Max Payne 3′s New Developers? Should We Be Worried?
March 23rd, 2009 | Written by Anthony Perez | Topic: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Unless you weren’t gaming at the time or somehow missed out on playing the first two Max Payne’s when they were initially released in 2001 and 2003, then you would know that those games were absolutely wonderful and so much better than the dreadful film adaptation that came about last year.
So earlier today it was exciting to learn that Rockstar officially announced it will be releasing a third game in the series, but that news may be bitter sweet since Max Payne 3 will not be developed by the original studio Remedy Entertainment. Since Remedy is busy working on the upcoming Alan Wake, Max Payne 3 will instead be handled by Rockstar Vancouver, the studio behind Bully.
While Bully isn’t necessarily a bad game, it is generally considered to be quite average. This is disheartening, especially when you take into account that studios who take over existing franchises typically make slight improvements but fail to capture the magic infused in the original games by the original developers. One good example is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, a perfectly solid effort by Obsidian Studios which lacked the great story and experience put together by BioWare in the first game.
Probably the biggest loss though is that of writer Sam Lake, who penned a fantastic story for the first two games and is currently working on Alan Wake. Aside from the graphical beauty and wonderful action in the first two games, the story, mood, and dialogue are what really made the Max Payne games great and partially why the movie sucked so much by comparison.
While Rockstar Vancouver may be a capable studio from a technical standpoint, I’m worried that they may not be able to shape the experience that truly distinguished Max Payne from other third person shooters at the time.
What do you think? Is there reason to be worried?
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Comment by TonyP on the March 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I've played it…it's average…