This is the weakest port of Max Payne yet, but that doesn't mean its bad.
People focus so much on the graphics that they almost forget about the game play. The game play on Max Payne is actually its strong point, not the graphics. There’s a feature called Bullet time and shoot dodge, they slow down time where you can actually see the bullets being fired from the guns. It sounds like eye candy, but it actually helps with aim, and dodging bullets.
How ever, this is where the flaws kick in. The frame rate sometimes slows down if you have more then 2 people in a room, especially when you’re in bullet time or shoot dodge. So, aiming in slow motion sometimes becomes more of a challenge. If other games on the PS2 can handle the frame rate more better then Max Payne, then this game should have been a little better.
Since Max Payne on the computer had great graphics back in those times, then Remedy must have tried there best with the PS2 port also. You have to remember that the PS2 doesn’t have the greatest graphics a system can handle, so not all games will show up that great. So Max Payne for the PS2 should be only bought if that’s the only thing you got. Other then the graphics, this is a very amazing action game, so don’t worry about it.
The audio on Max Payne is top notch, Max has a perfect voice for telling the story and explaining things in the game, you get to love it after a while. The thugs in the game have this really funny personality about them, they say some of the funniest things, but they sometimes get repetitive saying the same thing over and over again throughout the game. The gunfire, explosions, and such sound amazing, you could probably bet that explosions sounds like that in real life. There is not that much music in the game, but it really doe’s fit the environments and the mood of the game well.
The story in Max Payne is just playing great. There are little parts in between levels that actually add a little more interest to the game and its story, and Max and the other characters do a great job of it in them. These parts are set up like comic book strips, and you here Max talking and the other characters talking and doing things in the back round, it sounds a little odd, but you will see how cool it is once you experience it on the game. The mood of the game is very dark, there are a couple of parts in the game that, may be a little to extreme for others.
However, there are some bad things about the PS2 port of Max Payne. The game is separated into very short levels; this means you have to load them up, even if you die. This takes away some of the non stop killing experience and action and since that is what the game is mainly like, things stay unheated. I don’t know rather to blame the PS2 for that, or Remedy.
The game play is basically like running through places and killing everything that gets in your way; it’s old school. The features of Bullet time and shoot dodge saves this game from getting to repetive. There are some puzzles in Max Payne, but they are not like what you expect; shoot this barrel to blow and cart out of your way to the door, that sort of business. You can bump up the difficulty for a bit more challenge, but you will have to beat the game first to get the harder difficulties, there is also a mode called “New York Minute”, in this mode you have to finish the levels in one minute or more, the more bad guys you kill, the more time you get, the time you have left at the end of the level adds up with the other times you finish, you have to try and get the most minutes on each level.
I don’t have a lot to say about the controls…There great. (I’m not that great with talking about controls…sorry.)
All I have to say is that I recommend this game to anyone who loves shooting games.