Today is the 20th anniversary of the release of the original Max Payne, the crazy action shooter that made Remedy Entertainment a big deal in the game industry. The titular character remains an iconic one in the history of gaming, and the two people who portrayed him reunited in a video to sing his praises. They even teamed up to give us a glimpse of the character again at the end of the video.
Max’s voice actor, James McCaffrey, and Max’s face model, Sam Lake, both appeared in a Twitter video posted by developers Remedy. Lake is also Remedy’s creative director, and was behind the company’s follow-up series, the Alan Wake shared universe and acknowledged that not many of Max’s original creators still work at Remedy. Both Lake and McCaffrey said they constantly hear from fans about how much they love and miss Max Payne. They thank the fans, and Lake even produces a replica of Max’s jacket, wearing it while McCaffrey narrates Max’s train of thought.
Max Payne might get a shout in the next Control game, or the next Alan Wake game if there is one. While it’s not likely to be a blatant shout-out — the rights to Max Payne are owned by Rockstar Games, while Control and Alan Wake is still being made by Remedy — they’ve made references to Max in the Alan Wake universe before.
Max Payne is one of the many series that Rockstar has not updated in a while (stay hopeful, Bully fans), with Max Payne 3 having come out in 2012 and no further updates on the series since then. Max Payne 3 was made in-house by Rockstar Studios, with Remedy having served as consultants. Given that remaking older classics appears to be en vogue right now, I wouldn’t say no to an original Max Payne refresh, especially given that McCaffrey and Lake both seem eager to pay further tribute to the character.
