Blast From the Past: Max Payne

About 8 years ago on the PS2, PC, and original Xbox Remedy and Rockstar released the cult classic Max Payne and what followed was the sequel, “The Fall Of Max Payne” which was criticized for it’s length and the lack of replay value. Next was the inevitable movie starring Mark Wahlberg and that movie failed due to bad directing. And in 2012 Max Payne 3 will be released for the Xbox 360, PS3,and PC. So now I am taking a look back at Max Payne 1. If any of you have ever played Max Payne you will know that he is largely based off of The Punisher since he is a cop who’s family is murdered and is hunting the people who took his family away from him. Also rather than having cutscenes most of the story in the game is presented in the style of graphic novels and even film elements. For instance when you are going through a building you take out a group of drug dealers and as you are killing them from afar it goes to a ceiling cam and it shows the bullets hitting them in slow motion.

So basically this was the only way to unleash your inner Punisher/Vigilante on the gang-bangers and druggies(Until The Punisher game came out a few years later).While the graphics may not hold up to Killzone 2 or Gears 2 the gameplay is better than alot of games in todays generation of consoles. Another cool aspect of the game was the interaction between the player and the world. Some examples are turning on a TV, or opening a dresser, or flushing a toilet. It just showed how grounded you were in this character rather than some spikey haired JRPG character who could shoot lightning out of his eyes. Basically what I’m saying is that Max Payne albeit a Punisher copycat borrows from films,graphic novels,and John Woo. This kind of game should be made more rather than games like “Guitar Hero: Van Halen”. Hopefully Remedy gets this game out quick unlike Alan Wake. So if any of you are interested in checking out this game again it is available on Xbox Originals for 15 dollars. Or for free on torrent sites, not that I condone that type of distribution or have any affiliation with media pirating.