As the first game in my "Remedy Rampage", where I'll be playing through every game Remedy Entertainment has ever made, I think Max Payne was a great start to their catalog. With that being said, just like Half Life 1, I really don't know how I truly feel about this game.
Throughout the game I was constantly reminded of Half Life 1, which is weird because gameplay wise they are nothing alike. Maybe it was how old they are (1998 vs 2001), maybe it was the fact that you can hit E on almost everything for a silly little interaction, or MAYBE it was the fact that every face you see in-game was a real person. Regardless, just like Half Life 1, I can tell that this game was made by a small but passionate group of developers and other than having to edit registries and game files to get it to work properly, I think the game holds up pretty well.
The biggest similarity between this game and HL1 for me though, was the fact that I felt like I was missing something very vital by playing it 20+ years after it released. I laughed when I launched the game and it warned me not to turn some settings on unless I had 32 MB of VRAM. I was amazed when I was told by a friend that this game was hard to run when it released, and it's engine was used in the 3DMark 2001 benchmark! While playing, I could never know the impact this game had back in 2001, and I think something is lost because of that.
It's because of that "something" that when I have a small criticism of the game play, I can't help but disregard it because at that point I'm already comparing this 20+ year old game to games I've played in the last 5 years of my life.
I wish the game play was a little faster. Mr Payne doesn't need to be bouncing around the walls like his peers in "Double Action: Boogaloo", but it would've been nice if the shoot dodge didn't activate bullet time every time. I also felt that there were WAY too many guns, which is a weird complaint I know. But what's the point of using the dual berettas if the dual Ingrams exist. This is an example of a complaint that is fueled by my experience with modern games. In Doom Eternal and Ultrakill, two of my favorite shooters of all time, every gun has it's use. Max Payne doesn't really LOSE anything by having so many guns, but it was a thought I couldn't shake while playing.
Overall, I had a good time with this one and I'm excited to play the sequel, which I've heard is "just better". I'll also probably come back at the end of all of the Remedy games just to try out the other difficulties, which I skipped for now.
Throughout the game I was constantly reminded of Half Life 1, which is weird because gameplay wise they are nothing alike. Maybe it was how old they are (1998 vs 2001), maybe it was the fact that you can hit E on almost everything for a silly little interaction, or MAYBE it was the fact that every face you see in-game was a real person. Regardless, just like Half Life 1, I can tell that this game was made by a small but passionate group of developers and other than having to edit registries and game files to get it to work properly, I think the game holds up pretty well.
The biggest similarity between this game and HL1 for me though, was the fact that I felt like I was missing something very vital by playing it 20+ years after it released. I laughed when I launched the game and it warned me not to turn some settings on unless I had 32 MB of VRAM. I was amazed when I was told by a friend that this game was hard to run when it released, and it's engine was used in the 3DMark 2001 benchmark! While playing, I could never know the impact this game had back in 2001, and I think something is lost because of that.
It's because of that "something" that when I have a small criticism of the game play, I can't help but disregard it because at that point I'm already comparing this 20+ year old game to games I've played in the last 5 years of my life.
I wish the game play was a little faster. Mr Payne doesn't need to be bouncing around the walls like his peers in "Double Action: Boogaloo", but it would've been nice if the shoot dodge didn't activate bullet time every time. I also felt that there were WAY too many guns, which is a weird complaint I know. But what's the point of using the dual berettas if the dual Ingrams exist. This is an example of a complaint that is fueled by my experience with modern games. In Doom Eternal and Ultrakill, two of my favorite shooters of all time, every gun has it's use. Max Payne doesn't really LOSE anything by having so many guns, but it was a thought I couldn't shake while playing.
Overall, I had a good time with this one and I'm excited to play the sequel, which I've heard is "just better". I'll also probably come back at the end of all of the Remedy games just to try out the other difficulties, which I skipped for now.