extremely charming lo-fi vibes when looking at it now while remaining an incredibly effective noir pastiche and love letter to hong kong action films, classic bogart detective stories, and the idea of the pre-9/11 and pre-giuliani new york underbelly.
i think what stands out most to me here is the incredibly strong writing mixed with the consistent tone the game pulls off. set during the harshest winter storm on record, max payne allows itself to really bask in the cold, unfeeling, and violent reality it creates. the narration feels like a mixture of raymond chandler and alan moore, all pitch black hard boiled cliches funnelling themselves towards a nihilistic death drive. this feels very in line with the cold grey colour palette and dilapidated interiors/exteriors that make up the visual design. a world where blood stains all hallways and the only way to survive is to kill or be killed. but the game is also not without a sense of humour, it very much knows that it can’t be takes 100% seriously due to the use of remedy staff members as models for the cutscenes and the lo-if, though well art directed, visuals of the game. the splashes of humour here are actually great and never detract from the moody tone the game is aiming for, much like all great scandavian crime novels.
remedy’s stated goal is to create games that reject the cliche’s of the medium, narrative first without skimping on gameplay and it feels all very cohesive even from their first real effort here. in order to stylize their gameplay, max payne borrows the bullet time effect from the wachowski sisters’ matrix films and the use of slow motion from the films of john woo (specifically namedropped multiple times in the game). this allows max to slow down time in order to preform death defying stunts and render almost impossible kill shots. rather than being a straight up third person shooter this in effect turns the game into one of the first acrobatic shooters. while it is definitely starting to show its age now as a lot of these ideas have been refined in subsequent games, there’s such a simple thrill to jumping down a flight of stairs and mowing down a few henchmen that never got old to me (even as i had to do the same segment over and over again as i got closer to the end).
the last thing i want to mention are the platformer prologue sequences. while the platforming itself is jank as hell, i just absolutely loved the horrific mood these levels set. max having to relive his greatest trauma over and over again, constantly blaming himself for his own tragedy. the best part of the entire game i think is during the act iii prologue where the game takes a more metatextual bent, getting very close to metal gear solid ii: sons of liberty. i wish payne had gone a little further in that direction, as the reveal had my mouth literally agape as i was seeing it, but even as it stands it’s an incredibly effective sequence
i think what stands out most to me here is the incredibly strong writing mixed with the consistent tone the game pulls off. set during the harshest winter storm on record, max payne allows itself to really bask in the cold, unfeeling, and violent reality it creates. the narration feels like a mixture of raymond chandler and alan moore, all pitch black hard boiled cliches funnelling themselves towards a nihilistic death drive. this feels very in line with the cold grey colour palette and dilapidated interiors/exteriors that make up the visual design. a world where blood stains all hallways and the only way to survive is to kill or be killed. but the game is also not without a sense of humour, it very much knows that it can’t be takes 100% seriously due to the use of remedy staff members as models for the cutscenes and the lo-if, though well art directed, visuals of the game. the splashes of humour here are actually great and never detract from the moody tone the game is aiming for, much like all great scandavian crime novels.
remedy’s stated goal is to create games that reject the cliche’s of the medium, narrative first without skimping on gameplay and it feels all very cohesive even from their first real effort here. in order to stylize their gameplay, max payne borrows the bullet time effect from the wachowski sisters’ matrix films and the use of slow motion from the films of john woo (specifically namedropped multiple times in the game). this allows max to slow down time in order to preform death defying stunts and render almost impossible kill shots. rather than being a straight up third person shooter this in effect turns the game into one of the first acrobatic shooters. while it is definitely starting to show its age now as a lot of these ideas have been refined in subsequent games, there’s such a simple thrill to jumping down a flight of stairs and mowing down a few henchmen that never got old to me (even as i had to do the same segment over and over again as i got closer to the end).
the last thing i want to mention are the platformer prologue sequences. while the platforming itself is jank as hell, i just absolutely loved the horrific mood these levels set. max having to relive his greatest trauma over and over again, constantly blaming himself for his own tragedy. the best part of the entire game i think is during the act iii prologue where the game takes a more metatextual bent, getting very close to metal gear solid ii: sons of liberty. i wish payne had gone a little further in that direction, as the reveal had my mouth literally agape as i was seeing it, but even as it stands it’s an incredibly effective sequence