Greg Wild

My opponent stands opposite me in a corridor of rusting cargo containers, we're both frantically reloading for the next volley. He's ahead of me by a split second and looses the first shot. As the barrel of his gun flashes, hot lead flies towards me, I dive to the right at the last moment. In slow motion precision, I make my move. A single shot to the head, and it's over. Crimson splashes in contrast to the bright white snow, the hired goon's corpse twists in agony to the floor. Such are the moments of ballistic tension that Max Payne pulls off better than any game to date.

So why a retrospective, and why now? Well, first up, it's on Steam at criminally low prices, and I managed to score it and its sequel for £6.40 during one of Steam's excellent bargain weekends. Secondly, the Mark Wahlberg starring film based on the license is set to hit cinemas later this month, and finally, news of a Rockstar produced sequel in the works appears to be picking up.

Released in 2001 after a somewhat protracted development period, Max Payne told the story of its titular protagonist; from the death of his wife at the hands of designer drug pumped junkies to the moment he finally takes the finger off the trigger, an obscenely high body count of mobsters and sinister corporate power players dead in his wake. Film noir and graphic novel sensibilities, laden with Max's relentless narration of metaphor barrage drive the story, while slow motion gun-fu creates some of the most spectacular shoot-outs gracing gaming history. It was a grim, angst and death ridden tale of blood, betrayal and bullets. All to the setting of New York's worst snow storm in history.

Max Payne's story is perhaps unparalleled in gaming. The crucial plot points are unveiled through graphic novel style slides; oozing with Max's biting sardonic wit. Excellently, you can review the story so far at any time by hitting F1, which is essential given the twists and turns in the plot. Max's crusade against those responsible for his wife's murder is a domino trail of death, destruction and desperation, each shot fired bringing Max closer to the truth, a new twist and adversary rearing themselves just as Max works his way up the syndicate. It's a genuinely tragic tale. Max is constantly haunted by his loved one's deaths; survivors guilt from this and the ever growing body count eating away at his sanity. Max is supported by a cast of superbly written characters; Lupino for example, a mob boss gone mad on power and drugs turns his gothic mess of a club into an occult den. The trail of letters, phone calls and dialogue leading up to Max's encounters with the characters builds them up in a way which I think has only been matched by Bioshock's audiotape expose'.

 

The dialogue is deliciously self aware: The dream sequences, though suffering from serious deficits in the level design department, contain one of my favourite pieces of dialogue in any game ever: Max realising first he's trapped in a graphic novel. Second that he's in a video game. Throughout – hoods talking about how cool bullet time would be for example, or Max thanking you for taking out the speaker spewing cheesy music in a lift - such touches are masterful strokes of humour, and demonstrate critical awareness of its own art that lift it above the tired machismo dominating lesser games dialogue. Simply put, Max Payne's narrative depth and intricacy alone quite rightly raises it to the heights of gaming aristocracy.

Max's brief critical evaluation of the game mechanics don't quite do it justice, yet sums them up perfectly. Max spends a lot of time shooting, diving and causing spectacular explosions, in glorious slow motion, yet repetitive this may be, it never seems to get old. Diving round the corner, duel Ingrams blazing is only matched in gaming coolness by landing an M79 round smack in the middle of a bunch of suits, limbs flailing. In slow motion. Environmental damage, despite being pre-Havok is similarly entertaining. Bullets that don't connect with hoods bleed plaster from walls or shatter glass. And at the end of a fight, you can't but help to revel in the field of death you've caused. You'll reduce Noir York's snow white back alleys to a mess of corpses and casings; early on, a bank becomes strewn with battle scars and blood.
 

The control mechanics feel superb, they feel right. I don't think there's a third person shooter out there that manages to quite strike such a chord. I still feel to this day that no other third person shooter can best Max Payne in the perfect balance of kinetic finesse and total control. Max is right; you really do control his every step.
 

There are some minor detractions – some dodgy level design can infuriate for example. Some of the locations do feel somewhat forced; a maze of locked doors haunts some levels, and you do get the sense that the developers tried to squeeze as many corridors as they could out of some locations, leading some bafflingly unorthodox ways of getting around them. What do you mean the lift is out of order? They all seem to be. Why can't I just take the fire exit? Enemy placement can infuriate, and you're often given no warning as to when you're going to come across gun toting hoodlums – and thanks to Max's relative fragility, you do find yourself coming to rely on endless quick saving a little too often. It's no chore to look past these issues when there's so much brilliance to Max Payne however. You just can't give up on it when the narrative is this good, the set pieces so precisely balanced and brilliant.

Max Payne nearly 7 years on is still a game any true gamer simply must have played at least once. It's a benchmark in story telling, in games as art. Developers could certainly do a lot worse than to take cues from Max Payne's strong sense of aesthetic flair, story telling and explosive action. If you didn't play them before, they'll prove as playable as any modern title. If you did, now is the perfect time to revisit them.

I'll bring the second half of my Max Payne retrospective soon enough, as I'm now playing through the sequel. I'll also spend some time looking to the future of the series with Rockstar, and what they need to get right in my opinion.