Max Payne

aka: Dark Justice, Max Heat, Max Payne Mobile, Yingxiong Bense
Moby ID: 4529
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Max Payne was a police officer of the New York City police. On one terrible day, his wife and newborn daughter were killed by three junkies, who broke into his apartment after having ingested a new designer drug known as Valkyr. After the tragedy, Max quit the police force and joined the Drug Enforcement Administration. Three years later, during a raid on a mafia compound that was reportedly trafficking Valkyr, his best friend and fellow DEA agent Alex is killed, and he becomes the prime suspect in his murder. Now Max is all alone in the cold, snowy night of New York. The mob is out to get him. The police are out to get him. The only way out is with guns blazing, because he has nothing to lose.

Max Payne is a third person shooter stylistically influenced by film noir, "hardboiled" detective stories, and Hong-Kong action cinema. Max can perform rolls and leaps to try and dodge enemy fire. The weapons at his disposal range from baseball bats to Ingram sub-machine guns, grenades, Molotov cocktails, and others. A unique feature of the game is the usage of the so-called Bullet Time - a time-slowing ability that was popularized by the first Matrix movie. Activating the Bullet Time slows down everything that happens around Max (including his own movements), allowing for slow, but precise performance of moves to take care of his enemies. A special meter indicates how much time the effect will last, and how long Max needs to wait until it can be activated again.

Cutscenes in the game are presented as comic book-style graphical panels accompanied by voice-overs.

Spellings

  • 英雄本色 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

253 People (181 developers, 72 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 75 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 412 ratings with 30 reviews)

Less can be more, Max Payne proves it...

The Good
Well, to put it bluntly, it was FUN! There isn't much NOT to like about Max Payne. GOD proved that less can be more. Don't be mistaken, this isn't a long game, but what they did, they did to a "t", as this was a well refined, complete package. Great gameplay, with a very good diverse range of locations, a tremendous, gripping story, and all the eye candy you could ever need.

The Bad
Well, I'm not sure if this was something I don't like, but the game was kind of short. However, as I said, you'll probably be satisfied by the overall product.

The Bottom Line
One of many shooters on shelves, but one of the better ones. GOD clearly put a lot of thought and effort into this. The replay value is there, because it's one of those games that are pure entertainment.

Windows · by Stuart Max (8) · 2002

Buy this now. You will NOT be disappointed.

The Good
-BULLET TIME!!! -Story -Smooth frame rates -Excellent graphics -Great editor -VERY easy to modify -Gameplay -Weapons -Levels -Theme song -Textures -Details (cloak sways, particle effects, beer leaks) -Auto adjusting difficulty

The Bad
-Some graphic novel sequences could be acted out in the game engine -No gibbing from grenades -Linear -Level editor takes time to learn -Nightmare sequences -How is it possible to Shootdodge in real life without breaking a rib? -Short

The Bottom Line
A great blend of non-stop action, excellent story, and extraordinary music, Max Payne is one of the best games I have played. Ever.

Windows · by Archagon (108) · 2001

Great game? Yes. Innovate? Yes. Blockbuster? No.

The Good
Much of the game is a great success. I'll discuss each aspect in detail.

"MAXFX" - The "MAXFX" is the engine the game uses, and it was built specifically for this game from the ground up. The detail put into this engine really showcases it's graphical prowess. It's visuals are absolutely jaw-dropping, and the "Bullet Time" effect really lives up to the hype.

Story - Very good, and quite original. It is one of the best plots conceived so far, and the only game that has a better story, in my opinion, is Deus Ex.

Controls - Controlling Max is a lesson in excellence, and designers of third-person games should take a cue from Remedy. It's excellent control all throughout, and performing special maneuvers is a cinch.

AI - The enemies are smart for the most part. They'll toss grenades at you and then back up to avoid the blast, they'll duck behind cover to evade your fire, they'll basically do anything a real person would.

The Bad
Gameplay - The game is very linear. For the uninitiated, linear means the game MUST be played out the way the developers intended, with no hope of any side quests or alternate routes. Compared to games like Deus Ex and it's open-ended gameplay, Max Payne really let down in this area. The bit that is really annoying is every door you come across is locked, unless it leads to a room with ammo or is required to advance the storyline.

In-engine cutscenes - These vary from okay to awful. After jumping off a train, Max lands square on his feet, then somehow does this 180 degree spin, without moving his body, and starts walking off. Shown in FMV or a slide screen, this could've been greatly improved.

Dream sequences - Later on in the game, Max has a dream, and you "play" this dream. You are required to maneuever on lines of blood in a pitch black room. What is the point to this? This has no belonging in a straightforward, brainless action game!

AI - Why's it bad? Sometimes, to get to you, the baddies will shoot their own guys. I witnessed, more than once, a shotgun toting thug but a load of buckshot into his friend because I was standing in front of said friend. The logical thing to do would be to stand beside the friend and fire at me together. I guess not a lot of "logical" equations got programmed into the game.

