Max Payne That Is.
To make any sense of it I had to go back, back to when the Payne started.
It was 18 months ago or something like that, Max Payne the motion picture was released and I had to watch it. Going in the Hype was as high as it should've been I was a little skeptical towards the casting of Mark Wahlberg but I thought it wouldn't be that bad.
I was wrong, in a 100 Pakistani minutes everything changed, it had changed actually before it but the movie ended after a 100 minutes.
Alright I am going to try and stop writing like Max Payne now, basically the movie disappointed me and I couldn't remember what was so good about the game, memorable characters like Alex and Mona were in the movie, she had a sister this time though and I wasn't quite tell the differences as it had been more than 5 years since I had played Max Payne on a locally purchased pirate cd which surprisingly was still under my computer table.
After watching the movie twice and convinced that it was a broken movie with boring action sequences, mediocre acting and an unimpressive plot I decided to play the game again.
I installed the game but it didn't work it kept crashing and I found out that it doesn't work on Windows Vista and you have to do some technical stuff so I was like fuck it.
6 months later I moved to America set up a bank account, got my self a debit card, registered on ebay and PayPal. Bought around a 100 games in 2 weeks (I had been waiting for this for a decade). One of those games was Max Payne 1 & 2 factory sealed for 360.
This time I would do things legit.
Unfortunately it took me 12 months to finally make enough time to play the game, this summer holiday and here is where the 3 nights of Payne started:
Contains large spoilers for the Max Payne series
Story: The game's story is alright I only paid proper attention till you kill Jack Lapino after that your killing one person after another and they are basically to many villains and after Lapino I wasn't really focusing on remembering all the villain names, the supporting cast on the other hand is good Alex is fleshed out even after his character is terminated, Mona Sax is consistently in Max's monologue's only though she appears twice and watching her die still had the psychological effect on me it had the first time and lastly the mobster Vladamir was a funny guy.
The Nightmare sequences are awesome and really add to the story. Overall the story isn't bad and given that it is a video game it was probably essential to throw 10+ bosses and the game tried to flesh them out but they felt shoe horned one after the other.
Acting: Top Notch
Graphics: Horribly dated, the environments are so symmetrical it just feels unnatural, even the character model is blocky, maybe the experts here can discuss the graphics of the game in more detail and compare it with the test of time.
Another complaint is that this game isn't best designed for a console it is much harder to play on a tv than xbox 360 the enemies often merged with the environments and I couldn't tell them apart shooting them from a distance was pretty hard due to visibility it is easier when you sitting in front of a 15" pc monitor and I have a big 45" or so television and I sit about 10 or 12 feet away.
Gameplay: The bullet time is still fun, other than that it ain't good it hasn't aged as well as Duke 3D, my biggest complaint here was the Meelee weapons crow bar and baseball bat they are no fun at all whether you are breaking boxes or fighting enemies, they should've been better. I also had problems in the platforming sequences and walking on thin lines as the 360 Analog stick can easily take you in the wrong direction, this probably won't be as big of a problem on the pc, you know keyboard.
Also another thing I didn't like was that the Ammo was almost infinity, I had alot of Ammo which made me crazy with bullets I would just shoot without thinking like I do in Resident Evil, I had no need to take head shots or plan or anything I just kept spraying bullets just so I could pick up the ones the dead enemies left on the floor.
Sound: The voice acting is good, the weapons and locked doors all sound nice. Music is alittle sparse and where it is it is good but gets repetitive. For Example the Max Payne theme is awesome but consistently hearing the same notes in the graphical novel isn't fun especially when in an action sequence the action music is stopped for a quick 3 strip story with the max payne theme and then back to the action theme, that ain't fun, the action theme should've just played over the novel.
Replay Value: NONE.
You Unlock higher difficulty modes which should've been unlocked from the start, maybe I would've gotten less ammo then. I read thatr you can unlock some bullet time missions after clearing the game in a harder difficulty which is bull shit as I don't want to play the game again. The hardest difficulty setting is alot of fun though cause you are running against the clock and it just gives me more purpose I don't waste time exploring which I have a major craze off, I am that kind of idiot which explores every corner and I hate doing it but I have to cause I don't want to miss anything and with a clock running against me I can run and gun like crazy.
But those Missions should've been unlocked after my first play through and maybe I would've played them, oh well.
Lastly a level select wouldn't have been a bad idea, what if I want to play a slect chapter again, it is only after playing it through the first time I realize the parking lot area was crazy fun, I wish I saved the game at the start.
Comparison with the movie: I guess it won't happen as it has been over 18 months since I've watched the movie and it is all a blur.
I have 15 days holiday and it took me 3 nights to finish this game, I have already started playing the sequel.
