Max Payne (2001)

Max Payne was a gem to play and, even after many years, it still looks and plays great. In the core it is a standard, linear third person shooter, but very well implemented with a great story.

First, the love for this game is still alive, because normally, it will not run on modern hardware. But the community made a special patch that you can apply so the game will work perfectly after that.

In Max Payne, you are a cop that is chasing the murderers of your wife and child by unraveling the criminal gang that is behind it. You are a one-man army that eradicates everyone in your way. You search for answers, while meeting many different characters that help or betray you along the way, all while wiping out half of New York City.

Eventually, you find the b!tch behind it all, find out that a new drug is going to be used as an ultimate weapon for the US military and stop this dead in its tracks by infiltrating the facility and blowing it to bits.

I really liked the story element of this game. It always made me wonder what would happen next and the comic book L.A. Noire strips are a great way of telling you what happens.

The Nightmare levels in which you play the events of your family massacre over and over again are actually pretty disturbing. The crying of the baby, you wife begging for mercy, all while you run along endless corridors of your house in your own head.

This game is hard. It is all about timing your shots and anticipating enemies that come running towards you from out of nowhere. If you walk right into them, they shoot you faster than you can say “oh sh!t”. The Slow Motion really helps with the game, although in some fights, it makes it too easy.

The graphics are incredible, considering the time period this game got made, especially the facial animations and expressions. When looking at it closer, it is literally some dudes face in .png slapped over a polygon, but it is very well implemented. The animations, bullet holes and explosions are also very well done. Half the time, I forgot that I was playing a game from 2001.

The sound effects and music are excellent. Guns feel like guns instead of pea shooters and the explosions sound effects are as they should be. Thumbs up for the sound department.

The controls work fluently and feel responsive. The healing mechanics, the Slow-Motion, the aiming, it is all just right. There is nothing to complain about there.

Some minor annoyances that I had with the game are the slow-motion mechanics for example. While great for anticipating and reacting to sudden enemies that appear, it can be very frustrating when you dive into a dead corner which does not provide any cover and there is nothing you can do about it. You first must wait for the animation in slow motion until it’s over. This issue has been fixed in the next game, in which you can dive in slow motion and use it stationary.

Another thing is that the game sometimes starts you in a room with four or five enemies in a level, giving you 0.1 seconds to react or else you get pumped full of lead instantly.

The game can be a little repetitive because it always follows the same principle. A linear doorway, enemies spawn, kill enemies, progress. But I do not mind, this game is just fine as it is. It offers a lot of playtime, levels and adventure and is worth every penny.

In the end, I can only praise Max Payne and wished I played it sooner in my youth.

Definitely recommend this blast from the past.

Amazing game, even to this day. Jesus Christ the Bullet Time effect is still timeless (no pun intended).

Played this on the Original Xbox and it's a fantastic shooter for the console considering shooters for the console were very clunky and generally bad. There are definitely difficult moments in the game that will take some dying along with some memorizing to complete, but considering I've beaten this game so many times it's not that hard of a challenge for me and with some smart tactics, it shouldn't be hard for someone to beat the game to pick it up.

Story is pretty damn cool too.

The game was so fucking great and so well made. One thing that did it for me was the difficulty, impossible to beat it. I had to get some cheat engine scripts to finally beat it, I never gave up till my 50th try of beating the damn game. Overall you should play it or play it with cheats if you can't beat it.