Remedy’s second game after Death Rally, Max Payne is their first game to feature a real story and set the stage for the rest of Remedy’s specific brand of storytelling and writing (especially by Sam Lake).

The plot oozes noir tropes and rockets between a crime drama, political thriller, science fiction, and psychological horror in some parts, with each part feeling perfectly in sync with one another despite their desperate genres.

The gameplay, however, is significantly more hit or miss due to the bugged adaptive difficulty system, which causes the game to start causing you to instantly die while pills only heal you for 1/16th of your health. However, when it actually does work it feels like a frantic take on the third person shooter, especially with the bullet time and shootdodging mechanics.

I want to highlight the level design by the way, namely on how much it owes to Duke Nukem 3D’s design ethos (realistic-ish spaces, high levels of interactivity in the environment, various puzzles in the environment requiring you to find the correct button to press, etc).

They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger.
And then it was all over. The storm seemed to lose its frenzy. The ragged clouds gave way to the stars above.
A bit closer to heaven.

For the first time ever, I have played Max Payne and wow, this game is a lot of fun! I will say it is really dated, I mean this game is over 20 years old but it is still so much fun! Here are the Pros and Cons.

PROS:

Combat- This game takes the "Bullet Time" effect and makes it fun! In my opinion, I personally do not like using Bullet Time in games but in Max Payne, I found myself using it a lot more, all the neat tricks and stunts you can do just made the combat really unique.

Guns- You had a well done variety of guns! Couple shotguns, the famous Akimbo Uzis, Commando, and a freaking M79! A lot of fun weapons to use for taking down these people!

Max Payne himself- Max is one of the coolest MC's I have ever played as in a video game. He is just a chill dude but when you get on his bad side, he is not going to be very chill. His character is very unique.

Difficulty- This game has some what of a hard difficulty, some parts you can get by pretty easily, some not so much. This game is not ridiculously hard, it gives you a good challenge which is always nice.

THE COMIC BOOK TRANSITIONS- I am not even going to say anything, if you have played this, you know how cool they are.

CONS-

This is kind of all my cons packed into one because of this reason... THIS GAME NEEDS A REMASTER. This game is over 20 years old, it has not aged great, there are some really annoying bugs, the save system is awful, and the graphics are not the greatest. I know, this game is made by the notorious Rockstar Games, we probably are not getting a remaster (anytime soon). But I would 100% replay this again if it gets a remaster, along with Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, which I have yet to play but I will in the near future! Remaster both of these games and Rockstar will make a TON of cash.

Overall, Max Payne is a fun shooter, with a nice story to follow, great combat, epic moves, and one of the greatest Video Game Main Characters of all time. Like I stated above, I will be playing the sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne in the near future.

Max Payne still impressed me today thanks to it's core combat mechanics and it's focus on story compared to the games around it's original release. However, while the combat mechanics are strong, second half of the game takes the fun away due to you not getting any new weapons and enemies turning into bullet sponges. It's still an above average game and you can definitely have fun with it. But I can't quite say that it's a "good" game.

The Full Review(No Spoilers):

Flesh of Fallen Angels
Obviously, I have played Max Payne many times on PC before. Especially in my childhood, it was the essential game that was installed on every single one of my friends. Everyone knew about this game and everyone played it. But, none of us finished it. I didn't as well. So I decided that it was time to tackle the game after all those years and properly finish it this time. Here is my experience playing on PS5.

Let's start with the story. The game opens with the titular character entering his home, finding his child and wife killed. He is an NYPD Detective so after that horrible night, he decides to go rogue and take revenge on those who killed his family.

Compared to the games of it's time, Max Payne is a story focused game. But compared to the games of this time, the story is mostly background information. There are lots of cutscenes made up of comic book panels and even some very meta jokes, not surprising, but the story never interested me enough.

Characters are non-existent as well. There are a lot of them but most of them are bosses you won't remember in a few days. So, story and characters are weak. What about the gameplay? That is, pretty strong.

Max Payne is almost entirely a TPS game. It's linear so there is not much exploration here. It doesn't have puzzles. There is light platforming but it's very light. And sometimes where you will go is not clear but there aren't alternative paths in levels. It's a pretty linear game.

Which is totally ok and I would even say works in the favor of the game because you go to a lot of different places and encounter lots of different set pieces. Yeah, this game does have set pieces. They are not in the quality of something like Uncharted obviously but even in today's standards, some of them holds up great. There are some that doesn't hold up as well.

Speaking of things holding up, we need to talk about combat. Because wow, it works. It definitely works. Shoot Dodge, Bullet Time, the feel of the weapons, it all works and it all feels great. It's also very, very fun. However, there is one big problem with combat that dragged down the score of the game for me and that is the second half of the game.

