Max Payne Review

This is where the game really shines. You play as Max, a hardboiled cop framed for murder, trying to avenge the deaths of his family. While the story is interesting and much heavier than usual video game fare (see below), the gameplay is what really sets this game apart. The most important innovation of Max Payne is Bullet-Time, an effect that allows you to shift into slo-mo mode at will. In Bullet-Time, everyone's movements, including yours, are slowed down - but you can still turn your body to aim and fire at a normal speed, giving you quite an edge. Bullet-Time by itself is not too useful, since it runs out too quickly; the real key is Shoot-dodging, which you activate with the Right Mouse Button while moving with your strafe keys. Shoot-dodging sends Max flying through the air, IN BULLET-TIME, like Chow Yun Fat in a John Woo movie, during which time you can aim and fire at a normal speed. The effect of seeing slow-motion explosions, bullets, plaster, and dust flying all around Max as he dive-shoots dual Berettas or Ingrams is absolutely awesome. It's not only stunning visually, but also key in managing to stay alive. While it's not really possible to actively dodge bullets while already in the air, it is very possible (and necessary) to do so when choosing the direction for each Shoot-dodge maneuver. It's akin to the bullet-dodging moves seen in the Matrix.

Violence IS the answer.

The storyline presents itself as a comic book.

The bullet-dodging / slow-motion effect is the key to enjoying this game. But it would still be no fun if the bad guys were boring. Thankfully, they're not. Although their actual AI is not particularly smart, the game fakes intelligence very well by cleverly scripting their actions. For example, the enemies (of whom there are hundreds, just like in Hard-Boiled or The Killer) will turn over tables and hide behind them, or lob grenades at exactly the right time, etc. However, it's clear that this isn't because their AI units are figuring this out, but because the game's script tells them to do so when Max is at point X or Y. Nevertheless, the effect is very positive. In fact, some of the battles are so well-orchestrated (just wait until the finale in a big, sterile skyscraper), you'll actually feel like you're in the most intense of Hollywood or Hong-Kong action films. The game's levels are full of fast-paced, no-holds-barred action, and feature many impressive set pieces (such as a helicopter attack and a train escape). The action is more or less continuous, but no individual battle lasts more than 20-30 seconds, which eliminates the AI issues many slower-paced shooters have to contend with. The game overwhelms Max with sheer numbers, and, if you want to survive, you'll have to dive from cover to cover just to get a few seconds to reload and jump back into the hail of bullets. Even at its worst, the action in Max Payne is as good as the usual corridor crawl of modern first-person shooters.

Perhaps the best thing about Max's gameplay is that Max is just a guy, much like the various gangsters and assassins he fights. A bullet in the head kills him, as does a shotgun blast to the chest. He's got no special suit, no armor meter, no anything to save him. The weapons you'll get to use will be exactly the weapons your enemies will be carrying, and all of the enemies take about as much damage as you do before going down (sometimes even more). Max has only one thing going for him: he is a badass. He can fly and duck and roll. Playing as Max is incredibly, incredibly fun, but it never feels like he has an unfair advantage against his enemies.

GRAPHICS (7)
Here, I'm forced to stick to my promise to judge Max Payne by today's standards, not by those of 2001, when this game was absolutely top-of-the-line graphically. It was an easy 10 at that time, as nothing really came close to it. Today, it's obviously a few DirectX generations behind. The character models are a bit square-looking, and the level geometry isn't very detailed, either. Of course, there is nothing resembling real-time lighting or shadows.

On the other hand, the textures are still good (and were probably as high-resolution as those of any 2001 game), but not particularly beautiful; this isn't really a detriment, as the game is trying to be gritty and stylish, and succeeds (seedy motels, a research lab, a night club, a warehouse, an awesome skyscraper, and more). However, the best parts of the graphics involve the particle and explosion effects, which all look amazing (pause the game when Max is firing sometime, and enjoy the view as the camera revolves around the gunfire). Empty shell casings fly by realistically, and are real objects that stay on the ground afterwards. Bullet holes and destroyed furniture and corpses all stay the way they are for the rest of the game. Plaster, bullets, shell casings, and gunfire all look outstanding, even today.

