“They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger. And then it was over.”
Few other opening narrations have sent a shiver of anticipation down my spine like this one. It’s hard not wonder about the carnage that is about to ensue when the game breaks into its graphic novel style of story telling. A lone gunman, standing on top of a tower flashes back to the death of his wife and infant child, propelling the player into an undercover cop’s dark life of betrayal, death, and conspiracies.
Reading about the forthcoming installment into the Max Payne series, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic about its predecessors. But there is a problem with nostalgia: you tend to remember the past as being shinier than it really was. That problem is never truer than with video games. Too many childhood favorites are almost unplayable ten years later. The excited hours I spent as a seven year old playing “Friday The 13th” for Nintendo, translated into tedium when I replayed it fifteen years later.
Thankfully, tedious is the last adjective I would use to describe my recent play through of the game. That same familiar feeling crept up inside as I controlled Max Payne through Sam Lake’s twisting “film noir” inspired story.
Created by the Finnish garage company, Remedy, the game was released in 2001 for Windows before being backed by Rockstar, where the game was ported to Playstation 2, Xbox, and Gameboy Advance. The rave reviews and good sales were well deserved. Taking cues (and in some instances ripping off) The Matrix and Hong Kong action films, the gameplay presents a pretty straight forward third person shooter. Using gimmicks like “Bullet Time” and creepy drug-influenced dream sequences, the gameplay and story more than made up for the lower quality graphics (the creators even admitting that Max Payne had a perpetual “constipated” look”).
As I said, I recently popped the game in to try to play it through before Max Payne 3 is released later this year. All worries about misleading memories melted away. The game still holds up. There are faults, but any glitches present are quickly out-weighed by a level of story telling that is rarely matched in the video game industry. I still got that excited chuckle when the game breaks the fourth wall during one of the dream sequences. Even more present was the sick feeling that rose in my stomach as I followed the blood trail of Max’s infant child. The game is relentless with its biting metaphors and hard-boiled narration.
Slow-motion shootouts and duel-wielding gunplay are at the center of the action. Carefully crafted levels that take you from New York subways to Norse-influenced nightclubs propel the action through the story. Chapters act as levels, giving the player increasingly challenging fights that culminate in a sharp shooting finale, one which seems coldly calm in reflection to the character’s current state of mind. Painkillers are used as a way to gain back health, another story-driven decision that helps to add to the desperation and depravity of the character. While the arsenals of most shooters are uneven, I rarely found myself cursing the fact that I had to use one gun over another. The action is difficult without being overly frustrating.
For anyone looking for a bit of nostalgia without the fear of being completely let down, Max Payne is the way to go. While I’m still very hesitant about the new sequel (neither Remedy nor the previous two games’ writer, Sam Lake, are involved), I can at least fire up the old Xbox and revisit one of the best-
Related posts
- *Just Announced* - Alan Wake Is Complete
- Boss Fights, a Level Just in Themselves
- So Many Achievements...but None for Xbox Indies?
- Just Cause 2 Trailer
- The Metalocalypse Has Begun on Xbox Live and PSN
- Playground on the Battlefield - Making Your Own Fun in Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- What makes a video game good?
- And You Thought Your XBox Was A Reality Escape
- Video: Crazy Girlfriend Smashes Xbox
- Knights of the Temple II: Compulsive Buying Gone Horribly Awry
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah that is one of the best openings of all time…
Why isn’t Sam Lake involved…?
Thanks.
I don’t know about angels, but it’s fear that gives men wings.