For the first half, you will feel great. New enemy types are being added, new weapons comes in, it's fun. In the second half, new weapons stops coming. So you got the same arsenal for the remaining game time. Which is around 2-3 hours. And while there are some new enemy types getting added, they are not good.

Late game enemies here are bullet sponges. And that's not fun. So while the combat mechanics of the game are great, enemy design and encounter design needed more work. I won't get to the technical stuff because that is the one area that won't hold up for any older title and it would not be fair to judge the game based on that.

I can say one good thing about it though and that is the atmosphere. The game is set in New York, during a huge snowstorm. And the atmosphere is pretty nice. I felt the coldness of the air. It was great.

One final thing I want to talk about is the PS4/PS5 version of the game. I would not recommend it. Because there are some tricky platforming areas where the analog controls are not handled properly and you might go crazy in those levels. And there is no quicksave. It's beatable on the standard difficulty, as you can see from me. But playing this on PC or Xbox which I believe also has quicksave support would be the better idea. However, if PlayStation is your only choice, it did not hinder my experience much. One last note, it took me 7 hours to beat the game on PlayStation. On other platforms with quicksave, it would probably be somewhere between 4-5. Just to give information.

Max Payne still impressed me today thanks to it's core combat mechanics and it's focus on story compared to the games around it's original release. However, while the combat mechanics are strong, second half of the game takes the fun away due to you not getting any new weapons and enemies turning into bullet sponges. It's still an above average game and you can definitely have fun with it. But I can't quite say that it's a "good" game.

Super solid classic oozing with style. Checkpoints are basically non-existent, however the ability to Quick Save whenever you want somewhat remedies this (pun intended). Unfortunately, because of the enemy placements, by the end of the game you will be save-scumming every encounter. I've heard that this game has 'adaptive difficulty', which I never would have figured out from my own gameplay. I guess weapons became less effective when I spammed them, but it goes away when you swap between them which was a good way to encourage varying your approach. Bullet-time is badass to the Max (also pun intended) and I spent the first couple hours belly flopping at every opportunity. Although the aforementioned save scumming means you don't really need to. Ammo and health is pretty plentiful, at least on normal difficulty. The nightmare sequences were really creative even if the platforming sections in this game are quite janky. The story and comic book style are pretty good, it's like noir tropes on steroids (or Valium). However the dialogue was extremely quiet for some reason, basically anytime Max talked during gameplay was inaudible. Enemy dialogue volume was fine so I got to overhear a few funny conversations. My main issue with this game is that I didn't find the gameplay varied enough to keep me that engaged; the game is super short but it would've been hard to stay interested if it were any longer.

Short,clever,action fueled experience from one of the influential games of the last 25 years

Gameplay

First of all i actually love the gameplay for this game,its pretty simple but fun and hard (at least with limited quicksave on pc)

the gameplay is based around the fact that enemies are on every corner and they appear to suprise you,and if you let them suprise you,you will be either be dead or losse a lot of health that in this game is vital,since there is limited health items.Thanks to this you will be paranoic quick,especially in higher difficulties and if you dont remember the enemy layout,and actually that second point is kind of rewarding,since the game can be sometimes pretty obvious and repetitive with its enemy placement you can predict when and where a horde of enemies will be and lure them and kill them with something like an explosive,saving you a lot of health since you dont have to confront them,since they have absurd reaction times,you will be near always at least hit by 1 bullet in a confrontation,and that is a lot of health.

The main unique mechanic in this game is the iconic bullet time,and to assure you,it is cool af,but not op,and that is a good thing,let me explain.this game is all based around resources that run out quickly (painkillers and ammo) and the bullet time bar reloads when you wait,so is pretty much an infinite resource,and if the power was really good,it will be op and make the hard gameplay go away,for this reason they made bullet time really situational and with a lot of end lag,this makes it not abusable and op.another easier solution will have made the bullet time bar a limted resource that you have to find and make it more powerfull but it works anyway.

I also love that bullets are projectiles and they have a landing time,i think this has one of the first games to do that

The guns have all different uses cases but they arent all balanced heres a little tier list:

S:Comando assault rifle,Sniper rifle,Dual ingram,Grenades and Grenade launcher
A:Jackhammer and Double berretas
B:Molotov and Shotgun
C:Desert Eagle
D:Bat
F:Double Barrel Shotgun and Lead pipe

The bosses in this game are really underwhelming that i will admit,they are just really fragile and feel more like regular enemies,and also they are pretty easy for the most part.

I really like the games pacing,short levels in different settings,with some cutscenes in between or in the middle,it makes it really dynamic

Story/Writing

The most noteworthy thing about the writing is how clever it is,every little thing that could be said normally is said in phrases and methaphores,it makes it a whole a lot more interesting and it gives it a lot of personality.

