“There are no choices. Nothing but a straight line. The illusion comes afterwards, when you ask "why me?" and "what if?". When you look back and see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or forked lightning. If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you, it would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions.” - Max Payne
@@plompudu2529 foster slugs (from a smoothbore) are accurate enough to ethically hunt with at 75-100yds and a rifled slug barrel with good sabots can push that to 150-200yds which is pretty respectable and at the limit of skill for alot of casual shooters. that is to say, at 200yds most people's limiting factor is talent and practice not ballistics. your max range figure seem irrelevant. like how far can you lob a ball by shooting your gun at the sky? the correct answer is; don't try this at home... a slug will have dropped nearly 4ft after flying 300-400 yards and ground out if shot on a normal trajectory. birdshot will slow down even faster. that said shotgun shells don't just dissapear at 60ft. they remain quite lethal for quite a while, and a quality shooter can put them on target at respectable range
At any range under 25 yards... well, there's a reason Germany wanted them declared a war crime in WWI. To which the US simply kept using them because the asshole using indiscriminate chemical warfare doesn't get to cry when his side gets dealt with via slamfire
Funny you mention that, Max Payne is about him going through his own Ragnarok. There is a line in the game (my favorite line in anything ever) where he says: “After Y2K, the end of the world became a cliche. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliche when it’s happening to you.” And the fact that you said that, I wonder how on the money you were about Max Payne being about his own personal Armageddon occurring.
@ totally. All these elements of differing end of the world myths being included in the game. Fire. Losing his mind. Intense snow. Losing his family and bonds.
That’s the point of the story. Max is his own worst enemy, and he knows it. As much as I’m not the biggest fan of Max Payne 3 in terms of presentation or story, it wraps around to this point kind of, and Max more openly acknowledges it.
@@SomaCruz500 I might be giving Rockstar too much credit with this idea but I'd like to think that MP1 and 2's stories are told purely from Max's subjective perspective, how he'd like the world to be rather than what it is. The last act of Max Payne 2 is called "Waking Up From The American Dream" and Max Payne 3 is all about him living in reality (well closer to the real world anyway) instead of the over the top comic book world I'm sure he'd rather be in. The 3rd game deals with real world issues like organ harvesting, and corrupt police forces (UFE while fiction is based on the real world BOPE unit) instead super solider enhancing drugs and an illuminati group which is why there are no nightmare sections in MP3. He's not a poetic cool noir hero, he's a cynical alcoholic and a loser. Now most of these you could just chalk up to different writers and studio handling the material and that's why it's so different but if I wanna connect 3 to the first two games, that the interpretation that makes the most sense to me
Personally still partial to 1998. Half-Life, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, Starcraft, Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Thief, Resident Evil 2, Parasite Eve, Turok 2, Battlezone, Commandos, Unreal, Grim Fandango, Starsiege: Tribes, Descent: FreeSpace... There's no end to great or influential games that came out that year.
The rain beat down outside. It was twenty minutes from closing time and my clock was ticking. Last call. I felt like I hadn't slept in years, but her voice brought me back. "Have you been helped?" "I've been helped by so many people throughout my life, and I let them all down. A lifetime of failures shattered like a broken mirror, my own reflection staring back at me a thousand times." "Sir, this is a Chili's." "I'll have some lemon pepper wings and a beer."
With all the norse mythology, wouldn't your colleague Mr Balder also be such an allusion (and not just a lame pun on his hair style)? Baldr's death is, to understate massively, a pretty big deal in norse canon.
Yeah, there's definitely something there. Baldr is the god of love, among other things. He's killed by Loki and sent to Hel, where he's stuck, which causes Ragnarok to happen.
Another interesting point, with the whole Norse Mythology thing, is that you pointed out Alex Balder's surname, but it's been speculated that it's a play on Baldur/Baldr, the Norse God of Light. Might also be his death that plunges Max's journey into deeper darkness. He was the last guy that Max really trusted.
12:34 that's actually one of the most realistic parts of the game. Shotguns in video games are usually portrayed as having unreasonably wide spreads. The spread in MP1 is much more accurate to how normal shotguns are IRL
12:22 Against common belief, a shotguns pellets are designed to stay clump together and hit 1 target with multiple hits. Also, if you have slugs instead of pellets, it’s just one piece that can fly like any other bullet. Thanks for coming to my TED talk
@maxderrat You absolutely MUST do Max Payne 2. After MP1, Sam Lake took an actual class in writing and refined his ideas so much. He attacked the fatalism of Max's existence and the endless hell of his life. MP2 is a relentless deconstruction of the first game and tragedy-porn tropes as Max beats his fists against the cosmic horror of being a hardboiled video game cliche and tries to become an actual person with actual will. It's perfection. Closest thing to a David Lynch video game that will ever be made
After the Y2K the end of a the world had become a cliché. Everything was subjective. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you. - Max Payne
I was so blown away back in 2001 or 2002 when I downloaded the demo. I was a little kid of maybe 7 or 8 years and I couldn't stop re-playing the demo over and over.
