@prometheanbound That's a good argument for directly comparing them. I forgot about how the articles and conversations around Stranglehold back in the day were talking up the bullet time gameplay and its similarities to Max Payne as a kind of "Max Payne 3 but not" descendant. I've played Path of Neo and Enter the Matrix, so I can see some comparison to Max Payne there, too, but it feels more like they're just doing their own homage to Hard Boiled, like you said. Not trying to be Max Payne successors.