Max Payne (PS4)

 

Max Payne is a franchise I have never really cared for. I own all the games and have considered playing them once or twice but a third-person shooter with no cover mechanics never really appealed to me so for years they have sadly sat on my shelves collecting dust. Yet due to all of the positive analysis videos I have seen on the series (shout out to Raycevick by the way) I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Max Payne was released during the height of the PlayStation 2 so it does make sense that it would be overshadowed by other titles that were about violence, drugs and sex. With that in mind though, the first game sold 5 million copies worldwide and has its dedicated fanbase so I thought it was worth giving the game a shot and found the PlayStation 2 port on the PS store. 

 

 Max Payne is mostly a typical third-person shooter with a few gimmicks thrown in to make it more unique. Bullet-time is the biggest of these, allowing Max to mimic Neo from The Matrix or John Woo’s films from the 90s. It gives the game a sense of style unheard of at the time and many immitaters have adopted the feature since, but haven’t managed to implement it as well. Max is also given a large arsenal of weapons which allow encounters to be undertaken in a variety of ways and some scenarios end up like puzzles because of this. Max has a small health pool, meaning a solid shotgun blast is enough to get a game over so it’s up to the player to best navigate the environment using all the tools at their disposal. The player can also collect painkillers that slowly heal Max over time, adding to the tension of gunfights. The game can be a challenge even on the normal difficulty and I think it is mostly better for it. There are some issues though that prevent the gameplay from being a complete success. Enemy placements are a big part of the game and learning these will be crucial during an initial playthrough. Some enemies though are placed in ridiculous spots that feel lazy and cheap and will cause you to die on your first run. The game unfortunately has some awful platforming too which will cause a game over if you fail at these sequences. These feel completely counterproductive and do not mesh well with Max’s floaty movement. Each of the game’s acts are broken up by these platforming sequences that take place in Max’s dreams and my conclusion is basically that these were good ideas that were executed poorly. The audio during these sections is fantastic but these sections were my least favourite parts of the game and I groaned everytime another one would come along. 

 

 Max Payne’s story is a simple one but that doesn’t mean it isn’t engaging. Max’s journey to find those responsible for the deaths of his wife and child is told excellently and will keep the player invested up to its conclusion. There are many characters that Max interacts with and their backstories and lore help the world around Max feel real. Things happen in the world around Max without his input making the cast feel just as important to the setting as Max is. Max himself steals the show though, with his consistent use of metaphor, grough voice and pessimistic outlook lending him some individuality but also allowing him  to be a sympathetic and relatable protagonist. Mona Sax is also one of my favourites, playing the role of a femme fatale that plays fast and loose with the rules. There are no great revelations throughout the narrative but the situations Max gets into end up being compelling enough and while the conclusion comes off as slightly anti-climatic, it does offer a fitting conclusion for Max Payne the character.

 

 

Lastly there is the presentation. The comic panel cutscenes used in Max Payne lend the game its own style even if they have aged poorly. The actors used for the scenes were mostly family members of the game’s developers so their performances can sometimes be less than stellar. James McCaffery gives a career highlight performance though and has become Remedy’s calling card whenever they release a new game. Character models have also aged but considering the game was released in 2001, that was inevitable. The audio department deserves a special mention for creating some excellent music with the main theme being a highlight and a regular on my YouTube playlist.

 

 Conclusion

Max Payne is an unbelievable achievement given the size of Remedy’s team and the scope of the project. Five years of development gave Remedy their flagship franchise and with the game selling 5 million copies alone, it gave them the commercial success they had earned. The game’s critical success also made some publishers take note, mostly notably Rockstar who would purchase the Max Payne franchise in 2002, about a year before Max Payne 2 was released. While I hope to play that game one day and am now aware of its backwards compatibility for the Xbox, for now I am going to say that Max Payne is a great introduction to a fascinating and iconic videogame anti-hero, even if there are aspects of it that have gotten worse with time. 

Rating: A Payneless Experience 

8/10