Max Payne Review

I recently replayed Max Payne. I can’t believe this game was released 19 years ago! It has aged incredibly well and was at the forefront of gameplay mechanics.

Synopsis

Max Payne is a detective who goes undercover after his family is murdered by drug junkies. The drug is Valkyr and it becomes a personal revenge story, with Max trying to get to the source. His cover is blown and thus begins his vigilante killing spree.

Highlights

TLDR point-form summary of the goods:

• bullet time
• engaging story
• comic book aesthetic
• creepy drug-fuelled sequences
• interactive environments that serve no purpose, other than to deepen the realism

Review

Story

The plot in Max Payne is very compelling. Although it’s not very outlined, the character development and world-building is top-notch.

The story was never too long and was well-paced enough to keep the interest levels even through the 10 hours of gameplay.

There are thematic elements and motifs. I would bet that a real writer was involved and put a lot of thought into this game.

Aesthetic

One reason this game has aged well is that it adopts a comic book aesthetic. It’s a timeless styling that doesn’t rely on photo-realism or high polygon count.

Beyond that, it has a theme of norse mythology while being layered on top of a gritty noir. I really enjoyed playing and being immersed in this game world. It created a vibe that Max was in a battle between the forces of Heaven and Hell but represented by real-world entities, using real-world weapons. A bit like Devil May Cry but only thematically, not literally involving supernatural forces.

Environment

A lot of the environment is interactive but serve no purpose in-game. It’s a nice touch that a programmer spent time to implement animations. This makes the game world feel more alive. Examples include:

• toilets and faucets flush
• cardboard boxes can be destroyed
• a single piano in the game plays the theme song
• slot machines and cash registers clink
• beer taps make sounds
• fire extinguishers foam
• fridge door opens

I would spam the use button on anything of interest, just to see what would happen. It’s such a delight, even thought it really doesn’t make a difference to the game. It’s uncommon to find this in modern AAA games and maybe you can find in indie games. If it’s present in modern games, it’s very much an advertised gameplay element, such as with the GTA series and their minigames.

Gameplay

Bullet Time

This game is a third-person shooter. The unique gameplay element is the use of “bullet time”. Activating this slows down time for everyone, while Max can continue aiming at full speed. This changes the dynamic with some weapons, as their weaknesses and strengths change under these circumstances:

• pistols are more useful when you can make well-aimed shots
• shotguns are less useful, due to firing rate
• uzi’s bullet spray can be used effectively to burst and actually hit the enemy

Bullet time is limited in capacity and is restored upon killing enemies. It’s not so limited that you hoard but it means you can only meaningfully use it for 1/3 of encounters. I found this to be a nice balance, as I used it to engage and quickly take out a big chunk of the enemies, before continuing with normal gunplay.

Level Design

The level design is very well thoughtful and well done. Each encounter feels unique because of the enemy type and the environment. There’s often cover but sometimes there’s destructive elements that can be used to your advantage or the enemy’s. I think Halo gets a lot of praise for the same thing that applies here. It’s 10 hours of tight, well-designed levels.

Creepy Drug Sequences

This is one of the most memorable experiences in the game. Max is overdosed with Valkyr and goes on a trip. There’s a story element to the trip, with themes and symbolism. It helps to drive the story and character building.

But what I liked most was the creative use of the game engine and world. Gravity, distance, zoom, focal points were all manipulated to create a trippy experience. From a game developer perspective, this is manipulating supposed constants such as character move and fall speed. It’s such an experience and I’m sure the developer who coded this had great fun, as it was probably a matter of continually changing “constant” variables to produce this artifact.

Fun fact, in one of the trips, Max questions whether he’s even real or if this is just a game or comic book. Yeah, the game got real meta and it was great.

Bugs

Because the game is old and unmaintained, it actually doesn’t work out-of-the-box. As in, it literally does not work if you buy it from Steam. This is the first time I’ve ever encountered this.

You actually have to install a third-party game patch or else the game does not successfully load.

But besides these patches, the game itself is very polished. It has some minor bugs with the camera or clipping but nothing egregious. I wrote those off as artifacts of being an early game in the third-person shooter genre, with older game engines.

Mods and Improvements

The unofficial patches includes a widescreen fix and an adjustable FOV. These are necessary to make this game playable in the modern day, with larger monitors in 16:9 aspect ratio.

Be sure to install the high-resolution textures. Along with the higher resolution and maxed graphics, it will look quite decent.

Summary

If you haven’t played Max Payne 1 yet, then it’s never too late. And it’s aged incredibly well. I can’t stop gushing about this game. It’s not exactly a hidden gem, as it spawned a franchise.

But I think this first entry into the series might be overlooked due to its age. A remaster would be nice but it’s not that much different than what I’ve done with the use of third-party patches.