Max Payne

"Eat your heart Jon Woo!"

Last week I decided to pick this game up and all I have to say is wow!

Story: Max Payne is a fugitive cop who's wife and baby girl were killed by the mob and now he is framed for murder. He has to go undercover as a member of the mob and now the cops are after him.

Graphics: The graphics in this game are actually very good; there are no ''jaggies'' and the face of Max looks pretty good. Although the face of max does look a bit weird, it's not the graphics, but it looks like he's constipated.

Weapons/detail: You can really notice some cool things and how far the developers went to put detail in to the game. For example, Max reloads the guns just like someone would in real life. There are ton of cool weapons that are arranged into 6 categories: Melee weapons (bat&lead pipe), Pistols (Magnum and Berattas), Machine Guns, Shotguns, and explosives (Molotov Cocktail, GTA3 style!)

Controls: The controls are why this game gets a nine. Actually, they are pretty good, except sometimes you may accidentally look the wrong way because the up/down aim is inverted. Right trigger shoots, left trigger activates bullet time, the coolest aspect of the game, more on that later.

Gameplay: This is where the game shines; you basically run around and shoot everyone in sight as long as they have a gun. Bullet time lets you slow down the gameplay Jon Woo style, so you are moving in slow-mo and the guards are moving in super slow-mo. Lots of blood also, and it’s just so damn fun. Nearly everything is interactive, you can walk up to a TV and turn it on, same goes for radios, you can open shelves, flush, turn on faucets, and even more.

Replay: This game does have some replay, after you beat it you can unlock new difficulty levels and other things, I’m not exactly sure because I haven’t beaten the game yet.

Misc: This game is quite hard, I am playing on easy right now and I am still having some difficultly. The save anywhere feature is very nice, simply pause, click quick save and in about 1 second it saves. Pretty cool.

Rent or Buy: I would say buy it if you really like shooters, but rent it if you want to try it. You will probably be able to beat in 5 days if you rent it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/02, Updated 03/28/02