I just beat all three of the Max Payne games over the course of a couple weeks, so I feel prepared to evaluate all three of them as individual entities, while also seeing how each may falter compared to a hypothetical "perfect" Max Payne game.

Max Payne 1 gets the whole thing started off with a bang, with a pretty easy, cut and dry motivator for much of the series - your wife and child are murdered by home invaders. Using this fuel, Max descends into a world of scum, villainy and other such shenanigans. By virtue of the games presentation and what the story is ultimately about, you would think that this game would be extremely self-serious, but there's a element of irreverence that makes you go "oh yeah this game is kind of ridiculous." Instead of undermining the tone, however, this makes it charming. The camp is a cherry on top so that you don't think remedy has a stick up its ass.

The gameplay here is great, although I do raise an eyebrow when people say this is the best the series got. Sure, the shootdodge is more fun here than in the others, but there are a few elements the others cleaned up. There are some enemies that are ridiculous bullet sponges (looking at you Frankie, dumped multiple smg clips into his head and I still died), and the amount of enemies that would essentially appear out of thin air and instant kill you was frustrating to say the least.

Don't have this discourage you from playing the game though, as there is so much to love with the package provided.