Max Payne Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I've been trying to think of reviews to do and been scratching my head but I have come up with an older post that I could definitely update. So, the post in question is my original review of Max Payne, the 2001 classic action video game, which is in need of one given it is one of my earliest posts on here (back in 2013 no less!).

So, with that said, let's take another look at this classic and see how it fairs 23 years on from its release...

STORY 

The story begins back in the year 1998 with NYPD detective Max Payne (voiced by James McCaffrey) arriving at his home to find his wife and baby have both been brutally murdered by junkies.  After the funeral, Max decides to transfer to the DEA to stop the spreading of a new drug that is on the go, Valkyr (which the junkies were on when they killed Max's wife and child).  

The story cuts to three years later when Max is working as an undercover agent inside the Puchninello Mafia family, who are responsible for trafficking the drug Valkyr.  Max receives a call to meet one of his fellow DEA agents at a subway station in New York, where Max get's tangled in a shootout with some mobsters.  Max soon after meets with his best friend, Alex, who is a DEA agent, who tells him there is a mole inside the Punchinello crime family, however without warning, Alex is suddenly killed by an unknown assassin.  Max is left to the fight off the remaining mobsters in the subway station and eventually makes his way out onto the streets. 

By this time, the mob have gathered that he is an undercover cop, and they use him as a fall guy for Alex's murder, which also makes him a fugitive from the cops.  And from here it get's much more complicated as Max get's further entangled in a plot that sees him fight the mob, as well as try and uncover who was behind the hit on his family...

THOUGHTS

Max Payne was without a doubt a real landmark in terms of gaming, as graphically it was one of the most stunning games of its time, with high resolution background environments, and Max Payne's near photo-realistic face (well for the time, its pretty dated looking now!).  It also was the first game to use the bullet time effect, which was popularised in the Matrix films, and its style also lends heavily toward the look of John Woo action films, the Hong Kong action film director and the developers even add in a joke about John Woo at one point during the game when Max forces a goon to get him inside a mob launderette. The game also has a suprisingly hard-edged feel, especially given how grim its tone is, yet it still somehow manages to keep its wise-crack humour going.

GAMEPLAY 

As for the gameplay, I will as usual break the gameplay down into different sections as below.

MOVEMENT & BULLET TIME 

The gameplay mechanics are quite simple as Max simply runs around, leaping, crouching, opening doors, as well as diving to the ground in slow motion when he goes into bullet time mode, where time slows down and Max takes advantage of that to take out his enemies and it can also help mitigate damage that he takes.  The game also makes more than just a passing nod to the Matrix films, as we see in one of the later levels where Max enters the lobby of the Aesir corporation building, it resembles the lobby scene in the Matrix film.  The Aesir corporation baddies even look like the agents from the Matrix as well, so its safe to say that they were paying a bit of homage to the popular sci-fi trilogy.

COMBAT

As for the game's combat, its simply just a case of run, point and shoot.  What is pretty impressive along side the use of the bullet time effect, is also the array of weapons on display that Max can use.  In the game Max can use single or dual berretas, a desert eagle, shotguns, sawn-off shotguns, single or dual ingram uzis, grenade launchers and of course heavy assault rifles.  Max can also use melee weapons such as a crowbar or a baseball bat (which he has a rather unpleasant encounter with later in the game) as well as explosive items such as grenades and molotov cocktails.  So you will never be short of a weapon in the game (or of ammo for that matter either!).

HEALTH 

As for Max's health, its a pretty basic system again of him using painkillers to restore his hp, which he will find in cabinets throughout the game. However, if Max's health is near zero, if he stays out of the line of fire from enemies, his health will replenish just a little where he will go from limping back to running normally but in these cases its best to try and get Max healed up asap! 

PUZZLES AND TRAPS

The game will at times also throw some fairly basic puzzles your way as Max has to navigate some deadly traps that require careful movement. These can take the form of explosive traps, trip wires and deadly lasers, which Max must try not trigger at all costs. There can also be some challenging moments where Max must try and run through fire ridden rooms and explosive areas that can be difficult. Further to this, Max at certain points in the story will have to also navigate his way through a blood trail maze, which can be tricky to navigate on a controller as Max too easily can fall off. 

GRAPHIC NOVEL NARRATIVE

And last of all on the gameplay front, is the key component of the game's narrative, which is told through a series of graphic novel cutscenes, where Max and the other characters text will appear in speech bubbles as we hear them talk. Its a pretty clever and innovative way for the game's narrative to work and it gives the game a unique noir feel. 

ACTING

On the acting front (or voice acting front) the cast are all excellent, even if most of the cast are not too well known.

