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Posted: Aug 24 2005 01:45 am

Using the S. McCracken rating system.

Max Payne is a two part Kill Bill for the console (or PC). The two volumes flow like one movie and is a bloody tale of revenge. Playing for ten minutes will make you want to shoot 12 people.

The game is about Max Payne DEA officer framed for the murder of his best friend, and his family was murdered by drug addicts. Later, he falls in love with a chick named Mona Sax and they kill more people together.

Playability: Some hard levels, but except the sniper levels of the second game fairly easy to beat.The most fun with cheating for unlimited health and ammo, just like the real Max Payne.

Replayability: I play whenever I want to shoot someone. I guess that would be a good thing.

Graphics: Yeah, this is the game with Bullet Time. That's cool. Makes the game easier to play, but it feels like an after thought for the second game. The graphics are polygon based so they look LOVELY! The second game is stunningly beautiful with its seedy locations and dark atmosphere. Best graphics in either game? The comic book cinemas. Who needs FMV when you have a comic book in front of you?

Controls: Easy enough to play. Bullet time is slightly worse than Enter the Matrix.

Story: The story put together after 12 hours of nonstop playing will get me to weep like a baby by the end.

Enemies: No one enemy is really cool, but it is fun just to kill hundreds of nameless crooks. And unarmed junkies.

Wild Card: Comic book cinemas? Bullet time action? Good voice acting? Amazing writing?

Max Payne should be the golden child of Rockstar, alas, GTA is Mad

It gets my "worth the $20 at Gamestop for both games" title.

Posted: Aug 24 2005 11:17 am

Max Payne is a great choice. I borrowed it from a roommate I had junior year and I played it for 2 or 3 days solid. It's not terrible difficult, and that's what makes it fun. I like games to be hard but playable. The bullet time was done well enough that I didn't have to curse out RockStar Games. The story was great, although I enjoy the first game a lot more than the sequel. The only part of the game that I HATE HATE HATE is when you're tripping out and you're maneuvering on the blood trails to find your crying kid. That part annoyed the shit out of me.

Posted: Aug 24 2005 04:20 pm

You can't jump in that level!!! Hell, you can't jump any where in the game. I missed that train SO many times... thankfully, the game just kinda says... "oh, you made it... yeah..." and the cinema begins.

Posted: Aug 25 2005 01:09 pm

Max Payne was pretty cool. The second game was a little on the short side though. I bought a used copy of XIII about a month or so ago for $7. I haven't got around to playing it yet but I find it impossible to believe that a game featuring the voice talents of David Duchovny and Adam West could be bad.

Posted: Aug 25 2005 01:52 pm

I've never heard of XIII. What is it about?

Posted: Aug 25 2005 03:38 pm

It's a cel-shaded FPS with spies and conspiracies and a presidential assassination. It's got a little bit of a comic book feel to it. When you headshot guys you get a comic strip pop-up that show it happening. It's kinda hard to describe, so here's a scan of the back of the box:

Duchovny voices the main character and Adam West is his boss.

Joined: Aug 25 2005 Posts: 287

Both "Max Payne" games were really cool. I did have issues with the "Dream Sequences" from the first one (following the blood trail was obnoxious), but the grahpics overall were phenomenal and I loved how they set the story in the middle of a snowstorm. I've always thought that snowstorms create a sense of peace and quiet while they're raging and it was a stroke of genius to set this hard-boiled murder mystery in the midst of one. Wow. That sounded very hippie-ish. My bad.

The second one was cool, too. I have to say that my favorite part was the funhouse level. That kicked so much ass.

Regarding "XIII" (and, I guess, "Area 51", too...), why is it that David Duchovny signs up to do voicework in these games, yet everyone pretty much agrees that it sounds like he's asleep in the booth and muttering incoherently. There are plenty of genuinely bad actors willing to do the voice overs for our games. Why must potentially good ones opt to suck in them, too?

Posted: Aug 25 2005 11:09 pm

Another interesting point is that most games with A-list voice acting don't tend to be A-list games. Vice City and San Andreas are the only notable exceptions I can think of.

Posted: Aug 26 2005 12:41 am

Butcher Bay! Mad

Great game!! With Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser, Ron Perlman, and that evil dude from the third season of 24.

Okay, maybe that cast isn't A-list... okay, they are not A-List by a long shot.

Forgot Xzibit

Posted: Aug 26 2005 12:48 am

Tebor wrote:

Butcher Bay! Mad

Great game!! With Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser, Ron Perlman, and that evil dude from the third season of 24.

I'll give you Butcher Bay because it was a great game and people know who Vin Diesel is. A lot of people would probably recognize Ron Perlman too if you showed them his headshot.

Posted: Aug 26 2005 01:01 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

A lot of people would probably recognize Ron Perlman too if you showed them his headshot.