Apart from max,the rest of the cast is not noteworthy,they are all pretty generic with maybe some fun and cool lines.

Max is an amazing protagonist,he has a deep psychology,he is self aware and makes funny comments on the games tropes,he is pretty nuanced and he is funny,cant ask much more of him,he just needs a better suporting cast.

The voice acting is top tier,it sounds extremely fitting for all the characters,doesnt sound pretentious (im looking at you bg3) and just sounds great.

Graphics/Aesthetics
I really like the cold,nyc aesthetics,the game aesthetics are really dark and its always snowing,making for a really hostile enviroment

i really like that you go through so many different places,but they all fit with the aesthetic,like the restaraunt,the boat,that building that looked like the whitehouse,it makes it pretty refreshing

What i think the main problem with the game is (and is kind of with the whole genre) is that there isnt any side content because its a linear game and it doesnt have that much replayability apart from new difficulties

The ending boss is kind of trash,it is really abrupt and instead of fighting for real you just fight a mickey squad and shot some cords that make a thing fall to the heli.and the ending cutscene itself prepares the game for its sequel,that im forsure going to play

OVERALL
Cant ask much more out of this game apart from more content and replayability and like better bosses,and maybe better side cast,but apart from that amazing
Strong 8 to Light 9

I was very excited to play Max Payne, and it definitely did not disappoint. I've been a big fan of Remedy games since I first played Control, so getting to see where it all began, as well as one of the most iconic games ever, was an enticing proposition.

I know that Remedy are currently working on a remake for these games, but I think it will always be worth playing the originals. This is an opinion I hold about most works of art, even if the remakes/remasters do, in fact, result in the creators original vision being fully realised as they had once dreamed. There will always be value in seeing how that same creator realised their vision within the limitations they were bound by at the time. This game exudes a B-movie vibe which will be hard to recapture in the same way, and the gameplay is pretty much timeless.

I did find the controls could be a little bit awkward, where I would accidently trigger bullet time when I didn't mean to, or dive when I meant to stand upright. The gameplay does not evolve that much over the course of the game, but it does not really need to, either. The tight and interesting level design, well paced access to new weapons and strong core mechanics keep the game fun and engaging for the entire runtime. There is no need for superfluous ability percentage increases here, and Remedy knew it. The game is confident in itself and it shows.

The difficulty is well tuned, but I would have still preferred if the game gave you the option to play on any difficulty right from the start. Having to play once just to unlock a difficulty level which you might find to be more challenging makes it feel like a cheap way to inject replayability. That is not to say that I found the game too easy; there are definitely some challenging sections here, but I would have liked to kick it up a notch at times.

There are also some set pieces to give the player a breather from the action, which I always found to be perfectly timed and well executed. They are always in service of the story, never wasted, and often work to give the player some agency in the narrative, which is much appreciated. I did not expect to see much of this when I discovered the story was delivered through a narrated graphic novel.

The writing in this graphic novel is very entertaining, but more so because of how B-movie it is than because of its outstanding quality. It is definitely the worst of the writing I have seen from Sam Lake so far, and if you are not a fan already, then that could make this either insufferable or so hilarious that it wraps back around to being great. If you have read some of my other reviews, then you will know that I am most definitely a Sam Lake fan, so it was pretty cool to see his first work in all its tarnished glory. There are some banger lines in here, but they lean far further into the nonsense territory than in Remedy's later games where the corny vibe is communicated without the audience scratching their heads. Often the point in Sam Lake's writing is to give off that B-movie vibe, where everything is a little silly, but everyone is in on the joke. Here, I think he had not yet quite perfected the method of walking the line between parody and poor quality.

Even so, I liked it. A good example of what I am talking about is the line "He was trying to buy more sand for his hour glass. I wasn't selling any." That is roughly what you should expect to be hearing for the duration of the game, but trust me when I say that it works. The things that come out of Max Payne's mouth are often so silly that you cannot help but find it kind of endearing.

James McCaffrey also provides probably his worst performance that I have heard from him so far. He sounds incredibly bored the entire time, but given that most of what he was reading was utter nonsense, I cannot really blame him.

Ultimately what we see here is the inception of the character which is finally perfected in Alex Casey in Alan Wake II, and although it would be cool to see a version of Max Payne where the coolness of the gameplay is equalled by the writing, I think part of what has made this character and these games so iconic is the corniness that you expect to find in them. Part of what makes Alex Casey perfect in Alan Wake II is what makes Max Payne imperfect in this game.

But the discussions on the merits of remaking this game are for another day. For now, I can safely say that I would strongly recommend this game, and I very much look forward to playing the sequel sometime soon.