James McCaffrey puts in a great performance as Max Payne, as he delivers all his lines in a real deadpan manner, and plays Payne as the perfect anti-hero, who always has a quip to hand. Sadly, McCaffrey himself has since passed away in December 2023 from multiple myeloma at the age of 65, so he will surely be missed and he is in great in this role, which he will no doubt be remembered for the most.

And as few examples of McCaffrey's great lines, there is the moment when Max enters a room of bad guys, one of which is after he guns down some bad guys in a bank vault, he answers the phone "We come to you live from the crime scene!" and the voice on the other end says "Who is this?" and Max says "Right back atcha!". So, the voice says "This is deputy chief Jim Bravura of the NYPD! You are to cease what you are doing and give up now!" and Max says "Sorry, Jim, me and the boys had a disagreement, they'll never do it again!". 

Another good moment is in the cutscene where Max exposes one of the dirty cop's who is sided with the mob. So, in the scene, the cop BB talks to Max who asks him "What does BB stand for? Backstabbing bastard?!". BB then warns Max "You can't win this one, Max" and Max tells him "No, but I can make damn sure none of you do either!". 

Then we have the cutscene where Max is trapped in his drug induced nightmare and in the scene Max answers a phone call with a voice on the other end saying "You're in a video game Max!". Max then says "The truth was like a green crack through my brain. Weapon statistics floating in the air, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. the repetitious act of shooting, time slowing down to show off my moves. The paranoid feeling of someone controlling my every step. I was in a computer game. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of!".

Then there is of course the first and final scene dialogue, which tally in for the finale where Max says "They were all dead...the final gunshot was an exclamation mark to every that had lead to this point. I released my finger from the trigger and then it was all over". And as Max is taken away in a police car, he sees the mysteriosu figure of a man, who he met earlier that said he would help him out "Woden, saw me, he promised he would say the right words, he'd better. He smiled the smile of a man who had won" and Max says to himself "That makes two of us".   

GRAPHICS

As for the game's graphics, well given the game's age, it is looking pretty dated in terms of its visuals today but they still hold up very well all things considered. The environments in places have some detail but there are also some more blurry textures to signs and other structures but the game does have some impressive weather effects as it makes good use of the ongoing blizzard in the story and the opening cutscene uses to great effect. The character models of course are all supposed to be "photo-realistic" but they do look pretty basic by today's standards and its almost like cutting a photo of someone's face and sticking on a figure lol! It of course worth mentioning however that Max's face is based on the game creator and writer, Sam Lake. What however is more impressive is of course the bullet time effects, which work really well here as they are pretty fluid and are seamlessly worked into the game. So, despite its age, Max Payne still looks pretty good.

MUSIC 

As for the music score, it was written by Kartsy Hatakka and Kimmi Kajasto, who performed in a Finnish rock band, Waltari (or at least Kartsy does). The score itself is excellent and it captures the gritty noir feel perfectly and it uses a series of guitar and piano driven cues that are really effective, not to mention the game has one of the most memorable themes you will find in any video game. So, overall this is an impressive score that fits its purpose nicely. 

FLAWS

As for flaws...yes Max Payne still has a few worth mentioning. 

For starters while it still looks impressive graphically for its time, 3D gaming definitely has moved on alot since then.  And while the environments are pretty much 3D, Max's movement feels almost like 2D as the static camera angle only let's you see him run from behind and you can't turn the camera 180 degrees to see him from the front.  

The movement also feels a bit clunky too, as it is all too easy to let Max run side to side at weird angles, as well as the way he keeps moving when he hits a wall (a problem many of yesteryear games suffer from such as Tomb Raider etc).  And worst of all when Max moves its hard to keep him in a straight line, which is particularly frustrating in scenes where Max may have to walk over a high up walkway, or planks of wood high up, as if you nudge the controls the wrong way, Max will fall to his death.

Also another criticism that can be aimed at it are the character models, as their faces are just static photo-realistic shots of people, and their lack of animated facial expressions for the characters models is a bit of a letdown.  You also see when you are fighting the baddies they also move awkwardly from side to side, and there is no natural movement to them in the game either.  

You could also argue in regards to Max's health in the game, that regularly necking down painkillers to help him when his health bar goes down, isn't a good idea, as surely he might at some point overdose, and in the short term is nearly just a lethal to him as getting shot! So, if the bullets don't get Max then ironically the painkillers will as he could overdose on them instead! 

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Max Payne still remains one of the great classic action video games of its time and despite its age and somewhat dated feeling controls and graphics, you can still have a blast playing this game. Also with the upcoming remakes of Max Payne 1 & 2, it will be great to see it get another fresh lease of life given the lack of any remastered versions as the PC version is still the best way to play it over the inferior console ones. Also for me, the sequels never really lived up to the original as the first Max Payne will always be the best. 

So, I will rate Max Payne:

9.5 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back fairly soon with another post.

Until then its bye for now!