ESRB: Mature (blood, violence, and bad similes)
Availability: Out now
Before we take a look at Max Payne the game, let's take a look at Max Payne the box.
The back of the box tells us, "Max Payne is a man with nothing to lose in the violent, cold urban night. A fugitive undercover cop framed for murder, and now hunted by cops and the mob, Max is a man with his back against the wall, fighting a battle he cannot hope to win."
There's something interesting about a game that brags that you cannot hope to win it. Is that a challenge, or is it supposed to make us feel bad for Max. I mean, certainly we couldn't identify with him otherwise. I'm willing to wager that few of us have ever returned from a hard day of work at the police station only to find our wife and baby girl dead, having been murdered by punks whacked out on some new drug called Valkyre. I'm sure even fewer of us have retaliated by going undercover deep into the New York City mob scene to trace the origin of the drug and execute those involved. Of those Macintosh gamers who have done this, certainly you weren't then set up by those who were supposed to be on your side, forcing you to fight a battle on two fronts as you continue to exact revenge against those who killed your family. If you can identify with all of that, let me ask you this...was it snowing that day? Snowing really, really hard?
Nope, I think I have more in common with that Parker guy in Red Faction who went to work the mines on Mars to avoid attending Harvard, only to find excruciating hours, disease, conspiracies and mass murder. That's my life to a T.
The box for Max Payne also claims the game "...takes you on an emotional roller coaster with its realistic storyline." Okay, uh, reread paragraph three up there and tell me how realistic that sounds. Realistic to conspiracy theorists, perhaps. The story's entertaining and well paced, but realistic it's not.
One claim on the box is accurate, though. It speaks of "...plot-twists and twisted thugs in the gritty bowels of New York during the century's worst blizzard." Century's worst blizzard? Perhaps to New Yorkers. I remember the city getting hit with about two feet of snow while I lived there, and the news reports claimed it was the "storm of the century." Sure, tell that to the citizens of Buffalo. Tell that to my family when, in the winter of '78, we missed two straight weeks of school and had eight feet of snow piled up in our front yard. In the "century's worst blizzard" in Max Payne, cars still drive around town with ease, Max can stand on ledges of skyscrapers without blowing away, and helicopters have no problem hovering between buildings. Blizzard, indeed. At least the game got right the inflated self-importance of the New York City media.
Now, although a game box review is certainly unique on the Mac web, it's not likely to get me a media pass to the next Macworld Expo. So, on to the game. As I mentioned earlier, Max isn't having a good life. Returning from work at the NYPD to his home in New Jersey, Max discovers both his wife and daughter murdered by a gang of thugs whacked out on a new drug known on the streets as "V." Blaming the drug for the death of his family, Max goes undercover to discover the drug's origin. He's so far undercover, in fact, that three years later only two other cops know what he's doing. The mob eventually finds out who Max is. Soon after that, one of the two men who knew about Alex's operation is killed while talking to Max. So now, with no family, the mob wanting him dead, the police wanting him in jail, and no one to believe his story, it's up to Max to clear his own name.
How does he do this? By killing people. Nothing clears you of murder chargers faster commiting more murders. Of course, all of these people are trying to kill Max as well, so at least it's self-defense. Or is it? I mean, if they're trying to kill Max because he's trespassing in their building in an attempt to kill their leader...I guess I just don't understand computer game law.
But this game isn't so much about Max's revenge as it is about style. It blends the cinema noir detective movies of the 40s with Frank Miller graphic novels of the 80s with John Woo cinematics of the 90s. It doesn't matter if you're watching the cut scene movies, the still image transitions or playing the game itself, Max Payne will give you something interesting to see.
The embodiment of all this is "bullet time." Bullet time is apparently the phrase given to those scenes in movies where the action slows to a crawl, allowing the viewer to actually see bullets lazily slide past their targets, blood spurts hover in the air, and whatever else the director happens to think is cool looking. In Max Payne, however, it's more than just something wild to look at; it's a strategic element. You can jump about in bullet time, slowing the game to a crawl as you sprawl to your side, forward, or backward. This allows you time to pinpoint your shots, making sure you can get rid of a target with a single bullet. You can also use bullet time to "shoot dodge," but only for a short period. Once your bullet time indicator reaches empty, you'll come back out and have to wait for it to replenish before you can use it again. With this feature, you can actually dodge bullets as you run to seek cover or get a better position from which to shoot. Master these features early, for you'll never finish the game without them.
Surrounding this cool visual effect is a gritty depiction of New York City (has there ever been another depiction of New York City in computer games?). Although the tone is very much 1940s, the game takes place in modern day New York...I assume because the weapons are bigger. The levels play out like a confined Deus Ex, and the story is very linear. If there's no reason to enter a store, the door will be locked. Okay, I know what you're saying. "But Kirk, I always thought New York was the city that never sleeps. Why would so many doors be locked?" Fair enough. Stores are closed and the streets are bare, but the game explains this repeatedly with news articles discussing the aforementioned blizzard and how everyone should stay indoors. The storm also serves as a metaphor for Max's situation, of course, but I don't think we need to get into that.
