A venture that is refitting old games with improved graphics has released a video showcasing Max Payne in HD. The wizard at the helm of Awesome Mods has been working on remastering the early 2000s third-person shooter, giving it a facelift in terms of textures. The aim of the exercise is to promote the Max Payne Project Remastered, which is collecting funds.
Max Payne is a neo-noir shooter released in 2001 by Remedy Entertainment, the creators of Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control. It was adapted to the silver screen in 2008, starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. The game is known for its Humphrey Bogart-like narrative and unique Bullet Time action, inspired by John Woo and likened to The Matrix, which coined the term only a couple of years before.
Awesome Mods' video shows the gritty former cop walking through several in-game environments, giving the viewers a comparison between the original graphics and improved HD textures. The difference is massive, as one would expect with two decades-old technology. The mushy pixelated walls now have clear bricks, the stop sign and the graffiti on the wall are detailed, and the meat hanging at the butcher looks now more like a piece of flesh than a bloody sock.
This Max Payne remaster isn't without issues, though. Some blood spills are inconsistent and look like they are from the vanilla game. However, perhaps more importantly it seems that the AI hasn't been able to decipher what the packing labels or signs say. In the boxes at the warehouse on original textures, it seems to read something like Canned Fastfish, but the AI has created some unintelligible symbols to replace actual letters. The same goes for signs and police barricades saying "police dept," some of which have been turned into odd symbols.
There are some other issues that adding HD textures doesn't address, either. The grates still don't have actual holes, they're just blackened out, and everything is still flat. This is due to the polygon count that hasn't been increased. The comparison is purely between the textures, which admittedly do make quite a difference. All the additional changes would require a lot of work, maybe even an actual Max Payne remake, which fortunately Remedy is currently conceptualizing.
That being said, the graphical difference is immense, and it truly does bring Max Payne to a new level. Some of the most impressive upscaling happens at the hotel, in which the paintings and posters are way crispier and more detailed. Also, one thing that the videos aren't meant to compare is the lighting. However, it suggests in the title that the game runs with "Next-Gen Ray Tracing." This should make at least as much of a difference as the textures to the game's atmosphere. It is undoubtedly an interesting project that retains all of Max Payne's best qualities and adds extra detail on top.