The Original Max Payne
The original Max Payne came out in 2001. Nineteen years later, we are probably looking forward to a new addition to the Max Payne series or call it ‘Max Payne 4’.
Developed by Remedy Entertainment, Max Payne was a solid hit receiving several awards and positive reviews from the fans and critics.
Did you know that Max Payne won a BAFTA for the Best PC Game of 2001?
Considering the achievement unlocked by the first game in the series, Remedy Entertainment took not so long to come up with a sequel (they called it Max Payne 2). Released two years later in 2003, the sequel to Max Payne was called ‘Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne’. In spite of the fact that Max Payne 2 received good reviews from its players, it did not perform that well in sales. Also read about, Crackdown 4.
Max Payne 2: A Huge Blow for Remedy Entertainment
Max Payne 2 was somewhat of a letdown for Remedy so they decided to pack their bags for the decade. Remedy Entertainment re-entered the scene with the release of Alan Wake in 2010. During all those years, Rockstar Studios worked on some of the best games of the decade including GTA San Andreas, GTA Vice City, and Red Dead Redemption. Remedy never thought about getting back on the Max Payne series after receiving a crippling blow from Max Payne 2. However, Rockstar thought it would be a great idea to revive this old but popular series so Max Payne 3 was released in 2012, wholly worked on by Rockstar Games. Max Payne 3 did sell pretty well and just like the first two Max Paynes, it was received quite well by the audience.
Max Payne 3 was a great hit but Rockstar hasn’t since dropped a hint for Max Payne 4. It’s been almost 8 years but there isn’t any word on the market about when (or if at all) there will be a fourth game added to the series.
The Long Wait
However, 8 years isn’t still the longest wait ever for a new Max Payne game because the gap between Max Payne 2 and Max Payne 3 was a whopping 9 years. But with all the data on the table, Max Payne 4 is looking very unlikely at this moment.
Rockstar hasn’t announced yet what they are working on after the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018. GTA VI is probably going to be released in the next couple of months. Also read about, Red Dead Redemption 3.
Max Payne’s story did come to a proper end in Max Payne 3 so there’s no point in further continuing the story unless Rockstar comes up with something justifiable to keep the story going on Max Payne 4.
Is There Going to be a Max Payne 4 or Did the Series Already Die Back in 2013?
Do you think Max Payne 4 would be a great revival for the good old series? Or do you think Rockstar will shift its attention towards more important projects like GTA VI? Let us know in the comments below.
Honestly, I think it’s time for a reboot. The third one didn’t really connect to the first two that much anyways.
I want MAX PAYNE 3 PVP STYLE. PvP mechanics are just UNIQUE. No other funniest game like this just the pvp.
Max Payne, GTA and Red Dead Redemption series will continue as 3 top selling Take Two Interactive franchises. Just like EA Fifa, Battlefield, Star Wars and Ubisoft Assassin Creed and Far cry and Activition Call of Duty and Crash Bandicot continues.
then u cant use the slowmotion unless u slow everyone against you and this became useless,
I would like to see them do an open world Max Payne. Returning back to NY, Max could find himself working undercover for a private party or maybe a federal agency. It wouldn’t be hard for the writer to think of a reason. It would also be been fun to to give him side missions to do in the city, kind of like RDR and GTA but in the classic dark noir setting. I hope fans reach out to Rockstar and bring new life to this franchise.
believe me there will be max Payne 4 Rockstar is hiding something and that is max payne 4
The series died down long before the third game came out. The third one, by all means, was not going to re-popularize the franchise but were likely to have a one last go at the spin of the wheel for who knows if luck would have it and they’d hit the jackpot?
Here’s the problem for why Max Payne can’t be a “series” but one that will stay limited: They didn’t bother to fast-track a third game straight after the second one, and don’t forget, this isn’t ‘Grand Theft Auto’ where you can cycle between protagonists and it won’t have much of an effect on the storyline.
Max Payne, as most of you know, is a throwback to those pulp fiction hard-boiled depressed down on their luck anti-heroes, much like Philip Marlowe or Mike Hammer. In order to have a franchise like Max Payne to be consistent is to have them engage in churning out more entries and with as little gaps in between as possible. Think how Donald E. Westlake released numerous books regarding his heroes (Parker, Dortmunder and others) and didn’t let those individual series have their run of the mill or peak early.
A character like Max Payne should’ve had at least seven or eight adventures (or tragic misadventures) by now, and the third game depicted very well where the series would’ve went ahead without involving, say, the Inner Circle, Nicole Horne, or the Aesir Corporation. That’s just milking the past and this is a mistake 99% of writers have been doing all for the love of “continuity”. Remember, this ain’t a small world and in this line of work, you meet a lot of people, and they don’t have to be related, because most of the times – logically speaking – they do not.
Love it or hate it, the third Max Payne game was a great way to continue the series… Had it been released in 2005 or so. But, by 2013, with a character aging in a consistent timeline and is already nearing the twilight years of his life, Max Payne won’t have any room left for him to go on. It would neither be ethical nor creatively sensible to have him put together another misadventure by default and complain about it from start to finish with painkillers and booze at his disposal while disgruntedly shooting whatever moves like a grumpy old man. It would just devalue the character, especially after he tried a “new thing” in his life and failed at it in the third game, I doubt any rational man would repeat it.
There is a way to make a Max Payne 4 happen, though… But, it will have to be his very last entry. Would you kill him off? That’s up to you. Would I do that? Definitely not. The third game wasn’t conclusive enough, to be honest. And seeing as Max Payne failed to be a character with a large cycle of murder cases or scandalous affairs (video game entries, in our case), he’s become someone in the manner of John Wick whose screen purpose is chronological survival that has him battling one antagonist party in exchange for his own life. With Max Payne, it’s his search for redemption, and the only way to give him that for certain is to make a fourth game and bring past characters back, and give him a newfound love for life in the end that is very much in tone with the noir spirit of the series and nothing out of the ordinary.
That’s Max Payne, folks.
But, if you want to scale Max back to a hard-boiled detective type character who isn’t always battling Aesir, Horne, The Inner Circle or some relative of theirs like it’s some damn small world, but encounter new scums of villainy like most pulp fiction anti-heroes or dark heroes did, it’d be best to reboot the series and work on those storylines and churn them out every two or three years.