Max Payne

"Sadly, the Playstation 2 Version Cannot Compare to the XBox Iteration"

Violence is a critical part in video games (well, not sports, musical, or dating sim games). Even the cutesy Mario games have violence (head bouncing is a dangerous activity). However, with the latest systems like the PS2 and XBox violence has taken over the main stage. Games like Grand Theft Auto, State of Emergency, and this game, Max Payne have earned the hearts of gamers and hungry lawyers and senators looking for money. Does Max Payne live up to its violent and gory exterior? Read on to find out.

Originally released for the PC, Max Payne is a fairly innovative action game. It was hyped up beyond belief before it's release and when it was said it would be ported to the new next-gen consoles, people were stoked. I mean who wouldn't be? Max Payne promised it all: Excellent graphics, nice action, realistic physics, a cool story, and bullet time gameplay. What is bullet time? It is probably the place where Max Payne innovates the most. Taking a cue from the popular science fiction flick, The Matrix, it allows the character to view the game in a very slow motion to make it easier to aim. What does it do to the gameplay? I'll describe it later on.

Max Payne has an extremely cheesy storyline that uses every cliche in the book, however, it still manages to keep you interested until the very end. In it you control a fugitive former cop (and the title character), Max Payne (how's that for a cheesy name). He was an undercover cop who made some bad choices a while back and now is being hunted by both gangsters and the federal police, his former friends and colleagues. However, you can't help but feel sorry for him. He honestly had nothing to lose as his family (wife and child) were killed in an apparent mob act. And that's just the beginning...

Max Payne ends up dealing with a very controversial plotline encompassing the battle over a new drug, Valkyr. Sounds like something out of Norse mythology, right? Well, that's not the only Norse reference in this game. It is apparent that one of the mob bosses believes in Norse fiction, and according to one legend, the Ragnarok, the end of time happens when an enormous snow storm engulfs the earth. It has been snowing in the city for the past few days. I'm not going to spoil the rest of the plot for you, but I assure you it's nothing too spectacular. However, it twists and turns more than a roller coaster.

Where the story line wasn't that innovative, the way it is presented definitely is. It is told to you by way of a graphic novel (glorified comic books). Utilizing this, the developers have made it much less bland to listen to the narrative. However, some of these graphic novel scenes can be extremely long and drag on. You will probably end up canceling some of these scenes to get on with the action. I wouldn't blame you, I did.

Why would you want to skip those story scenes? Because the action is absolutely awesome and intense. Engaging in a fire fight with several mob leaders will not only be fun to play, but give you a sense of evil euphoria I can only compare to the original Doom. The action is portrayed in third person the entire way through. You get your choice of weapon and using the button it is assigned to, you shoot. It doesn't stay that simple, however. There are times when you may want to dive across the floor to attack a bunch of enemies at once. This is when bullet time comes into effect.

Bullet time, as I have described before, is the most innovative feature included to this game. When you use this time-slowing move, you have the edge over your foes. Why? The developers say adrenaline. Is it real? No. Who cares? No one, it's awesome. Aiming in bullet time is like normal, with the control stick, but your enemies cannot aim. Sounds easy? It is. However, there is a catch (there always is, isn't there?). You only have a limited amount of this, but it refills little by little with every enemy you kill. Overall, bullet time is a neat addition to this game.

The gameplay without bullet time is also solid. Take parts of all previous three dimensional action games, put them in a blender, add a touch of Doom or Quake, and then you have Max's gameplay. By no means, however, does this ever feel bland or contrived, as the developers have definitely added a nice mix (bullet time helps, too). It has a nice balance of staying back and staying away from damage, to going all out with your big guns. Another neat feature of Max Payne is that you can interact with almost everything in the game, from soda machines to toilets(!?).

The game controls a lot like most other action games, but this game is actually a little sluggish. Moving in an open area with no borders or areas where jumping is required is a breeze. However, when you have to navigate through borders, especially in Max's ''high'' stages where he is feeling the effects of the drug that he has taken, the game controls sluggish. Jumping is can be horrendous, also, but once you get used to it, it won't be that bad. Changing weapons is a breeze with the D-Pad, which is important. Overall, the control can be a mixed bag.

Graphically the game isn't great. Shenmue had similar graphics to this, which was released a few years before on a physically depleted system (compared to the next-gen systems). These are the next-gen consoles, and these polygon models don't look that great at all. However, the particle effects like the snow, blood, sparks, and many others look excellent and they definitely look excellent, so that may compensate for something.

However, where the basic graphics floundered, the cinematics were done to the highest possible degree. Using angles to show depth and darkness to convey bad factors in the environment I give lots of respect to the developers. Adding to the cinematics are the contortions and convulsions the dying characters make. The rag doll physics surely aren't Unreal Tournament 2003 caliber, but they are definitely awesome. Also, sometimes when you attack the last enemy in a room (usually also when you kill someone with the sniper rifle), you will view a cinematic shot of the enemy dying in slow-mo bullet time style. One particular one, in the night club, has you killing someone and if you place it right the enemy can go through a trap door, plummeting to his death. Nice job here and definitely make up for the crappy polygon models.

The music in this game isn't memorable and isn't used too much. I wouldn't even have minded if they didn't include it into the game, but the few songs add a nice mix to the action, no matter how sparse they are. Fortunately, where there is a lack of musical potency, the sound effects are anything but lame. With realistic bullet sounds and excellent voice overs, they are nothing short of miraculous. Overall this game is lacking in music but strong in the sound effects.

I have played both console iterations of Max Payne, and I must admit the Playstation 2 version is far behind the XBox version. The graphics cannot compete, for one. The PS2 does not have the graphics technique of anti-aliasing (which the XBox has) and that creates the jaggies all over the screen (yes, this is very nitpicky and probably you won't notice them). The polygonal models are much less defined and have much less polished (because this is a port of a PC port). Another thing I noticed is the fact that the loading times in the Playstation 2 are longer than the XBox version (which was already long). The sound has weird skipping during the graphic novel scenes, also. The gameplay also plays better on the XBox controller (that's definitely a first!). The PS2 version simply cannot compare, which was a surprise (usually the PS2 version is better, like in NFS: Hot Pursuit).

Overall, Max Payne is an excellent shooter and great overall. However, on the Playstation 2 I can't really recommend it. If you have an XBox, get that version instead (if you don't own either, then settle with the PC version). Now it is part of the greatest hits of the Playstation 2 and is worth the twenty dollars and then some. If you can weed through the confusing and cheesy plot, and don't mind the somewhat cruddy graphics, you will find that Max Payne is a decent title for the Playstation 2, but as I have said many times during the review (maybe you are sick of me saying it), get the XBox version instead (if possible).

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/03, Updated 06/22/03