There is a sad, eerie and charming irony of this video of a game with cool callbacks to Twin Peaks shows up in this day. Thanks for all the dreams and nightmares, David Lynch. Only lucky men can be privileged of having a sunny and beautiful day as well as a beautiful night full of stars as witness of one end. 🙏 Keep up the good work, Max! ⭐⭐⭐⭐
You know what's interesting about you releasing this video on the day we lost Lynch? The last time a death hit me as hard as this one has, it was James McCaffrey. There's an element of mystery to that which Lynch himself would have pondered over.
Before I knew who David Lynch was - Rest in Peace - the vibe I got from Max Payne when I first played it back in 2002 was Paul Verhoeven. Namely, RoboCop in how in mixes the violence, macabre and tragic with the absurd, satire and over the top nature that balances the experience out into something palatable
the mixture of serious and goofy tones is also present in the Nochnoi Dozor ("Night Watch") russian movies from 2004, it's a bit part of why they work and are so enjoyable. i don't know why western movies can't seem to pull this kind of style off
the nightmare sequence is still burned in my brain. tracing the bloodtrail of my infant child while the screams echoed in the background were truly haunting.
@@jcaesar19871 Typical birdshot has less range than buckshot. Smaller pieces are in the shell so they have a bigger spread than what's in buckshot. I really don't know if there's any difference between what you'd use to hunt a dove and 'waterfowl' shells...
@ 'back in the day' in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Ravenshield you could play matches using a shotgun with slugs as your ammo. Instant kill across the map
Sam Lake, the Finnish Kojima. Edit: 12:21: You’d actually be surprised by the range that pump-action shotguns can go up to. Buckshot has a range of 45 yards, and slugs have been known to go around 100 yards.
I played through this again recently as an adult and the coolest detail I noticed was the narrative device of the storm. As the game progresses, the storm outside gets stronger and stronger and Max consistently makes remarks about it. It's symbolism for how much his rage is growing as he gets to the end of the rabbit hole. At the very end of the game, just as Nicole Horne is about to escape in her helicopter you shoot the supports for the tower at the top of the skyscraper and the winds from the storm knock it over and kill her. It's pretty brilliant setup and payoff and a masterclass in storytelling in general, let alone in a video game.
Max understood larger fraction of human psyche and turned yellow from unimaginable power. Saitama from One Punch Man went bald. Others didn't have so much luck...
Vladimir Lem is my favorite. He said my favorite line in the game, "Whatever you did or did not do, I'm sure you had a good reason for doing it." I still use it to this day.
I'm only 0:46 seconds in, and I'm already digging your voice acting. We usually just hear your calm, monotone professional video essayist voice. Big ups for experimenting with dramatization (for all I know you've done this before, as I've not watched ALL of your videos... big ups anyway).
I just finished replaying the game for the first time in a long time. It's brilliant. I completely forgot about that meta section about the graphic novel and the hud menu. I am also hoping that the remake keeps the nightmare sequences frustrating. I loved it.
I never would have thought of David Lynch having influence over one of my favourite video games. I was saddened to hear of Lynch’s passing and was thinking about Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. I came across this video and went down the Payne rabbit hole. The music in this game, grittiness, noir elements and Nordic influences are what made it unique for me, though the surrealism and otherworldly nature of its story create a unique feeling like how Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Pi’ does for the audience. I love this channel. From the Manhunt video, Mulholland Drive and heart of darkness deep dive. This is what television could never give us
Bit of a stretch with that video title. Max Payne is pretty iconic within the gamimg world for being incredibly deep and meaningful. It's kinda what most people remember about it. So yeah... Odd thing to title the video.
MAX PAYNE, GO PAIN OR GO HOME. MAX PAYNE, A WORLD IN PAIN. MAX PAYNE, FEEL THE PAIN. MAX PAYNE, TOO MUCH PAIN. MAX PAYNE, STOP THE PAIN. MAX PAYNE, CANT TAKE THE PAIN. MAX PAYNE, THERE'S SO MUCH PAIN. MAX PAYNE.....Max?.........oh no MAX!!!
You should play Asura wrath It’s a short deep game and it’s very fun. It’s like a playable anime. And it’s made by capcom And bloodroot has a deep story too, and no one talks about it
I need to catch up on some of your recent vids, but I'm glad you're covering Max Payne since news of the remakes of dropped and it's of the few games that don't normally have a deep dive analysis covering the many themes and plot elements of the game, something which most of your videos are famous for.😉
I would love for you to analyze Max Payne 3. It's surrounded by false consensus and is INCREDIBLY misunderstood. There's a lot more subtext with Max and it's essentially a character study. It still hasn't received the praise and recognition it deserves and you won't find a single video essay showing it's unacknowledged qualities. I know you could do this game justice. Max Payne 3 deserves the same spotlight as RDR2 and GTA IV.
It's a fun game and I think its reception has softened over the years, but it's still missing the surreal mythology of MP1+2 and is way more on the nose with its grit.
The reputation it garnered at the time was well deserved. It's just that hardware developments have solved most of the issues that originally crippled the experience, most importantly the ridiculous loading times but also the overall performance. Nowadays only the different feel to the character and story remains. And that you can easily appreciate for what it is, when the gameplay and set pieces are exceptionally good and technical issues don't get in the way of enjoying it.
I think Max Payne 3 is better than Max Payne 2 because the combat is a lot more interesting and there's more variety. Max Payne 2 is kind of disappointing and has not aged well at all. The bullet time is so generous you never have to dive attack and can kill everyone in slow mo, the whole game is a joke except for that obnoxiously difficult sniping section.
