Max Payne

Games don't usually get this good. I mean, this is an absolutely amazing game. From the involving story, the terrific direction, and awesome action and game-play this one has it all.

Max Payne is a cop infiltrating a drug ring and just about everything goes wrong. Everything. It is up to his guts and guns to solve the problem.

While this is a shooter a gritty and realistic feeling pervades the game making it more of a movie. The bad guys are punks, security guards and such. They talk, run, scream, and are afraid to die. They are placed in realistic locations. And speaking of locations...You actually feel like you are in the city. The graphics and story just place you in the moment and you push through the gauntlet of pain and bad guys with sympathies for the character.

There are a few limitations, this is a game after all, like the bad guys have basically one tactic, and some of the action scenes are way over the top, but hey... if this is based off of an action movie, it's perfect.

Basically YOU GOTTA PLAY IT! 9/10

Rated MATURE: unrelenting violence

Now here's what an action game should be. Max Payne is like a tribute to such Hollywood action icons, such as The Matrix (1999) and director John Woo. This is one of the best video games I have played in a long time. Never in a video game have I seen such good graphics, great dialogue, and intense action.

At best, a game like Max Payne runs like a television marathon series. The game is separated into three chapters with at least seven parts each, including the amazing graphic novels.

The game has a promising premise: DEA agent Max Payne is framed for the murder of his partner, Alex Balder, during a robbery in a New York subway station. With his partner dead, Payne is framed for the crime and the robbery. The case takes a bigger turn with the flow of a new drug in the city, and the possibility of a corrupt organization's involvement in supporting the drug (known as Valkyr). For Payne, it's going to be a long night in New York, during the city's snowstorm blizzard of the century.

Max Payne is a dark video game, and the title hero is also the narrator of the story, and while Payne doesn't seem confident in his storytelling, at times, he provides humor during the narration. The game shifts us to the events leading up to Payne being set up.

There is a sad and somewhat unpleasant sequence where Payne's wife and baby daughter are murdered by Valkyr junkies. And there is the possibility that the corrupt Aesir Corp. may be responsible for his family's death.

Payne must also battle a trail of mobsters, security agents, and black ops operatives, who all want him dead.

What makes Max Payne a great video game is the graphics, which uses New York locations we've probably never seen before, such as a run-down night club called Ragna Rock, and an old seaport.

There is even a great chase sequence where Payne chases a mobster from buildings to a construction site, and to the rooftops of New York apartment buildings (Not in that order).

Payne is also given a cache of weapons, such as handguns, grenade launchers, and machine guns. All enough to start a war. There is even a feature known as bullet time (reminiscent of the action styles seen in the John Woo movies), in which Max is able to slow down time and get a better advantage over his enemies. And if you're a hardcore John Woo fan, you'll notice that Payne is also able to do that familiar double handgun leap in the air.

And while Max Payne is such a good game, it does have its minimal flaws, which is its lack of character variety; the mobsters (who resemble Joe Pesci wise-guys), and agents all look essentially the same. The body count, and the amount of bullets used are ridiculously too high. And sometimes shooting someone point blank in the head doesn't work all the time. I guess it's trying to follow that great tradition of the John Woo Hong Kong movies in which there is always a high body count and a person is hit more than once.

Not all levels rely on handguns and automatic weapons. There is a moment that I like where Payne is unarmed and he must fight through a hallway full of thugs with a baseball bat.

There has been rumors that Max Payne is being made into a motion picture by Twentieth Century Fox that will fill in the gaps missing in both games. The video games, alone, are perfect. Max Payne creates a hero, who, if not plausible (he does endure mega doses of violence, and manages to live through the cold, stormy night), is at least persuading as a man determined to find the truth and clear his name.

It took four long years in production, but Max Payne has lived up to and beyond all expectations and earned the rave reviews it deserves. First of all, the whole game is visually stunning. When you first load up the tutorial, trust me, you'll just be sitting there staring. When you first pause the game and watch the camera circle Max's virtually photo-realistic body, you'll keep on staring. When you first launch into slow motion and watch the bullets actually flying past, you'll stare some more. Basically, the graphics are fantastic; I've never seen better in a PC game.

But that's not all that makes Max Payne so remarkable. The story is really intriguing, and I think calling it cliched is missing the point; it's supposed to have that film noir, crime novel feeling, and it pulls it off creatively through the graphic novel scenes that pop up throughout the game. When you're not tearing through gangsters and junkies and suits, you may find yourself listening in from around corners, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, even wandering through Max's actual nightmares. The use of the graphic novel is great; it's wickedly written and a nice break from the action sometimes.

Which brings me to the action itself. Wow. Playing against such amazing graphics and animation, gunfights in Max Payne are *intense*. The slow-motion feature is a wonderful addition; you start to feel so cool sliding past bullets in midair that you're able to suspend disbelief. As with any other game, you learn to ration your resources and deal with confrontations more efficiently, but the awesome thing is that this game learns along with you. Max Payne actually adjusts to your skill level, making the game challenging without being impossible. And it's about time someone made a shooter like that!

So combine all that with really good voice acting and blessedly infrequent load times, and you really do have one of the best PC games ever made. Inevitably, there are a few problems; the weapons interface can be a little difficult at first, and enemy AI can be kind of questionable, but those are common glitches. The only significant drawback is only that the game doesn't last long enough! For most, it won't take longer than ten or fifteen hours to complete. However, what it lacks in quantity, Max more than makes up for in quality, and it's very replayable anyway.

All in all, this one is a landmark game and a masterpiece -- super-innovative, compelling and beautifully made. Deservedly, it's sure to land more than one Game Of The Year.

COMMENT FOR THE PC-VERSION:

"Max Payne" is brilliant. You just cannot say it in any other way. MP is a super-cool actiontitle that uses the so-called bullet-time effect to create extremely stylish shoot-outs where the main character Max Payne constantly dives into bloody gun-fights. Playing it again over 2 years since its first release still confirms its excellent quality, and it is a game that easlily passes the test of time. Some people may argue that this game is only inspired by "The Matrix", which is not correct. John Woo`s brilliant actionmovies like "Hard-Boiled" and "The Killer" are both among the most important source of inspiration for the Finnish developers. I can guarantee that if you give this one a go, then you will be hooked.

10/10

Max Payne is a man with nothing to lose. He has been framed for murder, and lost his wife a child. Now, you must take control and lead Max to the ultimate revenge against the killers of his family, and the people who set him up. With a great plot to follow, shown with comic graphic novels, realistic gritty surroundings, bullet time-a slow-mo matrix kind of effect- and weapons, revenge and more, MAX PAYNE delivers to the hard core gamers out there. I think it's one of the most under rated video games ever. If you like games such as Grand Theft Auto 3, you'll love Max Payne . Also, get the game on XBOX. It has the best graphics out of all the systems. 4/5 stars.

JOHN ULMER