"The first game of a franchise always requires a lot of prototyping and a lot of figuring out, and once you’re done with that, building on that foundation, it’s much faster, much easier. "Making a sequel is obviously different from making the first game," Sam Lake stated at his Jeux Vidéo Masterclass in 2015.
The acquisition would allow Remedy to move onto other IPs, later revealed to be Alan Wake, and give financial backing into getting the project off the ground. The MP franchise had brought them $10 Million, 969,932 shares of restricted common stock (stock with conditions) and "certain future development incentives" according to the release. In May 2002, Take Two released a press release announcing two things that a sequel was underway and that the publisher had purchased the Max Payne IP from Remedy and Apogee. One major thing which made the development of Max Payne 2 different to its predecessor was that Remedy went into the project knowing that it would be their last Max Payne title. To complete a sequel living up to expectations and within the time constraints was going to be a tough demand.
The game was also awarded a BAFTA, calling it the "Best PC Game of 2001, as well as a Golden Joystick Award, among many others. The original has sold over 5 million units to date worldwide and achieved recognition by Microsoft and Sony, who respectively awarded it "Greatest Hit" and "Platinum Hit" statuses. The first Max Payne was massively successful, gaining positive review scores and a hefty 89 Metacritic rating. As prior connections turn into enemies, Max must retrace his past to learn the truth of the events that led him here.īuilding on top of the original game was a challenge in itself. In October 2003, just eighteen months after the release of Max Payne, Remedy launched their highly-anticipated sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.ĭescribed as a "film-noir love story", in this new adventure, Max's is reinstated as a NYPD detective but a warehouse bust leads to a startling realisation as a ghost from his past comes back to haunt him, Mona Sax, an assassin previously presumed dead and with answers to the questions Max is seeking.