@@romaliop The bad reputation it garnered was completely unwarranted. You had people saying it was disconnected from the previous games and that it wasn't noir, that it ruins the ending of the 2nd game which is bullshit because grief is a cycle, that it ruined Max's character because he doesn't speak poetically anymore even though he's aged 9 years and is 47 years old which if you don't know people tend to change as their life goes continues, the list goes on. Some idiots even seem to think it's a cover based shooter. It deserved better and it irritates me that to this day it still hasn't gotten the appreciation it deserves. And we still haven't had a TPS that can hold a candle to that game 12 years later.
Ahem EXCUSE ME you’re not going to mention how Quantum Break (which is now de facto part of the Alan Wake and Control universe) also makes the Max Payne games mean more in retrospect?! It’s so underrated! I’d love to see your take on the QB story!
Awesome video man ! I recently dug out my PS2 to play this and Max Payne 2 again, such nostalgic games for me, I was probably too young to be playing them and didn’t fully get the themes and ideas present, this really made me want to play them even more !
That intro sequence was something else. I can still hear goon yelling "shut up" and the pistol report as Mrs. Payne screams. I guess that's why I beat the game the second day I had it.
Awesome video. I need to go back and play Max Payne 1+2 but I really loathe those nightmare levels. The thing that really freaked me out as a kid when I played it at like 10 years old though, was the junkies you find in the shithole apartment buildings you go through. Their psychotic muttering, talking to themselves, and the way they screamed when you shot them scared TF outta me.
Max Payne has a very special place in my heart. It really captured the vibe of noir and action movies that I was (and still am) a big fan of. It's also the first game I ever modded, and a big step towards becoming an actual game designer. I still occasionally listen to 'Lords & Ladies' for the lolz and nostalgia.
I always loved playing games, but since I didnt speak english growing up, it was really just for the visuals and gameplay. Max Payne was the first game I played that had both dub and translation in my language, so it was the first game story I experienced. I think its the reason I enjoy game narratives so much today. I was too young to have played but Im so glad I did
I love how we’re basically the same age, and played the same games around the same times lmao I remember being that young and playing these games. It made me love horror, things that were dark, gritty, and dealt with heavy topics. I had a rough life growing up too, so I feel like on some subconscious level I could still relate at a kid while not fully comprehending why at the time. Im also Autistic, so I wonder if that plays a part in it. You know how it goes with topics of interest and rabbit holes. Horror and dark messed up things was one of those for me.
Alex Casey was an early name for max payne during development. The Casey beer is a nod to that. There’s a great janky sketch of him with a sick ponytail too
To be fair, with Vlad quoting The Godfather, that was because his character saw himself as a gentleman gangster and he was doing a deliberate pop culture reference. Also Alex’s last name is a Norse mythology reference, as are many other names in the game.
Recently I also returned to Max Payne, and those nightmare levels gave me goosebumps, mostly because of my younger memories when playing with my older brother. And what about that dreaded scream when you fall off from the bloodlines?! I honestly had to mute it at some point. Nonetheless, it was great revisiting Max Payne! "After Y2K, the end of the world had become a cliché. But who was I to talk, a brooding underdog avenger alone against an empire of evil, out to right a grave injustice? Everything was subjective. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you." Another great video, Max! Keep up the good work 👍
I remember Max Payne fondly. Half-life, Max Payne, GTA Vice City and Marfia, I played them between 98 to 2002 (maybe 2003). It was peak gaming for me. I played them at the right time in my life for them to have a huge impact. I don't think any game ever will come close to having the same impact on me. Fair I don't play many story based games anymore, now it all multiplayer, comfy games, city builders and roguelike. 🤷♂ Stories are left for movies and tv shows.
It's crazy that this video came out when I just started playing max payne 3, but in all seriousness this is a great series especially in the gameplay and story department, even though the third game is not exactly like the other two it still retains the character of the series at least, Rest in peace James McCaffery you will be missed.
11:26 I think comics or comics inspired media can also be absurd the serious like this too. In DC comics you can have a Chimp dress like Sherlock Holms investigating the murder of prostitute and have that not be the weirdest most surreal thing you've seen today.
Hey Max, I’ve been a fan since your SH2 Red Squares video. I completely agree with your goal of using video games as part of education and the way you analyze them and other media is the same way I like to. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone else that feels the same way so that we can discuss and work our way to a new understanding of the art and all the real world benefits that could yield. I have plenty of friends that like talking about games but no one that enjoy analyzing them as deeply like we do. I’m sure I’ll meet others along the way that are like us in this regard but until then, you are the person I relate to. Your work is what I was craving. Thanks, Max. You also got me into reading Carl Jung books which completely changed my life for the better. For that, I’m eternally grateful. Hope you’re having a good day, Max!
Ok so I'm NOT crazy for thinking Punchinello saying, "I'm beyond The Words" was important. I always assumed that he had (via Valkyr) broken through the fourth wall and was "beyond the words" of the comic book. Similarly to how Max breaks the fourth wall after being drugged (acknowledging aspects of the game, weapon slots, health bar, etc.)
