"What's the password?"
"John!"
"John who?"
"John Woo!"
Finally did a full playthrough of this, having only played the 3rd installment (a stone cold masterpiece IMO). There's a reason this game is iconic as hell.
Hong Kong-style heroic bloodshed set in grimy New York City during a massive blizzard, with scummy crooks, mafia and government henchmen wrapped up in a conspiracy murder mystery. Dual wielding all day everyday baby!
James McCaffrey's voice and delivery is the perfect dry tone to the hardened don't-give-a-shit detective, and as much as I like Sam Lake and his famous face, I wish he wasn't so smirk-y. They went on to perfect Max in the third game appearance wise (at least I think so) - here he looks like Johnny Knoxville. Is that a bad thing? Not at all, but it's not as grizzled as the character feels it should be.
I'm gonna gripe a bit, I'm sorry, but yeah sure - this is a 2001 game with jank all over the place. I was a GameCube guy during the early 00's, and didn't get a PS2 until like 2006, which by then I had so many games to catch up on; San Andreas, Shadow Of The Colossus and The Warriors took up a ton of my time, and Max Payne got left in the dust. So yeah it feels of its time, but the charm is still there.
However... the fucking platforming can get fucked. The nightmare/trip out sequences presentation wise? Amazing! Loved the horror, the surrealism, the psychological torment of it all. Remedy clearly love doing twisty hallway sequences as they returned to that in Control for a really cool section. But the pitch black blood trails you have to traverse here... Jesus Christ. Never again, please. Walking through slow molasses on a tiny path that feels like Max can't walk a straight line on without slipping, navigating a maze and jumping from spot to spot. Painful as hell. No thank you, nope. Any other jumping required in this game to get onto a box or ledge or whatever was bad. No jumping please, just diving!
I cannot wait for the remakes of this and the second game to come out, Remedy is gonna deliver, I'm sure of it.
"John!"
"John who?"
"John Woo!"
Finally did a full playthrough of this, having only played the 3rd installment (a stone cold masterpiece IMO). There's a reason this game is iconic as hell.
Hong Kong-style heroic bloodshed set in grimy New York City during a massive blizzard, with scummy crooks, mafia and government henchmen wrapped up in a conspiracy murder mystery. Dual wielding all day everyday baby!
James McCaffrey's voice and delivery is the perfect dry tone to the hardened don't-give-a-shit detective, and as much as I like Sam Lake and his famous face, I wish he wasn't so smirk-y. They went on to perfect Max in the third game appearance wise (at least I think so) - here he looks like Johnny Knoxville. Is that a bad thing? Not at all, but it's not as grizzled as the character feels it should be.
I'm gonna gripe a bit, I'm sorry, but yeah sure - this is a 2001 game with jank all over the place. I was a GameCube guy during the early 00's, and didn't get a PS2 until like 2006, which by then I had so many games to catch up on; San Andreas, Shadow Of The Colossus and The Warriors took up a ton of my time, and Max Payne got left in the dust. So yeah it feels of its time, but the charm is still there.
However... the fucking platforming can get fucked. The nightmare/trip out sequences presentation wise? Amazing! Loved the horror, the surrealism, the psychological torment of it all. Remedy clearly love doing twisty hallway sequences as they returned to that in Control for a really cool section. But the pitch black blood trails you have to traverse here... Jesus Christ. Never again, please. Walking through slow molasses on a tiny path that feels like Max can't walk a straight line on without slipping, navigating a maze and jumping from spot to spot. Painful as hell. No thank you, nope. Any other jumping required in this game to get onto a box or ledge or whatever was bad. No jumping please, just diving!
I cannot wait for the remakes of this and the second game to come out, Remedy is gonna deliver, I'm sure of it.