What Made Max Payne So Good? | A Retrospective

As per yearly tradition now since 2022, here's my incredibly late Christmas video! What better way to celebrate Christmas than with one of the greatest Christmas games ever, Max Payne?! This has been another video I've been aching to work on for a long time, a sort of passion project like the San Andreas video. Max Payne is one of my favorite games of all time, hell, one of my favorite franchises of all time. And the first of those three games is still one of the most timeless pieces of media and art to ever grace us, and I am eternally grateful to Remedy for conceiving it. In this video I dive into the development, gameplay mechanics, character dynamics and aesthetics and inspirations of Max Payne, as well as of course, the story, which takes up 80% of the video. I truly hope you enjoy as this might be the single project I've put the most love and care into, trying to write as poetically as Sam Lake, trying to do my best voice-work even with the budget ass microphone I have, making everything look nice and cinematic, the atmosphere and the background noises... Thanks for watching, I hope it's a doozy. And please forgive the small issues here and there like the occasional framerate dips, the PC port of the game is notoriously unstable even with patches installed. And thanks to my friend KillyChides for lending her voice for the intro sequence of the video! Subscribe to her channel here:    / @killychides   Videos shown (in order): Sam Lake accepts Best Narrative award, TGA 2023:    • Alan Wake 2  Wins Best Narrative at The Ga...   Sam Lake presents Best Narrative award, TGA 2024:    • Best Narrative | The Game Awards 2024   Max Payne E3 1998 Trailer:    • Max Payne E3 1998 Trailer   Max Payne 20th Anniversary:    • Max Payne - 20 Year Anniversary   E3 1998 Show Floor:    • E3 1998 - Show Floor   Max Payne 1998 Beta Gameplay:    • Max Payne 1998 Beta Gameplay   Max Payne - Behind The Scenes:    • Behind the Scenes - Max Payne   Max Payne GBA Gameplay:    • Max Payne GBA Walkthrough # 10   Other media and bits shown: TheCoverProject for high quality cover art: https://www.thecoverproject.net Graphic novel photographs: https://x.com/vikare06/status/1742886... Max Payne 3 Comics Issue 1-3: https://www.amazon.com/Max-Payne-Comp... Hard Boiled (1992): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104684/ The Matrix (1999): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ Face/Off (1997): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119094/ John Wick (2014): https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2911666/ Music used (in order):    • Nothing To Lose - A Max Payne 1 Retrospect...   Follow me around: Subscribe ➤    / @larsjinn   Twitch ➤   / larsjinn   Instagram ➤   / larsjinn   Twitter ➤ https://x.com/LarsJinn Backloggd ➤ https://www.backloggd.com/u/LarsJinn/ Intro - 0:00 Development & History - 2:54 Gameplay Mechanics, Level Design & Aesthetics - 6:41 Prologue: Before The Fall - 11:17 Chapter I: The American Dream - 17:15 Chapter II: A Cold Day In Hell - 42:32 Chapter III: A Bit Closer To Heaven - 56:06 Legacy & Characters - 1:16:53 Outro - 1:20:39 #maxpayne #remedy #rockstar