Max Payne

"Kill, Run, Kill, Make Witty Quip, Repeat as Necessary"

This sort of game is definitely not for everyone. Gamers who don’t enjoy senseless brutality and killing almost certainly wouldn’t enjoy this game. Thankfully, for someone of my sensibilities the game was a welcome dose of violence amidst the near endless stream of sickeningly cutesy titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, or Super Monkey Ball (which is actually pretty fun). Max Payne earns its mature rating with gritty violence and a plot featuring murder and corruption. And it also earns its place amongst the most enjoyable gaming experiences in the past couple of years.

GRAPHICS: 7/10
While the graphics on the X-Box clearly outshine their PS2 counterpart, they are still kind of blocky and not overly impressive when compared with some of the other games on the market. But they are more than serviceable and for whatever reason the slightly grainy quality of the graphics matches the darkness of the story. The slowdown for bullet time is done nicely as I like viewing the flight of the bullets as you smoke your enemies with extreme prejudice. I wasn’t really a fan of the comic strip style cut-scenes or the goofy way they drew Max in them, but in the long run it didn’t detract from the game. The ability to interact with the environments wasn’t really necessary most of the time, but it was still fun to shoot the vending machines and toilets and watch them crumble. One other point worth mentioning is the graphics in the “dream” sequences are actually pretty bad, and looked like they were programmed in about fifteen minutes flat. Those two levels stuck out like sore thumbs in the overall graphic presentation of the game.

SOUND: 8/10
This is about as subjective as it gets, because I can see people either really enjoying the exaggerated voice over work for Max Payne or really being annoyed by it. Personally, I liked the old detective style speech for Max when he was narrating, but didn’t like it as much when he was speaking with other characters. There was a distinct lack of emotional variety throughout as well. The other characters have some funny lines and the sound effects of gunfire, explosions, and the whistling of a bat being swung all come out nicely. The insane characters are some of my favorites as they babble inanely about random things while trying to kill you, which really adds to the game. A good effort, but as I mentioned above a lot depends on how you like Max Payne’s voice.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
Rockstar did a good thing by not bogging down a game that is essentially an excuse to kill hordes of bad guys with complex controls. The inverted control stick takes some getting used to, as you’ll find yourself looking at the ground while being shot from the next floor. The camera flows smoothly behind you and rarely causes any problems. The only real snafu I made from day one to the day I beat the game was occasionally taking some painkillers accidentally. Thankfully, the game has numerous automatic save points and can be saved as often as you would like, so there is very little backtracking. The action on screen flows along smoothly and it is undeniably immensely satisfying to blow your adversaries away with an ever expanding arsenal of weapons. The sniper rifle, as in almost every game, is great fun and though it may lack the sheer bloodshed of its cousin GTA3 or Hitman 2 it is still a blast. Bullet time was a revolutionary concept when this game was released and it really does add a cinematic brilliance to the game, which when done correctly can draw oohs and ahs out of any friends who happen to be watching. Honestly though, if you are a good player you will never really need to use bullet time to finish the game, but it is so much fun it would be a shame not to.

REPLAYABILITY: 4/10
While you do unlock some advanced difficulty levels and other small things, nothing really changes much from the first time you play through the game. It is still fun to pick it up every now and then just to alleviate your foes of the burden of living, but for the most part this game was designed to be played through once.

OVERALL: 9/10
Max Payne doesn’t blow you away with gaudy visuals or groundbreaking innovations (bullet time is still pretty cool though), but that doesn’t really matter. And that is because the biggest draw of Max Payne is that it is simply a fun game to play. You don’t have to think too much, you just react, and that can be a welcome relief. Now that this game has been re-released with a $19.99 price tag there is no excuse not to purchase this game... and I mean now.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/03, Updated 02/27/03