Bullet Time - Although a great feature that will be mimicked for a while to come, it has it's flaws, and the major one is the game relies too heavily on it. It is nigh impossible to fight without it, as you are almost never matched up one on one, making the slow motion very attractive at all times.

Max himself - Come on! He looks like he's taking a crap and trying to squeeze the rest out! Some facial animations would've been much appreciated.

System requirements - Too steep! Ouch! Pentium II minimum? Sure. Use 640x480 with antialiasing off and all details set to low, and perhaps you could squeeze out a decent performance. If you have anything less than a P3 800 with 256MB RAM, don't expect to get decent framerates or a smooth experience without sacrificing large amounts of eye candy.

Length - I beat this game in twelve hours, seventeen minutes, and thirty three seconds (timed it with a stopwatch). That is NOT long enough for a game lacking multiplayer.

Multiplayer - Fact: Multiplayer extends the life of a game. Max Payne has no multiplayer. You figure the rest out.

The Bottom Line
It's a good game that's worth your money, but after you beat it, it'll collect dust on your shelf. My advice to you is buy this game from Electronics Boutique on a Friday, play it over the weekend, and return it on Monday for a refund.

Windows · by JPaterson (9502) · 2001

[ View all 30 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
XP SP2 Indra was here (20756) Jun 4, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The PC version of Max Payne appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Advertisement

In England, the game was advertised on hydrants covered with actual yellow police lines with the game's name and slogan on it ("Max Payne - A Man With Nothing to Lose" etc...), just like the game box's cover art.

Bullet time

The origins of bullet time, made famous in the movie The Matrix and as a playable effect in Max Payne, are attributed to Eadweard Muybridge (April 9, 1830 – May 8, 1904), who used still cameras placed along a racetrack to take pictures of a galloping horse.

Cancelled Dreamcast version

Max Payne was initially in development for the Dreamcast up to the point that Remedy demoed the game at E3 in 1998. Despite some more refined character models, the game looks and plays almost identically to the PS2 and Xbox versions of the game.

Development

  • Early on the V drug was not only a mind-warping drug, but also body-warping. It fact it made its users grow into hulking giants with glowing green eyes. In fact, early script drafts deal with super soldiers. There were even work in progress screenshots which shows Max fighting these super soldiers. All this was scrapped as it looked silly and was too similar to Sin.
  • In order to create the game, the developers from Remedy traveled from Finland to New York to photograph the buildings and streets. You can read about their adventure at the 3D Realms website: http://www.3drealms.com/max/newyork.html

German index

This game was put on the German index on 29.09.2001. A short time afterwards, according to a Take 2 salesman, the planned to publish a "toned down" version of Max Payne. It would be cut so it could get a "12+" rating and they wanted to do a German translation including voiceovers. This would allow them to sell it again since it isn't the same as the banned game and even more, it's localized so more people could enjoy it.

The new box art had a yellow "police line" over or under the MAX PAYNE title on the box which stated it was a toned down version. However, this version got canned.

The ban on the game was eventually lifted.

Inaccuracies

Despite all the "realism" put into the game... The "code numbers" given by NYPD officers are completely wrong, according to an ex-NYPD officer (Rich Laporte of gonegold.com)

Music

The music for the game was made by Kärtsy Hatakka, who is also the singer and bass player for a band called Waltari.

References

  • The game features some humourous moments. In one of the earlier levels, there is a room off one of the ledges outside a building. Inside is a guy lying on the ground with a stake in his back, and the letters "BUFF" (with obvious reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer) scrawled in blood next to him. Max passes a comment along the lines off "I don't even want to know what happened here."
  • In another level, you need a password to get into a laundry room. After finding a low-life to help you out, stand off to the side while he tries to get you in. He's given a first name and asked to give the full name before they'll open the door. The name he has to give is "John Woo", director and king of slow-motion action sequences in movies, an obvious inspiration for the developers of Max Payne.
  • At one point in the game, Max comes across a television show speaking about the Aesir Corporation, and how they are becoming another monopoly like Microsoft. However, because Microsoft is a copyrighted name, the television gives a bit of static when Microsoft is spoken, and the graphic novel displays "*static*" instead of Microsoft.
  • The Dopefish (an enemy from Commander Keen 4, the Dopefish is usually put into games as an easter egg) appears in Max Payne.
  • In the room immediately after Alfred Woden's office, if you shoot a picture off the wall, you'll find a switch. Pressing it will open a secret passage to a room with a Star Trek parody.
  • At some point you will pass by a TV in which the images show a familiar red-curtained room and a flamingo, and the accompanying dialog is all in Twin Peaks style. The music has that hip TP jazzy sound. A man's voice talks about his "evil twin," which of course ties in with the dopplegangers of Twin Peaks. The flamingo's speaking style sounds much like the Little Man in Twin Peaks dream sequences. The flamingo may be a reference to Wild Palms, which included flamingos and is sometimes compared to Twin Peaks. Elsewhere, another TV shows a soap opera with events that closely parallel events in the game; this 'soap opera device' was used often on Twin Peaks. During the Twin Peaks parody portion, the flamingo’s speech is distorted and it is impossible to understand what it’s saying except its final line: “The Flesh of Fallen Angels”, a sort of recurrent motif along the game.
  • Of all the various pop culture references found throughout the game, there is one that probably escapes the notice of most players. In the tutorial level, take a look at the Tar Cafe signs. Their address is listed as "604 All Your Base Are", a reference to the poorly-translated intro of Zero Wing.
  • In the Ragnarock club there are references to the supernatural horror literature of H. P. Lovecraft - the so called Cthulhu Mythos. One of Jack Lupino's books is titled Necronomicon, and one of his personal "spells" mention the name "Cthulhu" as one of the dark gods that he invokes.
  • In Part I, Chapter Six, Max Payne enters a small flat. There is a gun lying on the counter, and a gangster can be heard whistling in the toilet. The toilet doors are locked tight, unless the player picks up the gun, which makes the adversary flush the toilet and come out. This is a reference to Quentin Tarantino's cult movie Pulp Fiction: (Pulp Fiction spoiler) This area closely resembles the scene of Vincent Vega's death, when Butch sneaks into his apartment and shoots Vic with his own gun which he left on the counter in the kitchen.
  • In the first level, Roscoe Street Station, Max overhears two thugs talking. After a moment of conversation or two, a phone rings. The ring tone is The Ecstasy of Gold from the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, composed by Ennio Morricone.

