This is really an original game with great graphics, sound, gameplay and an interesting story. A great port from PC.
User Rating: 8.6 | Max Payne XBOX
Max Payne is an ex-cop from the NYPD that infiltrates himself into the largest criminal organisation of NY to find who killed his family. The storyline is entertaining and takes you to streets, buildings and subways of New York. Since the game came out in 2001, I´ll review it as if we were back then. The gameplay is based on a third person view. The camera angles are incredibly cool and any person who has seen "The Matrix" will find them very familiar. You can also rotate the camera as you wish during the game. The controls are precise but jumping is harder to master. The sensibility of the analogs can be set at the options section of the game making possible to perform fast turns when you´re surrounded by your enemies. Another interesting aspect is the "Bullet Time", with it Payne can slowdown time while the aiming speed is not affected. Bullet Time is very useful in a lot of situations during the game, specially those moments where you find yourself in the middle of an area surrounded by enemies firing at you. Max Payne can also carry a lot of weapons such as a baseball bat, Beretta, Desert Eagle, submachine-gun, shotgun, sniper-rifle, grenades and a Molotov cocktail. Each weapon correspond to its characteristics in real life, the impact of a shotgun shot from a closer distance can hurl back your enemies. There are some objects that you can interact like telephones, shelves, boxes, finding items such as painkillers and ammo inside them. The sound effects are awesome, very realistic, specially the weapons. The voice acting is controversial in my opinion, you hear Payne narrating the whole game but he seems to have no emotion but his wife´s voice acting is really good and this can be verified during Payne´s dreams. Most of other character´s voice acting sound good but it could´ve been better. The graphics look good but most of the movement animations could´ve more frames such as turning the direction of our hero. The way Max Payne runs looks real but when he jumps he seems to be frozen. The game also features some high detailed textures on character´s faces and clothes, walls, objects and etc. The Xbox version is a clear port from the PC running fast and smooth, no slowdown at all. The special effects in this game can be really amazing and will certainly draw your attention. A drawback is the fact that while Max Payne speaks its face does not change and this will happen with other characters as well. You´ll will also find that Payne looks graphically better than other characters. This is really an original game with great graphics, sound, gameplay and interesting story. Additions such as the bullet time and some Matrix inspired camera angles make this one of the best Xbox games.
