Home » Technology » Console Gaming » Preview: Max Payne

Preview: Max Payne

©

The PC version of Max Payne is, without a doubt, a great game. It's one of those rare gems that successfully brings together design, graphics, sound, music, and gameplay into one unforgettable whole. And it's coming to the Playstation 2 and XBox.

The game's story is a film-noir-inspired piece set in New York, and centers around an undercover cop named Max Payne (hence the game's title). A blizzard descends on the city just as all hell breaks loose, leaving Max by himself, in the middle of a ton of bad guys. Naturally, Max decides to take them all to town, but things quickly become personal as he discovers a link between the thugs around him, and the ones who murdered his wife three years ago.

Cutscenes move the gripping story along and are played out in graphic novel format, consisting of faux-watercolor images coupled with voice-narration. As is to be expected of any film-noir, there is a very dark tone running through the entire game, but an extremely clever sense of humor keeps things from getting too heavy.

The game is divided into three parts, consisting of five to ten chapters apiece, with one chapter equaling one level. The levels are surprisingly diverse, taking you from a run-down motel to a lush mansion, to the docks, to a high-rise office complex. There's even a chase across the rooftops of NYC, a harrowing escape through a burning building, and two nightmarish dream-sequences straight out of Max's subconscious.

The gameplay is standard shooter fare. You control Max from a third-person viewpoint (meaning you actually see him on the screen) and pretty much run around shooting everyone in sight. At first blush, it might seem a little boring, but the strong story and a large dose of scripted events help prevent the game from devolving into mindless killing.

And then there's Bullet Time. Taken straight out of The Matrix, Bullet Time allows you to slow the action down to a crawl. But while Max and his enemies run about in slow-motion, he can turn and aim at full speed. This allows you to target multiple enemies, and becomes extremely helpful in more crowded situations. Bullet Time is a limited resource, though. A meter on the bottom corner of the screen lets you know how much you have left, and killing enemies replenishes it. Given this limited nature, Bullet Time never becomes a crutch that you rely on to make the game easier, and actually becomes a tool that you use in key situations when your regular reflexes just won't do.

The copyright of the article Preview: Max Payne in Console Gaming is owned by Armaan Khan. Permission to republish Preview: Max Payne in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.