Remedy Entertainment, Finland’s iconic gaming production studio that’s produced some of the industries most innovative games for three decades. Now with multiple productions on the horizon, it’s time to take a look back at why the studio is so beloved.
The name Remedy is one that holds a lot of weight within gaming circles; from their humble beginnings with Death Rally, their medium smashing series Max Payne, and their confusingly brilliant Alan Wake games, they’ve touched on a lot of different genres in their 30 years of life.
Founded by Samuli Syvähuoko, Markus Mäki, Sami Nopanen, John Kavaleff and Sami Vanhatalo in 1995, the studio began their life with Death Rally, a little known top-down racing game about smashing cars into one another.
The game didn’t make a big splash when it was released, however it opened the door for longtime Remedy collaborator, and creative director Sam Lake to step up and take the reins on their next production, Max Payne.
Writing about Remedy Entertainment without exploring Max Payne would be pointless as it was the production that put the studio on the map. Combining the third-person shooter stylings of the late 90’s with Matrix-like “bullet time” mechanics created a game that was unlike any other released at that time.
On top of the game’s incredibly addicting gameplay, the story itself was incredibly impactful. Written entirely by Sam Lake, the story was a gritty New York based noir that fused comic book panels with voice overs that elevated the game’s serious, if silly by modern standards, story.
After wrapping up production on Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, and giving the rights to the series to publisher Rockstar Games, Remedy started production on a horror game that broke that barriers of the gaming medium by incorporating traditional film and literature elements, this game would take the form of Alan Wake.
Inspired mostly by Twin Peaks and Stephen King’s horror novels, Sam Lake and the team crafted a story about an author given incredible power in a sleepy midwestern town.
To go into all the in’s-and-out’s of Alan Wake would be an article in itself, but to say Alan Wake was impactful on the company would be an understatement.
Though the game wasn’t nearly as successful as their previous Max Payne series, it came to define them more than any other game.
Each subsequent game released by Remedy Entertainment; Quantum Break, Control, Alan Wake 2 and FBC: Firebreak, all fell into one inter-connected story about supernatural powers and cerebral worlds within worlds.
Remedy is now working hard on a fresh from the ground-up remake of Max Payne and Max Payne 2, as well as a sequel to 2019’s Control. They’ve proven that even if a game they produce isn’t financially successful, their focus has always been to provide games for their devoted fans.
Feature Image Credit: Remedy Entertainment