Get ready for The Skyscraper Gunfight (TM).

Probably even when the game was released, the graphics had a few flaws. The enemies' facial animations change in an unconvincing way... plus, Max has a really strange expression on his face for the entire game. The worst part is probably the way the NPCs move - they simply hold their weapons in their hands as if they were about to fire, and then turn their entire bodies in this position when following Max. It looks very strange, compared to Max's good animation. A positive point is the graphic novel presentation of the story, which is well-rendered and very stylish, although it's clear that the human models used for the graphic novel are some random friends of the developers (actually, Max himself is apparently Sam Lake, the screenwriter). Thankfully, the game's superb sequel fixed all of these problems, which arose, no doubt, due to limited funding.

SOUND (9)

While the graphics in Max Payne are only on par (overall) with today's average game, the sound is another story. The weapons sound great, especially during Bullet-Time and Shoot-dodging, and the infrequent use of superb music is very nice and atmospheric. I particularly enjoyed showing up at a local mafia don's mansion and destroying his entire personal army to a surf tune that sounded like it was right out of Pulp Fiction. Enemies can be heard having humorous conversations (until you show up and blast 'em, that is), and at times the game even pokes fun at itself. Perhaps most importantly, the voice acting, 95% of which is for Max’s character, is very well done. Max's deep voice fits the story, and the lines he says are classic film noir ("... cold, cavernous depths of a grave ...", "dame," etc.). The game features a rather psychotic cast of characters, from junkies hopped up on drugs to satanic Italian mobsters to Godfather-quote-spouting Russians. It's all done very well and with great attention to detail, creating a palpable atmosphere of New York City's dark underbelly. That said, the sound is not perfect, as the game's budget limitations show in the repeated use of the same accents and lines, probably due to a shortage of available voice actors. Nothing too egregious, though, and certainly much better than most shooters you're likely to play.

I'm glad those guys can't dive like that.

REPLAY VALUE (8)
I'd actually give this one a 7 on replay value, since it's a shooter that can be finished in 15 hours with no problem. After that, you have several difficulty levels to go through; finishing the toughest one gives you access to the super-level, which is pretty hard (but you can do it all in Bullet-Time!) There's also New York Minute, which makes you race against a clock. Nothing wrong with this stuff, but, honestly, there's only so much willingness to replay the scripted action again and again. However, what gives this one an extra point are all the mods that are out there, like the outstanding Kung Fu mod, which can turn the game into a completely different experience (trust me). That, in itself, gives many more hours of enjoyment (and finishing the game at least twice by itself is still fun, anyway). Oddly enough, as production values go higher and higher and games become shorter and shorter, 15 hours alone suddenly doesn't seem that bad for a story-based game.

IN CONCLUSION: GET IT, DAMMIT!
The gameplay alone makes this a must-own, but there's much more to this game. While the plot arc itself is not really that great (there's never any huge shocking revelation) and perhaps a bit clichéd (at least in terms of the film noir form), the way it's presented is top-notch. I much prefer an impressive telling of a reasonable story than an amazing telling of a really convoluted jumbled mess of a story (read: Metal Gear Solid 2). But what makes me give this a final score of 9.5/10 is just the overall atmosphere of the game. It's a mature-themed, bloody story, and the graphic novel and voiceovers, well interspersed into the action, treat it like one. Max Payne is just such a cool hero: a guy with nothing to lose, who keeps his sense of humor despite all the darkness in his path. The guy has clearly flown off the handle - he takes on several private armies by himself - but there's an air of amusing determination (as opposed to stuffy vengefulness) to everything he does. All the murdering is very satisfying for that reason. I was a bit disappointed that Max's character in Max Payne 2 took a real dive into over-serious melodrama - I preferred the younger, crazier Max. I think you will, too.

Pros:

- flowing, violent, stylish gameplay

- incredible weapon and environment damage effects

- cool protagonist, mature atmosphere

- some great mods

Cons:

- grenades and Molotov cocktails are difficult to use

- graphics technology is behind more modern games

- without mods, not much replay value