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Max Payne Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Max Payne arrives on the Xbox without any of the sacrfices found in the PS2 version.
By now you must know everything about Max Payne, the game that was developed for what seems an eternity came out on the PC last year to universal acclaim. Itâs unique mixture of intense action, Film-Noir like story and cinematic presentation ensured its success, and was promptly converted to both the PS2 and Xbox.
Unlike the PS2 version, Max Payne arrives on the Xbox without any sacrifices. The intuitive mouse/keyboard controls suit the Xbox joypad well. The left analogue stick controls Maxâs movement, and the right stick controls your aim. The right trigger shoots whilst the left trigger activates âBullet Timeâ.
Unlike the PS2 version, Bullet Time is implemented superbly; you can easily trace the bullets, allowing you to pull of some death defying manoeuvres whilst the whole concept is a fresh and invigorating, as it was when the PC version first hit the shelves. The sheer rush as the sounds cut out, a whoosh of air sound sample kicks in, as your heart stops pounding, you aim, and take the enemy out with a precise shot⦠simply superb and one of the best features to hit the videogame scene in a long, long time. As with previous versions, Bullet Time is at first a novelty, but later in the game becomes a necessity so use it wisely!
Max Payneâs visuals still hold up six months down the line, itâs a fantastic title to have as a first generation title on the Xbox, benefiting from the years spent in development. Textures are crisp and overly detailed unlike the PS2 version, and more importantly the framerate stays consistently high no matter how much onscreen action is occurring, again unlike the PS2 version! If you had to have a gripe with the graphics, it would be the little things such as the lack of facial animation (although Maxâs fixed expression is extremely amusing), characters get stuck in walls occasionally and overall the environmental objects have a low polygon count resulting in a blocky appearance. However no complaints can be made about the animation, as Max ducks and dives in slow motion.
The games sound plays a large part in setting the tone and keeping the action intense, weapons all have a realistic thud to them, whilst the enemy goons all chatter and spurt out relevant information to Maxâs ongoing adventure, listen before you shoot!!!
The fast pace of the game runs throughout, thereâs never a dull scene and this helps to captivate you. Unfortunately this has the side-affect of the end coming too quickly and leaving you wanting more. The average gamer will complete this in less then ten hours purely because itâs too compelling, however that ten or so hours will give you some of the best gaming moments ever. Finishing the game opens up harder difficulty levels, the last being âNew York Minuteâ where you have to complete each level within a minute, killing enemies grants you an extra few seconds.
One key improvement over the PS2 version is the lack of load times. Whereas levels had to be chopped up in that version the Xbox allows them to be loaded in the same way as the PC original, virtually eliminating any load times and keeping the sense of immersion high.
