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Max Payne 4 - Your Vision

whoszed

Member
A direct sequel would be problematic as it would be barely believable for such an old guy jumping around shooting dudes like a maniac. Maybe most of the game's action could take place in an earlier period while Max was investigating/doing something related to that case in the present.

They could of course have some fun with the fact that he's old now and have some action scenes where he'd nearly break his back or something and would struggle to fight.
 

atr0cious

Member
As soon as you press start...the credits appear with the text "Max has retired and is currently sun bathing on the beach".

"The truth was like an oddly perfumed lei around my neck. Elderly folks blocking my sun, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. Children repetitiously building sandcastles, screeching for their parents attention. The paranoid feeling that someone's following your every step. I was in Florida. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of."
 

Bandit1

Member
"The truth was like an oddly perfumed lei around my neck. Elderly folks blocking my sun, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. Children repetitiously building sandcastles, screeching for their parents attention. The paranoid feeling that someone's following your every step. I was in Florida. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of."

Hahaha!
 
If there's going to be another, I hope it's not about Max himself. His story effectively ended with the second game, and the plot of MP3 just felt drawn out and unnecessary. I hated the dour tone, his constant moping and how they ignored the character development of the second game. I actually really like the idea of making a buddy cop comedy. No idea how it would convincingly link to the other games' narratives, but a more upbeat adventure would be a welcome shift in tone. That being said, if they're gonna change it so drastically why not just make it a new IP anyway.
 

RSB

Banned
Goddamn cut scenes I can skip.
Can't be said enough.

The un-skippable cutscenes were my only gripe with Max Payne 3, but it was enough to ruin the entire game for me. The gameplay was amazing, and I would have replayed it several times if it wasn't for those damn cutscenes. Apart from that, I guess I would also like for them to go back to a more film noir style.
 

udiie

Member
MV5BMTY4ODM0OTc2M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzE0MTk3OA@@._V1_SY500_SX335_.jpg

die hard the game
i wanna see max get his ass kicked and mcclane that shit up
 

joecanada

Member
Max Payne 2 was by far and away better than 3 for many reasons. One was the claustrophobic feel of that first couple highrises you were stuck in..
I'd make the mechanics like 2 but setting would be one crazy messed up building, like the new judge dredd movie... More cramped spaces and depression is what the game needs not to copy the plot of " man on fire " in shanty towns and party places.. Shit was so copied it was unreal they just replaced a young girl with a hot girl
 

pa22word

Member
I feel like everyone wanting Remedy to do another one are both missing the entire point of Max Payne 2's ending and the reason why Remedy sold the IP in the first place.

There's a reason why Max Payne 3's story, plot, and characters all feel so disconnected from the rest of the story, and no it's not Rockstar's ego. It's because Remedy buried the series with Max Payne 2.
 

Andrew.

Banned
Yeah and then they all made sure we knew they buried him within those couple manuscript pages you find in Alan Wakes apartment. Along with a plaque/model of Maxs berettas.

Edit: ah I see it was posted. Nice
 

ZehDon

Gold Member
...but the story of Max ended with Max Payne 2
Yep, and you grabbed the perfect picture for it. Max Payne 3 basically ignored Max Payne 2, which is insulting given how good it is. And if you want a happy ending, just beat Max Payne 2 on the hardest difficulty. Max Payne 3, let alone 4, doesn't need to exist.
 
I don't care what the setting is, or even necessarily what the story set up or contrivances are to get Max back into the fold. I just want the mood and mechanics back in a better game:

- 75% reduction in cutscenes compared to MP3, and those that ARE there have to be able to be skipped. More of the story should be told through detective elements, in game dialogue (not locked in a room like Half Life either)

- Swing the monologues from self loathing loser back to hard boiled noir with more wit, dry humor, metaphors, and a tiny bit of self deprecation.

- Femme fatale

- Keep the amazing physics heavy reactions on enemies, but make Max's physics more manageable. There's no reason for him to crash and burn when you hit the wall during Bullet Time. Take a page from John Woo and Chow Yun-fat so that when you hit the wall, the character braces for the impact but keeps his aim on the target so that even if Bullet Time gets cut off you can keep shooting accurately.

- Better interaction with cover. Allow Max to get into cover from a run, a standstill, a dive, and prone. Add a slide maneuver as well with transitions from and into everything else.

