Max Payne

The Good
Review Version: v1.2 - Minor paragraphs added. My grammar sucks.
Game Version: v1.0
Tech Specs Used: Intel Dual Core 2 1.86 Ghz Processor, 1GB Memory, 256MB NVIDIA 7300 LE Video Card.
Difficulty Setting Used: Renegade (finished).
Finished: Yes. Friday, June 6, 2008. 3.52 AM.

Technical Note: Game must be installed in default path to function properly, installing in a different location may cause the game to crash at the start of gameplay.

I first played this game decades ago, when I was still a freshman in university, barely a few hours…and it seems I missed out on something really dang good. Better late than never, I suppose. Ironically, I just figured out Max Payne ie. Max Pain. Doh. Sometimes your brain is slow, sometimes it’s non-existent. Really.

Anyway, about the game.

Now and again, you really need one of those games where you can just…shoot stuff and blow things up. Great stress reliever…a simple outlet for violent instinctual drives, to some of us. Moving on, the only difference between Max Payne as an action-shooter with every other action-shooter on the planet is two things: Style and story.

Style
Style is called Bullet-time™, and you’d think that Matrix really wasn’t that long ago. With Bullet-time, everything comes into slow motion. There are 2 options of “slow-motion” available. The “jump-role”, which is something every action-hero should do at least 1,000 times per second of their lifetime (hehe), or simply stand still and aim and shoot at your hearts leisure. The later isn’t really fun, but the Bullet-time sequence lasts much longer than the jump roll, which only lasts as long as the “jump.”

For people like me who sometimes have really bad reflex instincts: the brain does identify that there’s a really ugly big-ass motherf**ker with an equally ugly big-ass shot gun aiming at your possibly equally ugly face, despite mental commands zoning-in to your fingers, they don’t seem to respond (if they do respond at all) and prefer to shoot the wall, the floors, that flowerpot on the right hand corner of the screen, but not that bloke carrying the shotgun.

With a simple right-click of the mouse to a certain direction (jump-shoot), you have an extra few seconds, to actually aim and start shooting at the dude, or shoot at an uglier big-ass mother**fucker, with an even bigger gun, behind the previous bloke.

Blood splattered on the wall, bullet holes creating new windows in the ceiling…you even hit that flowerpot on the right hand corner of the screen. At this point, the life of an action-shooter is pretty much utopia.

Story
What makes Max Payne – Max Payne, however is not the Bullet-time action (though it's pretty much a trademark). It’s the story: How it is portrayed and how it unravels. The story teller is May Payne himself, using a comic-book portrayal of the unfolding events. Personally for me, on an artistic level as well as on a personal level, this is sooo much-much better than those crappy animations. Even more so, as many of the dialogs within the comic book are well written, as cliché’s in comics are almost always appropriate.

The story itself, well…it’s a simple matter of vengeance, up-close and personal. Max’s wife and newborn child are gunned down. The plot thickens, and Max ends up practically killing everyone. Yay! Despite that shallow synopsis of the story I just wrote, the writers do seem to try to bring the player to a same personal emotional level with Max…to emphasize the “pain” that Max is feeling. The loss, the unbalancing of reality…or in Max’s words: ”The end of the world is only a cliché unless your actually experiencing it…,” which are words II can unfortunately, very much relate with.

This pain, this sorrow, may only be done so with equally supportive dialogs and emotion from Max. Though Max, most of the time while storytelling, does not portray any emotion at all….which only occurs when the pain is “max-ed out” (something no one should experience). Only bits and pieces of rage and despair are frequently reminded to the player when Max remembers his memories of that fateful day. More or less, almost all of the voice-overs, especially the cool-rough voice of Max Payne (voiced by one Mr. James McCaffrey are state-of-the art acting...well maybe just Max. However, one exception: Mrs. Max Payne sounds like some drunk in a sleazy hill-billy town in middle-America. Her voice acting was a constant irritation (even more so than the sound of the baby crying).

The writer also had a lovely sense of humor, despite all those cheesy (but totally appropriate) clichés. One of the best lines for a gamer to read in the game, has something to do about Payne (under the influence of a drug) discovers that:
[1] He is part of a graphical comic; [2] He is part of an computer game.
I intentionally left out the punch-line...something you really have to experience yourself. But as far as the writing goes...it's basically a masterpiece...as far as computer games go, at least.

One minor addition...loved the music during combat.

The Bad
Most of the game mechanics were standard enough. There is however, one very annoying feature that I’m flabbergasted someone didn’t notice when developing this game.

My style of play isn’t like the average teenager who usually shoots first and aims later like Rambo. I conserve my bullets and that means using the U.S. Marine Corp. (I think) slogan: One shot, one kill. Well, since that doesn’t really happen very often, at least every damn bullet should actually hit the target. Thus, I usually take things slow, baiting the enemy and finding myself a nice place to crouch and shoot.

Now this is where you find that annoying little feature. You find out that, Max’s head, his hands, or his gun is blocking the sight between you (the player, not Max Payne) and the enemy target. So you really can’t see very well. Now this is really stupid, especially when you start thinking that you’d rather blow Max Payne’s head off so you can actually see the enemy.

