A true spiritual successor to the first two Max Payne games.
It's earnest and sincere, surreal and haunting.
When it's serious and personal you feel the stakes, when it's goofy camp you laugh.
Presentation is mature and impactful, making ample use of lighting, framing and color.
The voice performances and writing deliver a lot with very little, both succinct and purposeful.
The hip-hop pounding guitar blaring soundtrack keeps. you. going. through a 6 hours-ish 50 chapter campaign that goes places.
You can modify the amount of damage you take and how much painkillers heal or turn on infinite ammo and painkillers for maximum fun or challenge, depending on what you want.

It's an easy recommend not only for any fan of Max Payne but any fan of over the top action.

It was an interesting experience replaying this in 2023 and comparing it to the wide-eyed teenage memory I had from 2008. I was surprised how cohesive and immersive it still felt.

It reminded me of a Hitman game with less choice but more story focus. The side missions in the open world still contribute to your main quest in each city, helping you feel more like an Assassin, eavesdropping, getting locals on your side, learning the city streets and using any acquired knowledge to your advantage against your target.

Climbing/using parkour effectively takes effort, saves time and looks cool when it all clicks. It feels like climbing is a puzzle in and of itself, reminiscent of the climbing from the series that spawned it, Prince of Persia.

It's an excellent time capsule of a game. One that was supposed to be the start of a trilogy, but ended up being the template for a 15+ years of a franchise. There are seeds for immersion and choice, which ended up being wasted in favor for more traditional gamified rpg elements and mini-games in the sequels.

Still a fun and fascinating game that holds up to this day.

Other notes:
Steam version runs without Uplay/UbisoftConnect but the PC port is bare-freaking-bones.
Anytime you want to exit the game you need to exit from the gameplay to the animus and from the animus it exits you to the profile select screen where you need to login and then can actually quit the game.
And boy, does the last hour love locking you into too many small arenas with way too many enemies in them.
I can see how the game might get repetitive for some (especially considering the last point) but I didn't feel it personally. Probably because my play sessions usually lasted around 60-90 minutes. If you try to marathon this it might get stale faster than you'd expect.