November 19th

Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Grindhouse Games

September 9th - PC/PS2
Max Payne For Hire
Another wise man once said "Clay, stay away from PC games for they are the work of the Devil". "Why, master?" I asked. "Because they are cheaply made by money laundering American fools with no creative sensibility and no imagination." "I understand master." I quietly replied. Well folks I've lived by those wise words even to this day and they have steered me clear of hundreds of terribly produced contrived PC games. Getting right to the point Max Payne is an average game with an interesting narrative, if not a little tedious at times. I liked the consistency of action through Part 1 but by the time I was halfway through Part 2 I had really lost interest in this game. The level design, meaning the buildings, hallways and rooms, was masterfully done with some cool interactivity with objects such as televisions, vending machines and toilets. Although the game isn't entirely original, borrowing many elements from the classic shooter Duke Nukem 3D, it did have one bad ass feature that can be referred to as "slow mo" or "bullet-time". When you enter into bullet time you can carefully aim at several enemies in the room before they even have a chance to retaliate with gun fire. Past this little feature Max Payne does very little to entice me to want to play it over again from the beginning. It's worth checking out if you like simplistic mindless shooters but even then I wouldn't pay over $19.99 for this game. (Which is a very reasonable price for this interesting twist on the action genre) But for me personally I wouldn't buy this game as it serves its purpose best when played through one time. If I gave it a rating I would say it had rock solid graphics with beautiful character detail, incredible level design worthy of Goldeneye and decent controls without a lot of "fluff". Max Payne is a solid example of what a tired genre can offer and I would slap a very reasonable 6.5 out of a possible 10. I gave it the advantage over an average rating because it is surprisingly fun to play through the first time and the character voices are intriguing but past this the game won't hold your interest like a Metal Gear Solid or Deus Ex, two incredibly deep games. Pick it up only if your an avid fan of the action genre or if it's in the bargain bin for $9.99.
-Clay