Only two things I want to add: - The mix of serious and comedy is a Rockstar trait for sure. Playing through this game gives me the same vibes as Grand Theft Auto 4. - That shotgun was a sniper, but the effective range for 12 guage (even buckshots) isn’t exaggerated lol. You can hit targets up to 100 yards maybe 150 yards and the spread isn’t going to be any wider than a beach ball. Most games just make the spread exaggerated for the sake of balancing lol.
Looking forward to playing the Remakes. I can't wait to see Ahti being the janitor at Max's building giving him the 667 password listening to Late Goodbye in our love it yellow walkman. Will we find some Alan Wake Alex Casey novel on a bookshelf?
I don't know if anyone mentioned this already but the other reference to Norse mythology was Alex Balder. His death is what led Max down his own Ragnarök. The death of the Norse god Baldur is what triggered Ragnarök in Norse mythology.
I recently discovered your channel and loved your Deus Ex breakdown so much. I thought “I’d love to see this guy do another childhood fav of mine - Max Payne” THANK YOU BROTHER - POPCORN TIME
You have to make a video about AWII, is an alchemical, esoteric and mystical madness It's the best modern game to understand what it means to create and develop his own mythology.
Writers often refine their story over time. "Oh, I didn't get it right with my first take. The feed back definitely put something in perspective and I wish I did it differently" etc.... So Alan wake may be more of a refinement of the same story as to an attempt to create a universe. Or the writer could be trapped in his story trying to get it out or he can't think past a couple of themes so he has repeating narratives. Idk, I played it when it came out. I took it as a revenge story for the drug overdose of his wife. Looking at it that way. the revenge comment about 2 graves. The descent into hell. Is it more complicated than that? I don't think so.
Incredible video and your insight is dead on. People have been theorising this for a while now and thankfully Max Payne was so multilayered in its execution it was first sold as a quirky game with slo-mo and a cool stereotypical noir cop who breaks all the rules and is constantly being rediscovered one layer deeper as time goes on. Had it being marketed as an embodiment of Jung and Freud's ideas and links with Christian metaphor intertwined with Viking mythology, I don't believe people would have taken to it quite as well.
Rest in peace and awesomeness, Mr. James McCaffrey.
EDIT: And rest in peace and awesomeness to Mr. David Lynch. Both legends that will be missed.
Also rest in peace David Lynch
I didn't expect to find out that Lynch died through the comments of Max Pain video
What a fucked up day
Ah the Max Payne classic master peace and hard as frak
Idk If you'll see this but you should do a video on a game called pentiment
Can we please get part 2 of ergo proxy??
RIP David Lynch
RIP
RIP Nina Mazursky
Oh man, my day just got ruined. That's a tragedy.
Guys, Max Payne 3 has multiplayer if you wanna try, its so fun and still played.
“There are no choices. Nothing but a straight line. The illusion comes afterwards, when you ask "why me?" and "what if?". When you look back and see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or forked lightning. If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you, it would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions.” - Max Payne
fire. this game has quotables for days.
Sam Lake was cooking
The dialogue in this game was perfection.
@@JoeKing69 is*
@@JoeKing69 You meant to say "the monologues"?
shotguns have more range than you'd think, they're limited in games normally for balancing
From a quick search are they roughly used most of the time at
@@plompudu2529 foster slugs (from a smoothbore) are accurate enough to ethically hunt with at 75-100yds
and a rifled slug barrel with good sabots can push that to 150-200yds which is pretty respectable and at the limit of skill for alot of casual shooters.
that is to say, at 200yds most people's limiting factor is talent and practice not ballistics.
your max range figure seem irrelevant. like how far can you lob a ball by shooting your gun at the sky? the correct answer is; don't try this at home... a slug will have dropped nearly 4ft after flying 300-400 yards and ground out if shot on a normal trajectory. birdshot will slow down even faster.
that said shotgun shells don't just dissapear at 60ft. they remain quite lethal for quite a while, and a quality shooter can put them on target at respectable range
Being an avid hunter seeing how shotguns are depicted in games drives me up the wall.
At any range under 25 yards... well, there's a reason Germany wanted them declared a war crime in WWI.
To which the US simply kept using them because the asshole using indiscriminate chemical warfare doesn't get to cry when his side gets dealt with via slamfire
It's just like people joining the military and thinking it's like cod
Balder isn't just bald, he's Baldr, the guy whose death kicks off Ragnarok.
Sam Lake is a fucking genius!!!
Hence why the snow storm kicks up immediately after. Fimbulwinter.
And also two out of Loki's three children make an appearance: Hel - Nicole Horne, Fenrir - Jack Lupino. I wonder who Jörmungandr is in the story 🤔
Funny you mention that, Max Payne is about him going through his own Ragnarok.
There is a line in the game (my favorite line in anything ever) where he says:
“After Y2K, the end of the world became a cliche. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliche when it’s happening to you.”
And the fact that you said that, I wonder how on the money you were about Max Payne being about his own personal Armageddon occurring.
There are definitely motifs of it in the background. Like the extreme blizzard, and the restaurant fire.
@ totally. All these elements of differing end of the world myths being included in the game. Fire. Losing his mind. Intense snow. Losing his family and bonds.
That’s the point of the story.
Max is his own worst enemy, and he knows it. As much as I’m not the biggest fan of Max Payne 3 in terms of presentation or story, it wraps around to this point kind of, and Max more openly acknowledges it.
