Vigilant Walrus
Member
MP3 grew on me over time. Initial impressions were mixed.
1 and 2 are legendary but 2 is my favorite.
What is it Max Payne does so fantastic?
1. The game has incredible replay value. Why? Because the game is immediate. Installs, menus, controls, UI, toturials. Everything is kept to a minimum. There are so many games where it is a pain in the ass to even get to the good action bits that you don't even bother replaying it.
It bothered me that MP3 had unskippable cut scenes. You cannot do this. Rockstar completely misunderstanded why people reinstall max payne 1 and 2 frequently to just get some action adrenaline for 5-8 minutes.
It can be so satisfying to just load the game, and run guns blazing, jumping down from a forklift in slowmotion as you violently kill many bad guys in ultra slow motion. Having cut scenes that cannot be skipped was.. It disrespect the players time. And it kills any desire to replay.
2. Max Payne is the good kind of simple. I HATE. I HATE shooters where they try to add layers by depth by adding vehicle sections, Sub-RPG upgrade elements and so on to a game to make it less repetitive.
That is the wrong approach. You adding a shitty vehicle section is not going to make me feel like the game has more breathe.
MP does one thing really well, and that is shooting. All it is has is its bullet time mechanic. Its so simple. But I keep coming back to it because they finetuned it so well. The game is punishing for not using bullet time correctly, and it rewards you for using it for the right times.
The game feels smooth as butter regardless how you're using it. Then it doesn't become a gimmick. Max Paynes DNA is the bullet time.
3. Max Payne doesn't have bullshit puzzles to slow down the player. Developers do this all the time. They have a level and start playtesting, and testers come in and say something arbitary like "game is repetitive, game is boring" and then they start chopping up the game, make the levels convoluted and make these fetch point-A to point-B level designs. But this adds little of value because the exploration and critical thinking in the supposed puzzle solving is an afterthought. It ruins the pacing, and its a cheap tool.
Instead deal with the core-22 seconds of fun as famously dubbed by bungie. You don't need to sodomize your own game world because a player moves through it too quickly, and you want to water down the soup because it'll take less than the value of 60 dollars game to slurp through, but your hands are tied because the budget for the game demands a 60 dollars pricetag and so much of the budget got into high production values like voice acting, mocap and so on, as well as marketing related items.
4. Max Payne 1 and 2 uses clever storytelling techniques to show us less, but making us feel more. If you are a developer and you got the chops to make witcher 3 or metal gear solid level quality cut scenes, then go ahead. But the vast amount of Devs can't do justice to the story they are trying to tell. Its incredible expensive, difficult and time consuming.
Why in the fuck are not more studios doing what MP1 and 2 did? using solid writing, good sound mixing, still images in a comic book format allows for story that is told at a high pace, suitable for the games film noir themes, but there is also shown so little that the player can have his/her own personal interpretation.
The Mona Sax romance story in MP2 is perhaps the classiest romance in gaming. Its not tacky, creepy or cringey, and perhaps its because the game doesn't show you much. The art stills are skillfully done, the script is decent and the sound mixing leave enough to fill out the blanks.
I have so much praise for MP1 and 2s storytelling delivery.
It is not even that MP is a masterfully written game. Max Payne is almost grotesquely and comically caricaturized, and even the delivery is heavy handed. But like Snake in Metal Gear Solid, we buy the character and we like the writing and the over dramatic voice over delivery. We buy the fiction. And its because it all comes together.
There are so many other games where the cut scenes look fucked or I am distracted by bad lip syncing, or fucked up character hair or something like that. Developers should do themselves a favor and explore storytelling mechanics of MP1 and 2 much more closely.
They'd save so much time and money. Money that can be used towards hiring better voice over directors and better script writers.
Imagine if your game had a writer who wrote as good as stephen king or Patrick Rothfuss. It would be a level of storytelling in gaming we cannot perceive today.
´Storytellers are focusing on the wrong things in games. MP1 and MP2 shows you how effective simple storytelling can be.
MP3 was technically impressive, and there where good bits to the story, but I felt I saw a game version of Man on Fire, and nothing wrong with that. Man on Fire is an incredible action movie, and one you need to see if you haven't.
I just felt MP1 and MP2 tapped into something very special.
Tl;DR - Max Payne respects the players time. The game is not watered down by trying to artificially extend its length or make it perceived as more deep by adding more layers and gameplay systems on top of it. It is raw, destilled and simple. There is only one mechanic, but that mechanic is done masterfully and incredible satisfying that it trumps so many other games.
Other games; Focus on doing fewer things well. Your weakest link decide the faith of the chain, and we don't need more 3 person shooters full of garbage side gameplay. Does your game really need vehicles? Does it really need cover mechanics? does it really need level upping your character? Does it really need weapon upgrades?
On the surface, you might think that all these features are excellent, but they can detract from the experience, and if they are superficially implemented, then they do more harm than good. Because they keep the raw gameplay from being as good as it could be, and that makes the game less good.
It's not just a less is more, or that this is the case for all games, but just a basic fact that putting your resources into mastering a specific thing is a better outcome than doing 5-6 things mediocre or decently.
Lastly, you dont need a long game. If the natural game of your game is more of a 3-4 hour experience, then aim to make a fantastic 3-4 hour game that actually makes people people want to replay them. And aim for 40 or 50 dollars to take that time differentiation into account.
I am not gonna like your game more or find it more memorable if you piss and shit in your own bath water to make it last for 8-10 hours. You didn't make the game better, you just made the game worse, and in the process wasting my time, increasing the chance that I will never want to replay it, because you had to copy paste assets, do backtracking, engage in thoughtless fed-ex questing, running errands, breadcrum carrot on a stick navigation, grinding and other cheap tools used to artificially extend a game. Stop doing this shit. I mean it.
