Max Payne

Rating:
Summary: Max Payne Is The Best Action Movie I've Ever Played!
Review: This has to be the best action game I have ever played, maybe even the best game I have ever played, and I play a lot of games! I love this game and I play it all the time. It is so cool! It has the best graphics around (If you have a good enough system to run it), lots of weapons, great gameplay, a great involving story and the coolest feature ever, Bullet-Time. There are also tons of game mods that are already out too. This game is worth every penny, if your an action game fan, you can't go wrong with Max Payne!

Rating:
Summary: As good as a good B movie, excellent as a game...
Review: I used to read a lot of comics, and my dad and I are notoriuos for watching bad movies, and this game is an excellent taste of both. The action is consistant, the story is interesting, and writing is so campy it makes for a great package. I couldn't keep away from it at all. Bullet Time rocks, by far the coolest John Woo/ Matrix take yet. I was having so much of a blast playing the game that I didn't get a whole lot else done for a couple of days. Luckily, the game isn't super long, so I didn't get stuck on it too many days. Definitely worth the [money]!!

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME GAME!!! Possibly the best game that I've ever played
Review: What can I say....BUY this game. This game rocks.. If you buy any game this year, BUY THIS ONE!!!!!!! I have nothing bad to see about this one. The cut scenes are great, the AI isnt bad at all. The matrix style "bullet time" is just outstanding!

BUY THIS ONE!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: best all around game!
Review: I really did not think i would like this game. But, it is both challenging and fun. This is unlike any other game i have ever played. Worth buying most definetly.

Rating:
Summary: Have only played demo
Review: There are points about this game that I both liked and disliked.
Liked: Really nice graphics, duel weapons useage, bullet time, the creepy/action music score.
Disliked: Long load times, having to turn left and right with the mouse (!?), some of the hoakey-sounding narations with the FMV sequences.
I ran the demo on a PIII 800 with 128 RAM and a GF2. For the most part the graphics and audio were stable with only one momentary skip.
I own another PC with PIII 850, 256 RAM, and an ATI Rage Mobility 128. I have yet to play the demo on this system, but all of my other graphics-intesnive games have played better on this machine than the other.
If you are going to buy this game, I would hope you have a system with a semi-decent video card and lots of RAM. (256mb at least)

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: Graphics were the selling point on this game, beats the graphics in Nocturne, hands down. But the game is much more then a piece of candy. The game pulls you into the character and before you know it you're avenging your wife and child. The violence isn't really graphic but the game is still very adult themed. Just thought I'd point that out before I went in any further. The game itself is just a treat, the music, the action, the graphics, the sounds, the weapons the story, oh yes, the story is wonderful. It's nothing original, it's the man who had his wife and child kill and hunts down the sleaze who did it and finds out why. People who liked the Punisher comics will love this game because it has a similar vibe to it. Except Max is an undercover cop... oh and the cop thing is used. The corruption of his partners will make you wonder about those cops at the donut shop the next time you pull in ;). Splendid game, I give it thumbs up... One thing, last I checked there was no patch for gamepad support. I usually insist on gamepads but the aiming and moving really requires the keyboard and it drags you in further.

Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: Man... I was never much for games, computer or otherwise, but this game changed my mind. I can definitely see similarities to duke nukem (who, by the way, stole a great deal of dialogue from army of darkness, so he isn't completely innocent), but the graphics in this game are amazing, and the environment is very interactive. I spent what must have been twenty minutes messing with the matrix-esque slo-mo, just jumping around corners and shooting walls. Great game, albeit, yes, a bit short, but definitely worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: Great game without jumping through any hoops
Review: While I agree that the linearity of the game, the fact that it was about 4 chapters too drawn out, and that the enemies even on normal level could stand and shoot after a head shot from a shotgun, certainly detracted some playability from the game, I would also say that it was otherwise perfect. The in-game graphics were FAR better than anything Half Life or Deus Ex. This, unlike so many other games that seem to scream trhough development, never gave me any trouble, had any bugs, or even ran catchy. Silky smooth all the way through. The biggest thing I loved about this game was the lack of aliens or demons. No alien overmind bosses, no demonic scheme, no super robot enemies...just people shooting people in the kind of gratuitus violence that we all love. It was like playing Mel Gibsons "Payback" in game format, with all the Film Noir nuances.

Rating:
Summary: THE Best Third-Person Action Game EVER
Review: I have been drooling over this game ever since I first heard of it (around April or May 2001.) Seriously. Yes, even before it came out. You want to know why? Read on.

