Review: Max Payne
The Xbox takes its turn telling the PC?s best story of vengeance and madness as it cranks out the finest console version of Max Payne to date.
Max Payne is the story of an undercover cop framed for murder who must fight his way to the top of a criminal organization to clear his name. A classic pulp-noir tale, Payne?s story comes through in the form of a graphic novel in between scenes of bullet-dodging violence, narrated in gravel-voiced style by Max Payne himself.
Max Payne breaks ground in a number of ways, but the most notable is its ?bullet-time? feature, which enables you to slow down time and perform insane acts of graceful violence. When in bullet-time, you can still aim in real time, giving you a marked advantage over your opponents. This feature alone makes Max Payne a classic.
Max Payne?s Xbox port looks every bit as good as the PC version?in fact, it looks about the same, down to the gritty textures and the amazing detail on Max Payne himself. While the dialogue is typical cheesy film-noir, the voice-acting fits right into place, and the sounds of combat will ring in your ears long after the combat is over. Payne?s finest feature on the Xbox, however, may be its controls; it features a perfect auto-aim that makes up for the clunky analog stick, while at the same time not making aiming too easy. Every function in the game is perfectly placed for intuitive control.
Even without the bullet-time and the hardcore action, Max Payne would still be a worthwhile purchase for its engaging and creatively told story. The game shines on the Xbox almost as much as on the PC, and that?s quite an accomplishment.
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