Max Payne

The Good
Max Payne, the long-awaited shooter. Everyone has heard about it, but how many have really played it? I did, and... lets see... the good side: graphics are good. Very good. Also, the 'bullet time' and 'cinematic shot' features are awesome. Imagine this: you leap in a room with two Ingram-smgs blazing bullets, everything is in slow motion and you can see every single bullet, the enemies move like underwater but you are faster than ever. As the final opponent falls, you see his death in a cinematic sequence, blood comes from his knees, he falls down and screams. Feels just like a movie. Another good side is the gameplay, after you have learned the controls, controlling Max is very solid and feels good. The third thing that is good is the story. Although simple, it's much better than in Soldier of Fortune or any Quake. Usage of comic strips instead of video is also a good idea.

The Bad
Now the bad. First of all, although the graphics are good, they aren't as good as you could expect from the system requirements. The characters and weapons look good, but the environment doesn't. This spoils the atmosphere. Another thing I am missing are the bullet wounds. Although enemies have hit zones, a hit to head looks the same as hit to leg. The worst thing, however, is that the game crashes pretty often. I had also problems to get the game run. Maybe it's just my computer. Or then not.

The Bottom Line
Personally I like Undying and Soldier of Fortune better, but if you like shooters, this is a must!

The Good
The style is evident, from the over-the-top dialogue ("the sun went down with false bravado...") to over-the-top gunplay (everything from Striker auto-shotgun to grenade launchers). The graphics novel interludes gives that stylized art that calls attention to itself. The plot... completely over-the-top as well... From shooting crime bosses all the way up to government conspiracy, even has a few elements of X-files and Twin Peaks... And boy, is bullet-time fun...

The Bad
The style can be too over-the-top for people. There's plenty of blood (heck, EVERYBODY you shoot leaves a puddle of blood, some more than others). The plot is also full of cliches (government conspiracy, Mafia "wiseguys", etc.), even has an evil twin thrown in the mix! In the final levels, the game becomes quite difficult (and that was on the LOWEST level of difficulty!) when you're assaulted by guys in bullet-proof vests armed with the latest weapons. There's usually no room for you to hang-back and pick them off one at a time. It's usually full-speed ahead guns blazing. No saved-replays of your "best" shots.

The Bottom Line
Max Payne is about as close as you will come to "play" an action movie. It may be short (but then, so are most action movies), it may be a bit trite and cliche (but then, so are action movies), and it may be over-the-top (again, like action movies) but it sure is fun.

Bullet-time effect as implemented in the game is a brilliant innovation in action gaming. As you're still able to aim (in real-time), if you have a good mouse or controller you can pull off action-hero style diving shots with side-dives (shoot-dodges) or just "plain" bullet-time like the way Neo went through the lobby in the Matrix. Of course, BT is limited and you can't keep using it (you get more by killing more bad guys).

Being third-person, this game lets you admire your own moves while evaluating the enemy shots. As each bullet IS modelled individually, this can be very important to decide which way to dodge. However, the viewpoint sometimes makes it impossible to see what you actually want to shoot, esp. in constrained spaces like in a doorway or against the wall. Still, it is possible to see "around" corners and that's part of the gameplay.

The game has a way to "leading" you through this one-way maze without making it too evident. There LOOKS like plenty of doors, but only a few of them are functional, and even the doors that seems to lead to alternate paths actually just provide a few more goodies (pain killers, ammo, etc.) for you, and you'd have to backtrack to the main path.

Occasionally when you come to an important dramatic point (come across TV or radio or paper on desk) you get a graphic novel update of your situation, like the police has joined the chase after you, and so on. While it adds to the atmosphere, it also breaks up the rhythm of the action.

The game is quite user-friendly. There are unlimited save slots, as well as a quick-save and quick-load buttons. When you die, you get a choice to reload from the most recent save, and you only need to press one key to load it. This makes you want to retry that part of game again immediately... Wish all games can do that.

The game runs tolerably on older computers, but if you can crank it up to maximum eye-candy, you're in for a full cinematic experience... Shoot a group of bad guys and sometimes that last guy's death will be replayed in slo-mo... Too bad you can't save that to savor over-and-over again... Expect to see realistic shadows, rag-doll physics (not REALLY implemented, but pretty close), and more.

There are occasional situational puzzles that forces you to figure out what to do next, but usually they aren't very hard, as mostly they involve jumping from one to another, or in some cases, shooting things. The solution for the final takedown was pretty ingenious as well.

Overall the game is short, about 10 hours at most. Still, it's one INTENSE 10-hour ride, and one you'd likely to savor over-and-over by going back for the higher-difficulty levels, as well as discover the secrets that lies within... There are quite a few hidden rooms and such for you to find.

And it's NOT really possible to describe the elation you feel when you pull off that perfect diving shot... Just imagine that you noticed 3 bad guys talking around the corner. You arm the grenade launcher... And you did a diving jump... Lobbing a grenade into their midst... They go "what the..." then the grenade goes boom, tossing them in all directions... You take a breath, then shots bounce off the wall behind you... Another group of bad guys to shoot...

This is one heck of a ride, so enjoy it.

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.