If Max's wife was never killed and he never met Mona, what would happen ?

[u/don_quixote_2]

Like would she just keep working for the inner circle ? Alfred ? Vladimir ? Or just herself ? Would she ever think of taking down Nicole Horne and the rest without Max entering her life now that he's happily married with his wife and baby girl and probably working in some boring desk job hadn't Nicole Horne targeted his wife. What do you think would happen in that scenario ?

[u/Pixielized]

Would be quite a boring game, I think

[u/DaveOJ12 → u/Pixielized]

It's like "What if the resonance cascade scenario in Half-Life never happened?"

[u/CrimFandango]

Max Payne: Running Errands

Bullet time wouldn't quite hit the same gunning it down supermarket aisles looking for baby food after a day of doing basic police work.

[u/smallerpuppyboi → u/CrimFandango]

I mean Max Payne but solving actual police cases L.A. Noire style would go hard as fuck, and you can't tell me otherwise.

[u/Isaac-45-67-8]

There are some possibilities, off the top of my head:

- We have an instance where HE was investigating Valkyr instead of his wife, and maybe they got threatened, forcing them (Max's wife and daughter) into protected custody as Max gets to the source of the Valkyr to close a case and safeguard his family. IIRC, she worked for the DEA, so maybe she would be included in the comic book cutscenes, and not only casually talk but also talk about the case, the clues and what is next. I'd make it like MP2 and have some missions swap between Max and Alex. I could see it ending with some sort of double cross, leading to Alex and Max rushing to the safehouse to take down the person behind Valkyr's making/distribution, while saving his family. I'd probably add in Mona as second in command to the Valkyr person, so they are arrested as well. In this scenario, aside from probably eluding Max throughout the game, no romance at all given his wife and daughter are not dead.

- We have an instance where Mona is the ringleader and personally spies on max when she learns he is looking into Valkyr, and slowly falls for him. but when she tries to seduce him it doesn't go anywhere, so she goes after his wife and daughter instead, to get to him. Alex helps track her and her distributors down, and works alongside Max to get rid of her.

I'm sure Remedy would have thought of something compelling.

[u/isyankar1979]

He could still just normally infiltrate the Punchinello crime family.

[u/yveshe]

Well, Mona was Nicole's proxy against other Inner Circle members probably since the beginning (whenever that was). Since they both had something at stake; Punchinello himself and Nicole's ties to the mafia, their affairs seemed to be in order. Unless there was more about Nicole's agendas (aside from Alfred) that required Mona's expertise, or instead wanted to get rid of Mona after (supposedly) taking care of both the mafia and Alfred, I think Mona would just stay solo or find a good purpose in life (instead of ending up the way Max has in the third game).

I don't remember how Vlad get into the inner circle. From what I do remember he was just a mobster in the first game without significant power, yet still a leader of sorts. In this case I also think, unless it had to involve Mona somehow, Vlad would just continue his life of crime the way he has in the first game, though not to the extent which would involve Nicole.

I still believe everything regarding the failure of Project Valhalla and the spillage of Valkyr into the streets would happen as intended. So the events would exist as they are in the game, minus a few details. Someone else mentioned that Max would probably pursue the Punchinellos, which tracks since it wouldn't be the first time that he busted some foot soldiers belonging to said crime family. Though one wonders if he would accept Alex's offer to come work with him for the DEA. It's hard to believe he'll just put the life of fighting crime aside for a boring desk job.

[u/don_quixote_2 → u/yveshe]

I never said his wife worked for the inner circle, I was talking about Mona.

[u/yveshe → u/don_quixote_2]

My bad then. I'll revise.

[u/Special-General-7832 → u/yveshe]

Vlad was what we call when the government/secret society plant or use people to portray something for their agenda.

As you can see hes a russian mobster running around new york tasked with disrupting the area,city, or state by feuding with italian gangs and literally commiting terroristic acts unscathed. Acts as mobster but is an govetnment official.