@@SomaCruz500 I might be giving Rockstar too much credit with this idea but I'd like to think that MP1 and 2's stories are told purely from Max's subjective perspective, how he'd like the world to be rather than what it is. The last act of Max Payne 2 is called "Waking Up From The American Dream" and Max Payne 3 is all about him living in reality (well closer to the real world anyway) instead of the over the top comic book world I'm sure he'd rather be in. The 3rd game deals with real world issues like organ harvesting, and corrupt police forces (UFE while fiction is based on the real world BOPE unit) instead super solider enhancing drugs and an illuminati group which is why there are no nightmare sections in MP3. He's not a poetic cool noir hero, he's a cynical alcoholic and a loser. Now most of these you could just chalk up to different writers and studio handling the material and that's why it's so different but if I wanna connect 3 to the first two games, that the interpretation that makes the most sense to me
That's literally said in the game, not much of an eye-opener
the minute you mentioned David Lynch was the minute i found out he passed away, rest in peace.
RIP to the legend
silent hill 2, metal gear solid 2 and max payne in the same year? the golden age
Personally still partial to 1998. Half-Life, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, Starcraft, Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Thief, Resident Evil 2, Parasite Eve, Turok 2, Battlezone, Commandos, Unreal, Grim Fandango, Starsiege: Tribes, Descent: FreeSpace... There's no end to great or influential games that came out that year.
@@Jay-ln1co We had it really good then…
@@Jay-ln1cotenchu to complete the stealth trifecta
When sequels meant a real technological improvement and lore expansion, not simply a cash grab gimmick.
add GTA 3 and DMC to that list of brooding Y2K atmos
The rain beat down outside. It was twenty minutes from closing time and my clock was ticking. Last call. I felt like I hadn't slept in years, but her voice brought me back.
"Have you been helped?"
"I've been helped by so many people throughout my life, and I let them all down. A lifetime of failures shattered like a broken mirror, my own reflection staring back at me a thousand times."
"Sir, this is a Chili's."
"I'll have some lemon pepper wings and a beer."
"A bit closer to heaven"
With all the norse mythology, wouldn't your colleague Mr Balder also be such an allusion (and not just a lame pun on his hair style)? Baldr's death is, to understate massively, a pretty big deal in norse canon.
Yeah, there's definitely something there. Baldr is the god of love, among other things. He's killed by Loki and sent to Hel, where he's stuck, which causes Ragnarok to happen.
In Norse mythology, Baldur's death marks the beginning of eternal winter.
Another interesting point, with the whole Norse Mythology thing, is that you pointed out Alex Balder's surname, but it's been speculated that it's a play on Baldur/Baldr, the Norse God of Light. Might also be his death that plunges Max's journey into deeper darkness. He was the last guy that Max really trusted.
12:34 that's actually one of the most realistic parts of the game. Shotguns in video games are usually portrayed as having unreasonably wide spreads. The spread in MP1 is much more accurate to how normal shotguns are IRL
To be fair, this whole video is just 20 minute yapping about nothing, so I'm not surprised. Just very pretentious, but empty inside
Mr. Lynch has left us, the same day Mr. Derrat makes us remember the Black Lodge.
A welcome note of creative analysis amidst sadness. Thank you, sir.
12:22
Against common belief, a shotguns pellets are designed to stay clump together and hit 1 target with multiple hits.
Also, if you have slugs instead of pellets, it’s just one piece that can fly like any other bullet.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk
Thank you, for your TED Talk. I was going to type the same thing.
@maxderrat You absolutely MUST do Max Payne 2. After MP1, Sam Lake took an actual class in writing and refined his ideas so much. He attacked the fatalism of Max's existence and the endless hell of his life.
MP2 is a relentless deconstruction of the first game and tragedy-porn tropes as Max beats his fists against the cosmic horror of being a hardboiled video game cliche and tries to become an actual person with actual will. It's perfection. Closest thing to a David Lynch video game that will ever be made
When I was a teenager I already felt how deep MP1 really was. This is one of my favorite games of all time.
After the Y2K the end of a the world had become a cliché.
Everything was subjective. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you.
- Max Payne
The last part of that quote has always stuck with me
I was so blown away back in 2001 or 2002 when I downloaded the demo. I was a little kid of maybe 7 or 8 years and I couldn't stop re-playing the demo over and over.
similar story here. Only I had a classmate who just got the game, I remember when he was showing me the gameplay I was like: "no way :o".
There is a sad, eerie and charming irony of this video of a game with cool callbacks to Twin Peaks shows up in this day.
Thanks for all the dreams and nightmares, David Lynch. Only lucky men can be privileged of having a sunny and beautiful day as well as a beautiful night full of stars as witness of one end. 🙏
Keep up the good work, Max! ⭐⭐⭐⭐
You know what's interesting about you releasing this video on the day we lost Lynch? The last time a death hit me as hard as this one has, it was James McCaffrey. There's an element of mystery to that which Lynch himself would have pondered over.
