Virtual Noir

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fast paced, decent load times, intense, involving

Cons: Really violent, negative, and wholly realistic, occasionally disturbing

The Bottom Line: 
Kicked my a$$ from here to right over there.

Author's Review
This game could not market itself to geeks anymore than it does. It would be impossible. Just as it would be impossible to break more laws than to run someone over in your car while drunk, high, speeding and not indicating, any game that combines bullet time, comic books, hard hitting, gravelly voiced, embittered protagonists, guns, drugs, violence, and the mob, could not hold any more entertainment that appeals to pale young men without exploding. That may be a little unclear. As a pale young man myself, let me clarify. This game kicks a$$. So there.

I'll start with the game itself. Aside from a silly penchant of my own to accidentally hit the jump button instead of fire, the controls make sense and are very ease to learn and use. The graphics are excellent on the PS2, and even better on the Xbox. The game control and interaction is great, almost everything on the screen (radios, toilets, water coolers) can be altered, even if you don't need to.

The story itself isn't that original, I suppose, but for a video game they put a lot of work into the tale of the disgruntled undercover cop whose friends all get killed trying to bring down the guy who put a drug on the streets that causes junkies to get really violent and indirectly is responsible for his wife and child's deaths. The story is revealed through very brief cut scenes that lead up to where you start each level, and much longer sequences that are page by page screens of a graphic novel that tells Max's tale. It's very original and very cool. There is also, of course, Max's hard bitten voice over. These three story telling methods combine into a trifecta (if you will) that is intricate and involving. I also like the fact that as you continue on, you come across letters, documents, etc, that you can choose to ignore, or read and further the story. This is an option I haven't had before and appreciate. The story itself has several layers, and grows in ambition as it progresses, starting out simple, and getting more complicated and twisted as it continues.

I should spend just a moment on the specifics. Bullet time, as used in the Matrix, was spiffy. Bullet time, in Max Payne, where you have a refillable meter that tops up as you kill people and you can use at your discretion is amazing. It is the sweetest thing ever in a video game to be able to charge into a room with ten guys, pull out your sawed off shotgun, and dive into the room, your reflexes and targeting moving at full speed, while your body falls in slow motion. Bullets leave little trails as they move toward you so you can attempt to dodge them, and you can peg five guys in the time it takes each of them to shoot at you. It's great.

So all told, Max Payne is about the most satisfying movie (sorry, gaming) experience I've had in a couple of years. Whatever platform you come across it on, just as the Matrix was an awe-inspiring and ground breaking combination of things like Anime, Hong Kong guns and martial arts action, cyber punk, etc; so is Max Payne a spectacular combination of art forms, film, comic books, video games, and it's spiced with the flavor of all the noir you can handle. So long as you're not a responsible, socially conscious person or a parent (as the game involves Satan worship, drugs, sex, violence, and weird dream sequences), when you play it, you'll like it.

Thanks for reading.