Max Payne

                  Reviewed by Nick Edmunds

Firstly, don't let the title put you off, it may conjure up all
sorts of dubious images, but it's just some unfortunate bloke's
moniker.  While it's an unusual name Max is a fairly stereotypical
character - basically an under cover copper haunted by the deaths
of his wife and child.  The first level sees our police partner
Alex killed in front of our eyes and that seems to be the last
straw for old Maxxy.  From then on things become personal and Max
goes rogue for revenge against the evil drug barons responsible.

Not only does Max seriously bare a grudge, he also has a large
portion of chips on his shoulder (and probably a battered
sausage).  He also takes everything really personally.  There
again it's hardly surprising - if you give a kid a name like that
he's bound to have issues.  The parents may have had a good laugh
at the christening, but they should have known it would end in
tears.  As for his wife - who in their right mind would marry
someone called Max Payne?  It can't possibly bode well for the
future.

Essentially MP is an action hero game controlled through Quake
keys with a second person perspective provided by a chase cam.
This perspective can obscure line of sight a little, but it's
necessary in order to highlight Max's special skills.  These
skills, the big gimmicks of MP, are the Matrix style combat moves:
Bullet Time and Shoot Dodge.  Bullet Time slows the game down
while your character stays in something closer to real time and
Shoot Dodge is essentially a leaping lunge.  These moves can be
used independently or in combinations and are replenished by
clocking up kills.  Initially these effects are great fun and make
you feel cool the first few times, but after experimenting with it
for a while they become a little repetitive and the novelty is
soon lost.

There's no explanation as to why Max has these abilities or the
physics behind them, but there's probably no point in trying to
think up a plausible explanation anyway.  The fact is it's fun,
you've seen it in many an action film, particularly under
directors like John Woo, and now you have the opportunity to do it
yourself.  These moves combine with the excellent graphics to make
for some fantastic visuals during the combat scenes.  As Max
bursts through windows shell casings tinkle and clatter to the
ground, shrapnel bursts from the scenery and bullets whizz through
the air leaving turbulence trails in their wake.  The sniper rifle
even has a bullet-cam.

Cinematic pretensions continue with the flashback sequences, which
are disturbingly atmospheric, and seriously annoying.  They also
serve little purpose other than to labour a point.  We know he's
bitter and twisted, I get it already.  The cut scenes are
presented in the style of a comic strip graphic novel and the game
is narrated throughout by our sardonic anti-hero in a style
reminiscent of the Noir detectives in a bygone age; "Bullet holes
like rubies on her chest" indeed.  Though surprisingly our wannabe
modern day Marlowe still manages to be bland and characterless.
If all this gives the impression that MP was designed with a dark
action film in mind it may come as no surprise to hear that there
are apparently further Max adventures and even a feature film
already underway.

One of MPs major flaws has got to be that it is totally linear;
the closest thing to a puzzle is working out when to stop pumping
molten lead into a junkie's juddering corpse.  There's not even
any red door, red key business going on as Max is merely following
a script and mowing down everyone in his path.

MP is certainly not as short as some games I've played of late,
but it was rather easily accomplished.  Apparently the game engine
monitors your ability to play and automatically adjusts the
difficulty level to match your playing ability.  Either this
feature works really well or it doesn't work at all because I
could see no difference in the AI no matter how badly I played.
Just to confuse me even more, having completed MP you are then
given the option to play the same game again at a more
difficult skill level, something I can't imagine anyone wanting to
do.

Another game of the year and another shoot 'em up, and as you
would expect from a shooter, there's a massive body count.
Although, rather hypocritically in his battle against 'evil' drug
barons, Max chooses to disdain the usual health packs preferring
to wolf down handfuls of painkillers, so many in fact that you'd
expect him to rattle as he moves. The violence, drugs and gritty
gangland theme serve to earn Max a 15 rating and, combined with
the special moves gimmick, assured Max of some attention on its
release.  While it's stylish and well produced MP is rather a one
trick monkey, but without it the game would have had few features
of note.  It's good wholesome trigger-happy fun, but lacks any
longevity.  A must have for action fans in need of anger
management therapy.






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