It’s strange to think that it is now eleven years since I first played Max Payne. There was something special about the Remedy developed title, a noir story met an irreverent sense of humour that could only be achieved from an outsiders’ perspective (in this case Finnish).
DoFuss: Originally Alan Wake was originally intended to be a more open world title. Why was this initial vision abandoned? With this shift were any cuts or changes made to the narrative?
Mikko Rautalahti: Well, there were many factors in it, of course, but it mostly came down to what we wanted to do with Alan Wake. We knew we wanted it to be a moody, atmospheric game with palpable tension, one that took us halfway into the head of the protagonist and kept the player guessing. And that’s not really the kind of a thing open world games are best suited for.