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85%
PROS
Detailed, comic book mode, bullet time is cool for awhile.
LOWS
No multiplayer, a few AI glitches, bullet time can get a little boring.
OVERALL
A decent shooter that just needs multiplayer and a little more flavor to make it more interesting.
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There is only one thing that Rockstar hoped to accomplish in making Max Payne: a slow motion shooter. And that is exactly what they did. Max Payne puts you in the shoes of a guy who has nothing to lose. His wife and baby girl have just been murdered in his own house. Thugs hooked on a drug called Valkyr have committed the murders. When Max's best friend/boss gets killed, he is blamed for the killing. With nowhere to turn, Max has to fight for his life.
Although the plot is average, the thing that is supposed to make Max Payne different from all the other shooters on the market is 'bullet time.'
Bullet time allows you to make a sort of mid-air jump type move while firing off your gun and have the game turn to slow motion. Bullet time is very Matrix-esque, yet it isn't as complex as the type of slow motion you get in Enter the Matrix. Its more of like a diving away from bullet thing, where Max just lunges to the side, back, or front and dodges enemy fire. The animation for these moves very nice. Every time I walked right into an enemy trap, I would dive back with Max, and instead of jumping back, he would actually dive back, almost in a reclining like position that you see in the movies.
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The same went for jumping to my side. When I executed a left or right dive, Max would lunge out sideways and fire off his gun in mid air. While diving forward, Max would fire off his bullets with precise accuracy and nail enemies while floating through the air like superman. Throughout all of these bullet time moves, you get to actually see the bullets coming at you. As Max dives backward, bullets sear past his arms and legs, and by being in slow motion, you have the ability to dodge them. You can also visibly see the bullets that you fire out, so you there are some pretty cool shots of you going back and dodging a bullet while others are hitting your enemies. Bullet time is supposed to be the real thing about Max Payne that makes it stand out. Well yea, its Ok, but its nothing too great. After about an hour, it starts to get boring.
Every map you will find in Max Payne is very detailed. There are tons of environment objects to interact with, and while you are walking through the subway, you will actually feel like you are in Grand Central. There are a multitude of places that Max will travel to, and throughout the game, you will learn to appreciate each one for its excellent amount of detail.
Max Payne has another nice feature that I enjoyed. In order to better tell the story, there is a sort of 'comic book like' interface. From here, you get to see the story told to you in a comic book perspective, with comic book drawings but voice acting of Max's voice. I have never seen this done in a PC game before, and it really works out pretty cool. The game does have cinematics as well, but this comic book mode is a great new idea.
Enemy AI isn't the best I have witnessed. Sure, whenever an enemy sees you he will start firing, but there are never any real strategies or tactics that they use. Even when enemies are surrounded by detailed environments with boxes and junk to hide behind, they always stand out in the open waiting for you to return fire. When you are implementing bullet time, enemies do not stand a chance. Since you have the advantage of being able to go in slow motion, enemies will just stand there, looking stupid firing away and never ending up hitting you.
Overall, Max Payne is a decent shooter. It is detailed, has decent AI, and even a cool bullet time mode. The only real letdown about Max Payne was the lack of multiplayer.
