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Developer: |
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| Rockstar Games |
Remedy Entertainment |
Action |
1 |
M |
Max Payne
Reviewed by: DarkClown
Every now and then a really great game will come out that others try their best to imitate, but never really can quite cut it. Max Payne is one of these games, with the excellent controls, bullet time feature, and awesome camera that will never get in your way. While the game is filled with minor gripes they won't hamper the overall experience because of the immersion factor that Max Payne gives off. This is one of the first movies that really gives off the feel that you're inside of a movie, watching the awesome slow motion dives and the gun fights that are to die for.
Gameplay: The gameplay in Max Payne is revolutionary. Bullet time is the coolest thing that you can do in a game, possibly ever. It recreates every moment in The Matrix where the camera freezes and rotates around someone while bullets go whizzing by perfectly. There is never a dull moment in Max Payne because there is an endless amount of drugged up baddies to plow through. The great thing about Max Payne though, is that he's just a normal person. The thing that makes him able to take out so many enemies at once is the incorporation of bullet time, you take as many hits as the enemies do so it's very realistic.
Graphics: The graphics in Max Payne are groundbreaking. The way that the surroundings react to gun fights is totally mind blowing, you can see the bullet holes in walls which don't fade away. You can see where you hit an enemy with a bullet, down to the last blood stain on their clothes. Everything reacts realistically to gunshots as well, whether it is the enemies get knocked back correspondingly to where you hit them, or the bottles shatter after being sprayed with gunshots following a large gunfight.
Controls: The controls in Max Payne are flawless, it controls like a first person shooter and is never at any point akward to control. The bullet time is easy to use with the pull of the right trigger and soon you will find yourself going in and out of slow motion sequences just like the John Woo movies. The rest of the controls are natural and never seem like the button is out of place, very well thought out especially since the game was originally for the computer.
Replay: The replay value in Max Payne is where the game is lacking. Since it's only single player, there really is no incentive to go through the game more than once. Sure, if you're a hardcore fan you might enjoy going through the game on the different difficulty settings, but more than likely you will just set the game aside and not pick it up again for a while at least. The only times that you might want to play it again is when you want to play through one of the really cool gun fights one more time, because they were just that well done.
Sound: The sound in Max Payne is also very well done like the rest of the game. Time was taken to make sure that each surface sounds different to gunshots than the next. Whether it is wood, glass, tile, or concrete. Enemies also say things when they pop out of a corner, but it never gets old because there are quite a few different sayings that they have, even though sometimes quite corny.
Overall Presentation: Overall, Max Payne is a great game to play through once. After you beat it, though, there is really no more incentive to play anymore because there is no multiplayer. That would have been a nice addition to the game but the developers wanted to make the game a one player focused game. The graphics are excellent, the gameplay is as good as possibly could be, and the controls are extremely easy to master. Max Payne would make a good addition to anyones collection.
Scores:
Gameplay:  9.5
Graphics: 9
Controls:  8.9
Replay:  7
Sound: 8.2
Total Score: 8.5
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