Max Payne

"An awesome game in it's own right, although it is a little short"

Max Payne, you can make as many puns as you want about his name, and it still won't change the fact that the game is awesome. Graphically beautiful and wonderful voice acting, it is a little short, but the storyline is incredible enough to let you play it over and over again many times without tiring of it.

Graphics 9/10: One of the incredibly strong points of this beautiful game. This game uses actual pictures for the faces of characters, and the result is rather nice, although they could have picked another guy for Payne, and not the ''I'm constipated'' guy. The models are quite good for a console game, albeit blocky at times. The main reason I have marked this area down one point (well 2 reasons, actually), is because the game is WAY too dark in some areas, requiring me to turn up the brightness at times, and the game, if to much is happening on screen at once, can slow down (although the slowdown threshold is FAR above the PS2 versions). All in all though, the graphics can easily compare with the PC version's.

Sound 9/10: Another shining point in the game. The voiceovers are nice, and the gunshots are awesome. Not too loud but not too soft. The only major problem I have with sound is that Payne can sometimes sound like he's taking himself a bit too seriously, but I think he is SUPPOSED to be cocky...

Story 10/10:...as the story points out. The game's story is one downfall after another for Payne. A cop in the NYPD, he gets framed for murder, and he tries to clear his name, not caring who or what goes down in the process. I can't say much more about the story or I will spoil it, but it won't make you want more from it.

Gameplay 8/10: The gameplay is quite good, although there are a couple of places that could have used a boost. The aiming system works rather well, where you walk and strafe with one stick, and aim with the other, kind of like some PC shooters. Unfortunately, this doesn't translate too well in a 3rd person shooter, although it does work. My major problem is how sluggish the aiming stick works. A useful feature in this game for when you run into trouble is Bullet Time. When you get into a firefight with many enemies, you can turn on bullet time, which slows the game down to a snail's pace, allowing you to actually dodge bullets. Also, you can aim in real-time, but the enemies can't. The only problem with Bullet Time is that, with how slow it's running, the player may actually start to get confused and get shot up in the process. The camera is actually nice, for once in a 3rd person perspective game, and gave me no troubles.

Replay 10/10: Even after beating it, you'll want to come back for more.

Rent/Buy: This one is a definite buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/02, Updated 09/22/02