Payne - Killer (Max Payne (PC))

Member Name: Andrew1911

Product:	Max Payne (PC)
Date:	23/08/01 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Atmospheric, Fastpaced, Well Plotted

Disadvantages: May be too bloddy for some

Computer games are rarely cool. Its hard to get worked up about what are basically pixels (unless, of course those pixes are in the shape of a pair of really large bre…..sorry.) Anyway, Max Payne is one of those games that I think has a genuine chance to be the next Tomb Raider. In fact, upon first glance the game does bear a passing resemblence to Tomb Raider (primarily the fact that’s it’s a third-person perspective game) but that’s where the similarity ends.

Make no mistake, Max Payne is an adult game. This is a game whose plot borrows heavily from all the best Mob films (Goodfellas, Heat and Scarface especially) and mixes it with action taken straight from the best that John Woo has to offer. Imagine that - plus a bit of the Matrix - and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Max Payne is all about.

The Plot

The game begins with Max returning home one afternoon to find his wife and daughter murdered, killed by addicts of a designer super drug, Valkry, which is sweeping the city. Max Payne is an up and coming star in the New York police department; but on the verge of taking charge of the Narcotics Squad he gets the message that someone doesn’t want him around to make any arrests. This scene where Max discovers his family is portrayed by the short intro sequence - you must take control of Max and explore his house until you guide him to the discovery of his dead family and defend yourself from the killers.
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A short graphic-novel style sequence later and we re-join Max three years later. In a blizzard-swept New York, Max is deep undercover as part of the same drugs gang that killed his wife and daughter. Fuelled in no small part by revenge, he’s sworn to bring the gang to justice and is close to success. However, all that is about to change; called to a rendezvous with his contact in the Police Department, Max finds himself betrayed (by person or persons unknown) to the Mob and fightin
g for his life in a deserted subway station…….and that’s where you take up the story.


The Gameplay.

Basically, Max Payne is a very action-oriented game. Puzzles tend to take the form of finding a key to open an unlocked door or setting explosives to escape a sealed subway tunnel. The bulk of the game, however, takes the form of a series of running gun battles and set-piece shoot-outs as Max tracks down the Mob bosses who ordered his (and his families) executions. As if that wasn’t enough, the game is also set against the backdrop of a Mob war between two rival families battling for control of the drugs trafficking of Valkry.

The atmosphere of the game is fantastic. The action is set firmly in the sleazier-side of New York - run down tenements, snowy rooftops, Chinese laundries and S&M nightclubs are just some of the locations through which Max follows the trail of clues. Not only does the actual game provide a totally convincing crime-thriller atmosphere but the brief cutscenes that break up the action also add to the effect. Taking the form of a film-noir style graphic novel, complete with sardonic Raymond Chandler-esque one-liners, they flesh out the story extremely well (and are are bit naughty in places, too !).

As a 3rd-person shooter, Max is viewed from behind, with the computer altering the distance the camera stays behind Max for the best effect. The mouse allows the view to be shifted – around 360 degrees horizontally and 180 vertically. Max is moved using the cursor keys, and ducking, jumping and reloading are all handled by the surrounding keys.
Left mouse button fires the weapon currently selected (see below) and the right mouse button does something special…………

“Bullet-time”

Pressing the right-mouse button activates this original and innovative feature – a first in a computer game. Remember the slo-mo camera bits in
the Matrix where the actors seemed to hang for ever in the air, only to explode into movement after a few seconds? Well, pressing the right mouse button causes the same effect. During a gun battle, this simulates the effect of the adrenalin rush – in practise this allows you to pull off some spectacular moves. Used in conjunction with the movement keys, you can make Max dive forwards, sideways or back gunz blazing in slow motion and his half length leather coat billowing behind him. The level of detail is amazing – as you dive out of the line of fire, you can see the individual bullets flying towards and then past, return fire and the shell casings hang in the air.

The effect lasts only a few seconds but put enough practise in and I guarantee you’ll be diving sideways through doorways in slow-motion, twin Berettas blazing in both hands and sending bullets towards the bad guys before rolling behind the cover of a bar.

The amount of bullet time available to Max drops as it’s used. It can be replenished by shooting people. Simple, isn’t it?

Weapons and Stuff.

Ol’ Max-y gets pretty tooled up in this game. Initally armed with a small hand gun and a lead-pipe (sounds like the police to me),the type of weapony available is pretty representative of the type of environment the game is set in. Sawn-off shotguns, MAC-10 Ingram’s (apparently nicknamed “The Streetsweeper ! Fire one, you soon see why) and even Molotov cocktails make an appearance. Toss one into a room and watch your enemies light up. Ho ho.

Graphics and Sound.

The graphics in Max Payne or top-notch. If you’ve got a decent graphics card then smoke, fog and fire are all shown very realisticly. Max’s character is very well drawn and animated – his movements as he ducks, runs and jumps are extremely realistic.

The bad guys are also pretty varied – and for a change actually look like h
uman beings. The sound and music is also pretty good, with gunfire, explosions and the background sound effects (like the music in a nightclub) all reproduced very well.

Conclusion

All in all, this is a game that I guarantee you’ll want to play more and more. You’ll want to get past each gun battle more efficiently than the last and the structure of the game allows for sensible save games so there’s no need to get frustrated.

I recommend this game very highly indeed.

Spec :

Requirements: PII 450 or equivalent, 96 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM, 3D Accelerator, 16MB VRAM, 600 MB disk space, mouse, sound card, DirectX v8.0.

Summary: