”Streets
of New York. Cold and empty. Not a single soul in view. Good, less
causalities.”
That line sort of emphasizes the kind of gunplay in this game. You got bad
guys, you got guns. You got the perfect equation. Nothing to lose, lots of
bad guys to kill. As far as third person action games go there isn’t
much that I haven’t seen. Melee combat been there, huge assortment of
weapons done that. But Max Payne has something that is going to rock your
little gameplaying ass and make you scream out in pleasure. It’s the
best thing that you can do with your clothes on. By the way did I tell you
I love this game.
Remedy's little baby, Max Payne, is by far the best game I have played
this season. The game has a great albeit sometimes confusing storyline,
great gameplay, great controls, rocking sounds, cool music, great visuals,
stunning atmosphere and a pretty decent AI, Oh I forgot (yeah right) it's
got bullet-time.
What's bullet-time you ask? Seen
The Matrix? Seen countless Hong Kong action
movies where the action suddenly seems to go into slow motion and all you
can hear is the hero's heartbeat and bullets whiz by the hero's ears while
he guns down four masked hitmen while diving to his left, well that effect
has been implemented into this game. Spreading the word of hyperviolence,
the title showcases Remedy's Revolutionary MAX-FX Technology, the
next-generation technology base that enables flexible and scalable
computer game development that pushes the boundaries of 3D acceleration.
Lemme be the ten thousand two hundred thirty fourth person to tell you it
rocks. ROCKS, ROCKS, ROCKS.
Imagine this, yeah yeah close your eyes. You stand outside a door - two Berettas in your hands. You can hear the faint conversation between a couple of men, they are discussing the ending to that Butch and Sundance movie. You decide you need to kill them, coz if you don't they are gonna kill you (duh!). You open the door. There are four of them. You decide to take them out in one go. You jump forward while pressing your right mouse button (your default button to engage shoot dodge or dodging bullets in bullet time), the whole sequence goes in slow motion while your aiming is in real time. Everything slows down the bad guys, the bullets (they whiz by your ears and get stuck in the walls and woodworks for good effect [Ballistics are calculated as closely as possible to real-world speed, ricochet angles, and gravitational effect]) while you pick out every bad guy out one by one shooting them in the chest while performing a twisting 360 degree turn in mid air. Two seconds later you hit the ground along with the bad guys - the difference you got up.
Hallelujah!
Max has different states of movement, most of which are concentrated on weapons and using them, including dodge and the ultra cool John Woo/Matrix inspired shoot dodge, that makes Max throw himself to any direction and squeeze a rapid fire of shots while in mid-air. (But I guess I already said this. I don't wanna delete this paragraph so there!)
"In
the grim city of New York, members of a family known as the Paynes have
been
murdered. DEA agent and soul survivor, Max Payne, vows to seek revenge for
his family's untimely death. Going undercover for the DEA, he infilitrates
a powerful Mafia family. His true identity was known only to his boss, who
was his brother in spirit and his best friend.
And so it came to pass that this man, his beloved friend, was also murdered. And it also came to pass that Max was framed for his best friend's demise. Never has there been a man so hunted. Nor has there been a man so driven. With evangelical zeal, Max began his journey to avenge the deaths of his loved ones, clear his sullied name, and snuff out the source of his incredible misfortune." (all lines spoken in a deep sad watch-the-next-episode kind of voice)
That's the story. I am not gonna indulge anymore of the pretty good story line. The story line is broken down to you in the form of "hand drawn" comic book panels - more than 80 of them. These great-looking comic-book-style cutscenes--which you can tell use stylized photographs to depict the various characters in the game--detail an over-the-top crime story that's as confounding as it is engaging. Though you'll see comic book captions on all the stills, all the dialogue is spoken as well.
Voice acting - well when
I started out playing the game the voice acting seemed dull and monotonous,
when I heard Max I thought to myself the zombies in Resident Evil had more
acting in their voice. But as the game progressed I found out rather to my
surprise the dead pan yet (lack of a better word I am quoting Gamespot)
"melodramatic delivery" does work and is effective.
All weapons in Max Payne are created in realistic detail, with empty brass ejected from armaments exactly as in real life. Max will brandish an impressive variety of highly authentic real-world weapons throughout the game, including pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, grenades, Molotov cocktails, and more. He can carry as many weapons as he can get his hands on, though you'll have to keep track of your ammunition reserves. There will always be plenty of bad guys around to soak up all your lead, so you'll have to use your different weapons as strategically and as conservatively as possible. Besides, Max is rather vulnerable--a bullet in the head, let alone a grenade, can kill him. But he can unflinchingly withstand relatively minor wounds. You can then completely recover the damage he's sustained by using painkillers, which you'll find scattered about in desks and bathrooms and such.
The graphics in the game
is phenomenal. Max Payne's particle systems are among
the most advanced in the industry; muzzle flashes, fire, and smoke are all
fully volumetric. Remedy is dedicated to developing photo realistic 3D
characters, among the most realistic real-time characters in the industry.
The game feels like modern day New York in winter and the levels are all
well designed and some levels do remind you of a "movie" - can
anybody say Neo? The game's engine handles reflective surfaces and curved
surfaces pretty well, with lots of beautiful explosions and muzzle flashes
to boot.
The game ships with a level and character editor. Expect to see a lot of levels and characters and mods and whatever else the fans can come up with.
The game does have two flaws - no MULTIPLAYER and it's too short. Guess you can overlook these two factors when you see the kind of single player experience this game delivers coupled with this being one the best games you will ever play. This game rocks (as you can see I have very limited vocabulary)
This is a great game - a must buy. If you didn't get this game then you would and should be kicking yourself the rest of your life. Now I will go an finish the tribute to 007 level that I just downloaded.
