Max Payne

"A classic, yet quite flawed mov, err... game"

Max Payne is a Third Person Shooter developed by Remedy Entertainment. In an era of unoriginality came a game with the name Max Payne… this game although a typical shooter like any other in many aspects, introduced many new stuff in the game like the novel\comic style of cutscenes and the famous bullet time. It sold like hell but in my opinion it became popular due to the hype created around its name since it is quite flawed to be considered a masterpiece.

Story: 9/10

Something that Max Payne has, is a simple scenario that is presented in such a good way that it doesn't really matter that it isn't original, something that most developers seem to not understand. You are Max Payne a NY cop that comes home only to find out that your wife and baby are dead from the hands of some junkies under the influence of the new V drug. After a while Max Payne, now working underground in order to find more about the V drug, starts picking up pieces that show that the V drug is just a façade behind something quite larger and sets of in a snowy almost apocalyptic NY to find what's going on. Max is a great character, you'll feel the agony and suffering of the hero throughout the game due to the excellent character development and the way the story unfolds. Max Payne's deep noire voice narrates the story since as if all this things have happened before creating a great noir\police movie style that is a trademark of the Max Payne games. Also like most Remedy games the developers where playing with names, for example Max Payne is similar to max pain referring to the suffering of the hero, a corporation in the game is called Aesir, there is a project called Valhalla and generally there are many references to the Norse mythology even in names that aren't so obvious. Finally cutscenes are actually comic strips that are created by combining digitally processed photos with comic “bubbles” for the text. This novel kind of storytelling is so good that they repeated it in the sequel too…

Graphics: 8.3/10

The graphics are very good but don't worth all this praising since there are many problems, I give credit though to the developers since for a low budget game it's very good. First of all there is a great deal of realism in the game, areas are well designed and look like in the real world and have almost excellent high resolution textures that have been created from real photos meaning that all places look “alive” with rusty metal, walls that show their age, etc. Lighting is quite good too but not anything special… and to say the truth it is sometimes bad due to some very dark areas. Special effects are very good especially the fire and explosions are almost lifelike. Out in the open snow falls down and covers everything and generally like everything in the game there is a great noir atmosphere. Characters are of the same quality with good animation and excellent skin work. Especially the faces since they are real photos too. One final note, all actors in the game, both in game and novel are actually the game designers themselves with Max being played by the game's storywriter and they are all surprisingly good and fitting to the game.

Sound: 8/10

Excellent voice acting, especially Max Payne's. Weapons have very good sounds too and sound quite powerful, (not all of them though). The music is very good and fits with each event. When fighting with bad guys a more action theme is heard and a soft melancholic or simple ambient style theme is heard you're alone. Also great ambient sounds like air, machinery working and many more and generally very good miscellaneous sounds like steps, doors and blah, blah, blah. There are also some TV sets now and then that have some small “movies” that are actually parodies of soap operas and noir police stories and that are very fun to listen to.

Gameplay: 6.3/10

Audio visually this game is great although flawed, but what about its gameplay. Well to put it simply very, very, very good but quite flawed. You control Max with the typical WASD keys, move the view with the mouse and shoot stuff with the aid of a crosshair and that's what the game is actually about… shooting stuff, nothing more so if you like that I think you'll enjoy this game. The main difference with other games is the famous from the Matrix movies bullet time which greatly slows down all movement but enables you to change your view rapidly and shoot stuff faster or avoid enemy bullets that you can actually see fly over your head. You can either activate Bullet Time with the press of a button or just make an evasion with it that makes the Bullet Time last less time helping you avoid some simple attacks. There is a meter of course that needs to be charged and that can be achieved by killing more mobsters. You'll find many weapons along your quest that don't have anything special really apart from differences in power and speed. There are also some melee weapons that I doubt you'll ever use in the game.

The game has one good thing that unfortunately decreases the replay value… it is a great MOVIE… yup, it is just like a movie, you fight you talk, you fight, you talk and so on but always follow a certain path and that is the number one flaw of the game, it is very linear, so secrets, no extra text\dialogues and no unlockables, (apart from higher difficulty Modes). The second problem and probably the reason why I don't find this game so great as others is the AI and I don't mean that characters are stupid… the problem is that they react in such an unrealistic way that it creates many problems to you. First of all when they see you and I mean the EXACT millisecond you dare to show them an inch of your body they shoot at you something that makes it difficult not to get hurt even with bullet time. Secondly they start running at you like idiots as if this game is Doom, but it isn't… you are one guy against many and the fact that they come altogether from all directions to shoot you is a bit unfair. The result is the frequent use of the Quick Save function since you just don't know how the enemies next door will react each, the first time you open the door they shoot you at lightning speed and at the second try they ALL miss!!!!!!

Positives:
-Excellent story presentation with many hidden meanings and great noir atmosphere
-Very good, solid graphics and sound quality
-Bullet Time!!!

Negatives:
-A bit dark at times
-Bad AI, unrealistic and sometimes unfair
-Linear and repetitive
-A lot of Quick Saving needed

Also Play:
Max Payne 2 (PC)
F.E.A.R. (PC)

Overall: 7.9/10

I can't say I didn't enjoy this game, It was good but mostly for its excellent movie like presentation and not its typical and quite flawed gameplay. It's not a bad game but it just doesn't live up to its name for me since it is sometimes a lot of… Payne…

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/08

Game Release: Max Payne (EU, 07/27/01)