- Rework the Last Man Standing mechanic. Instead of saving yourself with a pain killer and hoping to hit an enemy on the way down, it would instead function as a last second SHOOTDODGE of what would've been the killing bullet. You'd sacrifice a pain killer for a really fast move and a chance to shoot whoever you need to. Those of you who've played Call of Juarez: Gunsliger know what I'm getting at. It would work similar to that but not as stationary.

- Enemy tiers. Tier 1 are the mooks who just take cover and shoot. Tier 2 can use slides and dives. Tier 3 can use all facets of Bullet Time against the player as well as using the reworked Last Man Standing dodge. This would create much more interesting enemy encounters and longer lasting shootouts to mimic the films whose inspiration runs throughout Max Payne.

- More Michael Mann suits

Feel free to steal all of this, Rockstar.
 
I agree with more Michael Mann suits. At least in my version, he's fully decked out in LA.

He's got his trench coat by the time we reach New York.

I definitely will bring those hallucination and mind trips back. But definitely weirder, more stylish, and more creepy.
 

GavinUK86

Member
I'd LOVE a Max Payne 3 Remastered.

1080P
Skippable cutscenes
Director/writer commentary
All MP content
60FPS(?)
A couple new weapons thrown in for shits and giggles (grenades!)

Not sure if serious. Console gamer maybe.

I LOVED Max Payne 3 but I think if they ever did another bring it back to an urban environment. Cityscapes, subways etc. That's what made 1 & 2 so great. It was a nice change of pace, and colour, setting 3 in Brazil though. 4, or whatever, needs to be in a city. Not America. Maybe a European city. Imagine shoot-dodging your way through Prague at midnight.
 

Bandit1

Member
I definitely will bring those hallucination and mind trips back. But definitely weirder, more stylish, and more creepy.

I thought Max Payne 2 did these the best. The blood trails were frustrating in the first game, but I really loved the dream sequence in 2 where Max is in an interrogation room with Winterson and Bravura and he's looking at a line up only he's every person in the line up. Winterson and Bravura start yelling at him and he turns around and there's a gun laying on the table and you pick it up...

On a side note I think I'm about to buy this -

http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Tropical-Parrot-Hawaiian-Aloha/dp/B002DMRECU/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1397611490&sr=8-6&keywords=hawaiian+shirt+RJC
 

DocSeuss

Member
I'd have the finale of the game take place in New York as an epic storm finally hits it. Rain and snow and wind. Echoes of Ragnarok, but different. Max IS the storm. New York is at the end of the journey. The game ends at daybreak and Max's journey through the night ends.

However, in my game, I don't want Max to go after revenge. I want to give him a mystery to solve. I want him using his cop brain too. I want to see interrogations, him piecing the puzzle together as he is driven forward. I want to see a more heroic Payne than before.

My version of Payne is no longer the alcoholic mess of MP3, but a focused man who has put himself back together and is determined to put his demons to bed. He's not content to lay down and whine and is no longer stuck in the past, but broken free and moving forward.

I personally think your color palette in the OP is a bit off. Don't get me wrong, I think Fincher's cinematographers are wonderful, but me? I'd go for way more Only God Forgives and

A mystery? Absolutely. There are two great noir plotlines for any film to follow. One is revenge, and the other is mystery. Sometimes both. We want a character that isn't a complete sadsack, incapable of doing anything right, constantly belittling himself (and thus, the player--remember, this is a game that once disabled our ability to run for no reason at all, then had a small child insulting us for not running, and Max commenting on what a loser he is)... instead, he needs to be someone smart. Capable. Don't get me wrong, he makes mistakes, things don't work out for him, and stuff like that, but this Max should have more in common with The Man With No Name (remember when Tuco got the better of him and nearly killed him?) than whatever the FUCK was in Max Payne 3.

I'd still like that really Lynchian quality that made Max Payne special. The shootdodging was nice and all, but Max is a psychological noir tale, and Max Payne 3 forgot that.

I can't agree with this at all. Yes Max is slower and weightier but there's nothing wrong with that. The combat/gameplay is also especially fierce and actually forces the player to consider their movement. The AIs not super smart but it is agressive and keeps you on your toes. You say a lot of the maps lack the openness that benefits shoot-dodging and that's true to an extent but also a big point of the combat. It just forces you to actually consider where the fuck you are actually diving to. Take notice of the actual environment and it doesn't let you just dive anywhere you want as you get punished harshly for it. There's nothing wrong with that, that doesn't make it bad, it's just different. It just means you don't like it.

