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Max Payne
By Paul Lanyon - September 23, 2001
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In the fall of 1996 Remedy Entertainment started working on a new game called Max Payne, a game about an undercover cop who gets stuck in the middle of a drug war which goes from bad to worse. Five years later Remedy released their long awaited game and it is one of the most stunning and amazing action games I have ever played.
What makes Max Payne such an amazing game is that it puts you in the middle of an amazing action movie, where you get to play the star and fully interact with it. No other game has accomplished this to the extent that Max Payne does.
A Story?
Unlike most action games, where the point of the game is to shoot anything that moves, Max Payne includes a great story line:
A few years ago drug addicts, on a brand new drug named Valkyr, killed your family. Now, as an undercover cop, you are forced into a one-man war against mob leaders and government cover-ups in the middle of the worst storm New York has seen in a century.
Oh, by the way, you’ve been framed for murder so you can’t get any help from cops on the surface...
 The story is portrayed in a very unique way: via a comic book-type storyboard. Sometimes, throughout the game, you will find televisions on or papers left around--these trigger the comic book. True to the rest of the game, the comic has a very grim, dark and serious feeling. Along with the comic book storyboard, you get to play out part of the story to help tell the story and make it more interactive. You play through the scene where your family is killed and a few of Max’s dreams. These were some of the strangest, but most fun, levels I have ever played in any game.
Nice Graphics!
The opening scene of Max Payne has such realistic graphics that it looks more like a John Woo film than a video game. This is identical to the rest of the game; amazing graphics and mind-blowing cut scenes. At one point you blow open a door and it cuts to a slow motion shot of the door shooting out with fire all around it. When this happened, my jaw hit the floor faster than it ever has before! As I said before, Max Payne does an astounding job of putting you front and center in an action movie. If you have a brand new video card, you are going to be able to get amazing things out of this game, but even with an older video card, Max Payne takes advantage of every bit of power and does a stunning job.
 The developers put the graphics to good use, as well, in creating rich levels. Most of the levels are on city streets or in building, and are extremely detailed. The levels have everything from cars and alleyways to little cups and telephones. Another great element is how realistic the gunfire in the level is. If you make a bullet mark in a wall, it stays there, no matter how many others you make. Also, when you reload you can see your clip falling out of the gun and it stays on the ground. It’s the little details like this that add to the game’s atmosphere.
Now for the Noise
Max Payne has great sound effects for everything you do. The gunshots, doors opening, explosions and every other thing in the world sound realistic. There is also some slow grim music, which plays during some of the cut scenes and during the storyboard, and adds a very eerie and dark feeling to the game.
Also included is some amazing voice acting. Max talks to himself and almost every character you meet, so voice acting plays a very big role in Max Payne. All the voices portray their characters extremely well and the voice acting adds to the movie effect. Remedy must have done some very good casting for these parts!
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