PC Gamer

RIGHT:If you pay

close attention to the

Address Unknown TV

series that plays in

game, each section of

the funhouse will sort

of make sense.

TUNE INThe TV shows ofMax Payne 2

LORDS AND LADIES

Aromanticsoapoperaset

in Victorian England. It’s

notable for almost every

sentence of dialogue

beginning with either ‘my

lord’or‘mylady’.

DICK JUSTICE

A’70s-stylecopshow

whoseplotmirrorsthe

events of the firstMax

Payne.Dickisframedfor

hiswife’smurderandgoes

onaquestforrevenge.

CAPTAIN BASEBALL

BAT BOY

Acartoonbasedon a

baseball bat-wielding

superhero fighting a

demonandhisarmy of

zombies from outer space.

I

t’s no secret that Sam

Lake is a Twin Peaks

fan. The influence of

Mark Frost and David

Lynch’s cult series is

felt in every game he writes, from

the Pacific Northwestern folk

horror of Alan Wake to Max

Payne 2 ’s Address Unknown. This

fictional TV series concerns a man

being haunted by strange spirits

including a backwards-talking pink

flamingo. “Mirrors are more fun

than television,” the bird says in a

distorted, otherworldly voice. “She

has dyed her hair red.”

Address Unknown is the inspiration

for A Linear Sequence of Scares, a

brief but memorable level from the

first act of Max Payne 2. Max visits

contract killer Mona Sax, who’s

hiding out in an apartment above an

abandoned funhouse based on the

show. Max comments that the place

was shut down after the series was

cancelled in the ’90s. But as he makes

his way through it, the place is fully

operational, complete with corny

jump scares and cardboard

recreations of scenes from the show.

The show itself is a wonderfully

creepy Lynch send-up, and can be

watched on television sets scattered

throughout the game. It’s never

played straight, however. Remedy

sometimes takes its stories a little too

seriously, but Max Payne 2 is

self-aware: particularly in the way the

events on the TV shows Max catches

snippets of reflect his own story.

“When entertainment turns to a

surreal reflection of your life, you’re a

lucky man if you can laugh at the

joke,” Max monologues as he enters

the funhouse. “Luck and I weren’t on

speaking terms. Or maybe the place

was just too lame to be funny.”

The funhouse represents the city

of Noir York, where Address

Unknown takes place. The streets are

made from plywood and cardboard,

with parts folding away to reveal

trippy tunnels swirling with

psychedelic patterns, representing

the show’s hero slipping into

madness. “A funhouse is a linear

sequence of scares,” Max says. “Take

it or leave it, it’s the only choice

given.” A sly nod, perhaps, to the fact

thatMax Payneis, for all its clever

setpieces and narrative quirks, still a

totally linear action game. “It makes

you think about free will,” he

continues. “Have our choices been

made for us?”

Later, Max escapes into the inner

workings of the funhouse, where the

animatronic characters who populate

it are stored. Remedy was obviously

proud of its advanced physics system,

and one of the rooms here is full of

props to knock over and shove

around, including a ball placed near a

tempting pyramid of paint cans. And

it’s this area that leads Max to Mona’s

hideout, where he finds her in the

shower singing Late Goodbye, a song

by Finnish band Poets of the Fall that

is heard throughout the game.

WEIRDED OUT

While I loveMax Payne 3, it couldn’t

be more different from Remedy’s

entries in the series. Rockstar’s game

is a macho revenge story served

straight-up, but the games written by

Sam Lake feature elements of the

surreal, of mythology and the occult.

This isn’t always successful, of

course, but the Address Unknown

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funhouse is the best expression of his

knack for the weird and provocative,

makingMax Payne 2more than just

another action game.

A Linear Sequence of Scares is

one of the most fondly remembered

levels inMax Payne 2– which is odd

considering you don’t fire a single

shot in it. But maybe that’s why. It’s a

rare moment of peace among all the

cinematic, slow-motion bloodshed,

giving you a chance to explore, rather

than fight against the world. It’s also

just really weird, even for a Remedy

game, with a surreal, inscrutable

atmosphere that’s undoubtedly

inspired by David Lynch, but doesn’t

feel like a lazy pastiche of his work.

Quantum Break, Remedy’s most

recent game, has the odd moment of

humour, but otherwise it’s too

straight-faced. I don’t know what the

studio’s next game is, but I’d love to

see it go back to the tongue-in-cheek

humour ofMax PayneandAlan

Wake. I admire its ambition to tell

mature stories, but you can still do

that with a bit of dark comedy

thrown into the mix. I honestly can’t

remember a standout level from

Quantum Break, but I’ll never forget

my descent into the twisted depths of

the Address Unknown funhouse.

IT’S A RARE MOMENT OF

PEACE AMONG ALL THE

SLOW-MOTION BLOODSHED

ADDRESS UNKNOWN

A cancelled supernatural

TV series from the ’90s. It

follows the story of a man

who’s being stalked by a

serial killer and a bizarre

talking flamingo.

EXTRA LIFE

NOW PLAYING I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO I DIARY I REINSTALL I WHY I LOVE (^) I M U S T P L A Y