Max Payne

The Good
I admit, I had spectacularly high hopes for this game. There were several reasons: the first is Remedy's first product, the absolutely superb Death Rally; the second is the use of the seemingly revolutionary MAXFX engine in demonstrations such as 3DMark 2000, 3DMark 2001 and XL-R8R from MadOnion. My expectations got only higher when I saw the absolutely fascinating Max Payne E3 demo from 1999; back then I couldn't have imagined anything more spectacular. A game from a company founded on demoscene roots, with music by one of my favorite musicians, Teque? What could be better?

Shift forward a bit: early 2001. Discussing matters with Teque over e-mail revealed that he's been removed from the Max Payne development team. Unfortunately he wouldn't divulge any further information, but something inside me cracked when I realized I wouldn't hear his spectacular music in a game I've been waiting for for so long. Then 3DMark 2001 came out, music also not written by Teque. Still the MaxFX engine, astounding visuals, but the design of the entire demo was lacking. I had a bad feeling about this: these events didn't bode well.

Shift to mid-2001, Max Payne finally comes out. The game I've been waiting for for about three years, something new and innovative. When I finally got around to playing the game, I had mixed feelings about what's coming. I finished it an hour ago, and once again my instincts haven't failed me: I was terribly disappointed. Why? Well lets discuss the good things first.

• Solid game engine. Not as revolutionary as I expected, not the absolutely astounding visuals I've been promised, but absolutely solid never-the-less. It is also reasonably fast. Ah, and the bullets and fire look absolutely gorgeous.
• Max Payne features a decent plot. Nothing as complex or involving as Deus Ex or even Half Life for that matter, but enough to keep me interested as I played along. However, the plot has absolutely no bearing on the advancement of the game, which is indeed unfortunate.
• The absolutely spectacular "bullet-time" effect, as far as I know the first ever to be implemented in a computer game. It really is quite astounding at first, seeing everything in slow motion but retaining decent control over your character. It also makes for some beautiful fight scenes, where for example you jump through a door, ducking a shot fired by a guard behind it, only to spray him with the Colt Commando on your way to the ground. However, the novelty wears thin after a while.
• Plenty of cute in-jokes (upcoming spoiler), for example the Ingram-near-bathroom-with-bad-guy-coming-out-Pulp-Fiction-style scene, or the Buffy bit.

The Bad
On the contrary, Max Payne has many shortcomings.

• While the engine is solid, it just doesn't bring anything new to the table. Frankly, I think Serious Sam was more revolutionary, bringing Quake 3-level graphics to the table with detail textures, excellent framerates and no hype.
• Absolutely linear gameplay. I don't think I've ever played a game this linear before. Unlike most shooters, even the earliest ones where you at least got the chance to explore areas, enter rooms etc., in Max Payne you will frequently find yourself in a tight corridor with five doors, only one of which opens and is the way to the next section of the game. Not only is there only one way past any given obstacle, but there is only one way to proceed in the game! The whole game is built like one giant action sequence. I don't know about you, but for me it means only one thing: fast boredom and claustrophobia.
• Level design is nothing to be proud of. The scenes are generally grey, dimly lit and spectacularly nondynamic, unlike older games like Alice, Serious Sam or Deus Ex. Nothing changes in the scenery; there are very few things to interact with; environment mapping (used to a great extent in Quake 3 to improve visual dynamic) is scarce at best. Most importantly, the levels are dull, uninspired and very "square" in design (reminiscent of much, much older games like Doom or Blood), despite the ability to use much higher polygon count to improve visual smoothness.
• The cutscenes that use the game engine are of poor quality, and would befit a game from the era of Half Life (and even that manages better). The worst thing is, you can't skip them (much like Half Life)!
• Poor, uninspired at best background music. I can't shake the feeling that the music is more an afterthought than intended and fully integrated into the game development (as in Deus Ex, and I believe it shows). I just don't understand what happened to what was supposed to be one of the best game soundtracks ever written.
• There are several key sections of the game that even a beginner designer, or at least someone properly versed in computer games, would know not to include in the game. Specifically: the first dream sequence (where you have to go through two different sequences of a maze, one of which also incorporates a minor jumping puzzle). Completely pointless, unbelievably frustrating and doesn't improve the game in any way what-so-ever. The other one is the restaurant where you're supposed to meat the Italian guy, and which bursts into flames. Set aside the frustration and the nusance of having to practice your F5/F9 keys (quicksave/load) for a minute; any person in his right mind would immediately exit the restaurant through the main door (locked? no problem; what are you carrying a shotgun for?). Moreover, a touch of fire may give you a nasty burn, but certainly not kill you; a small fact that the designers seemed to have neglected. In short, there are several frustrating scenes in the game, and the worst thing is, you don't have any choice but to go through them! So much for Deus Ex ushering a new era in computer gaming...
• The problem with the aforementioned beautiful Bullet Time effect is that the game relies on it way too heavily. The novelty will wear off after half an hour, along with the excitement you get from the game. The combats are monotonous, with dumb enemies that never actually change (just pack more and more powerful weapons), and the monotony of the gameplay really gets to you after a while.
• I couldn't help but be offended by the way Max looks. Quite frankly, he looked far better in the E3 demo (and in the "lobby shooting spree" scene of 3DMark 2001). He has a kind of permanent "sneer" on his face that annoys me every time I see it. I can't help but think of Max as a kind of modern age Leisure Suit Larry. 'nuff said.