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I recently remembered something equally annoying...which is something that all action-shooter developers should notice. Though this feature may not be a big deal for everyone, mind you. Do you know is the most irritating thing about opening a door and piling the place into a new ammo dump? Having that stupid door slam right in front of your face - WHAM! Next thing you know, your spelling your name on the door in some unknown Klingon tribal dialect.

This has happened one too many times...the only way to avoid this, is to stand right beside the opened door, so it doesn't close on you (but it tries really really hard mind you). Now when your a action-shooting hero that is more concerned about keeping that door open than actually dodging bullets and shooting the living daylights out of everything in the room...you know you have priority issues.

Last time I checked in the real world, doors don't usually shut by themselves. My mental commands to my room door don't seem to be responding well, so why does every god-damn door in this game (and a lot of action-shooter games) have an automatic closing system? If I was the enemy AI, I would probably be equally pissed. :p

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Many people claim that the game is too short. Thankfully, I didn’t notice it that much. What I did notice is that the level design isn’t really top notch. A lot of it is going around in circles, and pretty much shallow if not for the story. There aren’t many instances where you can't actually use the sniper rifle with leisure, as using those dual Beretta’s mostly finishes the job, as most of the levels are corridors with enemies just behind the corner.

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To my disappointment as a “bullet-conserving” psychopath, the number of bullets in this game is a bit over-stocked. There are simply too much bullets to pick up and not enough enemies to kill. Unless you’d prefer the Rambo style of shooting first and aiming later, the overwhelming supply of ammunition in the game, killed most forms of tactical approaches to kill an enemy. No need to use my sub-machine gun when I already have 10 grenades in my arsenal waiting to be used up...and after getting those heavy guns...who uses the simple shot gun again?

I thought this may had to do with the game difficulty, which unfortunately for me was a bit too easy. I really don't understand why I can't play the hardest level...but apparently, after finishing the game and curiously playing the next level difficulty, again I was bullet overstocked... sigh

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Lastly, there was one part of the game I really loathed. It's the part where Payne is either doped up, or having nightmares. In this setting, Payne enters a dream-world, trying to find a way out. This is obviously story-based...in a bad way. The voice of the baby crying and Mrs. Payne is equally annoying as is moving around and getting lost half of the time. If they made it shorter, I probably wouldn't whine too much about it. It really does get annoying when you play the game a second time around.

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This combination of story vs. game play strikes me as quite odd. The story is very much mature for a standard action-shooter, however, the game mechanics i.e. ammunition, level design... was seemingly designed for the average doorknob who doesn’t plan out his/her combat tactics (shoot first, aim later). But then again, I probably shouldn’t expect more from a game where the purpose is to shoot things. :p

The Bottom Line
Is it playable? Yes.
Is it playable 10 years from now? Yes.
Do you have to play it? Hell, yeah! Bring on the Pain!

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
There was some novelty in playing a role in a HKBO (Hong Kong Blood Opera), diving out of door ways blasting bad guys in slow motion but it's not quite as cool as the movies. The voice acting is done well and is of a good quality, the story is told through comic strips which is different and Max Payne narrates. Payne spews metaphors and similes for most situations which make you think he should be a novelist instead of a cop. The levels have lots of minor details like smoldering cigarettes in ash trays, rats, cobwebs and working water coolers and bar taps, while levels in general are detailed in the volume of chairs, tables and cupboards put into rooms making the general room far more realistic than the cuboids that inhabit Half Life's 'high tech laboratories'.

The Bad
The game is so incredibly, mind numbingly repetitive, the game play consists of diving through a door and shooting a bunch of guys then diving through another guy and shooting a bunch of guys who look suspiciously like the last bunch of guys, which is possibly because there are only 5 different opponents in the entire game. The bad guys are either a selection of 3 New York mobsters (usually some variation on a bad suit), a balaclava clad mercenary or 'Killer Suits' - guys in matching black suits and black sun glasses, much like secret service agents, and are the only bad guys in the last 1/4 of the game. The enemies are about as bland vocally as they are visually, the only things they say are "Payne!", "It's Payne!", "Get him", "Contact with the enemy" or "Send reinforcements" which you can guess would be repeated very often. The AI is very ordinary, if they have a clear shot at you they will stay still and shoot at you until you move, apon which they will follow you unless you run too far away, the occasional enemy will dive to the side once or twice then start shooting but they will never, ever notice that you have thrown a grenade at them, or that firing their grenade launcher at this range will kill them as well. The story is rather cliched, a man has his family killed and seeks revenge, it sounds similar to the Charles Bronson 'Death Wish' series, so much so that it seems the Max Payne doesn't really care as he drones on in his monologues and soon after the third monologue I stopped caring as well. Because the game is in third person the camera will often be your worst enemy, crouching near a wall will completely obscure your view. Game play is almost completely made up of 'hit the hammer with the biggest, loudest hammer.' which leaves the game feeling hollow.

The Bottom Line
A good shooter for people with short attention spans or hype monkeys who are attracted by bright lights. Completely linear and fairly simple, Max Payne is good game but has lots of room for improvement, just throw it onto the pile of other recent shooter titles.