I enjoyed Max Payne 2 most of all, what a fantastic game that was! Recently between QB & Control I choose QB because I much preferred the story telling, the world and the characters of it even though on the gameplay side it was worse. I think there was a lot more potential to it than was realised & obviously we will never get a sequel now, but I think they can still do something in that vein again. Plus, I think people really underestimate how difficult it is to actually push an even somewhat coherent story about time-travel or keep the writing at a good level for the duration while wrestling with the concept.
Control I loved at the beginning but the more I played it the less I liked it, the gameplay became more of a burden & an annoyance which is precisely what carries it (and therefore doesn't) and the story is just 'ehhh', they try to be weird for the sake of weird but it gets boring after the first few times and too expected. Honestly, if not for RTX I don't think people would pay so much attention to it for this long. And the Ashtray Maze unfortunately isn't that good imo. I understand what they were going for but the illusion gets dispelled too quickly & the rest of the gameplay for the section is same ol' same ol' but laid bare. It's the exact sort of sequence I WANT to love & get hyped for but just can't. And ofc in the end the DLC was a clear disappointment, I don't think that has much defenders.
The good thing is that with a bigger budget they can work on all that & overall the game was still decent and a step in the right direction for the company. At a business level they're finally getting their production issues under control (heh) so they don't just take forever and risk bankruptcy, and at a gaming level they pushed gameplay first which was the exact right move to do after QB and how much it was a weakness for that game, and the other rough spots can be worked on & polished.
I think the future's looking bright for Remedy.