Everybody who is even slightly in touch with the game world probably has heard of MAX PAYNE. For those of you who aren't, the plot is this - you play NYPD operative Max Payne, loving husband and father of a baby girl. One day, after work, you walk into the house and discover that evil things are afoot. Naturally, you draw your trusty Beretta and dispatch the evil ones - but the feeling remains. Your wife and child are dead.

Later, you find out that the killers were junkies, high on a drug called Valkyr (taken from Norse mythology). So, naturally, you switch to the DEA for some payback. However, no sooner do you meet your contact in the bowels of New York that his brains are splattered all over the subway floor by some unseen sniper. Guess who's been framed? The following story revolves around Max's quest for revenge.

While the basic premise is one that has been seen many, many times before, MAX PAYNE offers some good twists and turns. First is the presentation - instead of furthering the plot via in-game cutscenes, MAX uses "graphic novels" - think digital comic books, complete with voice acting and sound effects. You can also glean information during a level, whether it's from overhearing a couple of baddies around the corner discussing the bank robbery they're about to pull off to kicking the vending machine because it's eating their money. Lead writer Sam Lake obviously had a real fun time writing the in-game dialogue; it's fresh, funny, and very unique, whether it's from thugs talking about how heroes always seem to have time slow down for them to badmouthing a slot machine because it never shows the right combination for them.

The graphic novels are also very well done, using superb voice acting and unbelievable writing for all they're worth. Colorful metaphors like "colder than the devil's heart" abound and are implemented very well into the script. Again, kudos to Sam Lake.

Then comes the actual gameplay. Ah, yes. While the script and dialogue are all quite excellent, the one thing that makes MAX PAYNE stand out is it's superb features in gameplay. Max has access to the largest complement of moves I've seen in an action game, from rolling to shoot-dodging, and it all fits in extremely well. Then there's the feature that will really start you drooling - bullet-time.

Bullet-time is, at its core, very simple; whenever you activate it, time and everything else slows down except for your aiming reticule. However, it's much, much more than that. Bullet-time is the one of the best ways to show off MAX PAYNE's graphics (which, I forget to say, are the arguably the best ever put in a game), showing bullets cutting subsonic trails through the air and shotgun blasts rendered down to every single piece of buckshot. It's also very useful, and offers some interesting tactics for you to use. Trapped with a shotgun-toting enemy that could kill you in one shot but low on ammo to take him out? Activate bullet-time and take advantage of the slow-mo to hit him square in the head. Need to get from one side of a hall to the other but you'll be nailed by three enemies carrying Desert Eagles? Shoot-dodge over there - and get some shots in on them at the same time.

It's things like this that really enhance the gameplay. However, such features would mean squat if the game was too hard or the enemies too stupid. Thankfully, neither problems apply here. Your enemies are a crafty bunch; they seek cover, move around a lot, and stop firing if they know they can't get you from their current position. They're every bit as mobile as you are, rolling into the action to pop in a few shots and rolling out again when they get the chance.

The difficulty is also not a problem. A first in gaming, the gameplay measures how well you're doing and adjusts itself automatically. If you're racking up too many one-shot kills, the enemies suddenly become much more difficult to destroy. On the other hand, if you can't survive for five seconds, the enemies become easy as pie to kill.

Of course, MAX PAYNE is by no means perfect. I experienced a few glitches on my Pentium IV processor, ranging from the game crashing every so often to the graphic novels not displaying any pictures. Then there's the issue of length - it isn't very long. Honestly, though, this isn't much of a problem - the game offers lots of replay via harder difficulty settings and also includes the editing tool used by the actual design team.

Despite its small shortcomings, MAX PAYNE is a winner, and it will be remembered for years to come as the best third-person action game ever. Superb job, Remedy.

Rating:
Summary: Good graphics when pumped to the max
Review: Good graphics when pumped to the max (yes, they are better than hl's on a GF3, the models are much more complex). The gameplay does lack a bit, repeditive/guessible puzzles/scenarios. Story isnt that interesting, really what this game has is a good engine. Thats pretty much what remedy spent so much time developing. 3dmark 2k1 also uses this engine, and its probably one of the top 5 out there (hl's is getting old fast). Buy this game if you like "oooooo, aaaaaa" graphics, but only if you have a GF2 or higher. Without a geforce of any type, you wont be able to get hardware acceleration in directx8, and the game natrually will look like crap.