Max Payne

"Not the best version of the game, but the PS2 Max Payne still delivers."

When I first read about Max Payne, the game immediately caught my eye. Not only were the screenshots simply stunning, but the concept of using bullet time was, despite heavily borrowing from the Matrix, unique for a video game. That, and when asked about a possible release date, the developers responded with, “When it's finished.” I found that pretty admirable, and unlike Duke Nukem Forever, Max Payne was actually released within a timely manner. But the extra time spent on the game shows, because Max Payne is truly incredible, although the PlayStation 2 version is noticeably lacking compared to the PC and Xbox versions.

Max Payne is heavily focused around its story, which is a dark, depressing film noir. Max himself embodies the typical tragic hero, and the entire game follows his downfall and demise. The story begins with the final scene in the game before backtracking and describing everything that led up to that point – a technique used by, among others, author Chuck Palahniuk. After watching swarms of police helicopters and squad cars surround a building, Max, who doubles as the narrator, says, “To make any kind of sense of it, I need to go back three years. Back to the night the pain started.”

The beginning of the story chronologically has Max, an NYPD cop, coming home to his wife and infant daughter to find the house in disarray. A group of drugged up psychos have broken into his home, and before Max can take them out, they murder his family. Distraught, Max goes undercover as a small time mafia thug to find the source of the drug, known as Valkyr or simply V. Things are going well at first, but while meeting with Alex, his friend and contact in the DEA, they're ambushed. Alex is killed, and Max is identified as the murderer. Now on the run from both the police and the mafia, Max has to survive long enough to find out who set him up and exact his revenge.

The story is broken up into three parts: The American Dream, A Cold Day In Hell, and A Bit Closer To Heaven. Each act is has a noticeably different theme to it, and Max targets someone higher up the ladder of power every time. As you continue to progress, Max and the player gets a sense of the big picture and how his life fits into it. There are also television and radio reports, newspapers, letters, and the like that presents the story from an alternate perspective, whether it's the police trying to arrest you or the mafia. Other, more uncommon, bits of information don't really have anything to do with the main story, but simply gives the player more insight into the world of Max Payne.

Unfortunately, the graphics have taken a step back in the transition from PC to the PlayStation 2. The frame-rates are noticeably lower than before, and the characters are blocky and jagged. Walking animations are less than graceful, and if you watch enemies exchange fire during some of the in-game cinematics, you can't help but think that it looks awkward. Max himself is designed well, although he has a single twisted grimace as a facial expression throughout the game. On the other hand, the watercolor graphic novel frames that replace normal cinematics look fantastic, and really helps the film noir atmosphere.

The sounds are also sort of a hit or miss, but, like the graphics, aren't bad in any sense. The music is very simple, but the slow, gloomy piano melodies work very well with the rest of game's already depressing mood. The character voices, however, can be annoying at times. Common thugs have a handful of unique voices, but they all end up being a high-pitched whiny tone. In particular, the uniform death cry is a sound that I wouldn't mind not hearing again. Some of the main characters are well represented, but nothing that would be considered above-average besides Max. Of course, if you could only have one decent character voice, Max is your man, because about ninety-percent of the game's dialogue is Max narrating or giving his soliloquies.

Gameplay-wise, though, Max Payne is a simple third person shooter with a twist, and that twist is bullet time. Similar to the slow motion cinematography seen in the Matrix (although Max Payne was under development well before the movie was released), bullet time allows the player to slow down time and perform spectacular stunts. Not only does this look extremely cool, but it makes it much easier to tackle the hundreds of enemies you'll encounter throughout the game. Bullet time gives the player both offensive and defensive perks, as diving across the room makes Max a more difficult target, and at the same time allows you to take the time to aim at your enemies. You cannot use it constantly, but since your bullet time meter is replenished whenever you kill someone, you should never really find yourself without it.

And while you don't necessarily have to abuse bullet time, it's nearly impossible to play through the game without it. Max Payne is one of the few games where even minor enemies have more life than the protagonist, and there isn't a single level where you won't be out-manned and out-gunned. True, there are painkillers, which restore about a fifth of your life, littered throughout the game, but there are times when you have to live with whatever you have on you to stay alive. Luckily, when Max reaches the final fifth of his life, he begins limping and his health meter restores a portion of life. While you don't regain enough to take more than a shot or two, it's usually enough to continue without resorting to wasting your painkillers.

