ipodchicken

I'm ashamed to admit that I've had never played Max Payne one or two up until this point. When the game came out I wasn't allowed to play Mature rated titles and when I finally was allowed to play there were other newer "prettier" games coming. I'd admit part of the reason why I was hesitant to play the game was because I was afraid I'd dislike it or that it would feel dated by today's standers and graphically, yes, it is dated but gameplay is still remarkable fun and the writing is better than most of the games on the market today. The real purpose of this post is to detail my experience playing Max Payne for the first time.

Cut scenes/in game cinematic:
I can safely say the opening cinematic cut scene had me involved from the get go. The cinematography was above and beyond what I expected. It could have easily been made today and framed in the exact same way and still have been involving and engaging. From the helicopter over head to the slow zoom on Max Payne while he narrates. The in game comic style narrative also fits the tone perfectly, especially considering all the narration the game provides. Which brings me to me next topic:

Quote

Writing:
Sam Lake, the writer of the Max Payne 1 and 2 is simply a genius. I feel like its unacceptable for "Triple A" titles to have these contrived and uninteresting story lines. Unfortunately, most games today do but I'm happy to say that Max Payne's story is better than almost every game available. His ability to make you so emotionally involved with the character so quickly is astonishing. He was also the face model for Max in Max Payne 1.


Gameplay:
With a system like bullet time, you would believe that it would get old fast but it manages to stay engaging because of its very refined controls. (It's important to note that I am playing on the PC.) One of the first rooms I cleared was by jumping forward in bullet time killing the NPC in front of me then swinging around counter-clockwise to my left to kill the guy beside me which led into a death animation for the NPC. Why go all the way around you ask? Why not just turn left? Because its freaking cool that's why.

I'm only about half way into the game and I'll update my experience as I go along. Thanks for listening and I'd love to hear your experience playing Max Payne for the first time.