It’s never easy taking over an IP from somebody else. Especially when that IP is so iconic. Luckily, Rockstar Games is the sort of company who rises to a challenge and rarely lets us down. Although Max Payne has been in development for what seems like an eternity now, the closer we finally get to launch, the better and better it looks.
I recently caught up with Remedy Entertainment, the original creators of Max Payne (and now Alan Wake) who sold the franchise to Take Two in 2002 for $US10 million dollars and a motherload of shares of TTwo stock.
After playing a bit of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (which I quite enjoyed) Remedy’s head of franchise development “Ozz” Hakkinen and I got to talking about other things. One of those things was Max Payne 3.
I asked him what he thought about what Rockstar has done with Max Payne. I mean, Max Payne 2 came out almost 10 years ago and Remedy has not been involved in the development Max Payne 3 nor has series writer and creator Sam Lake. Yet, none of that seemed to matter. His answer was simply one word. “Brilliant.”
“We absolutely love what they’ve done and couldn’t be more proud of where the series is headed”
“I mean, they don’t really make shitty games, do they? It’s as if the Rockstar logo has become this, “Seal of quality.”
I agreed, but it was at that point that I brought up Manhunt and we shared a laugh. Everybody gets one Rockstar… everybody gets one.
So Rockstar Games, if you’re listening, keep up the brilliant work!
D.C.
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 1:43 PMThat’s good to hear. A little support from the original creators usually goes down well in calming worried of fans.
AzizCat
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 1:53 PMEven so, I’d rather wait for reviews.
Shane
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 1:59 PMSadly unconvinced. I am still excited by this game, but am utterly committed to waiting to see how it reviews.
Shannon
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 1:59 PMManhunt was an amazing game. Maybe pervertly graphic, but such a unique experience.
Simon
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:06 PMI agree, the only thing that I disliked was its brutal difficulty. The game itself was fantastic.
Josh
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:06 PMYeah Manhunt wasn’t a bad game by any stretch. It was quite a uniquely original game.
Weresmurf
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:18 PMAgreed. Had they said Manhunt 2 maybe I’d agree.
NegativeZero
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:07 PMSo have they shoehorned in an unneccessary open world setup between the actual game bits again? Because the Rockstar name is far more associated with that to me than any sort of ‘seal of quality’ or whatever.
Gleno
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:41 PMLike in R* Table-Tennis where you have to walk to the shops to buy some phone credit … no?
When has there been an unnecessary open-world segment in a R* game?
If you don’t like open-world, you don’t like open-world. That’s all. It doesn’t mean any open-world segment is unnecessary.
I’ve never cared much for Max Payne, but am starting to get caught up in the hype of this game.
AerintheADEQUATE
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 4:59 AM“I’ve never cared much for Max Payne, but am starting to get caught up in the hype of this game.”
You, sir, are their target audience.
Meteors
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:08 PMYep, another Manhunt fan here! Brutal!
Joshy206
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:18 PMIt does look pretty cool, but would have been better if me or Chuloopa were in it. :P
mchaza
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:19 PMDifferent developer has me optimistic, but its looking good tho, I dont know what Rockstar Studio is working on this, Toronto wouldn’t be that bad, I believe they made the Warriors which was an awesome game, which has me unworried about it not living up to the standard set by the first 2.
Stu
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:52 PMLots of people bitch about the change of developers, but I agree with the article – Rockstar very rarely make mistakes. Red Dead Redemption wasn’t their original property, and look what they did with that.
I’ll be waiting to play it before making any judgements.
bennie
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 3:17 PMI got my pre-order for Christmas.. can’t wait!
Frank Woods
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 7:49 PMNow “Midnight Club 3″, that was an atrocious game. Could not be released at a worse time either! (Around the time NFS Underground was hitting the shelves if I recall correctly?)
Jake
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 9:25 PMWhy would Remedy slag Rockstar here? They have a heap of TakeTwo stock as part of the Max Payne deal. If Rockstar made a giant steaming pile of poop, as a major stockholder they’d almost be obligated to say it was carmel nougat with rasberry sauce.
I’m reserving judgement here until the game ships. Also, call me a naysayer, but I’m not a huge fan of Rockstars games. They are fun and well put together, but I’ve never seen anything “brilliant” from them.
AerintheADEQUATE
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 3:37 AMThis isn’t surprising at all. Even if the thing is a festering pool of bile you wouldn’t see Remedy saying anything negative about Rockstar or the franchise. It wouldn’t make sense for them to do that.
If the next Halo trilogy is terribly disappointing you’re not going to see Bungie bashing 343/Microsoft or the Halo franchise. :-P
As far as Max Payne 3 itself goes I’m sure the actual gameplay will be at least passable if not good but as far as the storyline and ‘staying true to the character’ goes? Yeah, I assume I’ll have to skip through cutscenes and pretend it’s a Stranglehold spinoff…
fgsghs
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 6:20 PMManhunt wasn’t a failure, it was a critical and commercial success that was accompanied by controversy which only drove more sales.