The whole point of the game is feeling like you're in a Hong Kong action flick. It's about constantly being on the move. I am always considering my movement in 3D games. It's kinda the whole point. Max Payne is not a movement focused game. It wants you to stick in cover most of the time. It creates places and says "nah, dawg, don't run around, just stay here and shoot guys when they pop out from cover."

FFS, the game has five sequences where you don't even get to control your movement, you just sit there and shoot at guys who scroll into your field of vision like some kind of shooting gallery.

I'm talking about maps where there is literally no room to shootdodge at all. There are plenty of those. One room has a bunch of guys above you shooting down. There's no way you can shootdodge, because any movement out from cover results in your death. Another fight has you inside a boat, shooting through windows--again, no way to shoot dodge.

Many of the game's levels just are not designed with wide enough spaces for shootdodging in mind.

This is bad design, because you have maps that don't complement the mechanics.

If you REALLY wanted people to think about movement, a better way would be to let them use kung-fu, so they have to think about dodging fire, getting close to enemies, and punching them in the face.

It's why I suggested it in my first post.

You also say how in comparison to Max Payne 2 but Max Payne 3s bullettime was more like 1. In MP1 you still use cover a lot, especially later on in that game. There's just no official 'cover' button but you sure as hell maneouvre your way behind pillars etc to protect yourself. Hell cover is purely their to make a quick decision as to where to move next in MP3. Max Payne 2s bullettime was VERY different to Max Payne 1. Hell I have a friend who hates Max Payne 2 as he considers the bullettime system in that game a downgrade from the first game!

I disagree with your perspective on this, but haven't played Max Payne 1 or 2 recently enough to recall the minute details. What I do know is that I played both games around the time of 3, and 3's insistence on keeping the player from moving around the map was very different to the first two games.

Or "Nothing in max payne 3 is canon." Would be even better.

Yes please.

I don't understand the Max Payne 3 hate.

It's because it's a bad game.
 
You absolutely do, it just doesn't bother you.

I understand it too, especially after your one thread from a while ago.

Only thing is, everything you had a problem with was a matter of personal preference rather than assessing the game in terms of how well it does what it attempts to.

The whole point of the game is feeling like you're in a Hong Kong action flick.

And MP3 comes the closest to achieving that out of any game of its type, even with it's story and cutscene problems. MP and MP2 do not.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
The whole point of the game is feeling like you're in a Hong Kong action flick. It's about constantly being on the move. I am always considering my movement in 3D games. It's kinda the whole point. Max Payne is not a movement focused game. It wants you to stick in cover most of the time. It creates places and says "nah, dawg, don't run around, just stay here and shoot guys when they pop out from cover."

FFS, the game has five sequences where you don't even get to control your movement, you just sit there and shoot at guys who scroll into your field of vision like some kind of shooting gallery.

I'm talking about maps where there is literally no room to shootdodge at all. There are plenty of those. One room has a bunch of guys above you shooting down. There's no way you can shootdodge, because any movement out from cover results in your death. Another fight has you inside a boat, shooting through windows--again, no way to shoot dodge.

Many of the game's levels just are not designed with wide enough spaces for shootdodging in mind.

This is bad design, because you have maps that don't complement the mechanics.

If you REALLY wanted people to think about movement, a better way would be to let them use kung-fu, so they have to think about dodging fire, getting close to enemies, and punching them in the face.

It's why I suggested it in my first post.
.

This isn't true though. You're focusing completely on shootdodging rather than just bullettime in general. I never ever played the game as being forced into cover, that's just not how I play Max Payne and I don't play MP3 that way. Cover in MP3 is just a place to make a quick decision before moving to the next spot. Outside of bullettime the enemies have sniper like vision, they are precision like and yes they have fucking good aim. But in bullettime they are like storm troopers and you have far more maneouvrability. Max Payne 3 gives you plenty of weapons to use at your disposal, normal bullettime, shootdodging and even the roll which is an incredibly strong weapon (you can reload whilst rolling which is very strong)