The Bottom Line
Overall, a great disappointment and not worth your money.

The Good
Death Wish, Out for Justice, Marked for Death, Above The Law, etc, etc.. ever wished you could be in one of those dorky 70's-80's action flicks where everything boils down to "Bad guys killed your loved ones: Go get Some!!!", well add to that a lot of more contemporary pop-culture references, a Hong Kong Gun-Fu movie feel, some matrix "bullet-time" and you've got yourself Max Payne in a nutshell.

Not exactly the makings of the world's most artistic videogame huh? But fortunately Max Payne aims to be a braindead all-style-no-content shootfest, so the game nails the subject dead on. Want to shut down your brain for a while? Max Payne is the game for you: millions of bad guys to mow down in the most stylish ways possible thanks to the addition of a matrix-like bullet time function that exploits the dramatic effects of slow-mo to the max (John Woo would be proud), and gimmicks like super-dramatic deaths: even if they just received a beretta shot on a toe, the enemies jump and fly around whenever they die, etc. etc. etc.... It couldn't be cheesier! It couldn't be more perfect for the game either!

There isn't much revolutionary about the gameplay save for that little matrix gimmick, but by keeping it all simple Max Payne maximizes the level of entertainment found on the game. Who cares about strategy or stuff like that? It's all about picking up two berettas and going Chow-yun-fat on some moron's ass and Payne keeps it that way, that's fun isn't it? Well, for a while it sure is!!

Also something to take notice is the MaxFX engine, truly a piece of work, not only does it deliver an amazing level of detail, but it also has lots of customization options allowing you to get the most off your system. And while the levels themselves are not the most imaginative ever, they are filled with Duke Nukem-like "interaction points" that make them feel even more real, pick up a phone and you'll hear a tone, use a toilet and you'll flush it, etc, etc. add to that great sfx and music and you've got yourself a nice level of immersion for a nice ol' shooter.

The Bad
Well there are a lot of minor little problems with the game, starting with Max himself. He's got to be the dorkiest-looking character I've ever played in a game of this type, I feel even Guybrush Threepwood could kick his stupid-grinning butt. And his high-on-sugar gestures in the otherwise excellent comic-book cutscenes make it only worse. Other problems are the braindead AI (enemies will actually shoot themselves!), the completely linear nature of gameplay, the rather short lenght of the game (which IS a matter to consider when you think that these guys are asking you to pay 50 bucks for a game that delivers only 15 or so in value [not all off us can waste hard earned money into short unrewarding games just for the fun of it]), the "been there, done that" level design, etc, etc.

But the biggest problem in the game is the game itself. Because the gameplay may be fun, but it can become tremendously repetitive and even dull, and the whole Bronson-HK-Matrix thing by itself just can't hold up the game and in the end just drags the whole thing down. Not to mention that if you aren't on that sort of thing altoghether then this game has nothing for you save some nice eye-candy.

The Bottom Line
In the end it all comes down to how much "Payne" you can endure. Sure the game is fun, but after a while it loses it's splendor. And just like those Bronson-Seagal-Lamas dumb action flicks, you get the feel that they are fun to rent or watch on cable, but you wouldn't want to OWN them.... Max is solid fun, but it's short, repetitive, and mind-numblingly simple, I can't see why anyone would bother with Max, when there are just so many other good things out there. Unless that is, you want to show off your brand new GeForce455000 GTSExtraTurbo, add it the Matrix patch, and find it in a bargain bin.

The Good
It's hard to know where to start, the whole package is so beautifully realized and meticulously presented that faults are hard to pick. Playing as Max Payne, you basically have to go from level to level blasting bad guys and finding the exit. However, what separates this title from others in the genre is you become wrapped up in the well written and interesting story which is spoon fed to you as you progress through the game, relishing every bite. Almost everything can be interacted with and the style of the game is very similar to a certain popular sci-fi flick from 1999 that has spawned countless imitators (you know the one I mean so don't make me say it.) This time though, we can actually PLAY OUT the scenes ourselves rather than just observe thanks largely to the use of the bullet time gameplay mode. When you enter this mode, the whole game slows down, you can see the bullets whiz past your head and fly from your weapon, the sound begins to convey a feeling of being under water and when the effect wears of it's as if we have surfaced again. Usually with a few more dead bodies than before. Max Payne is played out from the third person which some may complain about but I for one like this viewpoint. It's worked so well before in games like the criminally underrated Heretic II. If anything, it works better here and if the game were in first person, the bullet time features would just not work as well as they do. The story is conveyed through some beautifully done graphic novel cutscenes (that's comics to most people) and the voice acting suits the game perfectly with rough gritty representations of characters. The level design is very polished and looks lovely. Visually the game is unmatched on PC with some of the crispest graphics ever to grace a monitor. Some have complained that Max Payne is too short, while it isn't the longest of games, it is certainly of a decent length and when the quality of what's on offer here is considered, it is pure ignorance to expect anything more.

The Bad
The biggest complaint I have about Max Payne is that for some reason, the game would crash my whole system every time I exited from it, even after applying a patch. During the game it was fine but it's clear there are some nasty bugs that must still be ironed out. Also during the excellent dream sequence stage, I was irked to discover that it was possible to die. Being able to die in a dream is just plain silly and something that could have easily been avoided with minimum fuss.

The Bottom Line
Every now and then, a game comes out that innovates it's chosen genre and goes down in the hall of gaming fame as a true masterpiece that will be revered in years to come when it becomes a classic. Max Payne is one such game.