About Marathon//Max

Marathon//Max is a total conversion for Remedy's Max Payne 2 (MAX-FX) engine that introduces elements inspired by Bungie's Marathon games. This blog chronicles the progress of this game's development.

*Thus far, Marathon//Max includes level textures and some particle effects supplied by the Marathon community, and features unlicensed music by Psykosonik (Power of Seven), the artist responsible for the Marathon 2 and Infinity theme songs.

Answers to FAQS:

This mod does not have a specified release date, though it is expected to have a public release within the year.

A copy of Max Payne 2 is required to play the mod, but it is compatible with both the original retail version and the version available on Steam.

System requirements are likely to be slightly higher than Max Payne 2 due to the heavy use of particle effects.

The MAX-FX engine does not support multiplayer, so deathmatches will be single player VS bots only.

The game's scope has been reduced to a deathmatch mode and possibly scenario play.

Get Max Payne 2 on Steam:
http://www.steamgames.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=12150

Download and play Marathon 1/2/∞ on your Mac or PC:
http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/

Get Marathon 2: Durandal for the XBox 360:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/m/marathondurandalxboxlivearcade/

Read about Marathon's story (there's more to it than you think):
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/

Marathon//Max 1.0 launches!

DOWNLOAD MARATHON//MAX 1.0
http://www.moddb.com/mods/marathonmax

You will need to have installed Max Payne 2 (retail or Steam version) on your PC at some point for the installer to authorize. This is a mod of Max Payne 2, after all.

Get Max Payne 2 here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/12150/

September '08 Deathmatch Video

Youtube video link (streaming):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4oXt1NSRaA

High-quality video link (606 mb):

http://www.filesavr.com/mmaxtrailer260fpsmp3

(This video may need codecs to run properly, click here to download them)

Music:

Power of Seven - Marathon Infinity Theme

Psykosonik - Shock On The Wire

Deathmatch is team-based with three teams - the player on Blue, vs. Green, vs. Red. Levels featured in this video are "Duality", "House of Pain (M2 version)", "Everyone's Mortal But Me", and "Waterloo Waterpark (Max version)". Difficulty was set to "Total Carnage" for all the clips used. You may notice some Pfhor and VacBobs on the Duality map! Feel free to give them a special U.E.S.C. welcome.

Let me know what other classic Marathon levels you'd like to see in this game.

Building a Better Marine

Now that the player's weapons are complete in draft form, it's time to put together the character models - starting with the Marine.

Reference:

Upper torso:

And for good measure, more deathmatch screens from Duality!
(Old marine model, based off of MP2's BlackOps body, original helmet)

Helmets, SPNKRs, Duality

New pics fresh off the tarmac show off the final Marathon helmets (modeled and textured!) and the drafts of the SPNK-R Rocket Launcher and a new Deathmatch arena first featured in Marathon Infinity - Duality.

For reference - the original Marine sprite from M2/Moo with a SPNK-R:

Video: Waterloo Waterpark DM

This video contains a 5-minute deathmatch in the Waterloo Waterpark arena, Pfhor VS Humans VS You.



The song is the background is Psykosonik (Power of Seven)'s "Secret Life".

Preliminary Models

Most of the player-wieldable weapons have been lovingly modelled - at this stage with only the most base UV texturing.

.44 Magnum Mega Class



WSTE-M Combat Shotgun



Zeus-Class Fusion Pistol



MA-75B Assault Rifle / Grenade Launcher



The Alien Weapon (phallic, isn't it?)

Colors and whatnot are all temporary, of course. I'm running into a lot of issues with the MAX-FX engine resizing models after they're dropped into the game, so if you have any insight on this, drop me a line via the comment box.