Max Payne

The Good
Max Payne is a very simple, but fun cinematic shooter that takes genuinely old-fashioned gameplay and updates it with some tricks of its own.

The choice of third-person view, relatively rare for 3D shooters, adds the advantage of allowing the protagonist to perform moves that would be pointless in an FPS, such as rolling. We've seen many times how your FPS opponents were rolling to avoid your shots; but now you can finally do it yourself! Quickly navigating Max to save him from the constant barrage of bullets, madly rolling and jumping out of the way in time is often a life-or-death situation. The action becomes more intense and also more cinematic when you actually see your hero performing all those moves.

The famous "bullet time" effect makes the action even more stylish. Max Payne feels like one of those over-the-top kung-fu movies. Getting rid of your enemies becomes even more impressive when they die in "dramatic" ways, even the simplest kill turning into yet another scene.

The graphics of Max Payne are a sheer beauty; the engine is powerful and smooth, and the levels are quite detailed, filled with Duke Nukem 3D-style interactive environments: you can turn on and off TV sets, flush toilets, and so on.

Max Payne kicks in on a very personal note. The uncomplicated narrative is basically a vigilante quest for revenge. The player is easily able to identify himself with Max, and the following elimination of bad guys becomes more satisfying than ever.

The story is told in still screens with comic-book pages on them, which is an original and stylish idea. The dialogues and, most of all, Max's own comments, are well-written and convincingly spoken. An interesting thing is the usage of humor. At first sight, it seems there's nothing to laugh about here, but the more you advance the story, the more you realize it has a double edge. Its stylistic references to action movies are so obvious that it nearly becomes a self-aware parody.

The Bad
Max Payne is a very simple, linear game, almost to the point of turning into an "on-rails" shooter. You are typically taken to locations that look "explorable", but upon closer inspection it is revealed that there is only one path to proceed. Miraculously locked doors, blocked passages, and other assorted linearity enforcers are everywhere.

The gameplay is very basic, going back to the old days of shooters when problems were solved with blasting everything you see to pieces. Since the game is rather short and there isn't much variety in the enemy design, stylish bullet time kills can get quite monotonous with the time.

The game's heavily scripted AI and its reliance on simplistic setpieces make it feel even more restrictive, filled with situations where you are forced to do things a certain way. The difficulty is very much arcade-like, reflexes and quicksave abuse playing a dominant role; essentially, it's all about resorting to bullet time and frantic rolling over and over again. Max Payne is, in fact, short and repetitive at once.

Max's colorful comments may not fit everyone's taste; some of them try to be too sophisticated, making a strange expression. Also, Max has a permanent silly grin glued to his face, which makes him look like a maniacally-minded dork.

The Bottom Line
If your dream video game is an incarnation of those very uncomplicated action movies with ridiculously tough vigilante heroes who shoot bad guys in spectacular ways, Max Payne is just what you need. However, those looking for deeper, richer, and more varied 3D action might want to pass on this one.

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
Like I said, the 'cartoon' strips rule. I say 'cartoon' they're more like those photo cartoon strips where the action is depicted by really people rather than drawing, you'll see what I mean. But yeah, these photo strips fill in the gaps between the levels and really help move the scene along, rather like in Monty Python movies. The story line is a good one, and it does get a bit trippy (but he is stoned of his face at the time) I'm definitely a fan of "Bullet Time" this is a feature of Max Payne whereby you can slow-mo the action, but aim your weapon in 'real time' plus you can dive out of the way of incoming bullets, very Matrix.

The Bad
The graphics aren't great, more PS2 than X-Box, but that’s probably just a result of the game being rushed through production. It was after all released into a fledgling X-Box community when there where very few games on offer. But I don't hold that against it, adds character.

The Bottom Line
I may be saying this too much in my reviews, but, it is another good game, I would recommend that you buy it if you haven't already.