very fun! going to keep this short and kinda vague since i don't want to give too much away but as a little roguelite deckbuilder this is fairly simple (deceptively so) but what it lacks in complexity it more than makes up for in atmosphere. the sound and visual design is just remarkable here, drawing from playstation 1 low-poly aesthetics but with a lot more detail that actually manages to make it feel caught out of time, a weird middle ground between vintage and contemporary that actually stokes unease in the player. my one real complaint here is the kinda simplistic narrative. i love the presentation of the narrative, a kind of we're all going to the world's fair fake creepypasta/arg that ties it's multitude of different gameplay dimensions to narrative progression, and i thought the characters were all really charming to encounter, but just found it lacking in any real thematic depth beyond it's gimmickry. i think the narrative is worth it as it keeps the player strung through all of the different secrets getting revealed, but honestly feels overly sentimental and somewhat too pretentious for what it's ultimately trying to say, but that does all kinda fit the creepypasta vibe to be fair.

okay so i've been trying to get into a bunch of games recently. played baldur's gate 3 for about 25 hours before running into some weird storyline stuff that gradually wore me off it, tried starting bioshock and had some fun but couldn't really get into it, played a decent amount of ghost of tsushima because i was watching a lot of kurosawa films but then this game came along. i've only had it for about four days and i've already somehow sunk 20 hours into it, and feel like that playtime is just going to balloon more and more.

on the surface it's fairly simple, a poker based roguelike (roguelite? honest to god i do not understand the difference) deckbuilder with no story, multiplayer, or really anything going on outside of the main gameplay loop, but my god is that gameplay loop fun. i like poker quite a bit to be honest (though i'm not much of gambler) but this is barely even poker outside of the hands and the aesthetics, instead it's much more of a luck and math based puzzle game. trying to give yourself the highest possible score by building your multipliers and sprinkling your deck with cards that have a variety of different enhancements. one run you can be scrambling to get a flush or a straight on the last hand to desperately beat the boss and the next run will have you just cruising to the end playing pairs the entire game. you can write it off as "addictive" or "mind-numbing" but to me i just find this game so pure, so raw, about engaging with simple systems to create astonishing results within strict confines. usually have found myself incredibly bored with roguelites (likes?) but this is the first one to really sink it's claws into me and i think i'll have a hard time letting go. it's over for me once the mobile port comes out.

also want to just quickly praise the art direction which is simultaneously charming and psychotic in the same breath. all of the unique joker cards have great designs, some merely being beautifully rendered pixel art, others drawing their influence from other cards (baseball, pokemon, credit, etc.), many of them drawing specific influence from clowns in pop culture (juggalos will love this game, woop woop), but all having their own unique charm that makes some legitmately hard to not buy even if their effects will just tank the run. also love the swirling backdrop that really makes you feel like you're succumbing to madness as you accidentally enter your fourth straight hour of play, and the great punchy sound effects are sure to provide the pure dopamine hits any gambler craves.

i swear i'll try to finish one of those other games at some point.

extremely charming lo-fi vibes when looking at it now while remaining an incredibly effective noir pastiche and love letter to hong kong action films, classic bogart detective stories, and the idea of the pre-9/11 and pre-giuliani new york underbelly.

i think what stands out most to me here is the incredibly strong writing mixed with the consistent tone the game pulls off. set during the harshest winter storm on record, max payne allows itself to really bask in the cold, unfeeling, and violent reality it creates. the narration feels like a mixture of raymond chandler and alan moore, all pitch black hard boiled cliches funnelling themselves towards a nihilistic death drive. this feels very in line with the cold grey colour palette and dilapidated interiors/exteriors that make up the visual design. a world where blood stains all hallways and the only way to survive is to kill or be killed. but the game is also not without a sense of humour, it very much knows that it can’t be takes 100% seriously due to the use of remedy staff members as models for the cutscenes and the lo-if, though well art directed, visuals of the game. the splashes of humour here are actually great and never detract from the moody tone the game is aiming for, much like all great scandavian crime novels.

remedy’s stated goal is to create games that reject the cliche’s of the medium, narrative first without skimping on gameplay and it feels all very cohesive even from their first real effort here. in order to stylize their gameplay, max payne borrows the bullet time effect from the wachowski sisters’ matrix films and the use of slow motion from the films of john woo (specifically namedropped multiple times in the game). this allows max to slow down time in order to preform death defying stunts and render almost impossible kill shots. rather than being a straight up third person shooter this in effect turns the game into one of the first acrobatic shooters. while it is definitely starting to show its age now as a lot of these ideas have been refined in subsequent games, there’s such a simple thrill to jumping down a flight of stairs and mowing down a few henchmen that never got old to me (even as i had to do the same segment over and over again as i got closer to the end).

the last thing i want to mention are the platformer prologue sequences. while the platforming itself is jank as hell, i just absolutely loved the horrific mood these levels set. max having to relive his greatest trauma over and over again, constantly blaming himself for his own tragedy. the best part of the entire game i think is during the act iii prologue where the game takes a more metatextual bent, getting very close to metal gear solid ii: sons of liberty. i wish payne had gone a little further in that direction, as the reveal had my mouth literally agape as i was seeing it, but even as it stands it’s an incredibly effective sequence