoid repetitiveness and not using words such as "like" every other dam word. As a non-native english speaker, I dont understand how some people butcher the way talk when abusing words such as like. So before I make another book long comment in you feed, I want to conclude with this.....as a fan you have beyond entertained me, as a patreon supporter I love being part of your support that helps give such a talented individual the chance to make masterpieces like this, and as a friend I could not be more proud! As always much love bro, keep it up!
The depth to wich you took this review is amazing. I subscribed at the sixteen minute mark, thinking the video was just about over, only to find that there's 12 more minutes. Keep up the good work, man.
man, this game was all me and my friends talked about when it came out! years later I'm still amazed that I can play Max Payne on my phone now, complete with cheat codes so I can have a fighting chance on those cheap, camper enemies! great video!
Bro I profess my love to your channel(s) you just don't know how much I love taking retrospective looks in to my passions. I can't wait to argue with your opinions and views, I just love this type of stuff. please don't stop too it seems like every good retrospective games series on youtube stop
Great video! Been a fan of May Payne from the first hour and still come back to it every other year to play it through just another time again. It's just a bit hard to get it to run on newer OS. Thank you for this one!
I still play max payne to this day and love the hell out of it, it's one of those gems I think that no matter how much time passes it's always going to be great.
A beautiful documentary. Max Payne is my favorite game franchise and to be honest, i felt blessed coming across content like this. You sir, have earned my sub.
Wow, great analysis! This brings back a lot of memories. I was in my late teens when Max Payne was released, and the awe for Matrix's slow-mo action a couple of years before hadn't waned. I remember when a Finnish game magazine "Pelit" started to follow the development of Max Payne, way before it's release. I was blown away by the pre-production screenshots and talks about the bullet time mechanics. The graphics looked unreal and reading about the developers visions for the game, it was hard to comprehend just how it all was to be implemented with the technology at hand. You got to remember that back then, games were taking huge technical leaps and Max Payne looked like something out of this world with it's particle effects, physics and high quality textures. I have to agree that at times it felt like you were peeking behind the sets of the game and realised just how simple it actually was at it's core gameplay. Sure, sometimes it was frustrating too and like you said "cheap" but nothing could detract from the overall impact, and I was blown away the first time I played Max Payne. Consequently, I played through the game many times after that and even when I already knew the plot twists, I enjoyed the overall mood and the fluid gameplay. It just feels like you're in the middle of a 2000s action movie, mowing down bad guys left and right! I'm proud of this Finnish game company, and I'm glad that I got to experience it's beginnings first hand. Death Rally was a great little game too and I wish I still had the original boxed copy, but it's long gone I'm afraid. Anyway, thanks for the video! Although I felt you were being a bit harsh at times, I guess it's just a realistic depiction of the games shortcomings. When you put the whole experience in the context of early 2000s gaming though.. Man what a game!
@@peavn1680 Thanks for asking. I played it for a few hours but somehow it didn't feel quite right. I mean, it's a good game I guess but it doesn't feel like Max Payne to me. The protagonist felt overly nihilistic, and kinda sad. The original Max Payne character was also nihilistic but in a better way, if that makes sense. I wasn't too fond of the setting, and the story either. I didn't get attached to the cast of characters. I also got a bit irritated by the constant cutscenes, that seemed to drag on for too long. After saying that, I'm pretty sure I'll get around to playing it again, and maybe completing it this time.
I was actually playing Max Payne when the planes hit the towers. No shit. For some time I thought this is the most lame thing to answer to the question "where were you when 9/11 happened?" - "playing a game". But then I realized that it's kind of an epic answer to say "I was virtually in NY with Max Payne" :)
I can't remember how many times I've played this game. Max Payne is one of my all time favorites. It's always installed on my computer, It's just perfect for me
As a kid, i spent countless of hours on Max Payne 1 & 2, they were amazing and still are, i just recently played them both again and i was stunned at how well it had preserved, sure the graphics are early 2k's but it didn't bother me when the gameplay was absolute diamond still.
Fantastic episode. I played this game for the first time around the same time you mentioned and while I haven't gone back to it, I most certainly did not forget the experience. Despite the dated visuals, the action was still intense and the story was gripping. After watching this video I think I need to go back and play through the game again.
When it comes to replaying my older games from back in the Day, the original Max Payne still delivers in spades. Bullet time was just one of the most cool video game concepts ever. That and the reaction deaths were just satisfying.
One of the best games of all times. Still love it, still love the music from it (Poets Of The Fall - their vocalist is also featured as Vlad Lem in all comic strips), still remember those first moments of pure joy 16 years ago, and still replay it sometimes. Thank you for this reminder.
Within a day of each other: Raycevick uploads a Max Payne video Digital Foundry uploads a DOOM DF Retro episode The Geek Critique uploads a Metroid Prime episode Dear god people, I have shit I have to do.
Damn brought back some good memories! At the time I was around the age of 12 playing this and I love how gritty the game was. The comic panels, the story, the level design, it was an amazing game.
I'll be eagerly waiting for those then. Max Payne is that one series I haven't played but still have immense respect for. A part of that comes from the fact that it was made in my country, which is strange to me... The only other franchise I *know* was made here in Finland is Angry Birds, a brand that I wish would just shrivel up and _die._
every point you made i agree with completely great video. also from looking at early level designs and playing through the game I noticed the early character models were bigger so you can kinda tell which levels are older because they all have huge doors, max is at shoulder height to the doorknobs