From the first level till the last, Max Payne's an intense 3rd person shooter that will only have you craving for more.
User Rating: 8.6 | Max Payne PC
Developers are always looking for new and innovative ways to make games for fans. Each time trying to be different from the norm instead of repeatedly making the same game. Remedy Entertainment took some ideas from different movies and games and released Max Payne on July 23 of 2001. The developers put together a third person shooter that had a good story throughout the game, but also added some nice effects such as “bullet time,” which is reminiscent of what Neo did at the end of the first Matrix movie. Remedy Entertainment made a game that fans of different types of games could love because of the ease of use of the controls, the good looking graphics for that time (2001), and the main character himself, a man without fear. Coming home from a day of undercover work for the Police Department, Max comes upon a gruesome scene of doped up men that have broke into his home and killed his wife and new born baby. Does that sound like a good start to a wholesome family game? Nope, and it only gets more gruesome as you trace the murderers trail back to the person who orchestrated the whole ordeal. But you won’t receive any help from New York’s Police Department, because you were framed for the murder of one of your partners and now you’re trying to keep one step of the cops, while brutally murdering, what seems like, all the gangsters in New York City. The only friend you’ll find along the way is a Russian mob leader who, for some reason, has morals when dealing with mob business. But you don’t have to worry about obeying anyone or playing “Mr. Nice Guy” during the game’s three chapters because you’ll be too busy mowing down enemies left and right and having a hard enough time tripping over the bodies to proceed through the game. Throughout the three chapters of the storyline, Max Payne will come across numerous plot twists as he strives to exact revenge on the person behind his torment. The graphics in the game are good for 2001, but you can find some faults. An interesting feature in Max Payne is what’s known as “bullet time,” which helps Max out in many different and difficult situations. Drawing inspiration from the Matrix, Remedy Entertainment lets Max slow down time while he dives or fires off his gun and thus, enables him to take out more enemies or dodge bullets more easily than the normal person. The environment gives way to some involvement letting Max break apart boxes, shooting cans of air to explode in front of his enemies, and also letting him shoot out some walls to advance on through each chapter. The graphics look nice as a whole, but there aren’t any facial animations on any of the characters. They’re given expressions and that’s the way their face is. Does this make the game’s graphics engine horrible? Not at all, you’ll be having too much fun blowing bullets through henchman after henchman. The story of Max Payne is told in two different ways. One way is through short in-game cinematics which will usually lead into a heavy gun battle scene and the second is done between each part of the chapters and during certain points in the game. In these times, the game will tell the story or information in a “comic book” type way. It may not seem like the most graphically intense way to tell a storyline, but while playing, it seems to suit the game just fine. As you make progress through the storyline, you’ll be given a huge assortment of weaponry from baseball bats, to dual berettas, to a M79 Grenade Launcher. Max Payne won’t be led into any battle without the proper equipment. One nice feature with the sniper rifle that you’ll find later on in the campaign is when you zoom in to aim and shoot at an enemy, the camera will actual follow the bullet as it makes its course towards the gun-wielding foe. The sound of each weapon is different and the voices of the characters were done well throughout the storyline. You’ll be hearing Max Payne’s voice the most, but not just because he’s the main character, but because he’s telling the story after the game has actually happened. You begin the game, pretty much following the last scene of the game, and then Max will begin to tell how he got there. Definitely a creative way to get the player into the game. It doesn’t necessarily give anything away, which is nice, but adds enough info to make the player want to progress till the end. The game doesn’t have a multiplayer feature, but it does ship with a game editor for fans of the community to create their own levels that they can share with everyone else. Over the past couple of years, many mods have been made to add or improve the game that can be found across the internet. Another addition to the game is the mode of play called “new York Minute.” Where you’ll be given one minute to complete each level of the game. If you thought the game was hard the first time through, this feat will seem impossible. Overall, Max Payne is an intense 3rd person shooter from the beginning chapter till the end. Although the chapters are split up into numerous sections, the actual game length is quite short, only being around 10 hours long, but with different mods and the different modes of play, Max Payne will give any player a great experience as they unravel the reason behind Max’s pain and suffering. Add the fact that there’s an impressive story with decent graphics and that makes enough sense for any gamer to at least try this game out. 
