Wow, right out of the gate. Max Payne is dark. I’ve only played the 3rd game, so I had some experience going in. I enjoy the comic book aesthetic, and the dialogue is very “Sin City” esc. Slick and meticulously written. Shockingly, this is rated M for “Blood and violence” which is something my folks would’ve passed for back in the day if I wasn’t so intimidated by this games artwork every time I passed it at blockbuster or game stores. It’s creepy, suggestive, and has tons of mature themes that are not only not for younger audiences, due to their graphic nature but totally out of a kids understanding. This shit is wild.

As far as the game itself.
I wish this game had a brightness adjustment option. Some areas are so goddamn dark, it’s tough to see.

The gameplay is very floaty, some action sequences can be a handful and you can easily get shot up if you’re not careful. Although, this was something I got over fairly quick. Rushing through rooms with bullet time and mowing down enemies was a lot of fun. Even though I hardly ever used bullet time. That was primarily due to the frame rate drops during gunfights and that made the game a bit more ugly and tiresome to its pace. One thing I learned while playing is always go with guns. Melee is a turd of an option here. This is especially irritating once you begin Part 2 of the games 3 Part story structure. The difficulty cranks up too.

A slightly frustrating thing here is some unskippable cutscenes that can occur if you die. This again, fucks with the pace. Also checkpoints, they don’t really exist. It’s not Hair pulling though due to how short each level is. Probably clocking in at 2-5 mins if you don’t bite the dust. If you can stick to a nice pace with a shotgun staying hydrated, this game becomes a blast, but once you reach a rough patch it can wear on you heavily.

In the 2nd act of the game and on you’re given more to do rather than run through areas and kill everyone. There are minor obstacles attached to the chapters that’ll require backtracking, pressing buttons to move objects, avoiding traps. These are pretty juvenile in their difficulty, but it adds a bit more to the gameplay.

Overall, Max Payne is a relic of its time. Despite the story which was pretty impressive and gripping. I’m eager as hell for the remake, because I think Max Payne desperately needs some quality of life changes.