Max Payne’s Face and Voice Celebrate the Original Game’s 20th Birthday

Remedy Entertainment released a very special video this week celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Max Payne franchise featuring both the original face of the protagonist, Sam Lake, and the voice of Max Payne in the video games, James McCaffrey. It’s been nearly a decade since the last Max Payne title, Max Payne 3, was released, but it is clear from the anniversary message that the original developer still very much appreciates the franchise that really made it what it is today. It certainly seems fair to say that without 2001’s Max Payne, there would not have been Alan Wake or Control down the line.

The anniversary message, which you can check out via YouTube above and Twitter below, is fairly straightforward and essentially sees Lake and McCaffrey thank everyone that ever worked on the franchise as well as all the fans. Also, Lake dug out a very special jacket from Remedy’s headquarters for the occasion to celebrate the birthday with an in-character voiceover by McCaffrey. For a low-budget affair, it’s basically perfect. The only thing that would be more perfect would be if a new Max Payne were on the horizon.

If you are somehow not familiar, the original Max Payne video game was released back in 2001 for PC prior to eventually releasing for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox the following year. The sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, released in 2003 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC, and another — and so far final — video game sequel, Max Payne 3, released in 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. A movie adaptation was also released in 2008 that starred Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, though it was certainly not as well-received as the video games themselves. The first two video games were made by Remedy Entertainment while the third was made by Rockstar Games. At this point, the franchise has been largely dormant for nearly a decade. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the Max Payne franchise right here.

What do you think about the video celebrating 20 years of the Max Payne franchise? Would you be interested in playing a new Max Payne video game? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!

[H/T IGN]