1 and 2 are legendary but 2 is my favorite.
What is it Max Payne does so fantastic?
1. The game has incredible replay value. Why? Because the game is immediate. Installs, menus, controls, UI, toturials. Everything is kept to a minimum. There are so many games where it is a pain in the ass to even get to the good action bits that you don't even bother replaying it.
It bothered me that MP3 had unskippable cut scenes. You cannot do this. Rockstar completely misunderstanded why people reinstall max payne 1 and 2 frequently to just get some action adrenaline for 5-8 minutes.
It can be so satisfying to just load the game, and run guns blazing, jumping down from a forklift in slowmotion as you violently kill many bad guys in ultra slow motion. Having cut scenes that cannot be skipped was.. It disrespect the players time. And it kills any desire to replay.
2. Max Payne is the good kind of simple. I HATE. I HATE shooters where they try to add layers by depth by adding vehicle sections, Sub-RPG upgrade elements and so on to a game to make it less repetitive.
That is the wrong approach. You adding a shitty vehicle section is not going to make me feel like the game has more breathe.
MP does one thing really well, and that is shooting. All it is has is its bullet time mechanic. Its so simple. But I keep coming back to it because they finetuned it so well. The game is punishing for not using bullet time correctly, and it rewards you for using it for the right times.
The game feels smooth as butter regardless how you're using it. Then it doesn't become a gimmick. Max Paynes DNA is the bullet time.
3. Max Payne doesn't have bullshit puzzles to slow down the player. Developers do this all the time. They have a level and start playtesting, and testers come in and say something arbitary like "game is repetitive, game is boring" and then they start chopping up the game, make the levels convoluted and make these fetch point-A to point-B level designs. But this adds little of value because the exploration and critical thinking in the supposed puzzle solving is an afterthought. It ruins the pacing, and its a cheap tool.
Instead deal with the core-22 seconds of fun as famously dubbed by bungie. You don't need to sodomize your own game world because a player moves through it too quickly, and you want to water down the soup because it'll take less than the value of 60 dollars game to slurp through, but your hands are tied because the budget for the game demands a 60 dollars pricetag and so much of the budget got into high production values like voice acting, mocap and so on, as well as marketing related items.
4. Max Payne 1 and 2 uses clever storytelling techniques to show us less, but making us feel more. If you are a developer and you got the chops to make witcher 3 or metal gear solid level quality cut scenes, then go ahead. But the vast amount of Devs can't do justice to the story they are trying to tell. Its incredible expensive, difficult and time consuming.
Why in the fuck are not more studios doing what MP1 and 2 did? using solid writing, good sound mixing, still images in a comic book format allows for story that is told at a high pace, suitable for the games film noir themes, but there is also shown so little that the player can have his/her own personal interpretation.
The Mona Sax romance story in MP2 is perhaps the classiest romance in gaming. Its not tacky, creepy or cringey, and perhaps its because the game doesn't show you much. The art stills are skillfully done, the script is decent and the sound mixing leave enough to fill out the blanks.
I have so much praise for MP1 and 2s storytelling delivery.
It is not even that MP is a masterfully written game. Max Payne is almost grotesquely and comically caricaturized, and even the delivery is heavy handed. But like Snake in Metal Gear Solid, we buy the character and we like the writing and the over dramatic voice over delivery. We buy the fiction. And its because it all comes together.
There are so many other games where the cut scenes look fucked or I am distracted by bad lip syncing, or fucked up character hair or something like that. Developers should do themselves a favor and explore storytelling mechanics of MP1 and 2 much more closely.
They'd save so much time and money. Money that can be used towards hiring better voice over directors and better script writers.
Imagine if your game had a writer who wrote as good as stephen king or Patrick Rothfuss. It would be a level of storytelling in gaming we cannot perceive today.
´Storytellers are focusing on the wrong things in games. MP1 and MP2 shows you how effective simple storytelling can be.
MP3 was technically impressive, and there where good bits to the story, but I felt I saw a game version of Man on Fire, and nothing wrong with that. Man on Fire is an incredible action movie, and one you need to see if you haven't.
I just felt MP1 and MP2 tapped into something very special.
Tl;DR - Max Payne respects the players time. The game is not watered down by trying to artificially extend its length or make it perceived as more deep by adding more layers and gameplay systems on top of it. It is raw, destilled and simple. There is only one mechanic, but that mechanic is done masterfully and incredible satisfying that it trumps so many other games.
Other games; Focus on doing fewer things well. Your weakest link decide the faith of the chain, and we don't need more 3 person shooters full of garbage side gameplay. Does your game really need vehicles? Does it really need cover mechanics? does it really need level upping your character? Does it really need weapon upgrades?
On the surface, you might think that all these features are excellent, but they can detract from the experience, and if they are superficially implemented, then they do more harm than good. Because they keep the raw gameplay from being as good as it could be, and that makes the game less good.
It's not just a less is more, or that this is the case for all games, but just a basic fact that putting your resources into mastering a specific thing is a better outcome than doing 5-6 things mediocre or decently.
Lastly, you dont need a long game. If the natural game of your game is more of a 3-4 hour experience, then aim to make a fantastic 3-4 hour game that actually makes people people want to replay them. And aim for 40 or 50 dollars to take that time differentiation into account.
I am not gonna like your game more or find it more memorable if you piss and shit in your own bath water to make it last for 8-10 hours. You didn't make the game better, you just made the game worse, and in the process wasting my time, increasing the chance that I will never want to replay it, because you had to copy paste assets, do backtracking, engage in thoughtless fed-ex questing, running errands, breadcrum carrot on a stick navigation, grinding and other cheap tools used to artificially extend a game. Stop doing this shit. I mean it.
