u/Exotic-Eggplant1914

I'm sure this won't be a hot take here but every time I replay it Max Payne 1 still somehow blows me away with just how good it feels for a shooter from 2001. It's not only phenomenal by the standard of any era in gaming, it scratches an itch nothing else really can. Between the PC Xbox and mobile versions I've played through it countless times and I love it more with each go.

It's impossible for me to pick a favorite game of all time, but if you pressed a Beretta to my temple and made me choose, I might have to pick this one.

Please nobody make the joke about it being a black screen.

I've got a few ideas about how it could work if they attempted to make a DD game, it's kinda a combo between Arkham and Spider-Man with some unique mechanics to keep things interesting.

Combat: So I'm thinking this game should have dodge and deflect mechanics instead of a counter button. The "counter" move would be a reward for perfect timing on a deflect or dodge. I'm thinking perfect deflect would stun for a heavy damage/finishing move while a perfect dodge could trigger slow motion (but DD still moves fast) to allow more aggressive play. Two styles of defense, both with tight precision windows that reward good timing in different ways. For crowd control focusing on dodging would give you slo-mo so you can rapidly spread damage among multiple targets, meanwhile a deflect allows you to focus on one problem enemy. Regarding DD's move set I'm thinking light attack, heavy attack, baton throws that automatically bounce back and a grapple he can use to pull enemies towards himself (or himself towards large enemies.) Having two batons, he can only throw two back to back before needing to wait for them to bounce back to prevent spamming. The grapple move would require him to have both to initiate it. Last but not least, he should get a rage mode called "devil's fury" or something which would increase speed and damage, and regenerate health rapidly for a short time. Also think you should be able to switch between combat stances (no baton, both batons separate and both batons combined) which would effect speed, damage and reach. For example both batons connected into a staff has the most reach and damage, but it's slower than using both batons separate. Separated batons are faster but lower damage with less reach. Fists have the least range, but are faster than batons and deal moderate damage, and the baton grapple would be replaced with a close range grab which initiates a high damage slam, instantly grounding the enemy opening them up for a ground beat down move called "let the devil out" which can only be done with fists. This essentially works like the ground takedown from Arkham, the only difference between you press light/heavy attack yourself, similar to the beat down move from Arkham.

Stealth: So basically imagine Arkham mixed with the shadow and sound mechanics from Manhunt. The shadows turn DD basically invisible against unaware enemies, but it's only semi effective once they're alerted. Loud noises from generators for example could cover the sound of combat, meaning you could use aggressive noisy tactics in some situations while maintaining stealth. In addition to simply being able to hear loud noises with your actual ears, "devil vision" can be used to identify noises loud enough to conceal combat. So let's say there's a big warehouse filled with dudes, but three of them are standing by their lonesome besides loud mechanical equipment. You would be able to see sound waves emitting from the machinery in a radius that communicates the safe zone to the player. Then you could quickly and aggressively kick the shit out of those 3 guys. However, the moment they're alerted they will try to escape and alert the others so extreme aggression would be necessary. Also some dudes would have walkie talkies making them a priority target in those situations. I would also like to see grapple takedowns from shadowed areas, corners and areas of elevation similar to Batman's gargoyles in the Arkham games. He can also knock out enemies with a thrown baton, but only unaware enemies are vulnerable to the instant knock out plus it would be noisy, alerting the others unless in a noise zone as described earlier.

Traversal: Alright so just straight up steal Batman's grapple move from the Arkham games, for starters. Next we're stealing Spider-man's swing, kind of. It would be limited, one or two swings at a time before needing to reset by hitting another surface by wall running or simply touching the ground. Mostly though I want to focus on parkour, and not some button you hold to automatically free-run over obstacles. I want a dedicated jump button you have to use to vault objects, jump into a wall run, dive off a building into a baton swing, all manual. Additionally want a dedicated crouch/slide button to slide beneath stuff, crawl through vents and knock over bad guys with a dope ass slide kick (slide+light attack.) Picture something similar dying light the beast's parkour, but third person with naughty dog level quality animations.

Open world: basically do it like Spider-Man and Arkham already do. Random city events, stopping crimes and meeting NPCs in need. He won't be catching any balloons for kids but he'll track down a lady's stolen purse with his enhanced senses. He could respond to robberies and back alley beat downs, break up drug and arms deals, stop a riot at the prison, stop human trafficking at the ports, the possibilities are endless ESPECIALLY if you throw in some low level villains as random city events, obviously not bullseye or kingpin but the b and c tier villains. Just script it so they always slip away before getting arrested so it doesn't seem like they're constantly breaking back out of prison. I do think it would be smart to give certain locations unique events, like the banks have a chance to get robbed and whatnot. Obviously they'd need to adjust the probability of certain events so the prison isn't having a riot every other day, but I think that could be really cool. Go all in on making the world feel alive. Also think investigating crime scenes and graffiti to track down Muse could be really cool.

Control scheme, using Xbox controls:

A- jump

B- dodge

X- light attack

Y- heavy attack

D pad right- both batons (connected into longer staff)

D pad left- both batons (separated)

D pad up- fists

D pad down- heal

L3- sprint

R3- devil vision

L3+R3- devil's fury

LB- deflect

RB- grapple/grab (combat and traversal)

LT- baton throw

RT- crouch/slide

LT+RT Precision throw (can be bounced off surfaces with visual aid for trajectory)

These are the basic controls a lot of the combat moves aren't mapped but tbh I'm getting lazy so I'm done here. I would love some feedback from you guys!