"HOLY SHIT! IT'S THE BEAST FROM THAT TV SHOW WITH THE TERMINATOR 2 CHICK IN IT :O"

-My friend after showing him a headshot.

(Speaking of which, where is this show on DVD... Oops, TV topic...)

Posted: Feb 26 2006 05:25 am

My brother and I loved Max Payne 1 and 2, mostly because of some of the hilarious lines Max would say. (Well, they weren't necessarily intended to be hilarious, but both my brother and I have a dark sense of humor.)

Posted: Feb 26 2006 02:01 pm

Deezee wrote:

My brother and I loved Max Payne 1 and 2, mostly because of some of the hilarious lines Max would say. (Well, they weren't necessarily intended to be hilarious, but both my brother and I have a dark sense of humor.)

My favorite Payne comment was:
Max Payne: What about Mona Sax?
Vladimir Lem: I know of her, her reputation as a hired killer. I hear she is a stone fox, I would fuck her.
Max Payne: [narrating] Right then, I hated Vlad.

Oh many times in my life this conversation went on in my head.

Max Payne: I had a dream of my wife. She was dead... But it was alright.

Posted: Feb 26 2006 03:28 pm

I can't really remember how the rest of the quote goes, but I can remember the beginning... "The things that I want, by Max Payne..."

Oh the memories. I might have to go and play those games again, now.

Posted: Feb 27 2006 12:59 am

You ever play the Kung Fu mod for Max Payne 1? It's pretty goddamn cool.

Posted: Feb 27 2006 04:49 am

Deezee wrote:

I can't really remember how the rest of the quote goes, but I can remember the beginning... "The things that I want, by Max Payne..."

Oh the memories. I might have to go and play those games again, now.

'The things that I want' by Max Payne: A smoke. A whiskey. For the sun to shine. I want to sleep, to forget. To change the past. My wife and baby girl back. Unlimited ammo and a license to kill. Right then, more than anything, I wanted... her.

Posted: Feb 27 2006 05:56 am

Thank you sir. Yeah, I loved the delivery of that line.

To Murdar Machene -- I haven't played the Kung Fu mod. I bought both Max Paynes before I had a decent gaming PC.

Posted: Nov 23 2007 02:33 am

I'm bumping this thread (the 23rd thread ever on this site) because I started playing Max Payne 1 again. I wanted to rip "The Flesh of Fallen Angels!" for a short I'm editing, but I erased my old saves. So I had to replay the game up to that part.

I've fallen right back in love with this game. I love this world, the characters, the narrations, inside jokes, everything.

I'm actually glad as hell that there hasn't been a Max Payne 3 yet. I think 2 wrapped up the series nicely (albeit by killing the whole cast). I'm very content.

And every winter in Chicago I'm reminded of this game. The atmosphere of the snow and the city really helped make the environment a character.

Oh what the... [see movie thread]

Tebor wrote:

Syd Lexia wrote:

A lot of people would probably recognize Ron Perlman too if you showed them his headshot.

"HOLY SHIT! IT'S THE BEAST FROM THAT TV SHOW WITH THE TERMINATOR 2 CHICK IN IT :O"

-My friend after showing him a headshot.

(Speaking of which, where is this show on DVD... Oops, TV topic...)

Stop wondering, Past Tebor, it is out now on DVD! Why haven't you bought it yet!? Evil

Posted: Jun 30 2008 05:09 pm

Anyone else seen the alternate ending for Max Payne 2?

If you haven't, I won't spoil anything for you, but if you have, I personally prefer it much better than the regular ending. You get it from beating the game on the "Dead On Arrival" difficulty.

Oh, and Max Payne 3 has been confirmed to be in the works:
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/maxpayne3workingtitle/news.html?sid=6091123&om_act=convert&om_clk=newsfeatures&tag=newsfeatures;title;1

Title: Alexz Aficionado Joined: May 21 2008 Posts: 2889

Max Payne is an awesome game. I think it took itself just seriously enough to put in some pretty hilarious jokes without sacrificing other aspects of the game you might ignore or lose interest in if the actual seriousness of the plot was forgotten.

I learned about Bullet Time with this game. I don't think a game did it before either, Max Payne have have been the first game to use it.

The sold the game on the Bullet Time thing, but the story... very hard to put this game down.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Love the game. It's the only Rockstar game I've ever really enjoyed since they started the GTA series, and it's one of my favorite games of all time.

Posted: Aug 30 2008 05:47 am

Cam-win wrote:

Anyone else seen the alternate ending for Max Payne 2?

To me the real ending is the first ending. It feels more appropriate.

I also used to like that Jim Bravura died even though I heard the news report at the end of the game... Since then I like that only he and Max survive the night. However, the same can not be said for the alternate ending. It just doesn't feel right. Plus you don't get the cool line about the bullet coming to end of its journey.

Posted: Aug 30 2008 11:36 pm

Good point, but I just think the alternate ending is happier and more satisfying.