The characters in Max Payne are way, way over the top. Well, all except for Max, of course. He plays more like Joe Friday, speaking only in similes and reacting to everything with the same dry delivery. He's the kind of guy who goes through life with only one facial expression, a smirk, and reacts to everything with the same demeanor. I liked him. The other characters are your standard mob fare, for the most part...tough guys who hide behind their thugs and turn cowardly when they've all been eliminated. The lines these guys say are sometimes sufferable, but they're delivered with verve.
So is the story, actually. It's all about vervitude (if that's not an actual word, I'm going to make it one) and tone, right down to the comic book style transitions between levels. I'm guessing they're actually retouched photos with narrative blocks dumped in. They appear one panel at a time, keeping in synch with Max's narration read overtop of them. This deliberate pacing causes a melancholy, almost hopeless air to hang about the whole game. It also makes everything seem calm, countering it's violent nature. Better yet, Max's narration really does a fine job of accenting his isolation. Although his voice remains steady when recounting events that upset him, the movies and stills betray his apathy. He really does seem to care when he's not narrating. It felt refreshing. I don't know why more game developers don't make their heroes seem more human and less superhuman. Let them be scared. Let them be nervous. The cool, stoic hero has been done to death, so please, let him/her die. I would've been much more pleased with the game had the developers gone a little further with this side of Max.
The developers did add quite a few nice touches, though. The dream sequences were especially effective. The motion and audio of these levels were atmospheric and eerie...American McGee could take a cue from this on how to make a game creepy. Max blames himself for the death of his family, so his dreams are plagued with guilt and helplessness. Max runs in slow motion, the walls move around him, and the cries of his wife and baby girl echo hauntingly, calling him to provide the aid he knows he can't give. Excellent, excellent work here.
There are also some good bits of comedy as well, although outside the story line. Twin Peaks and Star Trek both get send-ups (if you know where to find them), and the dream sequence in which Max feels as though he's in a graphic novel or a computer game in which his every move is being controlled is a wry wink to the gamer. There are also some funny dialogues between the NPCs, although listening to their full conversations usually doesn't bode well for Max. Best to save the game, listen to the conversations for a good laugh, then reload so you can get the jump on them.
Of course, Max Payne is also an extremely violent game. That's kind of the point, after all. Not only is there a lot of gun play, but prostitution and drug use are both alluded to as well. Don't fear, though; the game contains a "parental lock" feature that disables not only the blood (after all, it's okay for children, teens an adults to kill people in games as long as they don't see the blood), but also the sexual innuendo, mature language and such. Even without this filter, the game never gets that bad. Body parts remain attached to bodies, prostitutes stay clothed, and the word most often used by the mobsters is "friggin,' " not the more familiar alternative.
Some gamers will be disappointed to note there's no multiplayer feature in Max Payne, but there's simply no reason to have one. Having a bunch of isolated, undercover fugitive cops running around shooting each other would pretty much betray the premise, don't you think? The game offers some replayability by unlocking more difficult and different modes of play after you complete the game. Hard-boiled and dead-on-arrival further test your skills, and New-York-minute gives you a time limit in which you must complete the levels. Complete dead-on-arrival and you'll be given access to a bonus level that takes place completely in bullet time.
Max is very easy to control, which somewhat surprised me considering the many maneuvers he can execute (thank the Lord for Apple's embracing of the two-button mouse in OS X). The game performed well, too. I had the video settings at near maximum on my Radeon 8500 equipped 867MHz G4, and I only experienced slow-downs during fierce action or wide open areas. Even then, they weren't nearly as bad as those I suffered through when playing Medal of Honor II. If your system specs aren't this high, you should still be okay...Max Payne offers plenty of tweaks to get the game performing well for you. Just don't try to stretch the minimum system requirements.
The graphics themselves are fantastic. The detail is sharp both on the characters and the environments. The city backgrounds weren't too convincing (if the snowstorm's bad, why are so many people at work with their office lights on?), and the snow itself never looked like anything more than a light flurry, but that's all well and good. The immediate surroundings were great. I especially got a kick out of the pile of shells Max would leave at his feet when firing weapons. Occasionally, after killing off some of the harder enemies, the camera would automatically switch to slow motion and circle around the slain character as he fell. Grisly, but effective.
The audio effects are also top notch, and the melodramatic music fits in well. I won't go into detail here, save to say that it's obvious the developers paid close attention to every aspect of the game to insure it contributed to the overall tone. They succeeded.
I'm happy to report that the game didn't crash once for me. I was nervous about this, as the beta I previewed crashed with tremendous frequency in both OS X and OS 9.
Gamers have often debated the life of the first-person shooter, but games like Max Payne will surely keep it around for some time to come. Whereas most offer nothing new aside from bigger and more ridiculous weapons, Max Payne offers a new feel. The tone and story (with an honest to God story, climax and denouement (although it does descend into the overused conspiracy territory), help set Max Payne stand apart from the rest. It's not the greatest FPS ever, and it's not the most distinctive, but it's consistent, methodical, and well executed. You'll be racing to finish it, and that's what makes for a successful game.
Well, that and a great box, of course.
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