An Excellent Shooter, that should be picked up by any fans that enjoy a thrilling storyline
Max Payne is a truly unique third person shooter that will be remembered for its bullet time and self adjusting difficulty. So lets get down to the review on one of the best action games of 2001, and see why this game is bound to be an instant classic.
Visuals: 8/10
Although the PS2 doesn't have the power of the Xbox and PC, it barely matters, as it is really close. You will notice some common problems, such as when you shoot a thug, he will dive back into the wall, and go straight through it until he reached his landing. Although not a major problem, it could have been avoided. Most thugs also look the same not just in clothing, but also in their face, so be ready to see the same types of thugs when you play. During some points in the game, you will also encounter slowdowns, but not often. The faces, walls, guns, bullets, and everything else is very well detailed. Since you will see a small portion of fire in the game, I might as well point out that the fire graphics are nicely done, since some games don't get recognition from it, because I am sure it is a hard thing to program. And parents, make sure your younger children do not play this game, blood and gore is in full effect in this game. Aside from the enemies going through the walls and Xbox and computer having better graphics than the PS2, there is nothing bad with the visuals, and they are very good compared to other games.
Audio: 9/10
The music and sounds in this game are amazing. The characters talk, which is always a good thing, but some games do not have good voice acting. Fortunately, Max Payne could not have gotten any better in this area. Each important character has their own voice, which perfectly suits their appearance. For example, when a member of the Russian or Italian Mafia appears, you will immediately notice the accent, same goes for everybody else, including Max Payne with his cool, bad-ass voice. The enemies will throw in one-liners like ''What the..'' or ''It's Payne!'' The music is also top notch, getting into the action paced type of rhythm when you have a gun fight with enemies. The sound of guns firing their bullets astounds me. I love the roar of the Assault Rifle when you pull the trigger. I think the programmers actually got the real life sounds of these guns to make it as realistic as possible.
Gameplay: 10/10
As most of you all know, Max Payne features a unique and outstanding new feature called ''bullet time.'' This allows Max to slow down all the time around him, and letting him aim and act in real time. This gives not only a huge advantage when taking out more than two bad guys at a time, but is also an outstanding feature that will not soon be forgotten. But, you are given an amount for how long you can go into bullet time, not to worry though, your meter is replenished by killing bad guys. For most parts of the game, you will find yourself killing thugs, mercenaries, and anything that shoots you. The other small percentage of the game will have you in a different ''environment'' and kind of pause and put the killing sprees on hold. But the gun battles are the only thing this game needs to be a dominating shooter. There are many weapons in the game, such as the Beretta, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, and other real life guns. Although you can carry a whole lot of weapons, you are limited to bullets, which must not be wasted.
To get you familiarized with the controls and how to play Max Payne, there is a helpful tutorial to help you get used to the game. Most people will probably skip it any ways, because the beginning levels are not too hard and you can get easily used to the game in the opening levels. The controls for Max Payne are great and simple. The left analog stick is for walking , and the right analog is for looking/aiming. You have a shoot button, action button(to open doors and cabinets, etc), reload, jump, activate bullet time, select weapons, and take pain killers. It might take some getting used to at first, and some people might want to adjust the controls to their favour, but all in all, Max Payne has great controls and the PS2 controller is a great controller for Max Payne.
Getting through the levels is not necessarily tough. There are usually many doors closed and unavailable to go through, so the path is very straightforward. For the most part, you will be killing weak henchman, but eventually, you will face much tougher and harder bosses, with more skill and life then normal bad guys. Sometimes you will even have to perform a special trick to get through an area, sort of like a puzzle. But most of them are easy and don't last long. Only one time was this part that I needed to pick up a key in order to proceed through the level. Only until recently I figured a simple and common error. Max Payne can jump farther when he is standing still. Now doesn't that sound a bit weird? At time you will have to jump gaps, and just now I noticed there is no need for a running start, as it is not only useless, but worse than standing still!
The artificial intelligence is good. Once found and spotted, thugs will immediately fire away with no mercy. Never do they just stand still or run around in circles. Some more experienced henchmen such as the mercenaries will lob grenades at you. Bosses will be constantly moving and side stepping, make it more harder of a target to hit. The AI honestly could not have gotten much better.
Replay Value: 8/10
As most action games, Max Payne is relatively short in length. Or, rather you will love it so much that you won't stop playing, making it seem short. First time through, it will take you as little as 2-3 days. Second time, it will take way less shorter. Once completing the only difficulty given at the start, you unlock a more challenging mode, and another harder one after that. There is also a time challenge, requiring you to beat each level in the given time. Other than that, there is not much. One thing missing from the PS2 version that was originally on the PC was the MaxFX tool set, which let you make your own levels. But, since this game is a classic, you will come back to it once in a while, because the game is so great.
The difficulty settings very in two areas. The bad guys get better in defense and offense, and the pain killers heal less in the harder difficulties. Let me talk about the health in Max Payne. Your health bar will be the silhouette of Max himself. Every time you get wounded, red will fill up. Once it is 100% red, you are dead. At about 90% or more damage, Max will start to limp, but give him some time and he will regenerate to about 80% damage. Painkillers will heal you, and it takes about three seconds for maximum healing. Painkillers can be found all over the game, in cabinets and boxes and wherever. You can carry up to eight of them. On the first difficulty, enemies are usually easy to kill, other than the bosses. On the second one (Hard Boiled) it gets a little bit harder, and on the hardest, it is recommended that you go for head shots to save ammo and kill quickly.
Story: 10/10
Max Payne has an amazing story line, which will glue you to your seat and keep you playing for hours to go deeper into the story. The movies are played as a graphic novel, another unique and well done aspect of Max Payne. Cut scenes will sometimes be played in real time, but mostly it will switch to a comic book look-alike featuring the dialogue of a genius. Although the story on the front cover of the game may seem not original ''New York cop framed for murder with nothing to lose.'' It actually gets very good and in-depth. The story sucked me in to keep playing it. But in no way is the story a happy one, and it can get quite disturbing and scary. By the end of the game, you will feel proud and cool of the anti-hero that you have helped create.
At times you can eavesdrop on certain conversations and here some rather interesting topics. Remember not to get too close though, or else they will see you and end their conversation at once!
The Bad
This game suffers from long load times. Usually a problem if you die several times and have to watch the load screen over and over again for quite a while. Another major problem with the game was that you could only have one save file. Therefore the game would automatically auto save your game at the beginning of each level.
Other than that, you are getting yourself a great Third Person Shotter. Pick it up used for like $2.99
Final Score: 8.5/10