The upcoming multi-platform release of a remastered Alan Wake, originally an Xbox 360 and PC title from Remedy, has some fans excited, but the developer’s first hit, Max Payne, is much more deserving of a remake. The first Max Payne game released on the original Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC, making it three generations old. It was released prior to the HD era of gaming, and the jump from standard definition to HD was significantly more noticeable than that of HD to 4k. Alan Wake was already an HD game, and while the remake will no doubt make improvements, given that it will appear on the Xbox One and PS4 as well as current-gen hardware, a one-generation upgrade is of far less impact. Max Payne remains a beloved classic, and though licensing issues make it less likely, a Max Payne remake would be of far more value to Remedy fans than one of Alan Wake.
Remedy has significantly expanded from its humble beginnings as a group of young game developers transitioning from game demos to commercial releases. Max Payne was the team's breakout hit, providing a third-person shooter with a distinctive style, combining a rich film noir-inspired story, gunplay paying homage to the films of John Woo and Hong Kong action movies, as well as Max Payne's surrealistic moments, reminiscent of Twin Peaks. Writer Sam Lake was the original face of Max Payne, and he went on to become one of the faces of the company itself, involved in creating Max Payne 2, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control.
Though Max Payne’s story and style remain timeless, the game itself is showing its age. The PS2-era character models and environments are clearly relics of their time, and while the gameplay is still enjoyable, it is noticeably subject to more “janky” moments than later Remedy games. Alan Wake, conversely, still holds up well in its original Xbox 360 incarnation and looks even better for gamers playing it on a modern PC, or on an Xbox Series X/S or Xbox One console through backward compatibility. An Alan Wake remake that includes all the DLC in one package and makes improvement to the presentation to take advantage of the capabilities of newer consoles and PCs still has merit, but Max Payne has much more to improve.
Licensing Makes A Max Payne Remaster Less Likely, But Still Needed
There are, unfortunately, behind-the-scenes reasons why an Alan Wake remake is being prioritized over the more logical and intuitive Max Payne remake. After the release of the first Max Payne, the franchise was acquired by Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games. Though Remedy still developed the second game in the series, The Fall Of Max Payne, Rockstar was the developer for Max Payne 3, which was a significant departure in style from the prior two titles. With Remedy no longer holding the Max Payne IP rights, it would be up to Take-Two to remake Remedy’s first hit, and as the franchise may be dead due to the polarizing Max Payne 3, there may be less incentive for Take-Two to prioritize such a remake.
Remedy, on the other hand, has every reason to push the Alan Wake franchise forward, as the remake may serve in part to drum up interest for an Alan Wake sequel rumored to be in production. If that is the case, a remake of the first game, expanding to give PlayStation consoles access to Alan Wake for the first time, does serve a more logical business purpose. Still, for many longtime fans of the developer, whose style has consistently combined cinematic storytelling with quality action gameplay, the first two Max Payne titles remain among the best games they have produced, but also the ones that are most clearly showing their age. While HD remakes of the first two Max Payne titles would be an outstanding proposition for gamers, bringing these classics up the standards of presentation set in later Remedy games like Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control, due to the licensing issues and the franchise’s trajectory, it is sadly unlikely that will ever take place.