Cinematic Genius (Max Payne (PC))

Member Name: R_Easton

Product:	Max Payne (PC)
Date:	10/10/01 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: large cinematic advance, great graphics, Time effects

Disadvantages: No mutliplayer, short game, HUGE minimum system specs

Max Payne is a very original game, which combines fast action, amazing graphics and an involving story. Some of the special effects are as good as you would expect from a modern action movie. It was in development for four years and very little, apart from some of the graphical/special effects was revealed to the public until it’s release.

From screenshots you may have seen of it you will know it is a gun-based game. You may have been led to think it is an F.P.S. There you would be wrong. The game is played in third person perspective but the controls are similar to an F.P.S. The biggest difference in the controls is that the mouse instead of moving the view, moves the cursor (a small white crosshair) in the middle. The view is moved semi-automatically spinning round Max to give you a better view. It also slows down, along with game time, to create amazing special effects on certain boss deaths.

Time, and the slowing of, it play a significant part in the game and adds to the effects at many points. There are two ways the player can slow down time; these are called Bullet time and Bullet dodge. Bullet time is the more significant of the two as it allows you to slow down time greatly, which is useful for some hard points in the game. Pressing a button will slow down everything on the screen except the movement of the crosshair. This creates some amazing effects including the way you can see and hear the bullets fly (hopefully) past you and you can hear Max’s heartbeat slowed down to a low-pitched thud. When you have finished using bullet time you press the same button again to stop it. You can leave it running but you only have a limited amount so I recommend you only use it when you need to. It recharges when you kill enemies at about 1/16 per kill. This means that you can go into a crowded room, turn on bullet time, and stay on it for quite a while.

The second of Max’s abilities, Bullet Dodge, also slows d
own time but not as much. You use it by pressing a special key whilst jumping and this causes max to do a slow motion jump (most often backwards). This gives you extra time to kill multiple enemies without using your Bullet Time. I would say the jump is most useful for jumping backwards out off a crowded room. The only problem with this move is that Max lands on the floor and takes a moment to stand up again. In this time he cannot shoot.

If you are familiar with the film, you may be saying at this point “That sounds just like The Matrix.” It is. If this makes you think the game isn’t so original than I suggest you consider this. Special effect in computer games have always been a long way behind the ones in films. Because of the interactive nature, you would have to film the same scene hundreds of times to get photo-realistic graphics in a game. The only game that really has photo-realistic graphics at the moment is Myst (If you aren’t familiar with the game, it’s a first person point and click adventure where the scenes always look exactly the same. It is made from photos of the island the game is based on. The Matrix was released two years ago and so in this sense the graphics are far ahead of their time.

Back to the game, the story. The game actually starts at the end of the story, with Max Payne (a New-York city cop) on the top of a skyscraper with a sniper rifle. The story is told through flashbacks and, at some points, comic strips! At the real beginning Max returns home one day to find his wife and daughter have been murdered by crazed intruders. He then goes on a crazy killing spree for revenge, killing the intruders, their families, friends and anyone who has ever said hello to them on the subway (maybe).

If you want some facts, here is a list of the weapons:

Lead Pipe
Baseball Bat
Beretta 9mm
Desert Eagle .44 Magnum
Pump-Action shotgun
Sawn-off shotgun

Jackhammer
Ingram M11
Colt Commando
Grenades
Molotov Cocktails
M79 Grenade Launcher
Sniper Rifle

There are only two faults I can find with the game, the lack of multi-player, and the huge system specs. The lack of multi-player features in the game is for two reasons, the bullet time and bullet dodge features couldn’t possibly work against human players, without breaking the real-world laws of physics. The other reason is that the developers wanted to concentrate on the single player story. The huge system specs (due to the amazing graphics) are disappointing for me as with my very powerful computer (boast, boast, boast) I am used to running the maximum resolution and graphics but in this game I can barely have the recommended specs. The system specs needed to run the game are:

Minimum: PII 450, 96Mb RAM, 16Mb Graphics card
Recommended: PIII 700, 128Mb RAM, 32Mb Graphics card.

Max Payne is a huge development in cinematic games, not only for graphics but also in the way the story is told. It starts at the end and tells the story in flashbacks. This is a technique used in many successful films. With graphics like this, and computer generated special effects like in the Final Fantasy movie, games and films are getting closer and closer. I look forward to seeing more…

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