When I first heard about Max Payne, I thought it will
be one of the coolest games to hit the PC as well as
other consoles. Well, I was right.
Simply said, Max Payne was one of the most enjoyable
action games I have ever played. It ties in great game
play, awesome graphics, a cool story, and a film noir
style feel and look to it which is difficult to copy.
In Max Payne, you play as the title character who’s
life was torn apart after the untimely murder of his
wife and new born baby. Pretty intense stuff for a
cop, who then goes over the edge and seeks revenge on
those responsible. Luckily for Max, he has an arsenal
of weapons, including his trusty service revolver, a
shotgun, Molotov cocktails, and other weapons such as
a trusty baseball bat and a sniper rifle.
But that’s not all. Max is also gifted with the
ability to focus deeply and therefore provide the
illusion of slowing down time, and execute amazing
feats of gunplay and bullet dodging. This feature has
been seen in movies such as The Matrix and it is known
as Bullet-Time. When this feature is activated, Max
can dodge and at the same time shoot while everything
seems extremely SSLLLOOOWWW. Multiple enemies can
therefore be “neutralized” in one move, and bodies go
flying.
The game is played in the third-person view, and the
controls are best used with the combination of the
mouse and keyboard. Enemies are reasonably smart, and
can be harder to kill once you finish the game in
Normal Mode. Other options include a New-York Minute
where you receive limited time and life to complete
each level.
Needless to say, the graphics are amazing. You can
actually see the bullet streams go past you as you
blaze your way through the all too short number of
levels. However, a video card that is at least a
GeForce 2 is essential in order to take full advantage
of the beautiful graphics of this game.
The sound is typical of a great action game, and the
music is also appropriate. Footsteps can be heard of
nearby enemies and the gunfire sounds realistic.
The game also has clips of Max’s memory of the past,
and you are at times involved in these memories. Other
cut scenes are done in comic book style, and also sets
the tone for the game.
One complaint of this game was that it was too short,
like all good games that you do not want to put down.
And of course the slight adult content should only be
limited to mature players (not for little kids!).
Furthermore, the replay value is low after you have
finished it, and most puzzling, there is NO
MULTIPLAYER MODE!
Nevertheless, I still believe it a worthy game andtherefore give this game a 9 out of a possible 10. I highly recommend it.