Max Payne - PC

So some guys make a game. Some guys greatly influenced by films such as The Matrix and the Bond Sequels. Some guys who, apparently, love the gritty feel of graphic novels (read: comic books). And some guys who love to stir shit up. Mix in some huge ass weapons and a lot of carnage, and you get Max Payne.

Max Payne, developed by the Finland company Remedy, is one hell of a game. A fully customizable game capable of MOD's, Skin editing, and total conversions. You can, more or less, completely change this game. But I'm not here to review the possibility of creating new games from Max Payne, I'm here to review Max Payne.

So, who exactly is Max Payne? Max Payne was a New York City detective. One day, he returns home to find his house broken into and on fire. Max runs upstairs to find his 1 year old daughter dead, and hears the screams of his wife next door. Rushing into the room, Max encounters what appear to be multiple mental patients, and his murdered wife.

As the story goes, Max discovers that the mental patients were hyped up on some street drug called Valkyr. After this experience, Max joins the DEA as an undercover agent to try to find out the source of this drug, and through the story (which has interestingly done graphic novel bits placed throughout it) Max finds out that the average drug peddler is not the man he's after.

With over a dozen weapons to choose from, Max has an amazing arsenal. But the weapons aren't the most interesting part, it's how you can use them. With the introduction of the groundbreaking feature called "bullet time", by the click of the mouse you can send Max into Matrix mode. Everything is slowed down for a few seconds. You can see bullets flying at you, but you can dodge them, and you can aim your gun in real time. Nothing more rewarding than watching your bullets pound some junkie on a street corner.

With interactive environments (you can use phones, soda machines, etc) every little thing is interesting. Hell, even how the blood splats of the guy you just tossed a grenade under hit the wall is interesting.

Despite the amazing graphics, the astounding sound, the show-stopping gameplay...Max Payne lacks in areas. I personally was not that entertained by the storyline. Go from room to room and shoot guys until your mouse finger hurts. And on the other hand, it seems as if it would be almost impossible to beat unless you use cheats (which I did, shame on me). Nonetheless, Max Payne is a great game that I would recommend to anyone.

The Good!		The Last Word(s): Definitely the type of game that is worth the cash you pay for it, but the actual story gets boring fast. Fortunately, total conversions will change it into a completely different game. It comes with a level editor, but it's as complicated as figuring Shooks calorie count. Final Rating: 93% Iconish
Multitude of great weapons. Facial expressions change when you shoot, or get shot. There's a Matrix lobby shoot-out mod you can download from the internet!
The Bad...
Slow storyline. Trippy dream sequences that are painstakingly difficult to beat.
The UGLY.
Took me a week and a half to get a reply back from tech support about my messed up sound. And then, the only sent me an auto-reply with a FAQ.

BY THE NUMBERS:

For those of you with too much time on your hands, here's the overly-complex system of how it's done:

Each game is given a rating from 1 to 5, with 1 being horrible to 5 being outstanding, in 6 different categories. We then take an arbitrary number from the deepest crevices of our ass (basically what we think the game deserves without averaging any numbers together), and then a GYEAH.com stamp quote. 1-10 (Pure Husk); 11-20 (DEAD); 21-30 ("companies" buttchild); 31-40 (Terriable); 41-50 (L.A. Clippers-ish); 51-60(Average as your girlfriend); 61-70(Coolio); 71-80(Way Pimpy); 81-90 (Hotter than Prison Sex); 91-99 (Iconish); 100 (GOD-LIKE). Enjoy.