References: Self

  • In the skyscraper mission, in one of the elevators, if you stay and listen, you will hear some guards talking about how it would be cool if you could see your moves in slow motion. The guard concludes by saying that he will name this effect Bullet-Time.
  • In one part of Max Payne, the graphic novel jokes about Max being a game (this happens in one of the nightmare sequences).
  • Another humorous moment... In Part 1, Chapter 2 "Live from the Crime Scene", you finally made your way into the bank vault, and the alarm is blaring. If you shoot the alarm (thus silencing it), Max will thank you.. The same happens at one point in the hotel: you must ride an elevator playing some cheesy elevator music. Shoot out the speaker and Max will thank you.
  • Max Payne features a lot of Remedy employees as characters in the game, including screenwriter Sam Lake as Max Payne himself. This led to a very weird E3 2001 showing of the game, since Sam Lake was at GOD Games´ Promised Lot along other members of Remedy with a demo. Everybody was a bit disoriented by seeing Max Payne on screen and his real-life counterpart talking about the title right next to it.
  • In Part 1, Chapter 6, when you're chasing Vinnie, there is a billboard for Captain Baseball-Bat Boy, the comics you see throughout the game.

Version differences

The PS2 version doesn't allow you to quick save during a level unlike the PC and Xbox versions.

Awards

  • Gamespy
    • 2001 - PC Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote))
    • 2001 - Best Gimmick of the Year (for bullet time)
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2005 - #41 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list

Information also contributed by AkibaTechno, Archagon, DarkBubble, dasfatso, David Sky, Dreamweaver, Dr. M. "Schadenfreude" Von Katze, Erik Niklas, festershinetop, Juan Pablo Bouquet, Juguryo, JPaterson, Karthik KANE, Kasey Chang, MasterMegid, PCGamer77, phlux, Samuel James Vince and Scott Monster

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Related Sites +

  • 3D Realms Site
    The official 3d Realms/ Apogee Website
  • A Rock-Solid Hero for a Rock-Solid OS
    An Apple Games article about the Macintosh version of Max Payne, with commentary being provided by Art Director Saku Lehtinen (July, 2002).
  • Max Payne
    The official Max Payne website
  • Max Payne
    3D Realms official Max Payne website
  • Max Payne Fan Site
    Tips, cheats, screenshots, modifications and links.
  • Official Webpage (Mac)
    The official product page for the Mac version of Max Payne on the publisher's website, which provides a trailer, character information, a profile of the game itself, and purchasing information, among other such particulars.
  • Payne Reactor
    A fan site dedicated to Max Payne - Mods, Levels, Total Conversions, Tutorials, Forums, Cheats, etc.
  • Sound fix for Max Payne and Vista.
    A clever person fixed a bug with Max Payne not playing music and dialogue in Vista. Vista doesn't support the sound file formats used for the playback.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 4529
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Contribute

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.

Xbox added by Brian Hirt. PlayStation 3 added by Charly2.0. Xbox 360 added by karttu. PlayStation 4, iPhone, iPad added by Sciere. Macintosh, Android added by Kabushi. Xbox Series, Xbox One added by Eufemiano Bullanga.

Additional contributors: Macintrash, Xantheous, Kasey Chang, Unicorn Lynx, Jony Shahar, Jim Fun, Frenkel, Sciere, Scott Monster, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack, 64er.

Game added July 19, 2001. Last modified March 15, 2024.