Synchronicity at work once again
Before I knew who David Lynch was - Rest in Peace - the vibe I got from Max Payne when I first played it back in 2002 was Paul Verhoeven. Namely, RoboCop in how in mixes the violence, macabre and tragic with the absurd, satire and over the top nature that balances the experience out into something palatable
That's why Max is the GOAT! The GOAT! (I mean both of them) ❤
Thanks brother!
a pump action actually does have that rage in real life depending on the ammunition
RIP David Lynch.
the mixture of serious and goofy tones is also present in the Nochnoi Dozor ("Night Watch") russian movies from 2004, it's a bit part of why they work and are so enjoyable. i don't know why western movies can't seem to pull this kind of style off
Oh yea
YES! I got the notification that you were replaying this. Knew this was coming but it still took me by surprise today. Love it!
21:50 "...there are only personal apocalypses, nothing is a cliche when it's happening to you."
The lake was deeper than you remember. It's an ocean.
the nightmare sequence is still burned in my brain. tracing the bloodtrail of my infant child while the screams echoed in the background were truly haunting.
Effective range of a shotgun using buckshot is around 30 to 50 yards.
And I think even further if you're using duck rounds, right?
@@jcaesar19871 Typical birdshot has less range than buckshot. Smaller pieces are in the shell so they have a bigger spread than what's in buckshot. I really don't know if there's any difference between what you'd use to hunt a dove and 'waterfowl' shells...
@ Cool. Thanks for the info.
@@Kinuhbud But yeah, I knew that shotguns have good range, and them being near sight range is misleading.
@ 'back in the day' in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Ravenshield you could play matches using a shotgun with slugs as your ammo. Instant kill across the map
Nah shotguns just do that, Max Payne is one of the handful of games that show how devastating buckshot can actually be at range!
Sam Lake, the Finnish Kojima.
Edit: 12:21: You’d actually be surprised by the range that pump-action shotguns can go up to. Buckshot has a range of 45 yards, and slugs have been known to go around 100 yards.
As an all-round auteur i'd agree - Writing and scipt though, Lake is arguably way ahead of Kojima, translation/localization barrier withstanding
I played through this again recently as an adult and the coolest detail I noticed was the narrative device of the storm. As the game progresses, the storm outside gets stronger and stronger and Max consistently makes remarks about it. It's symbolism for how much his rage is growing as he gets to the end of the rabbit hole. At the very end of the game, just as Nicole Horne is about to escape in her helicopter you shoot the supports for the tower at the top of the skyscraper and the winds from the storm knock it over and kill her. It's pretty brilliant setup and payoff and a masterclass in storytelling in general, let alone in a video game.
Max Payne is a timeless masterpiece.
Loooove the intro graphic novel! Max Payne was my favorite game as a kid, so great to see your vid.
grim beard also did an awesome homage to the comic panels in his max payne reviews
i was scared shitless on the dream sequences with the baby crying and the screaming
Max understood larger fraction of human psyche and turned yellow from unimaginable power. Saitama from One Punch Man went bald. Others didn't have so much luck...
Crazy timing bringing up lynch and his passing away today wow😢
I know. :(
when the payne is endless
17:33 The Dark Place version of Casey is the most like Max.
Vladimir Lem is my favorite. He said my favorite line in the game, "Whatever you did or did not do, I'm sure you had a good reason for doing it." I still use it to this day.
"IT'S PAYNE, WHACK HIM!"
"WHACK THE SUCKA!"
That's kind of crazy that you made a video on this right when I started playing this game
" THE FLESH. THE FLESH OF FALLEN ANGELS! "
I'm only 0:46 seconds in, and I'm already digging your voice acting. We usually just hear your calm, monotone professional video essayist voice. Big ups for experimenting with dramatization (for all I know you've done this before, as I've not watched ALL of your videos... big ups anyway).
I just finished replaying the game for the first time in a long time. It's brilliant. I completely forgot about that meta section about the graphic novel and the hud menu. I am also hoping that the remake keeps the nightmare sequences frustrating. I loved it.
I never would have thought of David Lynch having influence over one of my favourite video games. I was saddened to hear of Lynch’s passing and was thinking about Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. I came across this video and went down the Payne rabbit hole. The music in this game, grittiness, noir elements and Nordic influences are what made it unique for me, though the surrealism and otherworldly nature of its story create a unique feeling like how Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Pi’ does for the audience. I love this channel. From the Manhunt video, Mulholland Drive and heart of darkness deep dive. This is what television could never give us
Max Payne is basically a David Lynch movie that pretends to be a Frank Miller comic
Bit of a stretch with that video title. Max Payne is pretty iconic within the gamimg world for being incredibly deep and meaningful. It's kinda what most people remember about it. So yeah... Odd thing to title the video.
Max Derrat is deeper than I remember.
LOL The meta is strong with this intro 🤣
Never did I realize how well the MGS2 BGM mixes with Max Payne. I mean, wow.
Let me also say: I wish there was a Max for every kind of entertainment and art. Max is my go-to for deeper waters.
MAX PAYNE, GO PAIN OR GO HOME.
MAX PAYNE, A WORLD IN PAIN.
MAX PAYNE, FEEL THE PAIN.
MAX PAYNE, TOO MUCH PAIN.
MAX PAYNE, STOP THE PAIN.
MAX PAYNE, CANT TAKE THE PAIN.
MAX PAYNE, THERE'S SO MUCH PAIN.
MAX PAYNE.....Max?.........oh no MAX!!!