Besides the painkillers, the only other items you'll find – not counting the occasional key or tool – are weapons and ammo. These weapons range far across the spectrum in terms of usefulness, and include baseball bats, Berretta pistols, Desert Eagles, shotguns, Ingram Mac-10s, Molotov cocktails, Colt Commando assault rifles, and sniper rifles. Besides the latter, most of these weapons are interchangeable, and you'll usually find yourself using a certain weapon simply because it has the most ammunition at the moment; although later on, your weaker pistols and slow pump-action shotguns become obsolete. And speaking of ammo, Max Payne isn't the kind of game that requires you to conserve bullets. While you'll occasionally stumble upon a weapons cache, most of your ammunition will be coming from the corpses of your enemies. And since bodies will be piling up left and right, ammunition is more than abundant.

It's worth mentioning that the sniper rifle is unique in ways beyond the obvious advantages. Not only is it the only weapon used in the first person (when looking through the scope), but when you take a shot, the game slows down and follows the bullet into your target. While I'll admit that this can be annoying if you're trying to hit multiple targets, the idea in itself was so good that you can't help but love it.

However, Max Payne has more than just running around shooting in everything in sight, there are actually quite a few puzzles mixed into the game as well. While there are a few “collect the key that opens the door” or “find a character that can help you”, most of them are platform puzzles. The only problem is that Max doesn't jump very well, which means that you either need to make a near-perfect jump or perform a bullet time leap of faith. Combine this with the fact that it's difficult to walk in a straight line and you can see how this might cause problems. Now imagine having to walk across a narrow platform while being shot at. Yikes.

Platform puzzles aside, perhaps the best example of a Max Payne Puzzle is a level that takes place in a restaurant. After a bomb explodes, Max has to escape from the burning building through the sewers, where he fights off groups of thugs. However, anyone who's played the game will remember the pair of nightmares that precede each new act. Picture a fairly large maze with extremely narrow walkways, and then slow the entire level down to bullet time-speed. And if that doesn't sound annoying enough, there's a baby crying in the background, and should you fall and have to start over, the baby screams. Believe me, between getting lost and simply falling, you'll quickly grow to hate that baby.

As mentioned, the enemies in the game are basically as powerful as Max when it comes to how much life they have, but they loose points in the AI department. While they seem pretty on the ball at first, you'll notice that all of their actions are pre-determined. So yes, after ambushing you, enemies will fall back and take cover behind cars, but they would have done that regardless of how you reacted. Not that it really matters, because most enemies won't last longer than a few seconds anyway. The exceptions to this are enemies equipped with explosives and bosses. For the former, once you pass a certain point, an enemy will immediately appear and launch a grenade or cocktail at you; and Max's less than flawless agility makes getting out of the way pretty difficult unless you're expecting it. As for the latter, bosses rely on their extra life and run around in circles shooting at you, usually accompanied by a group of goons.

Because of this, Max Payne is a genuinely difficult game. Even on the easiest difficulty (Fugitive) you'll find yourself having to replay a few of the trickier levels. The overall gameplay is solid enough that you won't die from sloppy controls, it's being constantly overwhelmed by enemies that'll get you. Quite simply, Max Payne does an excellent job of creating the “You Against The World' theme. However, the game can become frustrating at times because of the loading times. Normally, the thirty seconds you'd be waiting for the level to load wouldn't be a problem, but having to sit there and stare at the screen every time you die can be annoying, particularly if you find yourself repeatedly being killed at the same place.

Adding to the difficulty is the game's length. The three acts have a total of twenty-two chapters, each with about three sub-levels. And in terms of video game standards, the sub-levels are long enough to be considered an entire level themselves. As a conservative guess, Max Payne easily has a good twenty hours of play in it.

Unfortunately, the game scores low in the replay value section. There really aren't any extras per se, and nothing changes on the higher difficulties except the usual increase in enemy's life and aiming abilities. Although, on the highest difficulty (Dead on Arrival), the game removes the auto-aiming feature on top of increasing your enemy's stats. There's also a special mode called New York Minute, which is a bit easier but gives you a time limit to complete each level. The latter two difficulties also have an extra level known as the Final Challenge, which is set entirely in bullet time and puts you against twenty heavily armed enemies. The point I'm trying to make is that Max Payne is definitely worth revisiting, but it's not the sort of game that you'll continue playing immediately after completing it.

Despite not being able to compare to the PC version of the game, the PlayStation 2 Max Payne is still a fairly competent adaptation of the original. In fact, the graphics are probably the only noticeable negative change, along with the slightly altered controls to fit the PlayStation's controller. Simply put, regardless of which system you play it on, Max Payne doesn't disappoint.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/06