The two things that stand out most about this game is that it's in the genre of "noir", which exceptionally few games are, and that it's the very first game to involve bullet-time. The film-noir works very well in the game, and the story is pretty typically noir(revenge is the main theme), and all in all, I'd say the game has a very good noir feel to it, especially due to the narration. The bullet-time has(which was surely to come in some game, after the massive success of The Matrix, in which the photography technique was invented and used quite well), since this game was made, been done a few times more, most of them better than in this, so that's not as special anymore, but they did marvelous in programming and animating it, and while it isn't as nicely explained as it was in aforementioned philosophical sci-fi action film, it's very well-integrated. The game has you controlling Max Payne, an ex-cop with good cause to seek revenge. I won't reveal here what happens to the man to provide him with said cause, as the in-game reveal is quite simply so effective as to rival the emotional impact of a masterfully directed motion picture. The story develops throughout, with clues being provided and Max slowly figuring out who's behind it all. The voice acting is very good, and the diverse character gallery is credible and well-written. I'm not sure which of the two games, this or the sequel, had the better story(though perhaps this had too much technology by comparison), though I remember more of this... perhaps simply because I played it for longer, more times. This had the more concise amount of characters, and at least one character went through a change in the second game that I didn't care too much for. The game seems far too hard to beat; the enemies seem to have far superior aim, or maybe their weapons just several times as much damage as the player does... anyway, I often found myself emptying entire clips(!) at my enemy, only to be killed by a single shot, when Max stopped shooting to reload. The game-play is also incredibly repetitive. The only thing you do is run around and shoot. Of course, the slow-motion running makes for more intense fire-fights, and the dives help give you the feel of being in a John Woo film(giving the game a feel of, I suppose, being in a noir film directed by the Chinese master of action movies). Oh, actually, there are also a few jumping puzzles(yes, jumping) in the game, which really mostly serve as more frustration as you also have far too little(read: hardly any at all) control over how long or how high your character jumps. The weapon selection is very good, with a Beretta(and dual use available, fitting right in with the John Woo feel), an assault rifle(from the looks of it, probably an M4), two shotguns, one of which is a sawed-off, a sniper and more. Last-mentioned ranged weapon has a very nice slow-motion camera effect that I won't describe in detail, activated simply by shooting at an enemy with the rifle, using the scope to aim. The sound is very good, everything sounds as it should, with marvelous ambient sounds to make you feel like you really are in New York. The graphics are very good, but the graphic engine requires far too much, and the game will sometimes lag on computers that can run newer games with better graphics flawlessly. It especially lagged for me in the cinematics, bringing several of them so far out of sync that most of the enjoyment of watching them was severely negatively affected. The game has a great atmosphere, they've managed to capture the whole experience of a noir film almost perfectly, with the mood, the music, the story and the plot-twists. Had the game only been better game-play-wise, it would have been very short of a masterpiece. Unfortunately, the creators were too busy improving the graphics and inserting in-jokes to do anything about it. They put more effort into the atmosphere, graphics and bullet-time, and the game-play, re-playability and length suffered. The level design of the game is very good, but it still doesn't save it. Overall, the game is good, but it could have been great. If you are going to play it, I urge you to try it with mods, instead of the regular game... heck, actually, with how many marvelous mods that are available, for free for download off the 'net, I urge anyone who enjoys action games and can run this to get it just to be able to play the mods(in fact, for any creative folk who double as gamers out there, I can say as one such person myself that modding for this game is a *lot* of fun... if you can use the tools. You can make new levels(and program cinematics for them, *tons* of fun), mess around with coding, put in new weapons and change just about everything to fit what you want to achieve. It may not be the most easy to figure out how to do, but there are a ton of tutorials, and these two are quite probably the games that let you change the most... at the very, very least among them). If you do intend to play the game through, do it because of the excellent story and the noir-like mood, and don't expect a very diverse experience to be gotten out of the main game-play. Also, if you insist on beating it, prepare to use cheat codes, unless you're very, very stubborn(like me) or very, very patient. The game takes about ten hours to beat, give or take, and after that there is somewhat little chance that you'll play it again. It's just far too hard, to the point of being frustrating at times. I recommend this to people who dig noir and/or third-person shooters. If you have the patience. 7/10
Review of Max Payne
Max Payne
(2001 Video Game)
Good film-noir action game, but way too hard and too repetitive game-play
9 April 2004