This game does everything well.
--Max Payne
Just recently Max Payne was an undercover DEA agent infiltrating the biggest drug ring in New York. Now, after being framed for murdering another officer, he's a fugitive. Plus, since his true identity has been leaked, the Mafia wants him dead. But Max Payne doesn't die too well, and he has a score to settle.
Three years ago Payne's wife and child were killed by some junkies high on Valkyr, V, the newest designer drug. Soon after that Payne joined the war on drugs in an effort to bring down the people responsible for V. Presently wanted for murder he decides to add a few more bodies to the pile. Scratch that, a lot more bodies. Plus he's going to do it in a mix of hardboiled detective story, Hong Kong blood opera, and comic book format.
Narration during the game takes place as a series of panels in a comic book, from Payne's perspective, with audio laid on top. These sequences occur at the beginning and end of every chapter, and even during calmer parts of gameplay in order to further the plot. The comic book often has a gritty look to it, and is coloured in such a way as to resemble brush strokes. This gives the narrative a feeling of unease that suits the game perfectly.
The voice work throughout the game is great. Max Payne, who narrates the entire story, sounds like Humphrey Bogart in one of those hard-boiled detective stories. He delivers his lines without any emotion, but with plenty of style. The rest of the cast sounds good too, from news anchors to seedy mobsters to junkies freaking out on V.
Good voice work means nothing unless you have a good story to tell, and Max Payne has a great story. At its heart this game is a simple tale about revenge. That said, every character you meet has a personality and a motive to do whatever it is they do. The dialogue is sharply written and all of Max's narration reveals a driven, desperate man. Also written into the story are a lot of references to Ragnarok, the Norse myth of the final battle between the gods. A great snow storm, which is supposed to be a sign of the coming of Ragnarok, appears almost from the beginning of the game right until the conclusion. There is even the death of a man named Balder, and a group of powerful politicians assemble at the Asgard building. While references like these may go over the heads of most people, they add a lot to the story if you're willing to do a bit of research.
Thankfully the gameplay is every bit as great as the story. The game controls very well with the mouse and WASD keys, and there are lots of different weapons to choose from. Weapons are divided into categories, such as pistols, shotguns, and explosives, and each category is assigned to a number key. Firearms behave as they should, with rate of fire, power, and accuracy varying for each weapon. Also, reloading takes a realistic amount of time, which you'll notice if you try to take down more than three guys with a shotgun.
The level design is first class throughout the entire game. Various situations such as fighting in stairwells, or in hallways, or in open spaces force you to switch your weapons, along with your strategy, pretty frequently. The environment also provides plenty of cover in the form of walls, crates, and other objects you might actually come across in everyday life. Although most of these objects are not destructible, they will usually be riddled with bullet holes after combat, which tends to make the area look as if a fight actually took place there.
What really makes the gameplay special is the shootdodge mechanic. The shootdodge incorporates dodging and slow motion, allowing you to avoid damage and take better aim at the same time. Of course each shootdodge depletes a gauge, but it is slightly replenished every time you kill an enemy. While slow motion definitely helps ease the difficulty of combat it also adds a lot to the overall feel of the game. Entering a shootdodge causes everything to slow down, allowing you to watch bullets fly past you (or into you), blood slowly splatter out of wounds, and bodies move in a ragdoll ballet. Also, the audio slows down causing gun fire to sound muffled and distorted. More than the visual aesthetic though, the shootdodge makes the player feel like they are doing something absolutely incredible, as if they were the star of an action movie straight out of Hong Kong.
While Max Payne is certainly a stylish game most of the major elements are borrowed from other works, and the developers have no problem admitting that. There are many references to Humphrey Bogart and John Woo, along with all the references to Norse mythology. The developers have done a fantastic job of portraying Max Payne as a character who is influenced by fictional gun play and film noir, and as a result those elements tend to influence the player's experience. Whatever the reason is, Max Payne is like nothing else out there. This game executes so many different elements extremely well it's easy to see a diverse crowd being drawn to it. Whether you have an interest in the story, the style, or simply the action, this game should be near the top of your "to play" list.