The problem here is that you're concentrating on shootdodging when MP3 places importance on all of the things you can use. It doesn't consider shootdodging as your only evasive mechanic and way to take out bad guys So sorry I still don't agree with you in it being bad game design in the slightest because I didn't play the game in the way you suggest it makes you do. Maybe you consider that against the spirit of MP and that's fine but I think the game is perfectly designed for its own combat system.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
keep the gameplay, make cutscenes skippable, add actual level design and put dan houser in a rocket and shoot him towards the sun

then get the one and only sam lake to write an actual script that isn't absolute intellectually offensive garbage

op's idea sounds great, just needs a good man to pen it.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
I wished Max wasn't always so depressed and utterly determined to be miserable.
actually he shouldn't

he gets over his family after the mp2 ending

it's just that dan houser can't write for shit so he pretended nothing ever happened and tried to copy the old style

and failed anyways
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
actually he shouldn't

he gets over his family after the mp2 ending

it's just that dan houser can't write for shit so he pretended nothing ever happened and tried to copy the old style

and failed anyways

Doesn't he get over his family in the MP1 ending as well?
 

zkylon

zkylewd
yea, but in mp2 it's mona that changes everything. up to her showing up max was back on track, a real detective again, etc.

during the game he's trying to find love again and in the end he makes peace with everything
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
yea, but in mp2 it's mona that changes everything. up to her showing up max was back on track, a real detective again, etc.

I didn't get that from Max Payne 2:

I had wanted to be punished for what I had done. But Alfred Woden had kept his word. With his influence, ridiculously, I had emerged from my history of violence unscathed, a hero. I didn't thank him. I couldn't stomach it. I left the DEA. I went back to where I'd started out, back to the job, the NYPD.

With no way to deal with the past, I kept my eyes on the road, off the rearview mirror and the roadkill behind me. I chased lesser mysteries, other people's crimes.

Remember he spent his nights speaking to a phone sex line girl named Mona, too. Guy was a mess.

Sam Lake reset Max at the beginning of Max Payne 2, just like Houser did at the beginning of Max Payne 3.
 
I'd love to see more martial arts added to the mix.

Do a Gun Kata style thing and let Max assault the bad guys with a SMG in one hand and a Katana in the other.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
I didn't get that from Max Payne 2:

Remember he spent his nights speaking to a phone sex line girl named Mona, too. Guy was a mess.

Sam Lake reset Max at the beginning of Max Payne 2, just like Houser did at the beginning of Max Payne 3.
maybe i'm misremembering it

i just have really strong in my head that ending line of mp2 " I had a dream of my wife. She was dead. But it was all right."

felt like closure

but yea i'm sure he could've had his personal issues come back in mp3 if it just wasn't so awfully written

"bagdad with g-strings" is a line i'll won't ever forgive mp3 forcing me to listen

i felt like i was dying inside lol
 

GlamFM

Banned
Me neither. Quite easily the best playing game in the series. With some refinements and improvements, MP 4 could be amazing.

Unfortunately I think development was too expensive and sales were too "low" for R* and Take2 to consider making another one.
 

Sh1ner

Member
In my ideal world:
we get a parallel arc where 3 never happened. Its made by the remedy guys with rockstar involvement. Euphoria for the bad guys but not on Max please.
Its set after max payne 2 a year after. I would love the idea the OP has and Max having an awesome buddy cop as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Max Payne 4 would be an accumulation of the great ideas of this thread. It should start noir but it has to end on a high note for Max, cause I can't take more of them feels when the people he loves keeps dying on him. :'(
 

TUROK

Member
I've been thinking about this ever since I finished Max Payne 3. Playing through it, I felt like Max was beyond redemption. There is no riding off into the sunset for him. If they're going to make a Max Payne 4, he needs to die.

Max Payne 2 ended with him seemingly conquering his demons. Max Payne 3 said to hell with that and made him a bumbling, pathetic mess of a man. One that still tries to do the right thing, but stumbles through it and manages to falter in many ways.

What's Max good at? Killing people, and he knows this. It eats away at him, evident by that moment in the cemetery where he tries to play the piano. I see him making the best of his talents and just killing as many people who deserve to die as he can.

Max Payne 4 needs to be bleak and cynical. He's not a hero, but that doesn't mean he can't do some good in his own fucked up way.

What would Max be fighting for? Well, he's still alive. Might as well make himself useful.
 

Fjordson

Member
Unfortunately I think development was too expensive and sales were too "low" for R* and Take2 to consider making another one.
That I agree with.

I also don't know if R* would try and do a direct sequel with plot and characters connected to a previous game. Usually when they do "sequels" like with GTA or Red Dead they're almost completely independent. Smaller connections and cameos sure, but nothing akin to another game starring Max Payne.

I would love to see them take some of the gameplay and basic concepts of Max Payne 3 to a new IP. Make some improvements and refinements and create a whole new world and protagonist.
 
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