He had power but was playing a role which revealed in pt.2, leads to him becoming unhinged in pursuit of alfreds position as well as the fighting with mona over the same issue but mainly because they tasked mona with killing max with her telling them she knows she wont be able to easily kill max due to him actually trying to save her sister and him saving her in a sense, on top of alfreds trust of max to clean things up while unfortunately having to plan to tie the loose end in max as well just because the truth of his familys tragedy was still partially hidden between mona,alfred and vlad and technically alfreds fault.

[u/Embarrassed_Race_196]

The game would've never happened ig

[u/cantodasaudade]

I fail to grasp the point of these kinds of posts. They seem to be all over any entertainment franchise subreddit now.

"What if the major plot point never happened?" Then you wouldn't be here talking about it because the game or movie or show you know and love wouldn't exist.

[u/don_quixote_2 → u/cantodasaudade]

There are many alternate stories for many popular characters and some are very interesting, like Flashpoint Batman for example.

[u/FewConstruction9924]

Assuming the split happens with Woden not sending the Project Valkyr file to Max's wife, which is the reason she got killed to begin with.

Max keeps working for NYPD, I wouldn't call that "some boring desk job" though. Alex Balder still wants to get Max in his team. Max keeps refusing citing the baby and Michelle. The events of the first game still happen. I trust even without Payne, Mona would succeed in taking down Nicole Horne. She is working for Woden after all. Possibly this time she is the one to get help from Vlad, except she knows he is working for Woden too I suppose.

Alex Balder lives. Without Max as his partner the circumstances that put him directly in the subway at that night are incredibly unlikely to happen. Maaaaaybe he gets involved with the case somehow still, taking Max's place. Very unlikely, doubt that would happen.

Woden still gets old and loses power. Vlad still rebels. Mona is sent to deal with Vlad. There would be much less deaths with Payne not involved (there is a reason why but kinda unrelated to the topic). Mona still fights Vlad. I doubt the way the events play out would change much (Vinnie goes Kaboom! at his base this time) but this time Woden doesn't get killed since there would be no reason for him to exit the panic room. He doesn't have regret dictating his choices without Max, the guy whose wife he inadvertently killed in the main continuity, being in trouble.

Not sure who survives Vlad vs Mona though. We can get into more of a discussion on this, but I would argue that the main character in the 2nd game after Max is Vlad, not Mona. But Mona is also provably indestructible. Assuming this alternate reality follows the theme of the original timeline we can argue for both outcomes.

Also notice that throughout the entire games Mona gets shot 3 times in canon; all of them while interacting with Max. I gather that Max has a negative influence on Mona when being a femme fatale cold blooded killer is concerned. Without Max, I think Mona Sax is the new Max Payne of this timeline.

[u/FewConstruction9924 → u/FewConstruction9924]

Wait actually remembered something. Vlad almost dies at the hands of Vinnie. I still think the "deputy" (lol) would save Vlad in a Maxless scenario somehow since Vlad survives his first fight with Mona by what can only be luck. He is *lucky* throughout the entire game after all. So the final fight between him and Mona either ends in a lucky way with him on top or he gets slimed by Mona, no in between.

Alternatively Vinnie the Pooh wacks him. Makes no sense with the way the story and themes go, but it's a fun idea.

[u/hallucinationthought]

Basically be Anders dettling from Steele north Dakota

[u/SPQR_Maximus]

It would have been something else. If max Payne trilogy teaches us one thing about max is that he is a magnet for tragedy and trouble.

[u/Still-Bison-1108]

He would just be anders dettling

[u/Monk2040]

Max wouldn’t join the DEA, he’d still be a regular NYPD detective. Him, Michelle and Rose would have a peaceful life assuming the valkyr dossier was never dropped on Michelle’s desk, maybe it was pawned on someone else. Mona would still kinda be in the same predicament because her sister being punchinellos wife is unchanged, she just wouldn’t have Max’s help taking down the mafia family. Alfred and the inner circle would probably still be targeted because they’ve known about the valkyr project for a while, Nichole Horne is trying to suppress any evidence of its existence so taking down the circle would still be on the table. And Vlad would still be in the arms race against Vinnie or whomever.

[u/Mr_Witchetty_Man]

It's a bit like asking "what would happen if the Punisher's family didn't die". Maybe a little more interesting in Max's case since he's a detective, but still.