“That’s what ended up being Max Payne” on the 1 ‘Mindless Violent’ Game That Inspired Dead Man Walking

Even more than decades after its release, Max Payne still continues to be a popular name among the gaming community, thanks to the indelible mark it left in the industry.

Remedy Entertainment’s title is a highly rated, award-winning shooter that’s regarded as one of the best action games in the genre. What will truly surprise you is that the entire project and the protagonist were inspired by one violent game that you’d never even thought about.

Max Payne Comes From a Forgotten Remedy Entertainment Game

Remedy Entertainment’s creative director, who provided their likeness for Max Payne‘s character model, Sam Lake, has been a popular figure among gamers and has a celebrity-like status. If it weren’t for his key contributions to the series, it would’ve never managed to achieve the heights it did.

In an interview, Lake opened up about the development of Alan Wake 2 and his journey in the gaming industry. While studying at the University of Helsinki, he connected with Petri Jarvilehto, who was a co-founder of Remedy and helped create Death Rally, a mindlessly violent vehicular combat game.

Death Rally‘s success ended up growing Lake’s ambitions for deep storytelling, which ultimately led to him and Remedy creating Max Payne.

After Death Rally, I really felt like we could do deeper stories. Why wouldn’t we try to be ambitious within the framework of an action game? “That’s what ended up being Max Payne, and from then on being on that path of interactive storytelling and finding new ways to use different mediums as part of it.

For Lake, the game ended up marking the beginning of his commitment to interactive storytelling and using different mediums to enhance Remedy’s game. It’s great to see Lake giving us a peek into his past works and how they allowed him and Remedy to provide us with one of the best games ever crafted.

While it’s sad to see that we haven’t seen Rockstar expanding on the Remedy and Lake’s iconic series since 2013’s Max Payne 3, gamers can look forward to Remedyverse’s new title FBC: Firebreak, which is all set to release in 2025. The game revolves around the Federal Beuro of Control, an agency introduced in 2019’s Control.

It’s Time For Rockstar Games to Revive Max Payne Series

Considering the franchise’s popularity among the gaming community, it’s really surprising that Rockstar Games hasn’t bothered revisiting it. If you’re out of the loop, Rockstar took over the franchise from Remedy in 2004.

Even though Rockstar is currently focussing on its next Grand Theft Auto entry, the shift away from Max Payne is a massive blunder. In an industry that’s filled with third-person shooters, the gameplay and experience Max Payne brings is simply unmatched to date.

Although we’re getting remakes of the original games, players believe the right move will be to bring a full-fledged entry and evolve the series’ iconic formula. With modern technologies and design, a new chapter in the franchise has all the potential to challenge Rockstar’s best games and shake up the industry from the ground up.

Let’s hope that Rockstar finally listens to the fans of the franchise and gives it another shot, which it definitely deserves.

With that said, would you like to see another Max Payne game? Let us know in the comments below.