You should play Asura wrath It’s a short deep game and it’s very fun. It’s like a playable anime. And it’s made by capcom And bloodroot has a deep story too, and no one talks about it
My buddy Thomas introduced me to that game. I'm very interested in checking it out soon. :)
22:55 sampled by Jedi mind tricks - The wolf
Man this series makes me feel old. Great video
Its me. Thanks
can you believe it? its Friday without David Lynch for the first time...
I need to catch up on some of your recent vids, but I'm glad you're covering Max Payne since news of the remakes of dropped and it's of the few games that don't normally have a deep dive analysis covering the many themes and plot elements of the game, something which most of your videos are famous for.😉
Here's the vid I've been waiting for
10:20 - I never thought about that, and you're 100% right for the world around him... it makes so much sense! 👏👏
I would love for you to analyze Max Payne 3. It's surrounded by false consensus and is INCREDIBLY misunderstood. There's a lot more subtext with Max and it's essentially a character study. It still hasn't received the praise and recognition it deserves and you won't find a single video essay showing it's unacknowledged qualities. I know you could do this game justice. Max Payne 3 deserves the same spotlight as RDR2 and GTA IV.
It's a fun game and I think its reception has softened over the years, but it's still missing the surreal mythology of MP1+2 and is way more on the nose with its grit.
The reputation it garnered at the time was well deserved. It's just that hardware developments have solved most of the issues that originally crippled the experience, most importantly the ridiculous loading times but also the overall performance. Nowadays only the different feel to the character and story remains. And that you can easily appreciate for what it is, when the gameplay and set pieces are exceptionally good and technical issues don't get in the way of enjoying it.
as a huge MP1 and MP2 fan, I equally like MP3, as well. Great game.
I think Max Payne 3 is better than Max Payne 2 because the combat is a lot more interesting and there's more variety. Max Payne 2 is kind of disappointing and has not aged well at all. The bullet time is so generous you never have to dive attack and can kill everyone in slow mo, the whole game is a joke except for that obnoxiously difficult sniping section.
@@romaliop The bad reputation it garnered was completely unwarranted. You had people saying it was disconnected from the previous games and that it wasn't noir, that it ruins the ending of the 2nd game which is bullshit because grief is a cycle, that it ruined Max's character because he doesn't speak poetically anymore even though he's aged 9 years and is 47 years old which if you don't know people tend to change as their life goes continues, the list goes on. Some idiots even seem to think it's a cover based shooter. It deserved better and it irritates me that to this day it still hasn't gotten the appreciation it deserves. And we still haven't had a TPS that can hold a candle to that game 12 years later.
How can a shotgun make hits at that range? It's called Federal FliteControl 00 buckshot.
Ahem EXCUSE ME you’re not going to mention how Quantum Break (which is now de facto part of the Alan Wake and Control universe) also makes the Max Payne games mean more in retrospect?! It’s so underrated! I’d love to see your take on the QB story!
Awesome video man ! I recently dug out my PS2 to play this and Max Payne 2 again, such nostalgic games for me, I was probably too young to be playing them and didn’t fully get the themes and ideas present, this really made me want to play them even more !
The real question is this: will max Payne and alan wake have a dance off?
Only if the Shiba Inu shows up.
That intro sequence was something else. I can still hear goon yelling "shut up" and the pistol report as Mrs. Payne screams. I guess that's why I beat the game the second day I had it.
Awesome video. I need to go back and play Max Payne 1+2 but I really loathe those nightmare levels. The thing that really freaked me out as a kid when I played it at like 10 years old though, was the junkies you find in the shithole apartment buildings you go through. Their psychotic muttering, talking to themselves, and the way they screamed when you shot them scared TF outta me.
Whooooff... that last bit gave me the chills. Good edit.
Max Payne has a very special place in my heart. It really captured the vibe of noir and action movies that I was (and still am) a big fan of. It's also the first game I ever modded, and a big step towards becoming an actual game designer.
I still occasionally listen to 'Lords & Ladies' for the lolz and nostalgia.
I always loved playing games, but since I didnt speak english growing up, it was really just for the visuals and gameplay. Max Payne was the first game I played that had both dub and translation in my language, so it was the first game story I experienced. I think its the reason I enjoy game narratives so much today. I was too young to have played but Im so glad I did
That's it. I'm playing Max Payne.
Bro get out of my head every time I’m thinking about a game or something bam you make a video about it.
I love how we’re basically the same age, and played the same games around the same times lmao I remember being that young and playing these games. It made me love horror, things that were dark, gritty, and dealt with heavy topics.
I had a rough life growing up too, so I feel like on some subconscious level I could still relate at a kid while not fully comprehending why at the time.
Im also Autistic, so I wonder if that plays a part in it. You know how it goes with topics of interest and rabbit holes. Horror and dark messed up things was one of those for me.
Awesome. Beat this game for the first time a few years ago
22:16 WHAT it has to be a coincidence right?
Alex Casey was an early name for max payne during development. The Casey beer is a nod to that. There’s a great janky sketch of him with a sick ponytail too
@kribke alex casey in...dark justice
To be fair, with Vlad quoting The Godfather, that was because his character saw himself as a gentleman gangster and he was doing a deliberate pop culture reference. Also Alex’s last name is a Norse mythology reference, as are many other names in the game.
