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.
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.