Max Payne (MP) is a relatively innovative game, though I don't think it ultimately lives up to its hype on several counts. Graphically, it is something to see, particularly because of the degree to which the developers have adapted story-telling devices from other media (e.g., film, graphic novels, etc.) to the world of video games. Though it's not without its problems, I think many people will enjoy it.
The visuals in MP are pretty stunning. What grabs the player right from the opening in-game cut-scene is the extraordinary scope and attention to detail. The speed with which the helicopter flies over the water, the size of the city buildings, the sheer sense of scale as the camera pans up to the protagonist, etc. are all something new under the sun for contemporary game engines. Not only does the engine support incredible scope and complexity, it also supports surprising quality for the textures used. MP has the most realistic, New-York feel of any game made to date. And I have no doubt that this is due, in no small part, to the developers basing most of their textures on photographs of various areas.
In addition to such fundamental successes, the modeling and animation is extremely well done. Max simply exudes style, from his flowing coattails to that man-I'm-constipated expression on his face. Many of the enemies in the game, and it bears mention that they are quite varied as well, also have a very distinctive look, feel and "personality" to their overall appearance. It's pretty clear from a glance whether a bad guy is some run-of-the-mill thug, or whether he's a tougher, smarter bad guy.
The special effects are simply not to be outdone. MP features the most realistic-looking fire I have ever seen. Frankly, after playing MP for a while, I found myself staring at the fire in my fireplace thinking that God probably had some work to do before it would measure up to what I saw in MP. Seriously, the effects are just that good.
My only real complaint with the visuals is that everything looks so good that certain omissions really stand out. Max essentially has two facial expressions: (1) constipated and (2) dying. His movements and the rest of his look are so realistic that I guess I expect too much from his facial expressions, and the same omission may be leveled against the enemies in the game. The lack of lip movement, for example, as the bad guys say things to Max kind of sticks out. This is a funny case of the developers doing such an amazing job in one department that other things come to light that just wouldn't be noticed in other, lesser games.
The audio in MP is good, though I am quite surprised by an overall lack of music. Music does play through the graphic novel portions of the game, underneath the narration, just as it does at other key points. But the general lack of any background track while playing the game lends a certain lack of excitement to the game. It's not that the game is bad. Rather, it's that I think it would really be helped by an appropriate soundtrack at points. I know the developer was aiming for realism, but I don't think it would hurt that much.
Beyond that complaint, the sound effects are generally very good. Each of the weapons has a satisfying report, glass breaking sounds as it should, and so forth. I suppose the goofy little sound used to alert me to things was kind of annoying at times, but I don't know what else I might have expected from the developers. The sound is supposed to get my attention, after all, and it surely does that.
The interface for MP is generally well done with a couple of minor complaints. The controls for the graphic novels are great, the mouse/keyboard settings can be adjusted as one would expect, the weapon-selection categorization system is functional, and so forth. My one big gripe is that the on-screen elements are just ugly. The font looks goofy, and the miniature Max, which shows his health, as well as the bullet-time hourglass just look goofy. Maybe it's because the other elements in the game look so good that they stick out like a sore thumb. Personally, I would prefer them not even to be visible.
This is where MP innovates. The addition of bullet time to the game seems, in retrospect, like such an obviously welcome mechanism in the FPS genre, it seems utterly unbelievable that no other game had done it previously. You could probably get through MP without using it, but why would you want to? The various cinematic death sequences, and particularly the camera-follows-the-sniper-bullet bit are similarly wonderful. Frankly, my only wish for improvement here is that I had more control over what to watch. There were plenty of occasions when I would have loved to follow other bullets to their targets but couldn't.
Additionally, the use of quick cuts and cinematic in-game sequences to interrupt the action is a wonderful case of adapting some of the devices of film to games. The opening sequences that set the stage for the rest of the game, for example, are absolutely haunting. They grab the player and drag him in, always offering the hope that another such nifty bit will be around the next corner.
In the complaint department, MP supposedly adjusts its difficulty level to the player, but this isn't something I could discern. I didn't see any connection between how well or how poorly I was doing and how tough the enemies in the game were. I suppose I could have missed it, or perhaps I was doing too poorly or too well to affect my opponents' level of play, but it seems largely like a vaporware feature to me. I was really looking forward to a game that would back off a bit if I needed the help, but MP doesn't seem to deliver on its promise.
Also in the complaint department, I just never really got the hang of using bullet time all that effectively. Whenever I used shoot dodge, it seemed to be more of a hindrance insofar as I would be stuck motionless for a second or two when I landed, and every bad guy in the area seemed to take that opportunity to pump me full of lead. If I simply engaged bullet time instead by clicking the right mouse button, then I invariably would either waste too much of it just moving around or accidentally switch out of it with a shoot dodge. Maybe the problem has more to do with the difficulty of aiming from a third-person view? I don't know. What I do know is that I never quite got the hang of it.
The story is pretty gripping in a very sad way. It's heart-wrenching to see Max collapse at the end of the opening sequence. The hopelessness, despair and rage all come through so very clearly. The story line as a whole is also pretty good. It's been done before, of course, but by the time Max ends up on the rooftop, facing the nasty boss lady, it all fits together very nicely.
The only thing that detracts from the story, really, is the choice of style. I actually like the hard-boiled detective approach, but the developers go so far overboard at points that even I couldn't take it. About halfway through the game, I actually got kind of tired of the graphic novel narration because of its monotonously similar quality. Still, this isn't a huge complaint. Many other game stories are simply ridiculous; MP's story is at least gripping.
This is where MP both shines and stumbles, I think. On the one hand, there are so many brilliant little bits of gameplay that MP is a game not to be missed. Yet on the other hand there are a number of really silly inclusions. Enemies, for example, often run back and forth like complete idiots, changing directions at ridiculous speed. For a game that is otherwise so realistic, it's positively jarring to see some bad guy zip left and right so quickly. It really shatters the illusion.
Another egregious flaw is the degree to which certain boss characters are incredibly indestructible. One of the first real "boss" characters, Vinnie Gognitti is particularly ridiculous. I literally emptied my dual ingrams into him, and still had to pop off far too many shotgun blasts to bring him down. For a game that's otherwise realistic, this is just stupid, and it completely shatters the illusion. The hard part in facing a boss in such a game should not be that he's an indestructible, killing machine; rather, it should be getting through all his followers.
Aside from such complaints, however, MP features a lot of high-quality content. There are a variety of different areas to explore, though most have roughly the same look and feel, there are lots of different bad guys to whack, a number of bosses, a fine stock of weapons, etc. There are even some pretty cool little surprises along the way. The hooker's room and the room with the posters for other video games were particularly fun to find.
Since there is no multi-player aspect to MP, there's nothing else to say here. To the developers' credit, though, I don't see how it would be feasible to provide a decent multi-player experience anyway. Bullet time, the cinematics, and so forth are all so integral to the game that any multi-player mode would feel "naked" without them. But how on earth could one implement such things to be fair to all players? I surely haven't a clue.
MP is an entertaining, though somewhat tedious, game. It's worth the purchase price simply to get a feel for the degree to which the line between film and video games can be blurred. I guess my final assessment is that MP is just too repetitious to be all that satisfying. Every encounter becomes a matter of trying to get the use of bullet time just right. It's a fun game, but it's not something from which you're going to get a large amount of replay value. If you're the type of gamer who doesn't mind a little repetition, though, and has the money to spend, MP makes for a pretty good ride the first time through.
08/11/2001