As if the cry baby blood trail night mares didnt scream how deep it was already 😂
Recently I also returned to Max Payne, and those nightmare levels gave me goosebumps, mostly because of my younger memories when playing with my older brother. And what about that dreaded scream when you fall off from the bloodlines?! I honestly had to mute it at some point. Nonetheless, it was great revisiting Max Payne!
"After Y2K, the end of the world had become a cliché. But who was I to talk, a brooding underdog avenger alone against an empire of evil, out to right a grave injustice? Everything was subjective. There were only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you." Another great video, Max! Keep up the good work 👍
I remember Max Payne fondly.
Half-life, Max Payne, GTA Vice City and Marfia, I played them between 98 to 2002 (maybe 2003).
It was peak gaming for me. I played them at the right time in my life for them to have a huge impact. I don't think any game ever will come close to having the same impact on me.
Fair I don't play many story based games anymore, now it all multiplayer, comfy games, city builders and roguelike. 🤷♂
Stories are left for movies and tv shows.
Another awesome video. I loved Max Payne 2 so much more than this , but the story in 1 is definitely intriguing
It's crazy that this video came out when I just started playing max payne 3, but in all seriousness this is a great series especially in the gameplay and story department, even though the third game is not exactly like the other two it still retains the character of the series at least, Rest in peace James McCaffery you will be missed.
It's not crazy, it's a coincidence.
honestly when i heard the underboss say “the flesh of fallen angels” i thought of Aesir’s motto “a bit closer to heaven”
11:26 I think comics or comics inspired media can also be absurd the serious like this too. In DC comics you can have a Chimp dress like Sherlock Holms investigating the murder of prostitute and have that not be the weirdest most surreal thing you've seen today.
Hey Max, I’ve been a fan since your SH2 Red Squares video. I completely agree with your goal of using video games as part of education and the way you analyze them and other media is the same way I like to. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone else that feels the same way so that we can discuss and work our way to a new understanding of the art and all the real world benefits that could yield. I have plenty of friends that like talking about games but no one that enjoy analyzing them as deeply like we do. I’m sure I’ll meet others along the way that are like us in this regard but until then, you are the person I relate to. Your work is what I was craving. Thanks, Max. You also got me into reading Carl Jung books which completely changed my life for the better. For that, I’m eternally grateful. Hope you’re having a good day, Max!
I dno bro, I remember being pretty deep.
Ok so I'm NOT crazy for thinking Punchinello saying, "I'm beyond The Words" was important.
I always assumed that he had (via Valkyr) broken through the fourth wall and was "beyond the words" of the comic book. Similarly to how Max breaks the fourth wall after being drugged (acknowledging aspects of the game, weapon slots, health bar, etc.)
Only two things I want to add:
- The mix of serious and comedy is a Rockstar trait for sure. Playing through this game gives me the same vibes as Grand Theft Auto 4.
- That shotgun was a sniper, but the effective range for 12 guage (even buckshots) isn’t exaggerated lol. You can hit targets up to 100 yards maybe 150 yards and the spread isn’t going to be any wider than a beach ball. Most games just make the spread exaggerated for the sake of balancing lol.
The death of Balder starts Ragnarok
Looking forward to playing the Remakes. I can't wait to see Ahti being the janitor at Max's building giving him the 667 password listening to Late Goodbye in our love it yellow walkman. Will we find some Alan Wake Alex Casey novel on a bookshelf?
I don't know if anyone mentioned this already but the other reference to Norse mythology was Alex Balder. His death is what led Max down his own Ragnarök. The death of the Norse god Baldur is what triggered Ragnarök in Norse mythology.
Did you just assume my experience in the Max Payne game... I love them, and they were awesome story wise.😂😂😂
I recently discovered your channel and loved your Deus Ex breakdown so much. I thought “I’d love to see this guy do another childhood fav of mine - Max Payne”
THANK YOU BROTHER - POPCORN TIME
You have to make a video about AWII, is an alchemical, esoteric and mystical madness
It's the best modern game to understand what it means to create and develop his own mythology.
I was 11, and it changed my life. Loved Max Payne. Still do. 🎉
Writers often refine their story over time.
"Oh, I didn't get it right with my first take. The feed back definitely put something in perspective and I wish I did it differently" etc....
So Alan wake may be more of a refinement of the same story as to an attempt to create a universe.
Or the writer could be trapped in his story trying to get it out or he can't think past a couple of themes so he has repeating narratives.
Idk, I played it when it came out. I took it as a revenge story for the drug overdose of his wife. Looking at it that way. the revenge comment about 2 graves. The descent into hell. Is it more complicated than that? I don't think so.
Have a happy new year Max Derrat
Love the intro! ❤
Holy shit. Hearing Max doing voices, and EMOTING of all things, made my fucking day.
Incredible video and your insight is dead on. People have been theorising this for a while now and thankfully Max Payne was so multilayered in its execution it was first sold as a quirky game with slo-mo and a cool stereotypical noir cop who breaks all the rules and is constantly being rediscovered one layer deeper as time goes on. Had it being marketed as an embodiment of Jung and Freud's ideas and links with Christian metaphor intertwined with Viking mythology, I don't believe people would have taken to it quite as well.