Release the Serial Killer inside.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Bullet time, great story, cool characters and lots of action.

Cons: Linear story and dated graphics.

The Bottom Line: 
Best action game period. Kill everything in sight and make it look cool the same time. Couple that with a twistedly moral revenge story and you have Max Payne.

Author's Review
This is probably my favorite game on the Xbox. I'm not saying it is overall the best game, because it's not. It is quite a bit dated, especially now that there is a sequel. However I can still replay it, over and over, and have a blast killing everything insight.

The plot is that you(Max Payne) are a cop who went home late from work one day and found his wife and child murdered by drug addicts. You decide to go under cover to take down the drug ring that destroyed your family. You get framed for murder and than the fun really begins. After that you get to kill just about anything that moves, not that you couldn't before. No one is safe from the wrath of Max Payne. Gangsters, Drug addicts, Military and former CIA agents are no match for Max Payne. The plot takes turn after turn until you enter the world of secret societies and back room politics.

The setting is a Noir style New York city, in the middle of the worst snow storm of recent times. In between missions are graphic novel style interludes that connect the story. This effect works great with the dark story and setting. The voice acting, that goes along with the graphic novel portions, narration and other bits of dialogue, is actually well done. Max Payne's voice matches his personality perfectly. The narration is great, with poetic description, coming from Max, of the situation he is getting himself into.

There are a variety of different maps, but most are arranged the same way. If the door opens you have to go through it, or there is something to pick up. If it doesn't you don't need to go there. There are a few secrets, not many though. They usually have a lot of ammo and pain killers(this games twisted version of a health pack). A couple out door missions, but they aren't really out doors. Your run down the street and go into the first open building. No going down Central Park and blowing up everything insight. There is a seedy motel, mansion, restaurant, ware house, freight ship, military base and finally at the end a sky scraper. If you beat the game on difficult(which means you have to beat it on medium or easy first) you get a bonus board. This is roughly impossible to beat without cheating. There are around 20 agents coming at you and you have almost no ammo for your guns. I never beat the bonus board, so I can't say what happens when you do.

The element that makes this game special is the bullet time. It fits perfectly with the action and cinematography. This is where time slows down to a crawl and you can keep shooting people at full speed. Well you pull the trigger in slow motion, but aim in real time. It sucks waiting for the shotgun to rack in bullet time. You just sit there waiting to shoot the guy, with the gun pointed at him. If you are like me you use the jump effects a lot. This allows you to avoid their shoots a little better. It also looks cool. When fashion and function are combined it is always a dangerous combination.

There is a decent selection of weapons. Desert Eagle(that's a 50 caliber pistol), Berreta(9mm(option to use two at once)), double barrel shoot gun, pump action shoot gun(both seem to use buck shot), Jackhammer(automatic shotgun), sniper rifle, Ingram(9mm auto(option to use two at once), M16(I forget what they call it but it's an automatic assault rifle), grenade launcher, grenades and molotov cocktails(nice if you like to hear them scream before they die). The best weapons are the M16 and Jackhammer late in the game. There isn't many times to use the sniper rifle, but it is nice when you do. There is a bullet tracking effect when you shoot the rifle. The camera is right behind the bullet in slow motion and follows it to its target. The double Ingrams is very deadly, but easts through ammo very quickly. Other than the sniper rifle your most accurate gun, in my experience, is the Desert Eagle. It's slow and only carries 12 bullets at one time, in the magazine, but it packs a punch. The double Berreta's is nice for the easier missions, but on hard they are almost useless.

There are three levels of difficulty and than a New York minute level. New York Minute has every mission timed. It kind of sucks because you can't use bullet time as much. Just because you are moving in slow motion doesn't mean the clock is. But it is on easy, so it is beatable. Easy and medium levels aren't too bad. You might have to save more often on medium, but it is pretty easy still. Hard is very hard. They limit your saves to 5 per board. More of a pyschological effect than anything. I usually had saves to spare, but you can't save after you kill every guy. As I mentioned above, some weapons are almost useless on the later missions of hard. The shot gun is a big help. Where on the easier levels I tend not to use it because of its slow reload rate, now its firepower more than makes up for it. I liked that fact that the game makes you play differently on harder levels, added some replay. The boards are exactly the same, so don't expect too much replay, unless you are like me and just like the cinematics and shooting stuff for no reason.

For its time it was breath taking, now the graphics are dated, but the visuals still look good. The sounds are well done, decent music, and as I stated, great voice acting. There are a few dream sequences, with his wife screaming and baby crying, that spooked me a little. The blood trails you have to follow were a nice touch. They have everything move blurry because he is over dosing on V, the drug in the game. The gun shots are real sounding, and so are the toilets flushing and faucets and other random sound effects they added. There are a few TV shows and commercials that are amusing as well.

If you like action games and this happened to miss you, buy it. Do it for yourself and for Max! This is the best action game I have ever played. It beats the hell out of the Matrix with the bullet time effect. As far as the story goes it is far superior to Max Payne 2. If you are very visually oriented, you might want to stick with the sequel. If you have a weak stomach or some sense of morals, these games might be too much for you. As it is published by Rockstar that should give some hint of the language that is used. More than one F bomb is dropped in the sequel, but I don't believe any in the original. Damn and other lesser strength swear words were used a lot though, guess they weren't ready to push that envelope yet. If you are sick and twisted like me you will love it!