I'll be honest, I thought the same. Didn't gel with the game anyway but I thought the writing was very up its own arse.

@andihero yeah I had a viscerally negative reaction to pretty much everything about this game but that was the top of the list

I'm a billion percent biased on this topic, so feel free to ignore me. I was just in the middle of digging through all of Remedy's games only to realize that Sam Lake did exceedingly similar things with all of Remedy's games. Most notably Max Payne uses Sam Lake's face, establishing the field of "Videogames where you play as the creator." Of course that didn't stop there, and has only gotten to be more of an ongoing joke with their games as a whole especially with the live-action components. But it's fair to criticize Nelson's work as mere homage.

@mjoshua number one, pretty much every face in Max Payne 1 was done by a dev which was a pretty common practice at the time (see also Goldeneye), and Sam Lake was the writer, which I guess I personally wouldn't credit as "the creator" of that game, although obviously he was important. Also they immediately replaced him with an actor in the next one. But more importantly, number two, Max Payne was a game that took itself much, much, much, much, much, much less seriously, which puts a very different light on the whole thing

Thanks for replying, @djscheddar. I feel your disconnect for sure. I recognize it’s weird for me playing the game where I’ve worked with Nelson (and his voice) extensively. Like I have a hard time thinking of him as a remotely serious person, so the heavier tone with the goofy werewolves and biblically accurate angels feels appropriately pseudo-serious. I was jealous of his selfies with Sam Lake after getting Sam to play this game. So, this is a weird and unfair experience to compare to. Again your experience is super valued and valid. Thanks for talking.

There's a reason they say it's inspired by Max Payne